Bubi People - History

History

The Bubi people are subdivided into a number of tribes and subtribes that go back centuries. Indigenous Bubi folklore indicate that the tribe immigrated to Bioko Island some 3,000 years ago as a means of escaping servitude. However according to archaeological evidence, the Bubi immigrated to Bioko Island some time during the 13th century, some 200 years before it was discovered and claimed by the Portuguese. Other reports suggest that the tribe arrived between the 5th and the 18th centuries from southern Cameroon and the mainland area of the Rio Muni.

One perspective offers that the Bubi were once enslaved by a single continental African tribe, likely another Bantu ethnic group that once occupied areas along the shores of West Africa. Another suggests those who immigrated to Bioko 3,000 years ago descended from enslaved members from a number of ethnic groups that existed up and down the West-Central African region during that time. In essence, the tribe is a result of an amalgamation of small tribal groups who immigrated to Bioko Island in several waves, and each group established its own enclave upon the island. Throughout their history, these groups engaged in brutal battles for supremacy, though the fighting was not relegated strictly to inter-clan rivalries. The Bubi were known to have had long battles against one another on an individual, family, district, city, and tribal level - this led to a near constant state of warfare on the island.

With the arrival of Portuguese explorer Fernando Po, life changed drastically for the native Bubi. Some sources claim that a full eight of ten tribesmen were killed by foreign plagues and fever, brought along with the Europeans aboard their ships. Other sources suggests that the high death ratio is a result of genocide. For several centuries, Europeans attempted to penetrate the island of Bioko. They, however, were met with staunch resistance, purported savagery, by the Bubi. A German Gold Coast merchant wrote "The island of Fernando Po is inhabited by a savage and cruel sort of people," and that Europeans did not dare to dock upon their beaches, for fear of surprise attacks from natives with dart-weapons. Surprise attacks on explorers and colonists were a common phenomenon during this period - in fact, the Bubi had a system of social rank that depended largely on how many rivals a man had killed through stealth or subterfuge. Because of this, the Bubi remained unconquered by European imperialism until the start of the 20th century. Led by their kings, the Bubi were well aware of the slave trade in the region and, for centuries, were highly guarded of outsiders. This was later reduced when the island leadership began to trade and barter with the Europeans, thus the imperialists were able to infiltrate the island social, and political, structures.

Gradually, European influence on the island increased. Portugal laid claim to it, and then traded it to Spain. By the early 19th century, Bioko was an short-term integral point in the transfer of slaves from mainland Africa to the Americas. However, the flow of humans trafficked through the port was constantly intervened by indigenous groups who organized to steal and free many of those transported. The port was closed by the end of 1he 19th century at the order of the British government who set up military occupation of the port for the latter half of the century. Over time, the influence of the Bubi has greatly diminished, and some sources claim that they are now a minority upon the island, as well as in the nation of Equatorial Guinea itself.

Later, during the reign of Francisco Macías Nguema, his troops slaughtered the Bubi.