History

• European Contacts

  Although numerous archaeological discoveries indicate a very early Sangoan (modified Acheulean) culture throughout Equatorial Guinea, the earliest traceable inhabitants were Pygmies, remnants of whom remain in northeastern Río Muni. Bioko was apparently uninhabited when the Bubi came by sea from the mainland in the 13th century. Río Muni seems to have been occupied by the Bantu in a series of waves that superseded the Pygmies—first by the Bubi, before 1200; then by the Benga, Bujeba, and Combe, perhaps about 1300; and, finally, by the Fang from the Congo Basin, after 1687.

  The island of Bioko (formerly Fernando Po) was sighted by the Portuguese explorer Fernão do Pó, probably in 1472. At first, it was called Formosa (“Beautiful”). Annobón was probably sighted by Ruy de Sequeira on a New Year’s Day (hence the name, which means “good year”) between 1472 and 1475, most likely that of 1474. By the Treaty of Tordesillas (June 7, 1494), the Portuguese had exclusive trade rights in Africa, and it was not until 1778 that they agreed to cede to Spain the islands of Annobón and Fernando Po as well as rights on the mainland coast between the Ogooué and Niger rivers. These sessions were designed to give Spain its own source of slaves in Africa for transport to Spanish America, where, in exchange, the Spanish confirmed the rights of the Portuguese west of the 50° W meridian in what is now Brazil. The Spanish were soon decimated by yellow fever on Fernando Po, and they withdrew in 1781. No European occupation was made on the mainland.

  From 1827 to 1843 the British leased spaces at Port Clarence (later Santa Isabel, now Malabo) on Fernando Po to use as a base to regulate the abolition of the slave trade. In 1839 the first known school was established in Clarence City with 120 children. Because there was no Spanish administration in the area, the British administered the island and made Spain several offers to buy the island from them. All of these offers were denied, and the British left Fernando Po in 1843 after selling their buildings to a Baptist mission. A second school was established on Santa Isabel by Baptist missionaries sometime between 1840 and 1858 (Liniger-Goumaz 2000).

• The End of the British Rule

  In the first half of the 19th century, they lease harbors in Fernando Po to the British (for their campaign to suppress the slave trade). Finally, from the 1850s, they begin to establish a Spanish presence in their African colony. Minor explorations are made inland from the coast. the Spanish had expelled the British Baptists from Fernando Po in 1858, and in 1879 they began to use it as a penal settlement for Cubans. Following the Spanish-American War (1898), Spanish Guinea remained as Spain’s last significant tropical colony. Profiting from the weakness of Spain, France was able to confine mainland Spanish Guinea to its present limited extent. Economic development started only at that time and was concentrated on the richer and healthier Fernando Po. The mainland received significant attention from Spain only after the Spanish Civil War (1936–39).

  The plantations of Fernando Pó were mostly run by a black Creole elite, later known as Fernandinos. The British occupied the island briefly in the early 19th century, settling some 2,000 Sierra Leoneans and freed slaves there. Limited immigration from West Africa and the West Indies continued after the British left. To this were added Cubans, Filipinos, and Spaniards of various colors deported for political or other crimes, as well as some assisted settlers. There was also a trickle of immigration from the neighboring Portuguese islands, escaped slaves and prospective planters. Although a few of the Fernandinos were Catholic and Spanish-speaking, about nine-tenths of them were Protestant and English-speaking on the eve of the First World War, and pidgin English was the lingua franca of the island.

  The opening years of the twentieth century saw a new generation of Spanish immigrants. Land regulations issued in 1904–1905 favored Spaniards, and most of the later big planters arrived from Spain after that. The Liberian labor agreement of 1914 favored wealthy men with ready access to the state, and the shift in labor supplies from Liberia to Rio Muni increased this advantage. In 1940, an estimated 20% of the colony’s cocoa production came from African-owned land, nearly all of it was in the hands of Fernandinos.

   

• Colonial Spain

  From the opening years of the 20th century, the Fernandinos were put on the defensive by a new generation of Spanish immigrants. New land regulations in 1904-5 favored Spaniards, and most of the big planters of later years arrived in the islands from Spain following these new regulations. The Liberian labor agreement of 1914 favored wealthy men with ready access to the state and the shift in labor supplies from Liberia to Rio Muni increased this advantage. In 1940, it was estimated that only 20 percent of the colony’s cocoa production remained in African hands, nearly all of it in the hands of Fernandinos.

  Between 1926 and 1959 Bioko and Rio Muni were united as the colony of Spanish Guinea. The economy was based on large cacao and coffee plantations and logging concessions and the workforce was mostly immigrant contract labor from Liberia, Nigeria, and Cameroun. Military campaigns were mounted to subdue the Fang people in the 1920s, at the time that Liberia was beginning to cut back on recruitment. There were garrisons of the colonial guard throughout the enclave by 1926, and the whole colony was considered ‘pacified’ by 1929.

  With Liberian workers were no longer available, planters of Fernando Po turned to Rio Muni. Campaigns were mounted to subdue the Fang people in the 1920s, at the time that Liberia was beginning to cut back on recruitment. There were garrisons of the colonial guard throughout the enclave by 1926, and the whole colony was considered ‘pacified’ by 1929. Rio Muni had a small population, officially a little over 100,000 in the 1930s, and escape across the frontiers into Cameroun or Gabon was very easy. Also, the timber companies needed increasing numbers of workers, and the spread of coffee cultivation offered an alternative means of paying taxes. Fernando Pó thus continued to suffer from labor shortages. The French only briefly permitted recruitment in Cameroun, and the main source of labor came to be Igbo smuggled in canoes from Calabar in Nigeria. This resolution to the worker shortage allowed Fernando Pó to become one of Africa’s most productive agricultural areas after the Second World War.

• Struggle for independence

  In 1959 the status of Spanish Guinea was changed, and the region was reorganized into two provinces of overseas Spain, each of which was placed under a civil governor. The post-war political history of the colony can be divided into three fairly distinct phases: up to 1959, when its status was raised from ‘colony’ to ‘province’, taking a leaf out of the approach of the Portuguese Empire; between 1960 and 1968, when Spain attempted a partial decolonisation which was hoped would conserve the territory as an integral segment of the Spanish system; and after 1968, when the territory became an independent republic.

  The first of these phases consisted of little more than a continuation of previous policies; these closely resembled the policies of Portugal and France, notably in dividing the population into a vast majority governed as ‘natives’ or non-citizens, and a very small minority (together with whites) admitted to civic status as emancipados, assimilation to the metropolitan culture being the only permissible means of advancement.[9] The first local elections were held in 1959, and the first Equatoguinean representatives were seated in the Cortes Generales (Spanish parliament). Under the Basic Law of December 1963, limited autonomy was authorized under a joint legislative body for the territory’s two provinces. A paradoxical effect of this autonomy was that Guineans could choose among several political parties while metropolitan Spaniards were under a single-party regime. The name of the country was changed to Equatorial Guinea. Although Spain’s commissioner general had extensive powers, the Equatorial Guinean General Assembly had a considerable initiative in formulating laws and regulations.

  Nationalism began to emerge during this “provincial” phase, chiefly among small groups who had taken refuge from General Franco’s paternal hand in Cameroun and Gabon. They formed two bodies: the Movimiento Nacional de Liberación de la Guinea (MONALIGE), and the Idea Popular de la Guinea Ecuatorial (IPGE). Their pressures were weak, but the general trend in West Africa was not. A decision of 9 August 1963, approved by a referendum of 15 December 1963, introduced the territory to a measure of autonomy and the administrative promotion of a ‘moderate’ grouping, the Movimiento de Unión Nacional de la Guinea Ecuatorial (MUNGE). This proved a feeble instrument, and, with growing pressure for change from the UN, Spain gave way to the currents of nationalism. Independence was conceded on 12 October 1968 and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea came into being with Francisco Macías Nguema elected as president.

• Independent Equatorial Guinea

  In July 1970, Macias created a single-party state and by May 1971, key portions of the constitution were abrogated. In 1972 Macias took complete control of the government and assumed the title of President for Life. The Macias regime was characterized by abandonment of all government functions except internal security, which was accomplished by terror; this led to the death or exile of up to one-third of the country’s population. Due to pilferage, ignorance, and neglect, the country’s infrastructure—electrical, water, road, transportation, and health—fell into ruin. The private and public sectors of the economy were devastated. Nigerian contract laborers on Bioko, estimated to have been 60,000, left en masse in early 1976. The economy collapsed, and skilled citizens and foreigners left.

  A reign of terror follows, bringing international protests until in 1979 Macías is toppled in a military coup led by his nephew, the defense minister Teodoro Obiang Nguema. President Obiang remains in power for the rest of the century and achieves a human rights record little better than that of his uncle. During the 1990s, in the spirit of the times, the promise of democracy is constantly in the air. But opposition leaders are continually harassed and persecuted. Elections are widely agreed to be fraudulent. In 1996 the president claims to have been re-elected with more than 99% of the vote. Meanwhile, Fernando Po has acquired another new name. When Macías Nguema falls from power, in 1979, his eponymous island goes the same way. It becomes Bioko.

  The unsuccessful “Wonga Coup” by European and South African mercenaries in 2004 attempted to replacing Obiang with a puppet ruler who would open the country’s mineral wealth to the plotters[citation needed]. Briton Simon Mann, a former officer in the Special Air Service, led the plot, which also included former members of the South African Army 32 Battalion. Financial backers included Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and possibly the British novelist Jeffrey Archer. Somewhere between $3 million and $20 million was expended on the failed coup, which is said to have had the tacit support of some Western governments and international corporations. In the 2016 presidential election, which was held on April 24, Obiang was reelected by a huge margin—93.7 percent—defeating six other candidates.

• Source:

  https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2016/cr16358.pdf

  https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/equatorial-guinea/manufacturing

  https://www.lonelyplanet.com/equatorial-guinea/attractions/a/poi-sig/355279

  https://www.iexplore.com/articles/travel-guides/africa/equatorial-guinea/attractions

  http://www.economiesafricaines.com/en/countries/equatorial-guinea/economic-sectors/the-industrial-sector

  https://www.holdingequatorialguinea.com/english/strategic-sectors/agriculture-and-livestock/

  http://www.studycountry.com/guide/GQ-education.htm

  http://embassyofequatorialguinea.co.uk/health-education/

  https://www.encyclopedia.com/places/africa/equatorial-guinea-political-geography/equatorial-guinea#POPULATION

  https://www.britannica.com/place/Equatorial-Guinea/People

  https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ek.html

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_Guinea#Education

  http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/428/Equatorial-Guinea-HISTORY-BACKGROUND.html