Fang people

The Fang (Pahouin), 85 percent of Equatorial Guinea and the largest people of Gabon, with kin in Cameroon and Congo, hold the Atlantic rainforest of the Guinea coast. Migrating south in great clan columns, Fang lineages farmed plantain and manioc, fished the estuaries and forged iron in forest smelters. The mvet, the great harp-zither epic of the warrior Engong, sung through nights by griot-players, holds genealogy, philosophy and law. Ancestor reliquaries guarded by bark-box byeri figures ordered village religion; the Bwiti cult, with iboga visions, remade it under colonial pressure. French and Spanish rule cut Fang country into four states, but Bata markets, Libreville ministries and the Rio Muni cocoa farms keep Fang hands on the forest economy, and mvet players still sing the clans together. Rio Muni cocoa farmers still clear forest plots each year. Gabonese Fang hold a quarter of the nation's ministries and markets. Cameroon and Congo kin still cross for funerals and weddings.