São Tomé is an island of the Gulf of Guinea, discovered by the Portuguese in the 15th century.

It is believed that this pidgin then became fixed (creolized) as it became the mother language of children born from Portuguese men and African women slaves.

Portuguese is the main language for children until their early 20s, when they relearn Forro Creole.

Roughly 93% of São Tomean Creole lexicon is from Portuguese and 7% of African origin.

[citation needed] Forro was and is largely an oral language; there is no standard orthography.