Acacio Mañé Ela was born into the Fang society of the mainland Afro-Spanish colony, in the Esambira clan, from the region located at the south of Douala (Cameroon)[1] In 1919 he was admitted in the College of the Catholic Mission of Bata.
He was natural of Ndjiakom-Esambira, on the district of Bata (in the current Litoral Province), he worked as a farmer in the northern banks of the Campo River as did many of the Fang people settled in the far north of the Continental Region of Equatorial Guinea at the districts of Bata, Niefang, Mikomeseng and Ebibeyín respectively.
He was a member of the Indigenous Trust and one of the leaders of the organization Cruzada Nacional de Liberación de Guinea Ecuatorial (National Liberation Crusade of Equatorial Guinea) (CNLGE), created at the beginning of 1950, although some sources suggest a creation date at 1947 or 1948.
Some of his best known supporters were bubi Mark Ropo Uri and fang people Enrique Nvo and Francisco Micha Ondo, a prestigious catechist who served in the mission of Nkue-Efulan.
[4] As the visible head of MONALIGE on the mainland, in November 28, 1959, Mane was arrested in Bata, near the Catholic Mission; he was transferred to the Marine barracks and then embarked on a ship that sailed to Bioko, but that did not reach the island.