Guinea is a country in West Africa renowned for its abundant natural riches, unique fauna, and environments. Its towns are full of historical treasures that have been painstakingly conserved over time.
Despite being unknown to many tourists, Guinea has many attractions that may enthrall you. Here are a few Guinea Facts about this nation 🌍!
Fascinating Guinea Facts To Discover The Unveiling the Wonders
The mainland and insular regions of equatorial Guinea are composite
Equatorial Guinea has two distinct zones: island and continental regions 🏝️. Insular Equatorial Guinea is made up of five islands that are situated in the easternmost portion of the Gulf of Guinea. Continental Equatorial Guinea is also known as Ro Muni.
Bioko (formerly Fernando Pó), Corisco, Great Elobey (Elobey Grande), Small Elobey (Elobey Chico), and Annobón (Pagalu) are the islands of Equatorial Guinea. The isolated region of the nation south of the Equator is the island of Annobón 🌍.
Equatorial Guinea is one of the smaller African nations.
Equatorial Guinea is the 141st-largest country in the world, with a total size of 28,050 km2 (10,830 sq mi). It is slightly larger than the US state of Massachusetts or smaller than Belgium.
Equatorial Guinea’s mainland borders Gabon (345 km/214 mi) to the south and east and Cameroon (183 km/114 mi) to the north 🌍.
The coastline of central Guinea is a total of 296 km (184 mi)
Some of the most stunning and desolate lengths of sand may be found on the African continent throughout a large portion of Equatorial Guinea’s 296 km (184 mi) long coastline 🏖️.
Pico Basilé is the highest mountain in central Guinea
Pico Basilé, situated on Bioko’s island and reaching a height of 3,011 m (9,879 ft), is the highest mountain in Equatorial Guinea ⛰️.
The most recent eruption of this active stratovolcano took place in 1923. This peak is well-known throughout the country. Tourists are the most extraordinary attention seekers.
The Guinea region of West Africa is called Equatorial Guinea.
The Guinea area of West Africa, located along the Gulf of Guinea and extends north to the Sahel 🌍, is whence Equatorial Guinea gets its name.
Despite the name, no region of Equatorial Guinea indeed sits on the Equator. The term “equatorial” describes the location of the nation, which is just north of the Equator.
Europeans from Portugal were the first to set foot in Equal Guinea.
The Portuguese were the first known Europeans to set foot in Equatorial Guinea, which is one of the country’s lesser-known facts. The Portuguese sailor Ferno do Pó is credited with being the first European to find the island of Bioko in 1471 while looking for a route to India ⚓.
The islands of Bioko, Annobón, and Corisco were turned into “factories” or staging grounds for the slave trade by the Portuguese.
Equatorial Guinea was initially known as Spanish Guinea and was a former Spanish colony.
Bioko, Annobón, and a portion of Equatorial Guinea’s mainland were transferred to Spain in the late 18th century for areas of Brazil. This was done to provide Spain with its source of enslaved people in Africa for transportation to Spanish America.
Spanish settlers in Equatorial Guinea were first wary of making investments because they feared becoming sick from illnesses like yellow fever 😷.
Equatorial Guinea has a diverse ethnic population.
The Fang, Equatorial Guinea’s biggest ethnic group, are native to the continent and comprise around four in every five people. Most people in Bioko are Bubi, the second-largest ethnic group in the nation 👥.
The indigenous Bantu-speaking people of Africa who left the continent of Central Africa in the 13th century left behind the Bubi, who are their ancestors. There are four coastal tribes in Equatorial Guinea known as “Playeros”: Combes, Bujebas, Balengues, and Bengal 🌴.
Equatorial Guinea is the only African country where Spanish is an official language.
Not surprisingly, given that Spain ruled Equatorial Guinea for more than 150 years. It is mainly used as a second language and is the common language among the nation’s many ethnic groupings 🗣️.
Spanish is utilized in governmental services, higher education 📚, the media, publishing, and the judiciary. Additionally, a creole with English as its foundation (Pichinglis) is widely used in casual situations and trade and serves as the common language of Bioko.
The official languages of Equatorial Guinea also include Portuguese, French, and Spanish.
The fact that French and Portuguese are official languages in Equatorial Guinea is one of the most unexpected things about the nation.
Equatorial Guinea made French its official language in 1998. However, it is seldom ever spoken in daily life. To become a member of the Francophonie (OIF), French became an official language.
Equatorial Guinea is the third-largest oil exporter from sub-Saharan Africa.
Equatorial Guinea has experienced a surge in oil output ⛽ since its initial discovery in the mid-1990s, making it the third-largest oil exporter in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria and Angola.
Oil dominates all other economic activity in Equatorial Guinea, making up around 80% of GDP. However, Equatorial Guinea’s reserves will run out by 2035 if no additional oil deposits are discovered, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) 💰.
Equatorial Guinea underwent one of the most brutal regimes that Africa has ever seen from 1968 to 1979.
Francisco Macias Nguema of Equatorial Guinea deserves to be at the top of the list of tyrants and terrible dictators that have plagued post-colonial Africa. Macias, whose savagery in the post-Hitler period has only been rivaled by Pol Pot of Cambodia 😔, ruled Equatorial Guinea from 1968 to 1979 💔.
Macias’ autocratic reign grew more entrenched, and his conduct became more unpredictable. To prevent escape, he mined highways and set fire to fishing boats 🔥.
Wealth is highly concentrated in Equatorial Guinea, even though Africa’s GDP per capita is the highest.
Equatorial Guinea’s economy has changed from being an African backwater to one of the fastest-growing in the world 💰 due to the discovery of oil and gas in the middle of the 1990s.
Equatorial Guinea has a population of just under 1.5 million and one of Africa’s highest per capita GDPs. However, sadly, the people of Equatorial Guinea have not yet benefited much from their country’s recent affluence 😔.
Malabo is Equatorial Guinea’s capital.
Malabo, a city on the island of Bioko, is renowned for its broad boulevards, cutting-edge structures, and intriguing colonial architecture.
However, it is soon anticipated that the capital of Equatorial Guinea will relocate to the brand-new settlement of Ciudad de la Paz (formerly Oyala) on the continent.
Equatorial Guinea is home to the world’s largest frog.
The fact that Equatorial Guinea is home to the largest frog in the world is one of its peculiar characteristics 🐸. The appropriately called Goliath Frog may reach a maximum length of 34 cm (13 in). It is renowned for exploiting giant boulders to construct its ponds and may weigh up to 3.3 kg (7.3 lbs).
Since 1979, a single man has ruled Equatorial Guinea. 🇬🇶
Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema overthrew his uncle in a brutal revolution in 1979.
Obiang has maintained his position of authority for more than 40 years, making him the longest-serving president in Africa and the whole globe, despite more than a dozen efforts to remove him from office 😲.
Obiang immediately shattered any hopes that anybody may have had that he would introduce freedom and democracy to Equatorial Guinea after taking office in 1979.
One of the least free nations in the world is Equatorial Guinea.
The track record of Equatorial Guinea concerning the political rights and civil freedoms of its citizens is one of the country’s alarming realities 😔. Although the country’s legislation protects the right to free speech, assembly, and organization, these rights must be upheld.
The military, police, courts, and media are virtually all under the authority of Equatorial Guinea’s governing party. There are some topics that local and foreign broadcasters are not allowed to discuss 🤐 because they are seen as detrimental to the nation’s image or those close to the president.
The Guinée Region of West Africa inspired the name Guinea.
The Guinea area of West Africa, located along the Gulf of Guinea, is whence Guinea-Bissau gets its name. However, the origin of the term “Guinea” remains unknown. Some believe it was formerly a reference to Djenné, a trading center in Mali, while others believe it distorted an Amazigh (Berber) phrase meaning “land of the blacks.”
Portuguese mariners first used the name “Guiné” to refer to Senegal in the 15th century. By the 18th century, most of West Africa was referred to as “Guinea” by Europeans.
Guinea-Bissau was once known as “Portuguese Guinea” and was a former Portuguese colony.
Portuguese Guinea (then known as Guinea-Bissau), which had previously been governed jointly with the country of Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), became an independent colony in 1879.
Portuguese Guinea was, for the most part, a forgotten backwater whose sole economic contribution was to meet Portugal’s demand for vegetable oil 🌿.
Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) were one political nation earlier.
Portuguese colonies of Portuguese Guinea (Guinea-Bissau) and Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) had their status changed to overseas provinces during the African independence movement in the early 1950s.
Not satisfied with this development, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde—PAIGC) and Guinea-Bissau together pushed for independence from Portugal. The party sought independence through nonviolent forms of protest.
Guinea-Bissau has had a reputation for being a “narco-state” since the early 2000s.
One of the less well-known facts about Guinea-Bissau is that the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the UN have referred to it as a “narco-state” ⚠️ since it serves as a conduit for the passage of cocaine from Latin America to Europe.
In a country whose location in the middle of Central America and Europe, combined with its political unrest, makes it the ideal transit point for smuggling cocaine into Europe, Latin American drug cartels and other African organized crime groups have been infiltrating all facets of civil society since the early 2000s.
There are more than 25 ethnic groups in Guinea-Bissau.
Guinea-Bissau is very varied for a tiny country, with more than 25 different ethnic groups making up its population. The two main ethnic groupings in the nation are the Balanta (23%) in the east and south and the Fulani (28%) in the coastal and central areas.
The Mandinga, Papel, Manjaco, Biafada, Mancanha, Bijago, Nalu, Mansoanca, and Balanta Mane are lesser-known ethnic groups of Guinea-Bissau.
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