Ambô (1983: Doomsday)

Ambô (Portuguese Ano Bom, Spanish Annobón) is a tiny island in the Gulf of Guinea in free association with. It was formerly an outlying province of Equatorial Guinea.

Culture
Unlike Bioko and Rio Muni, Ambô never forgot its Portuguese past. Its small population of 5000 has continued speaking Fá d'Ambô, a Portuguese creole, and using Portuguese in worship. Spanish has disappeared as the language of officialdom since the island's separation from Equatorial Guinea.

Subsistence farming and fishing remain Ambô's main economic activities. Links with Brazil have resulted in some modest improvements in health care and education, as well as the introduction of some pieces of Brazilian mass culture; but no one would describe life there as anything like "modern". Rich oil deposits are believed to exist offshore. This has made the island strategically important to Brazil and South America as a whole.

Before 1983
Uninhabited Ambô was colonized by in the 15th century and settled with a mix of Europeans and slaves imported from São Tomé and Angola. Spain gained possession of the island in 1778 together with the rest of Equitorial Guinea.

Equatorial Guinea became independent in 1968. Its first dictator, Francisco Macías, drove the country into the ground. He abrogated the constitution and drove as much as a third of the population into exile, including most of the people with education and technical knowledge. When he destroyed a large part of the fishing fleet in a vain attempt to keep people from fleeing the country, the little island of Ambô was largely cut off from the rest of the country. A Spanish-backed coup in 1979 put Macías' nephew Teodoro Obiang in charge, but Obiang's policies were not noticeably different from his uncle's.

Effects of the world war
Ambô was absolutely isolated, undemocratic, and poor: it could scarcely have fallen much lower, and the Doomsday event therefore had little effect on the island. The catastrophe prompted Obiang to enact even more heavy-handed policies. Unleashed from any need to please observers abroad, he did away with any pretense of democracy and ruled the country as his family's private estate.

The war did deprive Obiang of his access to foreign products. Arms were still available from international dealers, but their cost skyrocketed, as did the cost of fuel. Obiang had to find ways of administering his fiefdom with a dwindling supply of modern technology.

Independence movements
As a minority group variously neglected and persecuted, the Ambô people pushed for independence almost continuously from the mid-80s. A small group in the capital village of San Antonio de Palé captured Governor Obiang, a relative of the president, and declared independence in 1986, only to be crushed by a goon squad from Bioko who shot up the populace and reimposed dictatorial rule.

Another revolt was put down in 1988, as were no fewer than eight attempted secessions throughout the 1990s. Ambô sepratism remained a continuing problem because the Obiang regime could not afford to maintain a complement of troops on the island. Sending the detachments to put down the rebellions was also quickly becoming unaffordable. Communication with Bioko deteriorated throughout the 1990s; by the end of the decade the governor and the president were exchanging messages less than once a month.

Governor Obiang found his situation increasingly precarious. The cause of Ambô independence had united the entire population against him and his underpaid circle of bodyguards. When leaders of the island's church became independence advocates, worship services were outlawed, with predictable results.

A rumor circulated early in 1996 of an ominous message from Bioko: President Obiang could no longer afford to defend his cousin from the Ambô. He would have to find some other way to prop up his rule on the island. Most of the guards left the island. Governor Obiang himself soon followed them and was eventually executed by his cousin. Ambô had finally been let go.

The village republic
A council of village elders and religious leaders had already de facto held power in some of the smaller villages for some time. In 1996 they moved into the modest government buildings and drafted an official declaration of independence. A very brief constitution followed, drawn up in Fá d'Ambô creole as well as Portuguese. It largely did away with the Equatoguinean pretense of modernity, mandating a form of government that was basically democratic but highly traitional, based on community decision making.

Ambô was totally isolated, having scarcely received any news from the outside world in years. A sailboat was sent to São Tomé in 1997 with copies of Ambô's founding documents. Fears that the larger Portuguese-speaking neighbor would try to take over the island proved ill-founded; Ambô really had very little to offer any potential conqueror. A few outsiders were curious about what was happening on the island. Nigeria and the sent an expedition in 1999, and  established contact in 2000.

Through Portugal, learned about Ambô and sent a small vessel to explore Ambô and the rest of the Gulf of Guinea in 2002. Both Ambô and São Tomé were invited to participate in the ongoing (but inconclusive) talks about forming a worldwide organization of Portuguese-speaking countries. The Ambô, proud of their Portuguese identity, were very willing to join such an organization.

Based on this interest (and, no doubt, on the oil deposits hinted at by its explorers), Brazil offered Ambô a compact of free association in 2004, based on the compacts so many Pacific nations had with Australia-New Zealand. The Brazilians established an embassy and sponsored many improvements: a school, a medical clinic, a regular ferry connection to, and a semi-regular supply ship from Brazil itself. Air travel and other more expensive improvements have been discussed but not planned - these would no doubt have to wait for the development of offshore oil wells.

Foreign relations
Ambô is too small to consider membership in the. Brazil officially represents its interests there, but to date the little island has never come up. Besides Brazil, Ambô has diplomatic relations with Cape Verde and the Portuguese remnant, Gabon, Nigeria, and São Tomé.