Elaeis guineensis - The African oil palm is a primary source of palm oil, an oil used by the commercial food industry throughout the world. It is native to West and Southwest Africa, but is now distributed along the world’s tropical regions. An oil palm can grow to heights of 20 meters and produce several clusters of fruit, each bunch weighing as much as 50 kilograms. The pulp of the fruit produces an edible oil and the palm kernel oil is used as a food additive and in the manufacturing of soap.
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In 1472, Portuguese explorer Fernão do Pó became the first European to make landfall on Bioko Island, now part of Equatorial Guinea. The Treaty of El Pardo, signed by Spain and Portugal in 1778, ceded the area, including Rio Muni, to Spain. The British, having banned slavery in 1833, used an outpost on Bioko to disrupt the slave trade of other nations. Spain began to lose control of its few African holdings and bowed to international pressure by granting independence to Equatorial Guinea in 1968.
