Malabo

Malabo is the capital city of Equatorial Guinea. It is on the northern coast of Bioko Island. The number of people living there has grown quickly over the past ten years to about 100,000.

Malabo
Coordinates:
Country	Equatorial Guinea
Region	Bioko Norte
Settled	1827
Population  (2003)
• City	92,900
• Metro	211,276
Time zone	UTC+1 (WAT)

Notable buildings in Malabo include Malabo Cathedral and the Malabo Court Building. The city is served by Malabo International Airport, while ferries sail from its port to Douala and Bata.

History

The city was first founded by the British in 1827. They paid Spain for use of the island during colonial times. The British named the city Port Clarence. It was used as a naval station help stop the slave trade. Many newly freed slaves settled there before the creation of Sierra Leone as a colony for freed slaves. While many of them later moved to Sierra Leone.

When the island returned to Spanish control, Malabo was renamed Santa Isabel. It replaced the town of Bata as the capital of the country in 1969. The city was renamed Malabo in 1973 because President Francisco Macías Nguema wanted to replace European place names with "authentic" African ones.