Equatorial Guinea

Official name República de Guinea Ecuatorial (Spanish); République du Guinée Équatoriale (French) (Republic of Equatorial Guinea)
Form of government republic with two legislative houses (Senate [76] and Chamber of Deputies [100])
Head of state President: Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo
Head of government Prime Minister: Vicente Ehate Tomi
Capital Malabo
Official languages Spanish; French
Official religion none
Monetary unit CFA franc (CFAF)
Population (2013 est.) 761,000
Total area (sq mi) 10,831
Total area (sq km) 28,051
Urban-rural population

Urban: (2011) 39.9%

Rural: (2011) 60.1%

Life expectancy at birth

Male: (2012) 61.8 years

Female: (2012) 63.8 years

Literacy: percentage of population age 15 and over literate

Male: (2010) 97.1%

Female: (2010) 90.6%

GNI per capita (U.S.$) (2012) 13,560

About Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea gained independence in 1968 after 190 years of Spanish rule. This tiny country, composed of a mainland portion plus five inhabited islands, is one of the smallest on the African continent. President Teodoro OBIANG NGUEMA MBASOGO has ruled the country since 1979 when he seized power in a coup. Although nominally a constitutional democracy since 1991, the 1996, 2002, and 2009 presidential elections - as well as the 1999, 2004, and 2008 legislative elections - were widely seen as flawed. The president exerts almost total control over the political system and has discouraged political opposition. Equatorial Guinea has experienced rapid economic growth due to the discovery of large offshore oil reserves, and in the last decade has become Sub-Saharan Africa's third largest oil exporter. Despite the country's economic windfall from oil production, resulting in a massive increase in government revenue in recent years, improvements in the population's living standards have been slow to develop.

It is country located on the west coast of Africa. It consists of Río Muni (also known as Continental), on the continent, and five islands (known collectively as insular Equatorial Guinea): Bioko (formerly Fernando Po), Corisco, Great Elobey (Elobey Grande), Little Elobey (Elobey Chico), and Annobón (Pagalu). Bata is the administrative capital of the mainland. Formerly a colony of Spain with the name Spanish Guinea, the country achieved its independence on Oct. 12, 1968. The capital is Malabo, on Bioko.

Geography of Equatorial Guinea

The Land

Land

Continental Equatorial Guinea is a roughly rectangular territory bounded by Cameroon to the north and Gabon to the east and south. Near the coast are the small islands of Corisco and Great and Little Elobey. Bioko, by far the largest of the islands, lies off the coast of Cameroon in the Bight of Biafra. Annobón, a volcanic island, lies south of the Equator and almost 400 miles (640 km) to the southwest of Bioko.

Relief, drainage, and soils

CONTINENTAL EQUATORIAL GUINEA

The coast of Río Muni, the continental portion of the country, consists of a long stretch of beach with low cliffs toward the south. A coastal plain about 12 miles (20 km) wide abuts the coastal hills, which lead to inland plateaus (called mesetas in Spanish) that rise toward the frontier with Gabon. There are several ranges of hills. The central range divides the Mbini (Benito) River basin to the north from the southern basin of the Utamboni (Mitèmboni) River. The Niefang-Mikomeseng range north of the Mbini River is somewhat lower. All these ranges form segments of the Cristal Mountains in Gabon.

The Mbini River (known as the Woleu River in Gabon) runs generally from east to west through central Río Muni; it is nonnavigable except for the first 12 miles (19 km) inland. To the north the Campo River (called the Ntem in French-speaking Africa) marks part of the frontier with Cameroon. The Utamboni River flows through the south. To the southwest the Muni is not itself a river but the estuary of various rivers of Gabon and southern Equatorial Guinea. To the east the de facto border with Gabon follows the meandering course of the Kié (Kyé) River, rather than the legal frontier at latitude 11° 20′ E. The rivers of mainland Equatorial Guinea provide limited hydroelectric power generation and waterpower at some lumbering sites.

The coastal plain is overlaid by sedimentary deposits. The hinterland is composed primarily of ancient metamorphic rocks that have undergone a lengthy process of leaching and erosion, so that the resulting soils are relatively infertile.

INSULAR EQUATORIAL GUINEA

The main island, Bioko, is about 45 miles (72 km) long and 22 miles (35 km) wide. Its extinct volcanic cones, crater lakes, and rich lava soils form a contrast with the landscape of the mainland. In the north Santa Isabel Peak (Basile Peak), an extinct volcano, soars to a height of 9,869 feet (3,008 metres). In the centre of the island, Moca Peak and the Moca Heights present an alpine type of landscape. The southern part of the island, remote and scarcely developed, consists of the Gran Caldera range, which is rugged and indented by torrents and crater lakes.

Bioko’s coast is largely inhospitable, consisting for the most part of a cliff about 60 feet (20 metres) high, broken occasionally by small inlets and beaches. The southern coast is very steep and dangerous to shipping; San Antonio de Ureca, located along this stretch, is among the most isolated settlements on the island. Malabo, located on the northern coast, has a relatively good harbour, built on the partially sunken rim of a volcano. The Musola River and other torrents are exploited for hydroelectric power.

Annobón is an isolated fragment of the country, about 93 miles (150 km) southwest of the island of São Tomé in Sao Tome and Principe and about 400 miles (650 km) southwest of Bioko. Like the latter, it is a volcanic island but is less elevated, consisting of a conglomeration of cones, including Mount Santa Mina and Mount Quioveo. The highest elevation is about 2,200 feet (670 metres). The small, rugged island is not quite 4 miles (6 km) long by 2 miles (3 km) wide.

Climate

The climate of both the continental region and the islands is typically equatorial, with high temperatures, heavy rainfall, and much cloud cover most of the year. Local variations are due to differences in elevation and proximity to the sea.

The wet seasons in the continental region are from February to June and from September to December. Rainfall is higher on the coast than inland. In Bata the rainiest months are September, October, and November, with rainfall averaging about 95 inches (2,400 mm) a year. At Calatrava, farther south on the coast, it sometimes reaches 180 inches (4,600 mm). Inland, however, rainfall diminishes; Mikomeseng, for example, receives under 60 inches (1,500 mm) annually. Temperature is fairly constant throughout the year, averaging in the high 70s F (about 26 °C) annually. The temperature maxima are somewhat lower than in Bioko. The relative humidity, however, is higher than in Bioko.

Bioko’s dry season lasts from November to March, and the rest of the year is rainy. The average annual temperature is in the mid- to upper 70s F (about 25 °C), and temperature varies little throughout the year, reaching the high 80s F (about 32 °C) in the afternoon and dropping to the low 70s F (about 21 °C) at night. Most of the time the sky is cloudy and overcast. Extreme rainfall occurs in the south, with rain brought by monsoon winds amounting to about 450 inches (11,400 mm) a year around San Antonio de Ureca.

Plant and animal life

Much of the continental portion of Equatorial Guinea is covered by dense tropical rainforest that has long been exploited by the lumbering industry. More than 140 species of wood are found, of which the most important commercially are okume (Aucoumea klaineana), African walnut, and various mahoganies. A secondary forest growth has replaced the virgin rainforest. Mangroves fringe long stretches of the coast as well as riverbanks. Bioko has a greater variety of tropical vegetation, including mangroves.

The continental region has a rich animal life that includes gorillas, chimpanzees, various monkeys, leopards, buffalo, antelope, elephants, hippopotamuses, crocodiles, and various snakes, including pythons. Insects abound, including the tsetse fly and the malaria-bearing Anopheles mosquito, as well as hosts of ants, beetles, spiders, and termites. Bioko has no big game but has various monkeys, dwarf antelopes, and rodents, as well as mosquitoes and other insects.

Demography of Equatorial Guinea

• Ethnic groups

The ethnic composition of the population is complex for a political unit so small in size. The Fang people, who fought their way to the sea in the 19th and early 20th centuries by subjugating other groups in their path, constitute well over half of the population. The Fang are dominant in the continental region; north of the Mbini River are the Ntumu Fang, and to the south of it are the Okak Fang. Holding political power on the mainland, the Fang tend to migrate to Bioko, where their leaders also hold most of the levers of political control. Coastal groups, such as the Kombe, Mabea, Lengi, Benga, and others, have been in contact with European traders much longer, and a limited amount of intermarriage between European and African ethnic groups has taken place, especially on the island of Corisco. Spanish ethnographers refer to these coastal peoples as playeros (“those who live on the beach”). Both the Fang majority and the playero groups are Bantu peoples.

The original inhabitants of Bioko are the Bubi, descendants of Bantu migrants from the mainland. The Bubi, unlike the other ethnic groups of the country, are a matrilineal society, wherein children inherit property from their mother. Early contacts with Europeans decimated the Bubi until only a few thousand remained early in the 20th century. During the colonial era they became the most pro-Spanish element of the African population, as they viewed the end of Spanish rule as a signal for the invasion of their island by the majority Fang. Indeed, significant numbers of mainlanders, most of them Fang, have flocked to Bioko since the mid-1960s. Following independence, Pres. Francisco Macías Nguema (ruled 1968–79), himself a Fang, harshly persecuted the Bubi people. Many Bubi, including accused separatists as well as most Bubi politicians, were killed in a campaign that some observers have called genocide. In 1998 antigovernment attacks on Bioko, allegedly carried out by a Bubi separatist organization, were met with severe reprisals, including the arrest and interrogation of hundreds of Bubi. In the early 21st century the Bubi, who by then made up approximately one-tenth of the country’s population, continued to suffer discrimination at the hands of the Fang-controlled government.

Bioko also is home to Fernandinos, descendants of former slaves liberated by the British during the 19th century who mingled with other emancipated Africans from Sierra Leone and Cuba, as well as with immigrants from other western African countries. Formerly constituting an influential bourgeoisie, they lost much of their status both when the Spanish acquired the island and after independence. Additional communities on the island are formed by crioulos (of mixed Portuguese and African origin) from the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe; there are also some Cameroonians. By about 1970 these different strata together constituted a minority on Bioko; the majority of the people were Nigerian contract labourers, who lived in compact colonies in Malabo or on plantations. Beginning in 1975, however, Nigeria repatriated at least 45,000 workers following reports of repressive conditions in Equatorial Guinea.

The inhabitants of Annobón represent only a tiny fraction of the population of Equatorial Guinea. They are descended from enslaved Africans brought there by the Portuguese when the island was a dependency of Portugal’s São Tomé colony.

• Languages

Each ethnic group speaks its own language; among the most prominent of these languages are Fang and Bubi. The official languages of the country, however, are Spanish and French. Spanish is taught in schools and used by the press; it is the primary means of communication common to both Bioko and the mainland. As a result of Equatorial Guinea’s closer economic association with Francophone countries begun in 1983, French became a compulsory subject in schools in 1988 and an official language in 1997. In addition, an English-based creole is used extensively in petty commerce and forms the lingua franca on Bioko, and a Portuguese patois is spoken on both Bioko and Annobón.

• Religion

While the vast majority of Equatorial Guineans are nominally Roman Catholic, the Bubi and mainlanders often retain traditional forms of worship. For example, the Mbwiti cult on the mainland, banned by the Spanish authorities, still has adherents. Under the regime of Francisco Macías Nguema, most churches were closed by presidential order in 1975, and the Roman Catholic Church was banned in 1978. These orders were rescinded following the coup that brought Obiang to power in 1979, but many denominations, notably Jehovah’s Witnesses, were proscribed once again in 1986. There is a small but significant population of Sunni Muslims.

• Settlement patterns

The mainland is sparsely settled by farmers who practice traditional methods of agriculture. During the colonial period, Roman Catholic missions did much to encourage the population to construct “corridor” villages by the sides of roads; in most villages the church and the school figure prominently. The region was never a settler colony, and the few European plantations—mostly Spanish or German—that survived the colonial era have been abandoned.

Bioko, by contrast, was a plantation island; it retained for several years a larger number of plantation owners and managers and consequently withstood longer than the continental region the effect of independence upon its economy. Before independence there were about 1,900 plantations (known as fincas), which ranged in size from less than an acre to more than 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares). The largest plantations, those that had been established by Europeans, occupied the vast majority of the land; in 1962, for example, only about 2,800 acres (1,130 hectares) of farmland were in the possession of some 1,600 African farmers, grouped in cooperatives.

Malabo, the national capital, is a small city standing behind its crater harbour on the northern coast of Bioko. Created by the British in the 19th century, it was remodeled and developed by the Spanish. It is a rambling tropical city with a distinctly Spanish atmosphere—especially near the cathedral, the mission, and the government house. The indigenous Bubi people live mostly in villages on the lower slopes of Santa Isabel Peak, in northern Bioko, as well as in their traditional homeland, the Moca Heights. Another town of some importance on the island is Luba, on the southwest coast; it is linked with the capital by a paved road that runs through a series of Bubi settlements. Basilé, on the slopes of Santa Isabel Peak, provides a cool refuge for heat-weary residents of the capital.

The continental region was settled much later by the Spanish, so that Bata, the main settlement, long lacked the amenities of Malabo. Following independence, Fang migrants from the interior built suburbs around the sprawling port city. The growth of the oil and natural gas industry in the late 20th and early 21st centuries led to further development of the city.

• Demographic trends

Dramatic political and economic changes during the latter part of the 20th century resulted in roller-coaster population shifts. The population was reduced by about one-third through the departure of some 110,000 people who fled the postindependence regime of Francisco Macías Nguema in the late 1970s; it had already been diminished by the repatriation of Nigerian plantation labourers earlier in the decade. During the 1960s Nigerian workers, often bringing their families, had settled in numbers believed to have reached 50,000 to 80,000 by the end of the decade. Political and economic conditions after independence gradually reduced these numbers, despite an agreement with Nigeria in 1972 for the recruitment of new labourers. Reports of virtual slave-labour conditions on plantations and of repressive killings by authorities in the mid-1970s turned this gradual exodus into a flood, further impoverishing Equatorial Guinea’s postindependence economy. Beginning in the 1980s, however, this outflow of people reversed dramatically as the discovery of significant reserves of petroleum and natural gas in the country buoyed its economy and brought an influx of foreigners seeking employment and economic opportunity. In the early 21st century the rate of population increase, population density, and life expectancy in Equatorial Guinea were lower than those of most other African countries.

Disclaimer

This is not the official site of this country. Most of the information in this site were taken from the U.S. Department of State, The Central Intelligence Agency, The United Nations, [1],[2], [3], [4], [5],[6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14],[15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24],[25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30],[31], [32], [33], [34], and the [35].

Other sources of information will be mentioned as they are posted.