Malabo

Capital, port, and largest settlement of Equatorial Guinea, on the north coast of the volcanic island of Bioko; population (2001) 132,400. It is the leading commercial centre of the country and trades in cocoa, coffee, copra, and other agricultural products, as well as timber and fish. It was founded in the 1820s by the British as Port Clarence (also Clarencetown). Under Spanish rule it was known as Santa Isabel (until 1973 when it received its present name). It was the capital in colonial times and retained this status at independence in 1968.

Until the early 1840s it was used as a base for suppressing the slave trade.