Equatorial Guinea

Malabo — the capital of Equatorial Guinea (the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa, a nation of 28,000km² consisting of Bioko Island and the mainland Rio Muni, population 1.5 million, independent since 1968 — the third-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, with a per-capita GDP of US$5,700 despite 70%+ of the population living in poverty due to extreme wealth concentration) with the Cathedral of Santa Isabel, the Malabo market and the colonial Spanish architecture.

Equatorial Guinea’s oil discovery (1995 — massive offshore oil deposits were found in the Gulf of Guinea, transforming Equatorial Guinea from one of the poorest countries in Africa to one of the highest GDP per capita nations on the continent within 10 years) produced one of the most extreme examples of the “resource curse” in African history: the country’s oil revenue is among the highest per-capita in Africa, yet HDI rankings, infant mortality and access to education place it among the worst performers on the continent.

Bioko Island (one of the most biodiverse islands in Africa — an ancient volcanic island in the Gulf of Guinea that was briefly connected to the African mainland during the last Ice Age, allowing a unique mix of continental and island species to develop in isolation — with 5 species of endemic primate: the drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus — listed as endangered, the largest baboon-like monkey in Africa), the Bioko black colobus, the Preuss’s monkey, the Bioko endemic red colobus subspecies and the Pennant’s colobus).

The Bioko drill (Mandrillus leucophaeus — related to the mandrill, the most distinctive primate in the Gulf of Guinea, the males with blue and red facial colouring — is listed as Endangered by the IUCN with a population of fewer than 3,000 individuals, heavily hunted for bushmeat in both Equatorial Guinea and neighbouring Cameroon). Bioko Island contains the most important remaining drill habitat in the Gulf of Guinea and the primary focus of the Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program.

Monte Alen National Park (260,000 hectares of intact lowland rainforest in Rio Muni — the mainland of Equatorial Guinea — one of the most intact lowland rainforests in Central Africa, with the highest density of western lowland gorillas accessible on the African mainland, forest elephants, chimpanzees, sitatunga, bongo and the bird diversity of undisturbed Guinea Congo rainforest — requiring a domestic flight or 4-hour drive from Malabo).

Monte Alen National Park contains one of the highest densities of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla — listed as Critically Endangered, with approximately 100,000 individuals remaining in the wild across Central Africa — in the lowland rainforest of Equatorial Guinea, the population is estimated at 3,000–5,000 individuals, protected by the relative inaccessibility of Monte Alen and the absence of large-scale logging compared to neighbouring Cameroon and Gabon.

Bata (the largest city in Equatorial Guinea — the commercial capital of the mainland, with the Paseo Maritimo waterfront boulevard, the largest market in the country, and the gateway to Monte Alen National Park and the Nsork National Park in the southeast — with a livelier street food scene and a more authentic Central African urban atmosphere than oil-dominated Malabo) and the Bata mangrove system.

Equatorial Guinea’s mainland (Rio Muni — bordered by Cameroon to the north and Gabon to the south and east, covering 26,000km² of some of the most biologically productive lowland forest in Africa) is largely unpopulated and unlogged by Central African standards, with road infrastructure so limited that large forest areas remain effectively inaccessible. This inaccessibility has preserved forest integrity but also limited conservation monitoring.

Ureka (the southern tip of Bioko Island — accessible by 4-hour boat from Malabo or 6-hour 4WD journey on rough roads — with the most striking primate encounters in West Africa: the beaches below the southern forest are used as social gathering points by drill monkeys, red colobus and Preuss’s monkeys at dusk, the most accessible wild drill encounter in the world) and the sea turtle nesting beaches of the southern coast.

The Bioko Biodiversity Protection Program (BBPP — a Drexel University research programme operating on Bioko since 1999, monitoring the island’s primate populations and working with Equatoguinean communities to reduce bushmeat hunting — has documented significant declines in all five Bioko endemic primates due to uncontrolled hunting. The southern beaches of Bioko represent the last accessible habitat for drill encounters by outside researchers.

Annobon Island (a remote volcanic island 700km southwest of the main territory, in the middle of the Gulf of Guinea — the most isolated inhabited island in Equatorial Guinea, accessible only by irregular flight, with a small population of approximately 5,000 speaking Fa d’Ambô (a Portuguese creole language), the finest coral reef in Equatorial Guinea, humpback whale breeding grounds and the least developed island in the Gulf of Guinea) — accessible by charter or occasional scheduled flight.

Annobon is the most linguistically isolated island in Africa — the population speaks Fa d’Ambô, a Portuguese-based creole language descended from the speech of enslaved Africans brought to the island by Portuguese traders in the 15th century, now spoken by approximately 5,000 people and the only Portuguese creole on an island that has been Spanish territory since 1778. The language has no connection to Spanish and is mutually unintelligible with any other language in Africa.

A final exploration of Malabo: Pico Basilé (3,011m — the highest peak in Equatorial Guinea and one of the highest in the Gulf of Guinea, an active volcanic cone looming above Malabo, accessible by a guided hike from the lower slopes with cloud forest, black-and-white colobus monkeys and dramatic views of the Gulf of Guinea) and the Malabo National Park (the protected forest directly above the capital with forest walks and primate encounters) before flying from Malabo (SSG).

Pico Basilé (3,011m — the active stratovolcano forming the spine of Bioko Island, last erupting in 1923 — dominates the landscape of Malabo and is visible from the entire island on clear days. The volcanic soil of the lower slopes produces some of the most fertile farmland in West Africa; the upper slopes are protected by the Bioko National Park and contain the island’s most intact cloud forest with endemic plant species found nowhere else in Africa.