For every country, the capital is a very important existence, which can be regarded as the "face" of a country.
Even if the location of the capital is not in the very center of the country, at least it is surrounded by well-developed transportation.
However, in Africa, there is a very strange country that has directly moved its capital to a small island overseas, and people have to consider how to travel even if they want to go.
What's going on here?
Strange little country: Equatorial Guinea
In Africa, there is a country called "Equatorial Guinea", which is not the same as the Guinea we are familiar with.
You must know that in the whole world, there are actually four countries named Guinea, of which Africa accounts for three, namely the Republic of Guinea, the Republic of Equatorial Guinea and the Republic of Guinea-Bissau.
And in Asia, there is also a country called the "Independent State of Papua New Guinea".
However, they should not have been called Guinea originally, and they should all have this very similar name because of the later colonial invasion.
Equatorial Guinea is a small country located in the west-central part of Africa, and it is also one of the smallest countries in Africa, because its national territory is only 28,000 square kilometers.
In fact, there is no comparison with this number, after all, the area of Hainan Island on the mainland is larger than here, and their population is not large, about 700,000 or so.
Just from the name of this country, we can also guess that their country must be very close to the equator and, like most African countries, has a tropical rainforest climate.
And this country, since independence, the economic situation is actually very bleak, per capita GDP is basically a few hundred yuan, which also makes them one of the poor countries in Africa.
But the most unexpected thing they did was to build their country's capital "Malabo" on the island of Bioko, 200 kilometers away from the mainland.
We can look at it from another angle, and their approach is like the United States setting its capital in "Hawaii".
If the United States really does this, it is estimated that it will attract a lot of criticism.
So what exactly does this small country think?
The capital of a small island
The distance between Equatorial Guinea and Bioko Island is about 200 kilometers, and their capital, Malabo, is also on this small island.
You must know that in fact, on the issue of a country's territorial waters, the United Nations has relevant provisions on the law of the sea, and a country's territorial waters extend 12 nautical miles from its national territory.
In this area, all belong to the territory of this country.
But if we look at the distance between Equatorial Guinea and Bioko Island, their capitals are no longer part of their territory.
That is, Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, is actually overseas, because it is not part of their "territory" at all.
If the people of Equatorial Guinea want to go to their capital, the process is actually very cumbersome, and the only means of transportation they can choose are airplanes and passenger and cargo ships.
However, their flights and ships are not actually operating normally every day, for example, during the epidemic, all flights were suspended, and this is no exception.
We have the impression that the capital should be high-rise and opulent, but Malabo is the opposite, and its economy is actually very backward.
Here, apart from the Bank Building, there is the Cathedral, which is basically free of what we call high-rise buildings.
Before 1968, Equatorial Guinea's capital was actually in their native Bata.
As for the relocation of the capital, in fact, there are many reasons behind this.
We can start with the geographical location of Equatorial Guinea, in fact, its overall location is not very advantageous.
From the map, Equatorial Guinea is actually surrounded by several countries, such as Cameroon, which is surrounded by all three directions except for one side of the sea.
It can be said that their development is actually completely hindered by these countries, and it is actually very troublesome to export or import any materials.
Although one side of them is near the sea, the area near the coast is actually without a harbor, and it is obviously very difficult to rely on the sea.
Either way, Equatorial Guinea's geographical location and transportation are very limited, which is probably part of the reason why they choose to go elsewhere.
In comparison, Bioko Island is actually very well located, deep in the Gulf of Guinea, and is considered the geographical center of Equatorial Guinea.
Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, is located in the northern part of the Gulf of Guinea, where the climate is relatively warm and humid, a little better than the climate and geography of Equatorial Guinea.
In addition to these climatic and geographical reasons, there are actually some historical disputes.
The reason behind it
In the 15th century, Portuguese navigators began to explore Africa, and the Gulf of Guinea was discovered at this time.
Although there were also indigenous people here at that time, because the development here was more backward than that of Portugal, in the eyes of navigators, the people of the Gulf of Guinea were actually "primitive people".
At this time, the Gulf of Guinea was actually colonized.
But the Portuguese people didn't stay here long before they were "kicked out" by the Spaniards.
In the 18th century, they managed to snatch the Gulf of Guinea from the Portuguese, and they also succeeded in taking control of Bioko Island, which was used as a transit point for slave transport.
But there was a problem: these small places simply could not satisfy their ambitions, and Spain had set its sights on the continental part of Equatorial Guinea.
It can be said that this is actually some "connection" between Equatorial Guinea and Bioko Island, and from the perspective of historical reasons, this is actually a connection.
But life was certainly not good for the colonies, and so were the people of Equatorial Guinea.
Seeing that those colonists were making a fortune on their own borders, while they could only be "enslaved" and "oppressed", under the backlog of various emotions, they successfully completed their independence in 1968.
For the people of this country, although Bioko Island is far away from them, it is the first place they discovered and developed, and they are naturally reluctant to give it up.
And they build their capitals overseas, in fact, it can also be a good way to prevent blockade by neighboring countries, which is part of the reason.
It turns out that Equatorial Guinea is also very correct in this choice, and in recent years, people have discovered very rich oil resources in the vicinity of Bioko Island.
For the people here, this is simply a pie in the sky, but this money is actually only the wealth of a few.
Information sources:
Economic and Commercial Office of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Republic of Equatorial Guinea "Equatorial Guinea intends to further boost the oil and gas economy"2023-08-14
China International Development Cooperation Agency, Equatorial Guinea Country Profile, January 2024