The story
Tchiloli Performances in Sao Tome
Tchiloli is Sao Tome's centuries-old open-air folk theater, a sung and danced retelling of a sixteenth-century Portuguese tragedy about the Marquis of Mantua and Charlemagne's court, staged since colonial times on saints' feast days across the island's roca settlements and neighborhoods. Performed by all-male troupes in ribboned costume, it survives as one of Central Africa's most distinctive Portuguese-heritage dramatic traditions.
Tchiloli takes its name from a Portuguese chivalric tragedy that reached Sao Tome island with colonial settlers in the sixteenth century: the Tragedia do Marques de Mantua e do Principe D.