Martyred Guinea

Armed conflict began on 23 September, when the rebels from Kogo and Rio Benito tried to march on Bata but  were intercepted at Comandanchina. Both groups were commanded by white junior officers and consisted of black soldiers. One side shouted “Stop in the name of the Republic!”; the other “Long live the Army! Arise Spain!”. Two Republican soldiers were killed in the encounter, but the loyalists won. They arrested the rebels and then expelled them from the colony to Gabon. From this point on, the landowners who were opposed to the Popular Front began to move to the island of Fernando Poo. Thanks to the activism of Alejandro Torres, José Sierra Companys, the cousin of the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, and Angel Miguel Pozanco, who would later write an account of the events, Martyred Guinea: narratives, notes, and commentaries of someone condemned to death, the cover of which is shown here, the Republicans took control of Bata.

The Fernando Poo, which was anchored in Bata Bay, was preparing to set sail for Santa Isabel, the capital of Fernando Poo, when there was confusion and deceit over who were the legitimate holders of power. Both sides claimed to be the government. The people in Bata tried to dissuade the captain from sailing to the island, as those in Santa Isabel intended to take control of the ship and occupy the territory on the mainland. In the end, the ship receibved orders from Madrid to return to Bata. There it anchored in the bay and was converted into a prison where nuns, priests and others suspected of conspiring were interned.

A few days later, the Ciudad de Mahon, which had arrived from the Canary Islands, appeared in the Bata Bay on October 14. It bombarded various buildings and the Fernando Poo, which sank with the prisoners on board. The sunken ship would remain in the harbour for many years, as a symbol – an untrue one - to the “victims of Communist barbarism had fallen for God and the Fatherland”.  After the attack, a company of Morrish troops commanded by Francisco Pérez Berrueco disembarked in Bata and took control of the town. As Berrueco became the deputy governor, the Republicans fled into the interior and took the route through Ebibeyín towards Gabon.

Juan Fontán became the colony’s new strongman and took a hard line with the people who had been arrested. For two years, the settlers donated 20 per cent of their earnings to send massive amounts of primary products and foodstuffs to support the rebel cause. In early November, the surviving members of the Popular Front, the civil servants who remained loyal to the Republic, and the crew of The Fernando Poo were deported to the Canary Islands where they were interned in the Viejo Lazareto de Gando concentration camp in Las Palmas, Grand Canary Island.

FSL