The Expulsion of Igbo People from Equatorial Guinea: 1950-1979

Abstract

This study presents a historical exposition on the expulsion of the Igbo people from Equatorial Guinea between 1950 and 1979. The research begins in 1950 because by the mid-1950s, many labourers migrated from Nigeria to Fernando Po Island. Most of these Nigerian migrants were Igbo people. The study ends in 1979, the year that marked the end of the first native and tyrannic ruler, Francisco Macías Nguema. He maltreated many autochthonous groups and alien ethnic groups in Equatorial Guinea, the Igbo people included. The available literature on the history of Equatorial Guinea discloses the pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial governments, with an emphasis on the economic and socio-political history. Nonetheless, most literature has scant information about the main and minor ethnic groups in Equatorial Guinea, such as the Fang, Bubi, Ndowe, Bujeba, Benga, Kombe, Fernandino, and Creole. Still, little or nothing is specifically written about the Igbo of Equatorial Guinea. The study examines the rationale for the migration of Igbo to Fernando Po, Equatorial Guinea. This study examines Igbo activities and how Spanish colonial rulers mandated the Igbo to build the colonial economy. Also, the study focuses on the colonial legacies of brutality, extortion, and underdevelopment of both human and infrastructures that Macías inherited from his Spanish predecessors, and how these led to the expulsion of the Igbo from Equatorial Guinea. The study identifies the paradigm shifts in the policies of the first native president, Macías Nguema, whose leadership were synonymous with what he inherited from the Spaniard colonial administrator. The study examines the struggles between the Igbo and the host government; it understands the factors that led to the expulsion of the Igbo from Equatorial Guinea, cum outcome of the expulsion on the Igbo and Equatorial Guinea. This thesis relies more on archival records on the rationale for the migration of the Igbo to Equatorial Guinea, and the reasons for their expulsion from Equatorial Guinea cum the colonial relationships with the Igbo in this study.