Bioko

Bioko is an island in the Gulf of Guinea. She was formerly Fernando Poo, 1973-1979 Macías Nguema Byogo, after the former dictator Francisco Macías Nguema. The inhabitants belong to the Bantu majority of the Bubi people, the ruling minority, however, belongs to the catcher.

Politically Bioko belongs to Equatorial Guinea, whose capital, Malabo (formerly Santa Isabel ) is located on the north coast of the island. Important communities Biokos addition Rebola Malabo, Luba, Baney, Riaba and Ureka.

Geography

Bioko has a total area of 2017 km ² and more than 100,000 inhabitants. The island is located at 4 ° north latitude and 8 ° east longitude, about 40 km off the coast of Cameroon; on a clear day ( after rain ) is good to see the Mount Cameroon. From Malabo to Bata ( city) on the Equatorial Guinean mainland Mbini there are about 160 nautical miles ( 290 km) south-southeast in direction.

By the end of the last ice age Bioko was the end of a peninsula that has been connected to the mainland of present-day Cameroon. Due to the rise in sea level it was separated from the African continent about 10,000 years ago.

Two volcanic mountains divide the island into a northern and a southern part, which also correspond to the two provinces Bioko Bioko Norte and Sur. The Pico Basilé ( fr. Santa Isabel ) in the north reaching a height of 3,012 m.

In Moka environmentalists try especially the variety of species of monkeys to obtain.

History

Bioko was the Bubi has long welcomed. For Europe, the island was discovered in 1472 by the Portuguese navigator Fernão do Pó whose name she bore to 1973. However, it was not colonized long time. In 1778 the island was first claimed by Spain, which made ​​a first attempt at colonization by a slave trading post. However, this failed in 1781 and until the 1860s there was not even a Spanish representative on the island.

As of 1827, the interest of Great Britain to the island increased. Until 1835 they developed on Fernando Poo a base for the fight against the slave trade. 1841 was one of the starting points for a major British Niger expedition, but ultimately failed. At that time originated from escaped or freed slaves, immigrants from Sierra Leone and Europeans, the population aged Fernandinos that already operated in the 1840 palm oil trade with the Bubi.

In the 1860s, the Spanish interest in his possession briefly lived again, about 600 people from Cuba were brought into the country, but even here, the attempt of colonization. From 1868 there was an - albeit initially only very reduced -administrative presence on the island. At the turn of the century through the Spanish commitment to enhanced significantly, in 1904 subjugated Spain, the Bubi and thus gained full control of the island.

From 1916 to 1919, there were 6,000 soldiers and 12,000 members of the German colonial force of Cameroon on the island. Most German officers, however, had left at the urging of their Entente troops soon to be interned until the end of the war in Spain. There is therefore still Equatorial Guineans with German ancestors or family name, as places with German names, such as village woman.

In 1963, the island autonomy within the Spanish colonial empire. Closed in 1968 it was at independence with Rio Muni (now Mbini ) to Equatorial Guinea together. The Grupo Nacionalista Bubi 1 de Abril (Group of Bubi Nationalists April 1 ) seek the independence of the island of Equatorial Guinea.

Economy

In the northeast of the island facilities are for the processing of sailing off the coast lying, extremely large oil deposits that help the political leadership caste of the country to enormous wealth.

In the fertile coastal plain cocoa, coffee, sugar cane, bananas and other tropical fruits are grown.

Others

Bioko is the backdrop for Frederick Forsyth's novel The Dogs of War.

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