When São Tomé and Príncipe gained independence on July 12, 1975, a process began that involved not only the dethroning of the first navigators and settlers from their pedestals, but also the revision of the country's toponyms and, in particular, the capital, São Tomé.

Of the Portuguese figures who gave their names to the city's streets, only the pedagogue João de Deus, the author of the Cartilha Maternal, survived.

The problem arose of finding replacement names. Here, anti-colonial and pan-Africanist ideology was very useful: Amílcar Cabral, Agostinho Neto, Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba. But it was necessary to find São Toméan references.

The name of Amador Vieira, a 16th-century slave warrior, gained prominence to the point that he now has two statues and appears on the calendar of national holidays.

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According to sources such as Monumenta Missionaria Africana, ¹01. The Monumenta Missionaria Africana is a work whose compilation and publication was inspired by the Portvgaliæ Monvmenta Historica (PMH), a collection of texts on the history of Portugal published by the Lisbon Academy of Sciences between 1856 and 1917, divided into four sections: Scriptores (authors), Leges et Consuetudines (laws and customs), Diplomata et Chartae (diplomas and letters), and Inquisitiones (inquiries). The first three were compiled under the direction of Alexandre Herculano before 1873, and the last, Inquisitiones, between 1888 and 1897, after his death. and Father Rosário Pinto, Amador, at the head of 2000 slaves, destroyed 30 sugar mills and attacked, with an even larger army, the city of São Tomé, which he kept under siege for two weeks, until he was arrested, hanged and quartered ²02. Brásio, Fr. António. African Missionary Monuments. West Africa (1685 – 1699) and Supplement to the 2004th, XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries. sl: Center for African Studies of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon, XNUMX. ³03. Caldeira, Arlindo Manuel. Report on the Discovery of the Island of São Tomé. sl : CHAM, FCSH/NOVA-UAc, 2006..

According to the German historian Gerhard Seibert ⁴04. Gerhard Seibert holds a degree in Anthropology from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands (1991), and a PhD in Social Sciences from Leiden University, the Netherlands (1999). He was a researcher at the former Institute for Tropical Scientific Research (IICT), in Lisbon, from 1999 to 2008, and at the former Center for African Studies / ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon (CEA /ISCTE-IUL), from 2008 to 2014., was the largest slave revolt in the South Atlantic before the uprising of Toussaint L'Ouverture, in the 19th century, which culminated in the proclamation of the first black republic, Haiti ⁵05. Seibert, Gerhard. King Amador, history and myth of the leader of the slave revolt in São Tomé (1595). Buala. [Online] [Citation: January 24, 2021.] https://www.buala.org/pt/a-ler/rei-amador-historia-e-mito-do-lider-da-revolta-de-escravos-em-sao-tome-1595#_ftn2..

Professor Maria de Jesus Agostinho das Neves, mother of the poet Alda Espírito Santo, while still alive, became the patron of the largest primary school in the country, the former Vaz Monteiro school.

The poet Marcelo da Veiga gave his name to the former Império cinema and the square surrounding it. And a street was named after engineer Salustino Graça do Espírito Santo, the bitter adversary of Governor Carlos de Sousa Gorgulho, perpetrator of the February 1953 massacre.

In the post-independence process of replacing historically referential names, the square in front of the current Government Palace, the former city hall, was assigned to Yon Gato.

This act put the name of a figure on people's lips every day about whom, unlike Amador, there do not seem to be any major documentary references.

In his book “Camaradas, Clientes e Compadres – Colonialismo, Socialismo e Democratização em São Tomé e Príncipe”, Gerhard Seibert states that João Rodrigues Gato, better known as Yon Gato, a blind farmer, accompanied by 700 armed slaves, led, in 1553, a revolt of mulatto landowners to try to prevent the reelection of two white judges. ⁶ 02. Brásio, Fr. António. African Missionary Monuments. West Africa (1685–1699) and Supplement to the 2004th, 03th and 2006th centuries. sl: Center for African Studies of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon, 04. 1991. Caldeira, Arlindo Manuel. Report on the Discovery of the Island of São Tomé. sl: CHAM, FCSH/NOVA-UAc, 1999. 1999. Gerhard Seibert holds a degree in Anthropology from the University of Utrecht, Netherlands (2008), and a PhD in Social Sciences from the University of Leiden, Netherlands (2008). He was a researcher at the former Institute for Tropical Scientific Research (IICT), in Lisbon, from 2014 to 05, and at the former Center for African Studies / ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon (CEA / ISCTE-IUL), from 1595 to 24. 2021. Seibert, Gerhard. Rei Amador, history and myth of the leader of the slave revolt in São Tomé (1595). Buala. [Online] [Citation: January 2, 06.] https://www.buala.org/pt/a-ler/rei-amador-historia-e-mito-do-lider-da-revolta-de-escravos-em-sao-tome-2012#_ftn1. 129. Castaño, Inês Filipa Abreu de. São Tomé and Príncipe: Culture(s) / Heritage(s) / Museum(s). [ed.] Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. Master's Project Work in Museology. September XNUMX, Vol. XNUMX, p. XNUMX..

The rebels' goal was to replace them with local Creoles. According to Seibert, the then-Captain-Major managed to capture Gato and his followers, who were deported to Portugal.

Although this distinction made his name very familiar, Yon Gato remained, as a historical figure, shrouded in obscurity. Yon Gato is mentioned when referring to the square that now bears his name. One or two visual artists took him as a model, certainly imaginary.

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When students, even university students, are asked if they know who Yon Gato was and what he did, the answer is invariably "no." Even historians seem to struggle.

Historian Nazaré Ceita attributes the choice of Yon Gato “to a certain euphoria that was experienced at the time in São Tomé and Príncipe, as in other countries recently freed from the colonial yoke.”

For Nazaré Ceita, in the case of Yon Gato, “the choice seems to have been based solely on the record of a single act, with unclear contours and motivations.”

Another historian considers that the record of an attempted armed uprising against the power of the Portuguese crown by a native Creole would have been more than enough, at the time, to justify the adoption of Yon Gato as a hero by the government of the liberation movement.

"Furthermore, he was deported to Portugal, which meant he was seen as a threat to the crown's power, as an enemy of the Portuguese crown. This led to him being considered a precocious defender of native interests in that context."

A scholar of São Toméan history and culture, who spoke on condition of anonymity, believes it was "a certain rashness on the part of a socialist government." However, she cited the prevailing context as a justification.

"In our history, heroes are not abundant, and there are forgotten, or nearly forgotten, heroes, like the engineer Salustino Graça. On the other hand, people need their mythical figures. This is part of the process of identity affirmation, and this explains how Yon Gato entered our post-independence imagination, despite his opacity as a historical figure."

Notes and Bibliography

1. A African Missionary Monument, is a work whose compilation and publication was inspired by Historic Monvmenta Portvgaliæ (PMH), a collection of texts on the History of Portugal published by the Lisbon Academy of Sciences between 1856 and 1917, divided into four sections: Scriptores (authors), Leges et Consuetudines (laws and customs), Diplomata et Chartae (diplomas and letters), and Inquisitiones (inquiries). The first three were compiled under the direction of Alexandre Herculano before 1873, and the last, Inquisitiones, between 1888 and 1897, after his death.
2. Brasio, Father Anthony. African Missionary Monument. West Africa (1685 – 1699) and Supplement to the XNUMXth, XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries. sl: Center for African Studies of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon, 2004.
3. Caldeira, Arlindo Manuel. Account of the Discovery of the Island of São Tomé. sl : CHAM, FCSH/NOVA-UAc, 2006.
4. Gerhard Seibert holds a degree in Anthropology from the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands (1991), and a PhD in Social Sciences from Leiden University, the Netherlands (1999). He was a researcher at the former Institute for Tropical Scientific Research (IICT), in Lisbon, from 1999 to 2008, and at the former Center for African Studies / ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon (CEA /ISCTE-IUL), from 2008 to 2014.
5. Seibert, Gerhard. King Amador, history and myth of the leader of the slave revolt in São Tomé (1595). Buala. [Online] [Citation: January 24, 2021.] https://www.buala.org/pt/a-ler/rei-amador-historia-e-mito-do-lider-da-revolta-de-escravos-em-sao-tome-1595#_ftn2.
6. Castaño, Inês Filipa Abreu de. São Tomé and Príncipe: Culture(s) / Heritage(s) / Museum(s). [ed.] Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities. Master's Project in Museology. September 2012, Vol. 1, p. 129.

(1) 50.000 Dobras note, from the Central Bank of São Tomé and Príncipe, with the image of King Amador Vieira
(2) Illustration by Yon Gato

Image 1 – Public Domain / Image 2 – © 2021 Illustration by Xesko