1975 — São Tomé's Freedom

On July 12, 1975, the green, red, and yellow flag of a brand-new nation rose for the first time over São Tomé. After more than five centuries of Portuguese rule, the twin islands of São Tomé and Príncipe became independent, a small country taking its place among free nations.

The struggle was led by the MLSTP, the Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe, born of the islands' cocoa plantations. Manuel Pinto da Costa became the first president of one of Africa's smallest countries: two islands of just under a thousand square kilometres in the Gulf of Guinea. Five decades on, the cocoa and coffee still grow.