ECONOMIC POTENTIAL

-Fishing

-Great variety of tropical culture

The Island of Annobon looks like a hankerchief, 6Km long and 2Km wide. It is a big basaltic stone emerging from the ocean. It is dominated by 4 summits with abrupt slopes, among which are the “Pico de Mazefin” (831) and the “Pico de Foga” (600m). This Island owed its name to Portuguese navigators Joao de santarem and Pedro de Escobar who discovered it on January 1^st 1471 or 1472.

As they were very happy to approach a land so far from African coasts (300km from Gabon), they heartily wished one another a happy new year in Portuguese “anno bonni” and decided to thus call the new land which became with time “annobon”.

Throughout centuries, the island has been scantly populated by migrants from Angola or other Island of the gulf of guinea like Sao Tome et Principe as well as Bubi of the Bioko Island.

The strong attachmen of “annobonese” to their island is undoubtedly due to their Isolation.

         Although this island does not possess enormous resources, many European powers have attempted to take hold of it. For instance, Spain and Holland. However, each time they tried to settle on the island they were prevented manu militari by the local populations. The Spanish Count of Arjepelos who came to claim ownership over the island on behalf of Spain allegedly was killed.

Since evangelisation and colonization attempts failed repeatedly, the Island remained more or less abandoned. For this reason, Annobonese have had many local rulers in their history, among whom King Tom who ruled at the beginning of the 20^th Century,. He was a brilliant figure who was painted colorfully by the navigators who approached the coast of annobon as an “elderly man very inclined to the bottle”.

From the village of Pale, the main agglomeration in the north of the island, many excursions can be organized. The most important of these will be the Monte Santiago excursion, an old volcano with a crater lake: the ‘Lago a Pot”.

The island of Annobon is however difficult to accede: it is far from Rio Muni and the Bioko island (600 Km).there is no airport on this basaltic piton and only goods cargo move in and out.