Equatorial Guinea language used Spanish
A growing number of foreigners from neighboring Cameroon, Nigeria, and Gabon have immigrated to the country. According to the Encyclopedia of the Stateless Nations (2002) 7% of Bioko islanders were Igbo, an ethnic group from southeastern Nigeria. Equatorial Guinea received Asians and native Africans from other countries as workers on cocoa and coffee plantations. Other black Africans came from Liberia, Angola, and Mozambique. Most of the Asian population is Chinese, with small numbers of Indians.
Equatorial Guinea has also been a destination for fortune-seeking European immigrants from Britain, France and Germany. Israelis and Moroccans also live and work here. Oil extraction since the 1990s has contributed to a doubling of the population in Malabo. After independence, thousands of Equatorial Guineans went to Spain. Another 100,000 Equatorial Guineans went to Cameroon, Gabon, and Nigeria because of the dictatorship of Francisco Macías Nguema. Some Equatorial Guinean communities are also found in Latin America, the United States, Portugal, and France.Languages
Since its independence in 1968, the main official language of Equatorial Guinea has been Spanish (the local variant is Equatoguinean Spanish), which acts as a lingua franca among its different ethnic groups. In 1970, during Macías' rule, Spanish was replaced by Fang, the language of its majority ethnic group, to which Macías belonged. That decision was reverted in 1979 after Macías' fall. Spanish remained as its lone official language until 1998, when French was added as its second one, as it had previously joined the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), whose founding members are French-speaking nations, two of them (Cameroon and Gabon) surrounding its continental region. Portuguese was adopted as its third official language in 2010. Spanish has been an official language since 1844. It is still the language of education and administration. 67.6% of Equatorial Guineans can speak it, especially those living in the capital, Malabo. French was only made official in order to join the Francophonie and it is not locally spoken, except in some border towns.
Aboriginal languages are recognised as integral parts of the "national culture" (Constitutional Law No. 1/1998 21 January). Indigenous languages (some of them creoles) include Fang, Bube, Benga, Ndowe, Balengue, Bujeba, Bissio, Gumu, Igbo, Pichinglis, Fa d'Ambô and the nearly extinct Baseke. Most African ethnic groups speak Bantu languages.
language spoken official language linguistic usage dialect spoken vernacular employed