Last modified: 2004-12-22 by zeljko heimer
Keywords: equatorial guinea | governor general | rio muni | bioko island | fernando poo | santa isabel |
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Río Muni is and was the continental part of Equatorial Guinea (that includes also,
apart from Fernando Pó (now called Bioko), the island of Ano Bom, situated south of
Sao Tome e Principe), that was called Spanish Guinea before independence.
Fernando Poo was separate entity, first colony and later province.
Some time were ruled by a single governor under "spanish territories of the
Guinean Gulf" or simply Guinea española about 1920-1960.
Rio Muni was also separate entity first colony (at same level that Fernando
Poo, Corisco, Annobon and Elobey, three last ones merged by Rio Muni) and
later province.
No flag existed for any spanish colony, neither for the provinces (some
spanish provinces have flag but not Fernando Poo neither Rio Muni)
and thre are only known the maritime registration flags
(see Santa Isabel Maritime Province 1889-1970)
and the spanish governor general standard.
Jorge Candeias and Jaume Ollé 16 October 2001
This is the 1945-1977 flag for a Spanish Chargé d'Affaires, a Consul, a
provincial governor (Gobernador Civil) or a governor-general (Gobernador
General). As far as I know the only Spanish governor-general after 1904 was
that of Equatorial Guinea, and ceased to be so upon that country's
independence, 12th October 1968. Strangely enough, the 1977 flag law still
considers this flag that of a governor-general, however.
The current flag (since 1981) is very similar (with the 1981 coat of arms
replacing the 1945-1977 one), see comment at
Spanish Governor General
Whatever the coat-of-arms (1945-1977, 1977-1981 or current), the
swallowtail 'cut' is one third of the length of the flag deep and the arms'
vertical axis is placed at one third from the hoist. In the 1945-1977 and
1977-1981 flags the arms' height was one third of the hoist. In the 1981
one, it is 2/5ths (as in the national flag).
I am not fully knowledgeable on the subject, but I believe that since Spain
considered Equatorial Guinea a Spanish province, it would have had a
provincial governor too. This was certainly the case with the (Spanish now
Western) Sahara province, so it may be that in the Sahara the flag was used too.
Santiago Dotor 15 March 2001