By: Mazi Odera Orazulike
In the 18th century, a group of Igbos arrived Fernando Po, (Bioko) in Equatorial Guinea from Arochukwu in present day Abia state of Nigeria.
They are today formally declared the third largest group in the country by the government after the Fang and Bubi tribes. The Igbos of Equatorial Guinea number about 35,000 in a population of 1.2 million people(a minority group)
They migrated from Arochukwu in present day Abia state Nigeria, and still speak the Igbo language which is also an official minority language. They are also marginal Christians. The most notable personality among them is William Napoleon Barleycorn, born in 1848, in Safita Isabel, Fernando Po.
The Igbos of Equatorial Guinea are both culturally and historically the same people with the Igbo people of Nigeria and are not less Igbo than the Igbos of Biafra(Nigeria). Some stories had it that during the Nigerian/Biafran war, that Bioko was a center for airlifts carrying relief materials into Biafra.
There is a call now to integrate them into Igbo World Congress(IWC) and Ohaneze Ndi Igbo as they are fully Igbos. Apart from Nigeria, Igbo is spoken in Trinidad, Equatorial Guinea, Belize, Cameroon, Tobago , Barbados, and Haiti.
Written by Mazi Odera Orazulike( Department of History and Culture, OPINIONS FROM AFRICA). Mazi Odera Orazulike is a philosopher, writer, historian and researcher in Igbo history and culture.
