In the dilapidated Portuguese cocoa plantation houses at Agua Ize, São Tomé and Principe, residents gather under a rotting roof to avoid the rain. Above their heads, offering a tantalising glimpse of a world beyond the surrounding dank disrepair, an old election campaign poster hints at the country's anticipated oil boom. “It is now!” says the propaganda of the opposition Party of Democratic Convergence, pledging “better sharing of resources”.

Domingas da Costa Frota Pereira, an unemployed mother of three children, looks up and laughs: “They would put the money in their own pockets,” she says.