Exorcising Devils from the Throne

This rather intriguingly titled book offers ideas about how to take 'decisive steps towards removing evil souls from the political environment' in the former Portuguese colony of Sao Tome and Principe (STP) in West Africa, and establishing social conditions in which this defunct state can revive and flourish as a democracy. It is a political treatise that analyses STP's specific problems, censures those who have caused or contributed to them, proposes viable solutions, and attempts to bring the issue to wider public attention. Albertino & Nujoma's book clearly has a significant agenda, and as a socio-political document alone, it makes interesting reading as it charts STP's fortunes since achieving independence in 1975. The symbolic slant does not mask the very real practical problems faced by the island, which the authors discuss with knowledge and insight. They consider, for example, the corruption, despotism and illegal activities of Presidents Pinto da Costa, Miguel Trovoada and Fradique de Menezes; the failure to properly exploit the island's natural resources; issues of insularity; economic instability and political 'illiteracy', etc, which make this natural 'paradise on Earth' a 'complete human misfortune'. And although their talk of the 'evil souls' of their country's rulers may seem to hint at religious zeal or even extremism, they have a valid (and indeed universal) point to make about the nature of those who often run governments - for the benefit of an elite few rather than the good of all. The prose style is quite original in that the authors frequently employ metaphors to illustrate a factual and painful situation: the political status in So Tom is a 'game' and a 'dance'; its people have walked in 'a desert of poor governance' for years and are reduced to the role of 'clowns of the court'; policy-makers are likened to 'crazy ants' while da Costa, Trovoada and de Menezes are erratic 'chameleons' and other Sao Tomean politicians are 'monkeys' and their ideas the branches from which they leap, one to another, indiscriminately. So, rather than the strict formality we might expect from a book of this nature, Albertino & Nujoma offer a far more lyrical style of writing, which renders the picture they paint more vivid. That said, there are more prosaic touches - for instance, in the sections on STP's annual budget, petrol negotiation etc, which employ statistics to back up their points. As a book about a small African archipelago that is virtually unknown on the international stage, Exorcising Devils from the Throne is a fascinating take on a difficult and pressing issue.