Sport in Equatorial Guinea - History

History

In the continental region that is now Equatorial Guinea, there are believed to have been pygmies of whom only isolated pockets now remain in southern Río Muni. Bantu migrations between the 18th and 20th centuries brought the coastal tribes and later the Fang. Elements of the latter may have generated the Bubi, who migrated from Cameroon to Rio Muni and Bioko in several waves and succeeded former Neolithic populations. The Annobón population, native to Angola, was introduced by the Portuguese via São Tomé island.

The Portuguese explorer Fernão do Pó, seeking a path to India, is credited as being the first European to discover the island of Bioko in 1472. He called it Formosa ("Beautiful"), but it quickly took on the name of its European discoverer. The islands of Fernando Pó and Annobón were colonized by Portugal in 1474.

In 1778, Queen Maria I of Portugal and King Charles III of Spain signed the Treaty of El Pardo which ceded the Bioko, adjacent islets, and commercial rights to the mainland between the Niger and Ogoue rivers to Spain. Spain thereby gained access to a source of slaves. Between 1778 and 1810, the territory of Equatorial Guinea was administratered by the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, based in Buenos Aires.

From 1827 to 1843, the United Kingdom had a base on Bioko to combat the slave trade, which was then moved to Sierra Leone upon agreement with Spain in 1843. In 1844, on restoration of Spanish sovereignty, it became known as the Territorios Españoles del Golfo de Guinea Ecuatorial. Spanish settlers arrived in the mainland portion, Rio Muni, which became a protectorate in 1885 and a colony in 1900. Conflicting claims to the mainland were settled by the Treaty of Paris in 1900, and periodically, the mainland territories were united administratively under Spanish rule. Between 1926 and 1959 they were united as the colony of Spanish Guinea.

In September 1968, Spanish Guinea was granted independence and became the Republic of Equatorial Guinea with Francisco Macías Nguema elected as president. In July 1970, Macias Nguema created a single-party state and made himself president for life in 1972. His rule was a reign of terror in which a third of the population were killed or fled. On Christmas 1975, Macías Nguema had 150 alleged coup plotters executed to the sound of a band playing Mary Hopkin's tune Those Were the Days in a national stadium. Out of a population of 300,000, an estimated 80,000 were killed. Apart from allegedly committing genocide against the ethnic minority Bubi people, he ordered the deaths of thousands of suspected opponents, closed down churches and presided over the economy's collapse as skilled citizens and foreigners left the country.

Teodoro Obiang deposed Macías Nguema on 3 August 1979, in a bloody coup d'état. Macias Nguema was tried and executed soon after.

In 2011, the government announced it was planning a new capital in the country, named Oyala.