The Sekes, known also as the Shekianis and Boulous, are an ethnic group living today on the northern Atlantic coast of Gabon, just south of Rio Muni, as well as across the border in Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon.
Globally, this group totals 50,500 in 2 countries The Seke of Equatorial Guinea are numbering 43,500 (Peoplegroups.org, 2024)
Their primary language is Seki.
Although there are only a few thousand people left who are even aware of their Séké roots, they were once a highly influential, commercial people.
Their own traditions place their origins on the upper Ivindo River in Cameroon, but they were driven south and west by Bakélé aggression. By the late fourteenth century, Sékés were living along the Rio Muni, along the Noya and upper Temboni rivers, and on the Monday Bay estuary. They were trading ivory, redwood, ebony, and gum copal with the Portuguese by the end of the century.
By the 1760s, many Sékés were heavily involved in the slave trade as middlemen be- tween interior ethnic groups and Europeans. In the nineteenth century, Pahouin expansión drove many Sékés east into the Gabonese interior. On December 2, 1846, Séké chiefs signed treaties recognizing French sovereignty.
Today, the few remaining Sékés work as small farmers or as laborers and craftsmen in Libreville and Lambaréné. The Sékés are divided into two subgroups: the Séké proper and the Bengas.
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