Fernandino people
The Fernandino people are creoles, multi-ethnic or multi-racial populations who developed in Equatorial Guinea (Spanish Guinea). Their name is derived from the island of Fernando Pó, where many worked. This island was named for the Portuguese explorer Fernão do Pó, credited with discovering the region.
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Bioko Island, São Tomé and Príncipe | |
| Languages | |
| Fernando Poo Creole English (Pichinglis), Krio, Bube, Igbo, Equatoguinean Spanish, French, Portuguese | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Bubi, Sierra Leone Creoles, Emancipados, Saros, Americo-Liberian, African Americans, Atlantic Creoles |
Each population had a distinct ethnic, social, cultural and linguistic history. Members of these communities provided most of the labor that built and expanded the cocoa farming industry on Fernando Pó during the 1880s and 1890s. The Fernandino of Fernando Po were closely related to each other. Because of the history of labor in this area, where workers were recruited, effectively impressed, from Freetown, Cape Coast, and Lagos, the Fernandino also had family ties to those areas. Eventually these ethnically distinct groups intermarried and integrated. In 21st-century Bioko, their differences are considered marginal.