The islands of Sao Tome and Principe are some 150 miles off the coast of Gabon and are believed to have first been discovered by Portuguese explorers around 1470. Sao Tome was named after St Thomas as the explorer found the island on his celebration day, and Principe was named after the Prince of Portugal to whom duties on the sugar crop of the island was paid.

By the mid seventeenth century the islands were mainly used for the trading of slaves and on 12th July 1975 they finally gained their independence from Portugal however little changed until the country's first ever free elections were held in 1991.

As with so many other emerging African nations, democracy was a difficult concept to bed in and there were three coup attempts in 1995, 2003 and 2009 respectively.

With its population of just 163,000, further tensions are expected following the recent oil discoveries in the Gulf of Guinea and how best to exploit the opportunities those discoveries provide.

Sao Tome and Principe consists of two volcanic islands and although one country, the island of Principe, with a population of just 5000, is autonomous within the arrangement and is best known for the site where  Einstein's Theory of Relativity was finally proved during the total solar eclipse of 29th May, 1919.