Equatorial Guinea

The struggle

Spanish Guinea combined the island of Fernando Pó, worked by cocoa plantations, with Río Muni on the mainland. Nationalist parties were banned and organised from exile in Cameroon and Gabon through the 1950s and 60s until UN pressure forced Madrid to act. Independence came on 12 October 1968.

Key people

• Acacio Mañé

  died 1958

  Nationalist leader murdered by colonial authorities in 1958

• Bonifacio Ondó Edu

  1922–1969

  Led the MUNGE movement for autonomy

• Atanasio Ndongo

  1926–1969

  Exile leader of the independence movement