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The History of Equatorial Guinea is marked by centuries of colonial domination by the Portuguese, British and Spanish colonial empires, and by the local kingdoms. Pre-colonial history [ edit ]
Equatorial Guinea, [a] officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, [b] is a country on the west coast of Central Africa, with an area of 28,000 square kilometres (11,000 sq mi). Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea , its post-independence name refers to its location near both the Equator and in the African region of Guinea .
They have preserved their history largely through a musical oral tradition. [6] Many Fang people are fluent in Spanish, French, German and English, a tradition of second language they developed during the Spanish colonial rule in Equatorial Guinea, the French colonial rule in Gabon and the German-later-French colonial rule in Cameroon. [3]
Fang (/ ˈ f ɒ ŋ /) is a Central African language spoken by around one million people, most of them in Equatorial Guinea, and northern Gabon, where it is the dominant Bantu language; Fang is also spoken in southern Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, and small fractions of the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe.
Full colonization of the continental interior was not established until the end of the 19th century. The present nation of Equatorial Guinea became independent on October 12, 1968. 1000 Equatoguinean pesetas banknote from 1969. While the country has maintained its indigenous linguistic diversity, Spanish is the national and official language.
Spanish, French, and Portuguese [2] are the official languages of the country. Despite a veneer of Spanish culture and of Roman Catholic religion that is thicker in Bioko than on the mainland, Equatorial Guineans live largely according to ancient customs, which have undergone a revival since independence.
West African Pidgin English arose during the period of the transatlantic slave trade as a language of commerce between British and African slave traders. Portuguese merchants were the first Europeans to trade in West Africa beginning in the 15th century, and West African Pidgin English contains numerous words of Portuguese origin such as sabi ('to know'), a derivation of the Portuguese saber. [3]
The other languages traditionally spoken in Equatorial Guinea belong to the Bantu branch of the Niger–Congo family. In the literature, Pichi is known under the names Fernando Po Creole English, [4] Fernando Po Krio, [7] [8] Fernandino Creole English, [8] Pidgin (English), [2] Broken English, [9] and Pichinglis. [10]