I Fall in Love with Fernando Po

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In 1861 Sir Richard Francis Burton , a British explorer, linguist, diplomat, and poet, was appointed consul to the little known Spanish-ruled African island colony of Fernando Po . This island was originally settled by Bantu-speaking Africans from the mainland, who gave rise to the Bubi ethnic group. The first European to reach the island was a Portuguese navigator named Fernão do Pó, or Fernando Po. He explored Bioko and other islands in the Gulf of Guinea in the 1470s. Fernão do Pó named the island “Formosa Flora” , but the island was later named in his honor. The local Bubi people called the island Otcho. Today the island is called Bioko.

The Portuguese and Dutch both established bases on Bioko beginning in the 15th century, but the presence of Bubi chiefdoms on the island seems to have limited or slowed European colonization. In the late 18th century, Portugal renounced its claim to the island in favor of Spain. A few decades later, after the abolition of the slave trade, the British founded Port Clarence as an anti-slaving base on the island.

After the mid-19th century, Spain solidified its claim to the island, and began to use the island as a convict colony. Political prisoners from Spain, as well as rebels from the Spanish colonies of Cuba and the Philippines, were exiled to Bioko. Planters on the island were brough significant numbers of migrant laborers from Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cameroon, Rio Muni, and other parts of West Africa.

In the Spanish colonial era, Bioko was part of Spanish Guinea, which included the island of Bioko , Annobon island, Rio Muni on the mainland, and a number of small islets. The capital was Malabo, on Bioko. Spanish Guinea was only one of three Spanish colonies in Africa, the other two being Spanish Sahara, and Spanish Morocco. Spanish Guinea won its independence from Spain in 1968, and took the name Equatorial Guinea. The majority of Equatorial Guineans, more than 80%, belong to the Bantu-speaking Fang ethnic group who live mostly on the mainland.

The author of this text, Sir Richard Burton, was a well-known adventurer. He spoke 29 languages, and was responsible for the translations of a number of texts, including One Thousand and One Nights and Kama Sutra. On one trip, he visited the Muslim holy city of Mecca in disguise. Later on, he and John Hanning Speke became the first Europeans to see the Great Lakes of East Africa in their search for the source of the Nile.

Burton married Isabel Arundell, a woman from an aristocratic English Roman Catholic family, shortly before he was appointed consul to Bioko. Bioko was considered to be an undesirable post because of tropical diseases. Nevertheless, Burton wrote about his love for the island and its physical beauty. Burton undertook a number of expeditions to the West African mainland during his term as consul. On one of these expeditions he visited the kingdom of Dahomey. At the time that kingdom was one of the most powerful on the West African coast.

In Dahomey, Burton met King Gelele . Glele’s predecessor, King Ghezo, had fought a war against the Yoruba kingdom of Oyo. Glele’s successor, Behanzin was the last independent Dahomean king. He was defeated by France in 1894, and exiled. His kingdom became a French colony. French Dahomey won its independence from France in 1960, and was renamed the Republic of Benin in 1975.

Despite his extensive exploration of Africa and interactions with black Africans, Burton has been described by historians as an anti-black racist. Burton was involved in founding the Anthropological Society of London, a group which advocated scientific racism. In this excerpt, Burton displays a discriminatory attitude towards the Kru migrant workers from Liberia. On the other hand, Burton had a higher opinion of the indigenous black Bubi people of Bioko.