The Bubis on Fernando Po

The history and culture of an endangered African tribe

By R.P. Antonio Aymemí

Father Antonio Aymemí lived on West Africa's Fernando Po island, now called Bioko Island, working with the indigenous Bubi tribe as a Catholic missionary from 1894 until his death in 1941. The Bubis had migrated to Bioko from the West African mainland some 3,000 to 5,000 years before Portuguese explorer Fernando Po discovered the island in 1471. On Bioko, they formed their own society, distinct and unique among Bantu tribes.

The Bubis on Fernando Po (Los Bubis en Fernando Poo) was published in Spanish in 1942 and represents a series of articles Father Aymemí wrote for the colonial magazine "Spanish Guinea." It is still considered one of the most accurate accounts of ancient Bubi traditions and history. Father Aymemí was a member of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and this book was published through his order and the Spanish colonial government on Fernando Po.

Rev. Father Antonio Aymemi at his Basile school. (Circa 1930).

Father Aymemí died just months after turning his manuscript over for publication. Although he was a Catholic priest, and represented the Spanish colonial mindset, his respect and love for the Bubi are obvious in his book. In the preface, his fellow, admiring clergymen note that he can now watch over "his beloved Bubis" from heaven.

A summary of highlights from this book is available on Arcadia University's Bioko Primate Protection Program's website http://www.bioko.org/bubi/. The summary is especially useful to the casual reader.

Here we present the book in its entirety. There are few copies of Father Aymemi's book available, and those are solely in Spanish. This translated version is made available in hopes of bringing information about the Bubi to a larger audience.

The Bubis still live on Bioko today, oppressed as a minority tribe under the dictator-president of the larger Fang tribe. Their numbers were seriously depleted under previous dictator Francisco Macias Nguema's systematic slaughter, which began shortly after the country's independence from Spain in 1968. Tens of thousands of Bubi, an estimated two-thirds of their population, were tortured, executed, beaten to death in labor camps, or managed to escape the island. Macias Nguema was executed during a 1979 coup by his nephew, current President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

Many Bubi today who fled Macias Nguema's murderous regime live in exile in Spain. Returning home to Bioko to the abject poverty and unstable politics still wrought by President Obiang's corrupt regime is an unattractive option. Those Bubis still living on Bioko walk cautiously through the political landmines.

Second-generation exile Bubis are finding their way from Spain to the United States. Without speaking Spanish, finding out Bubi cultural history is extremely difficult.