Commerce, Christianity and the Origins of the ‘Creoles’ of Fernando Po
During the early and middle years of the nineteenth century a Creole elite emerged on the island of Fernando Po. The origins of this lay in the fact that for the thirty years after 1827 the island was at the centre of European political and economic interests in the Gulf of Guinea. The short-lived British occupation of Fernando Po, 1827–34, established the town of Clarence and brought to the island a number of settlers, and in particular ‘liberated Africans’, freed from slave ships captured by the Royal Navy. The situation they faced in Clarence and the treatment they received, not least once the British government withdrew and a succession of British traders attempted to run the town, led to the emergence of a homogeneous society out of the various ethnic groups they comprised. This society was to be transformed by the development of a palm oil trade on the island, particularly during the 1840s. This led to the emergence of a group of middlemen between the Bubi producers of the interior and the European traders who collected oil from Clarence, and concurrently, to the stratification of Clarence society into a trading elite and a group of labourers and servants. This trading elite was attracted to the work of the Baptist Mission in Clarence after 1841, and in particular saw the value of the Mission in giving itself a distinct identity. Over time this elite and the Baptists drew apart, but this was not before the interrelation of social stratification with the work of the Mission had produced a class of Creoles whose descendants – the Fernandinos – still survive as a distinct group in Equatorial Guinea today.
A Drum's Trans-Atlantic Journey from Africa to the Americas and Back after the end of Slavery: Annobonese and Fernandino musical cultures.
Musical instruments are an intrinsic part of culture accompanying people as an essential factor in shaping the identity preserved through memory. In Equatorial Guinea there are some ethnic and social groups: Fang, Bubi, Ndowe, etc. It is in relation to the Annobonese and the Fernandinos musical culture, that the concept of “Return trip to Africa” becomes meaningful. This paper discusses this focusing on instruments such as cumbe, kunki, and dances such as cumbe or bonko, which constitute an African legacy that has returned and has become a part of Equatorial Guinea’s musical culture. The paper’s main point is that the identity given by the African elements has remained active until today. Keywords: Gumbe, cumbe, kunki, Fernandino Creoles, Annobonese, Equatorial Guinea, musical instruments, slavery.
Continents of Liberty: Emerson and Gerald Vizenor’s Chair of Tears
Ralph Waldo Emerson protested what came to be known as the Trail of Tears in a public letter to President Martin Van Buren in 1838. Th e Cherokee Nation, he argued, had been cheated by a “sham treaty” (Emerson, “Letter” 50), the will of the people ignored, and a false acquiescence to removal written into law. In making a passionate appeal to the highest “chair” of the land, Emerson underscored the great political and moral stakes involved: