The Bubi people, also known as Voove, Pove, Bobes, Boobes, Boobees, Boobies, Boubies, Adeeyahs,Adeejahs, Adijas, Ediyas, Eris, Fernando Poans, Fernandians, and Bantu Speaking Bubi, are an African ethnic group of the Bantu group, who are indigenous to Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. Once the majority group in the region, the population experienced a sharp decline due to disease and outright killing sprees during Portuguese expeditions. By the end of Spanish colonial rule in the mid 20th century, and after substantial interbreeding with newly introduced populations such as Afro-Cubans, Krio people, Portuguese people, and Spaniards, the Bubi people, again, experienced a great decline in number. Seventy-five percent perished due to tribal/clan rooted political genocide during a civil war that led to Spanish Guinea's independence from Spain. This, too, sparked mass exodus from their homeland with most of the exiles and refugees immigrating into Spain. The indigenous Bubi of Bioko Island have since been outnumbered - first by non-indigenous Krio Fernandinos; and then by members of the Fang ethnic group, who have immigrated in large numbers from Rio Muni. Once numbering over 3 million, the Bubi currently number less than 100,000 world-wide.
The Bubi people have long held little political power. However recently appointed government officials such as the former Prime Minister Miguel Abia Biteo Borico and several other members of the current Equatorial Guinea government are of ethnic Bubi descent. Despite this, the majority of Bubi descendants, both living in Equatorial Guinea and exiles abroad, hold little political and economic stake in their native land.
Most Bubi people that remain on Bioko Island, as well as those native to Gabon, speak the Bube language. Many of the islanders also speak Spanish as a secondary language. Those native to Cameroon (known as Bobe, or Ewota) speak Bubia.
Read more about Bubi People: Etymology, History, Ancient Bubi Kingdom, Culture, Amalgamated Ancestries, Descendants of The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, Politics, Notable People of Bubi Descent
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“Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river.”
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