EQUATORIAL GUINEA, FLAG OF

national flag consisting of horizontal stripes of green, white, and red, with a blue triangle at the hoist and the national coat of arms in the centre. The width-to-length ratio of the flag is approximately 2 to 3. The coat of arms of Equatorial Guinea contains the silk-cotton tree, also known as the god tree, under which, it is said, the first treaty was signed between Spain and a local ruler. The arms, created when Equatorial Guinea became independent on October 12, 1968, also include the motto of the country in SpanishUnidad, paz, justicia (Unity, peace, justice)and six golden stars for the five principal islands and the coastal territory that constitute the nation. The sea that links the parts of the country is reflected in the blue triangle, while the stripes of green, white, and red stand, respectively, for the vegetation on which most people rely for their livelihood, peace, and the blood shed by martyrs in the liberation struggle. The flag hoisted at independence did not bear the coat of arms, which was added later. In 1978 a different coat of arms was substituted under the regime of Francisco Macas Nguema, but the original design was restored on August 21, 1979, after Nguema was overthrown. Whitney Smith History The island of Bioko (formerly Fernando Po) was sighted by Ferno do P, probably in 1472. At first it was called Formosa (Beautiful). Annobn was probably sighted by Ruy de Sequeira on a New Year's Day (hence the name, which means good year) between 1472 and 1475, most likely that of 1474. By the Treaty of Tordesillas (June 7, 1494), the Portuguese had exclusive rights in Africa, and it was not until 1778 that they agreed to cede to Spain the islands of Annobn and Fernando Po as well as rights on the mainland coast between the Ogoou and Niger rivers. These cessions were designed to give Spain its own source of slaves in Africa for transport to Spanish America, where, in exchange, the Spanish confirmed the rights of the Portuguese west of the 50 W meridian in what is now Brazil. The Spanish were soon decimated by yellow fever on Fernando Po, and they withdrew in 1781. No occupation was made on the mainland. British administration After the British abolition of the slave trade in 1807, bases were required by the Royal Navy for the effective suppression of the trade. Fernando Po was unoccupied and lay in a strategic situation from which the Niger mouths and the Slave Coast could be watched for slavers. In 1827 the Spanish leased bases for this purpose to the British at Port Clarence (later Santa Isabel, now Malabo), a fine deepwater harbour on the north coast, and in San Carlos Bay on the west coast. In the absence of the Spanish, the British also became responsible for administering the island. Thereafter, the British landed many freed slaves, in default of knowing their origin or of being able to repatriate them. Freed slaves also went to the island from Sierra Leone and Jamaica, and in the 20th century the descendants of these several groups continued to speak a form of English. Because of the existence of these freed slaves and the absence of any Spanish administration in the area, the United Kingdom made several unsuccessful offers to Spain for the purchase of Fernando Poe.g., from 1839 to 1841. In 1843 the Royal Navy concentrated its antislavery patrol at Freetown in Sierra Leone, and its buildings on Fernando Po were sold to a Baptist mission. The economy Agriculture and forestry Equatorial Guinea's economy has depended primarily upon three commoditiescocoa, coffee, and timber. Before independence, the Spanish subsidized cocoa and coffee exports to Spain. Cocoa, which is of high quality, was the mainstay of the economy of Bioko, which possesses the right soil and climate for its intensive cultivation. Most of Equatorial Guinea's cocoa is produced on the island. As with other commodities, production declined under the regime of Francisco Macas Nguema (196879) because Nigerian and local workers left the cocoa plantations and maintenance, output, and quality declined. Cocoa exports dropped to one-tenth of their former level, and exports of coffee almost ceased from island and mainland plantations, the small production of robusta coffee by Fang farmers in Ro Muni alone being marketed. The timber companies are entirely European; there were at one time 30 timber concessions in operation on the mainland. The industry requires a large investment. Bananas are grown on Bioko, where they are exported from the port of Luba. The output of palm oil from mainland plantations has been adversely affected by the unsettled state of the country. Industry There is little industry in the country. Some cocoa and coffee processing takes place locally on plantations and in African cooperatives. There is no mineral production. The land Relief, drainage, and soils Half of the continental enclave is covered with forests. A coastal plain about 12 miles wide abuts on 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 Benito River basin to the north from the southern basin of the Utamboni River. The Niefang-Mikomeseng range north of the Benito River is somewhat lower. All these ranges form segments of the Cristal Mountains in Gabon. The region is divided by the Benito River (known as the Woleu River in Gabon), which runs generally from east to west and is nonnavigable except for the first 12 miles inland. To the north the Campo River (called the Ntem in French-speaking Africa) marks part of the frontier with Cameroon. In the south, 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 Ki (Ky) River rather than the legal frontier, which runs along a line 11 20 east of the Greenwich meridian. Except for limited hydroelectric power generation and the use of waterpower at some lumbering sites, the rivers of the mainland enclave are not exploited. The coast consists of a long stretch of beach with low cliffs toward Kogo to the south. Equatorial Guinea has no natural harbour, and Mbini and Kogo are no more than rudimentary ports of call for the ships that infrequently visit. Bata, on the other hand, has been enlarged artificially to become one of the country's main ports. 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. Exploration in the waters off the mainland has revealed some reserves of petroleum and natural gas, and there are prospects for their development. Gold, manganese, iron ore, and uranium are thought to exist in commercially exploitable quantities inland. The main island, Bioko, is about 45 miles long and 22 miles wide. Its extinct volcanic cones, crater lakes, and rich lava soils form a contrast with the landscape of the mainland. In the north Mount Santa Isabel soars to a height of 9,878 feet (3,011 metres); this extinct volcano is the site of a television transmitter. 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. Despite its tortuous relief, Bioko can be productive agriculturally. Torrents are exploited for hydroelectric power; the Musola River provides electricity for much of Malabo. The coast is largely inhospitable, consisting for the most part of a cliff about 60 feet 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 the most isolated settlement on the island. Malabo has a relatively good harbour, built on the partially sunken rim of a volcano. Annobn is an isolated fragment of the republic, about 93 miles southwest of the island of So Tom in So Tom and Prncipe and about 400 miles southwest of Bioko. Like the latter, it is a volcanic island but is less high; it consists of a conglomeration of cones of which Mount Santa Mina (about 2,460 feet) is the highest. Not quite four miles long by two miles wide, it is a rugged island with only one settlement of note. The inhabitants are mostly fishermen who speak a Portuguese patois. 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 altitude 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 more than 94 inches (2,388 millimetres) a year. At Calatrava, farther south on the coast, it sometimes reaches 180 inches. Inland, however, rainfall diminishes; Mikomeseng, for example, receives only about 58 inches. The average annual temperature is about 79 F (26 C) and is fairly constant throughout the year. The temperature maxima are somewhat lower than in Bioko. The relative humidity, however, is higher than in Bioko. Bioko has a rather debilitating climate. The so-called dry season lasts from November to March, and the rest of the year is rainy. The average annual temperature of about 77 F (25 C) varies little throughout the year. Afternoon temperatures reach the high 80s F (low 30s C) and drop to only about 70 F (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 a year around San Antonio de Ureca. The people Ethnic composition The majority of the population is African, but its composition 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 the weaker tribes in their path, form about 80 or 90 percent of the population of the mainland 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 hold most of the levers of political control. Coastal tribes, such as the Kombe, Mabea, Lengi, Benga, and others, have been in contact with European traders much longer, and a limited amount of miscegenation has taken place, especially on the island of Corisco. Spanish ethnographers refer to these coastal tribes as playeros (literally, those who live on the beach). Both the Fang majority and the playero minority are Bantu. The original inhabitants of Bioko are the Bubi, descendants of Bantu migrants from the mainland. Contacts with Europeans decimated them, and only a few thousand remained early in the 20th century. They became the most pro-Spanish element of the African population, viewing the end of Spanish rule as a signal for the invasion of their island by the Fang. Certainly, numbers of mainlanders, most of them Fang, have flocked to the island since the mid-1960s, seeking to join the civil or military forces or to receive political patronage. In addition to these two groups, there are 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 when the Spanish acquired the island and after independence. The inhabitants of Annobn are descended from slaves imported by the Portuguese when the island was a dependency of So Tom; some of them now live on Bioko. By about 1970, these different strata together constituted a minority on the island, the majority being formed by the Nigerian contract labourers, who lived in compact colonies in Malabo or on the plantations. The repatriation by Nigeria, however, of at least 45,000 workers beginning in 1975, following reports of repressive conditions in Equatorial Guinea, led to extensive realignment of the demographic, social, and labour structures of the island and, indeed, of the country. Additional communities on the island are formed by crioulos (of mixed Portuguese and African origin) from the islands of So Tom and Prncipe; there are also some Cameroonians. Linguistic composition While each ethnic group speaks its own language, other linguistic influences are at work. The first is Spanish, the official language of the republic, which is taught in schools and used by the press and is the only means of communication common to both Bioko and the mainland. The second influence is pidgin English, which is used extensively in petty commerce and forms the lingua franca on Bioko. Third, as a result of closer economic association with Francophone countries begun in 1983, French became a compulsory subject in schools in 1988. A Portuguese patois is also spoken in both Bioko and Annobn.