Alcohol abuse in São Tomé and Príncipe: how brandy and wine become a danger

Everyone on the island seems to hate Isabel de Santiago. The bishop, the pediatrician, the tourist guide, the director of the children’s house, the brandy brewer, the hotel owner, the women’s rights activist. Mothers, fathers, adolescents. Whoever hears your name grimaces, then looks left to right over your shoulders to see if anyone is listening. Or just spit it out.

Isabel de Santiago’s name is a threat. It is synonymous with something indescribable here on the island that the scientist and expert in the health crisis in Lisbon announced a few weeks ago: a massive national alcohol problem that also affects minors. “Children drink more alcohol than milk in Santo Tomé,” said de Santiago. Lacks access to milk or drinking water.

Alcohol is a daily aid for many people in the island state of São Tomé and Príncipe. Some drink because they cannot afford the medicine. Some because they are hungry. Some because they are used to drinking. Among other things, this has to do with ignorance and poverty, children and young people are not excluded from it. But instead of debating aid and possible support, a dispute has now arisen in the country.

The island nation had just developed a reputation as insider information. As the last undiscovered paradise and “heaven on earth”. In 2019, the travel guide “Lonely Planet” named the country of almost 1,000 square kilometers as one of the top ten in the world.

São Tomé and the somewhat smaller sister island of Príncipe, a 35-minute flight away, on whose beach in Banana a famous rum commercial was filmed in the 1990s, located in the arm of the Gulf of Guinea, a few hundred kilometers from the west coast of Continent Africa

It’s nice here: some of the last giant tortoises of their kind swim in the ocean, and humpback whales pass between July and October. There is almost no traffic, coconuts, tropical birds, sun, waterfalls hidden in the jungle, snow white beaches and a blue lagoon.

The corona virus and an image catastrophe

And now that. Charter flights to São Tomé and Príncipe are suspended and cruise ship mooring is prohibited in all ports. The coronavirus stops tourism and is therefore one of the main sources of income. So far there are four confirmed cases of Covid-19 on the islands. As if that wasn’t enough, there is supposed to be an alcohol problem on this island paradise.

According to the study published in the scientific journal “Acta Médica Portuguesa” in early April, carried out by the scientist Isabel de Santiago between September 20, 2013 and May 2014 with 2,064 participants in São Tomé and Príncipe, 52 percent of men and 48 percent of the female population drink between 12 and 30 years of regular alcohol. It is partially mixed with heavy metals and threatens to cause considerable health risks, especially in children. This also includes disabilities and premature death.

In early January, when the scientist published the first issues of the research, even before Covid-19 was perceived as a threat, the results were equivalent to an image catastrophe.

The government of São Tomé and Príncipe reacted immediately: accused De Santiago of “damaging the country’s reputation” with his study, tried to avoid the publication, threatened to file a criminal complaint against the scientist and urged her to appeal to all residents, in particular Publicly apologize to the children of the island nation. She did not do it.

Newspapers and television stations in Portugal and its former slave and cocoa trade colony Sao Tome and Principe took the report and discussed the study, of which only a few sentences were known at the time, especially the one with milk . Then it started with hatred.

Death threats against the scientist.

“I am not afraid,” says Isabel de Santiago, who was born in Santo Tomé in 1971, by phone. Meanwhile, she has also received death threats. “I will fight. The lives of many people depend on what is being done now. There is an alcohol problem that threatens life on the islands and affects everyone. Not only children, but they need protection.”

In the capital, which is also called Santo Tomé, tons of kids in blue and green uniforms flood the streets every day after school, joking, singing, or tossing the backpack quickly on their way home, undressing, and jumping cheerfully to the sea. They don’t look drunk.

“Alcohol abuse is also different,” says Isabel de Santiago. “For example, many mothers drink during pregnancy and give birth to their babies with withdrawal symptoms. Others give their six-year-old children a strong alcoholic drink to kill worms in the stomach. Alcohol has been part of life since early childhood and often continues to be. “High-strength alcohol, says the scientist, is ubiquitous.

Bishop Manuel dos Santos also knows this. However, he insists: “In any case, there are no children on the street with a beer in hand.” Dos Santos, 60, has been serving various churches on the main island of Santo Tomé for 13 years. About 80 percent of the population is Catholic. The priest has supported close contact with parishes and Santiago in his investigation. “I advised him not to come here first,” he says. “It is like a war.”

Manuel dos Santos welcomes you to his home in the city center. He is one of the few who still dares to speak publicly about alcohol consumption in São Tomé. “I only do this because there really is a problem with alcohol,” he says. He has long preached in his masses about the negative effects of alcohol. He visits many people at home and tells them that alcohol is bad. But I still would have preferred to keep the children out of the study. “How do we stay there now?” Says dos Santos.

Concerns about the image of the island nation and its inhabitants, who, unlike the bishop, now completely deny that people are drinking in the country, threaten to overshadow a health crisis that has so far been largely ignored.

Alcohol in Africa: there are very few studies on this. The continent is struggling with so many serious problems, with diseases like HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, with hunger and countless conflicts that alcoholic beverages seem relatively harmless.

Every year 3.3 million people die from alcohol consumption worldwide. Much more indirect consequences, for example, in South Africa, 60 percent of car accidents are attributed to driving alcohol. Alcohol is the ninth largest global risk factor for death and serious health problems, such as cirrhosis of the liver. Fifth in sub-Saharan Africa.

The World Health Organization (WHO) views Africa in particular as “an increasing burden of harmful alcohol consumption and its devastating effects.” No other product is so easy to obtain and is responsible for so many premature deaths, ailments and diseases. The trend is increasing.

Wine consumption in Africa alone has increased five times faster than the world average. This also has to do with the fact that the alcohol industry has targeted the continent as a new sales market. The more stable the economy develops in many countries, the more people will be able to afford it. So new customers who should buy beer and wine regularly.

However, a good third of alcohol consumption in Africa cannot be demonstrated with import and sales figures. Because many people do not have enough money to buy a can of beer at the supermarket. Homemade alcohol, on the other hand, is affordable for most, and available almost everywhere.

The alcohol problem on the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe is barely recognizable to visitors at first sight. In fact, no child runs with a beer in hand. However, if you look closely, you’ll find brandy in almost every corner, which probably shouldn’t be sold in Europe.

If it is very hot, palm wine is recommended. A juice fermented from various palm trees and containing alcohol. It is not as strong as Cacharamba, a high strength brown sugar cane brandy that is best not drunk in the sun and flows into the smallest gaps in society.

Grandmothers, grandchildren tied behind their backs, sell it in colorful plastic boats on the side of the road. A glass costs a few pennies. In the large market in the center of the capital, Cacharamba is advertised along with fresh fish, bananas and avocados. The women in the market hold it, full of old plastic water bottles. Mixed with papaya and ginger flowers, “for the stomach”. It is also often said, “Against hunger,” so there is a piece of kola nut to chew on, of which some bites actually reduce appetite for hours.

In front of a narrow grocery store, just a few streets away, mothers drink cacharamba and local beer. At ten in the morning, the boy parked in the back of a delivery van. Also, fishermen who have been on the move since four in the morning to deliver their products to the city on time. They raise their glasses, “we deserve it.”

On Sunday, the tour guide would prefer not to tour the country, “so people drink more and the mood is not good.” Since afternoons, young men often stumble in front of the car in villages where simple wooden houses line the single track. The hotel owner has been trying to find a worker to paint the garage for three days. So far he has sent eight away: too drunk.

Everyone has different reasons for drinking. But they share one thing: poverty.

“Everyone drinks because everyone wants to be strong,” says Carmo Pereira *, 46, who has been making Cacharamba every day for five years and selling it to the surrounding villages. His workplace consists of two simple wooden cabins, hidden among the sugar cane fields on a hill in the north of the island. “People want to feel good. Those with money don’t drink,” says Pereira.

Then he laughs, dipping a glass into the bucket at his feet. “A brandy, but be careful,” he says. “They all start with one. The next day they want another, then another. And then they keep drinking.” Pereira drinks his sugar cane beer quickly, returns.

For him, Cacharamba is a blessing. A reliable source of income that never runs out. Pereira has never had a job for more than five years. There is little work on the islands. The economy is fragile. Two thirds of the almost 200,000 inhabitants are classified as poor. Half of them live on less than two euros a day. Cacharamba, some say, will help you during the day. For many, it replaces at least one meal.

If you have abdominal pain or other ailments, drink Cacharamba with medicinal herbs. For most people, this is much more affordable than buying medications. Hardly anyone can afford a pack of aspirin tablets. They are available individually at the pharmacy, for the equivalent of two euros each.