Equatorial Guinea: Fill & Download for Free

I’ll nominate Equatorial Guinea for its sheer geographical oddness.The country’s territory consists of:A mainland region on the African continent, known as Río Muni. This region is quite small, about 26,000 km²; only 3/48 countries on the African mainland are smaller than Río Muni.Bioko Island, a considerable distance to the northwest of the mainland, much closer to Cameroon than to its own mainland. This island comprises about 8% of the country’s territory, including the national capital, Malabo, near its northern point.A few smaller islands, most fascinatingly Annobón which lies hundreds of kilometers to the southwest, and again considerably closer to the mainland of another country, Gabon.Oh, and did I mention that in between Annobón and the rest of the country, we find another country, the entirely-island-based São Tomé and Príncipe?Or that the equator does not actually pass through the territory of the country, despite its name? (Thanks Chris Spencer for the fix!) Bioko Island and Río Muni are north of the equator (most of the mainland’s southern border lies at exactly 1°N) and Annabón is at 1.45° south of the equator.Then when we look at the population density, we find that the population density of Equatorial Guinea is highest in and around the capital city on Bioko Island (about 25% of the country’s population lives in the capital) and on the tiny island of Annobón.The eastern/interior and western/coastal parts of the Río Muni mainland do actually contain a slight majority of the country’s population, but then the central part of the mainland is extremely low in population density.Source: population density by administrative divisionFascinating. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Finally, I should mention that Equatorial Guinea was formerly Spanish Guinea. Its odd geography is largely a result of Spain’s attempts to cobble together a colonial empire in the Scramble for Africa.Whereas France, Britain, Portugal, Belgium, and even Germany and Italy, conquered and held large swaths of territory, Río Muni, Annobón, and Bioko were the only territories that Spain managed to acquire for a substantial period of time in Sub-Saharan Africa. While Spanish is the main administrative language of Equatorial Guinea as a whole, the people of Annobón speak a Portuguese-based creole, reflecting the fact that most of the population is descended from natives of Portugal and Angola (much like the neighboring São Tomé and Príncipe).

You'd be in the Gulf of Guinea, south of the coast Ghana, west of Equatorial Guinea. It's where the Prime Meridian meets the Equator.If you go due north along the Prime Meridian, for approximately 5,937 km, you'll find the Humber Estuary. If you turn left where the Prime Meridian crosses the coast (0°) go about 3.7km.At that point give me a call, because you'll be within spitting distance of my house, I'll put the kettle on.I'd lived here for a few months before I realised I was so close to the Prime Meridian. I was impressed because John Harrison, the man who solved the question of longitude in 1737, is my hero.Edit: Thanks to Carl Ejnar Nielsen for pointing out my massive measuring error, now corrected. Google Maps is not always correct.

Let's start from the beginning.Equatorial Guinea was a resourceful territroy that had suffered always from labour shortages.The history of the place is complicated, there used to be a black creole elite called Fernandinos because they were the inhabitants of the largest island in the colony: the island of Fernando Pó. They later had to share the place with the Spaniards that arrived. The natives refused to work for them though, they managed to do so under the protection of Spanish Catholic orders in the colony which opposed the creoles.Some of the most noticeable legacy of Spain is precisely the religious architecture.Basílica de La Inmaculada Concepción (2nd largest Christian temple in Africa)Catedral de Santa IsabelCatedral de Santiago ApóstolThe colony changed side during the Civil War, it initially supported the republic strongly, then attempted to join the rebels but the republic managed to keep it under control until Franco’s Guardia Colonial reached the island.During the late 50s Spain changed the status from colony to province and started to decolonise the territory. All throughout the 60s the region had a acquired a substantial amount of practical autonomy, to the point it was the only place in Spain where there were elections. In theory the local government was subdued to Franco's control from Spain, but the land did have more than one party while the mainland did not.Representatives from Equatorial Guinea in the Cortes (Spanish congress) in Madrid, in which the only party apart from them was Franco's:During all this time Equatorial Guinea became one of the richest parts of Africa. Again it was resourceful and when the entrance of immigrants from other neighbouring African colonies was allowed the cocoa and coffee production expanded considerably. There was a large literacy rate by African standards too (around 50%). The wealth as in all of Africa was very unequally distributed though, so despite the “wealthier” status most of the people lived under pretty bad conditions anyway.During the 60s when this autonomy was allowed, appeared movements for independence in Equatorial Guinea. The movements were pretty weak, in fact they were very weak compared to the neighbouring territories. There were Spaniards exiled because of Franco which actively supported these independence movements but again, it didn't really take root in the population of EG.MONALIGE independence movement's delegation at the UNBut at the end of the 60s the United Nations took direct involvement in the issue trying to make Spain follow the steps of France in decolonising the region. With the intervention of the UN support increased to some degree for independence. In the end Spain probably saw Equatorial Guinea as a small territory not worth any serious conflict with the UN, specially at the end of Franco's dicatorship when the country was trying to re-connect to the extent that it was possible with the west.Cámara de los Representantes del Pueblo (Chamber of the People's Representatives)The flag of the Republic of Equatorial GunieaAn independent constitution was drafted and passed with 60% of popular support. Shortly after that, the dictator Macías Nguema took over the country and after him his nephew brought him down just to become a dicator himself.Macías NguemaHis nephew Teodoro Obiang in MadridAnd he is still in power to this day. Equatorial Guinea turned out to have big oil reserves which stopped the economic decline and pushed it again as one of the wealthiest parts of Africa (of course unevenly distributed).Equatorial Guinea's main official and spoken language is Spanish, being included in all Hispanic linguistic and cultural affairs. Later the government recognised French and Portuguese as cooficial languages, for obvious reasons that the neighbours of the country speak French and Portuguese.A warning in Spanish in Equatorial Guinea: