Fernandino people
Regions with significant populations | |
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Americo-Liberian, African Americans, Atlantic Creoles |
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.
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., their differences are considered marginal.
Native Fernandinos
The indigenous group of Fernandinos or Los Fernandinos, were mixed-race descendants of the indigenous population of
Similarly, the Portuguese-Indigenous descended mulatto population of São Tomé and Príncipe, an island also discovered by explorer Fernão do Pó, were also referred to as Fernandinos, at one point.
Language
Native Fernandinos spoke
Religion
Most
Krio Fernandinos
The other Fernandinos of
In separate actions, supported by the American Colonization Society, groups of free African Americans emigrated to Liberia, established as a US colony in West Africa, in the antebellum years. Their numbers were also added to by Africans liberated from the slave trade along the west coast of Africa.
Workers from both Sierra Leone and especially Liberia were transported as workers to
The Krios arrived from Sierra Leone on the island of Fernando Po in 1827, a year after Great Britain leased the island for 50 years. The Krios joined an influx of several hundred freed Creole African-descended immigrants from Cape Coast and other groups from British colonies in Africa. The Krios began populating the harbor known as Clarence Cove. The first inhabitants purchased dwellings for $3,000 to $5,000, along with a handful of large plantation owners who had engaged in the cocoa and yam farming industry. This was chiefly controlled by English and Spanish factory owners. A nineteenth-century British historian characterized Krios as noted for their scholastic achievement and business acumen.[3]
Marriage
The group is closely related to other West African Creole communities in Freetown, Cape Coast and Lagos. Endogamy was a common marriage practice, and families aligned themselves in order to maintain, and increase, property ownership as well as social and business alliances outside of the island. Because of this, prior to the 20th century, marriages with non-Creoles, known as bush marriages, were not recognized by the church or in estate claims. However, they were recognized socially.
Culture
Krio Fernandinos were heavily Anglophone and Protestant as well as a cultural arm of
Krio Fernandinos were, initially, unimpressed and indifferent to Spanish rule. However, by the late-1800s, as Spanish cultural and religious influence grew on the island, Krio Fernandinos found that exclusively marrying into their traditional identity became less practical for political and economic survival.[4]
Language
Throughout the generations, the Fernandinos maintained their creole language,
Religion
The majority of Krio Fernandinos are
.Notable Krio Fernandino families
See also
- Afro-Hispanic people
- Afro-Spaniards
- Atlantic Creole
- Aku people (Gambian Creoles)
- Black African
- Gold Coast Euro-Africans
- Freetown
- Bioko Island.
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Saro people (Nigerian Creoles)
- Sierra Leone Creole people
- Spanish Guinea
- Spanish Equatoguineans
References
- doi:10.1017/S0021853700026384, Published online by Cambridge University Press22 January 2009.
- ISBN 978-0-299-14510-1; p.152
- ^ Glimpses of Africa, West and Southwest coast. By Charles Spencer Smith; A.M.E. Sunday School Union, 1895; p. 164
- ISBN 978-0-299-14510-1. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
- ^ Glimpses of Africa, West and Southwest coastBy Charles Spencer Smith; A.M.E. Sunday School Union, 1895
External links
- Fernandinos
- Yakpo, Kofi (2009) "A Grammar of Pichi", 692 pp. This link opens a pdf of the most comprehensive linguistic description of Pichinglis (Pichi/Fernando Po Creole English) so far by the linguist Kofi Yakpo (University of Nijmegen)