When the British were trying to put a stop to the African slave trade, they founded Malabo as a base for the ships of their Navy. Malabo is now the capital of the West African country of Equatorial Guinea. The city is located on Bioko, an island in the Bight of Benin, which is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean.
Malabo is not a large city. However, it has government buildings, a gothic cathedral, Spanish and French cultural centers, and a national university.
Malabo is the country's commercial and financial center. Nearby is the country's main harbor, from which cocoa, timber, and coffee are shipped. Other important crops are bananas and sweet potatoes. The Central Bank of Equatorial Guinea was established in the city in 1969. Petroleum was discovered in Equatorial Guinea in the 1980s, adding to the capital's wealth.
Malabo was founded in 1827 by the British, who gave it the name of Clarencetown. The British Navy, on a mission to stop the slave trade across the Atlantic Ocean, needed the town's fine harbor as a base for its ships. Freed slaves settled in the town under British rule.
In the 1840s the Spanish claimed the island and renamed the city Santa Isabel. The Spanish also seized other islands nearby as well as a small region on the African coast. Together, these lands became known as Spanish Guinea.
Spanish Guinea won its independence from Spain in 1968, and Santa Isabel became the capital of the new Republic of Equatorial Guinea. After independence, the name of the city was changed to Malabo. In 1976, President Francisco Macías Nguema moved government operations to the mainland. The city lost about two thirds of its population in the hard times that followed. Macías Nguema's actions were later reversed. Population (1995 estimate), 47,500.
