The predominant Isubu oral history holds that the ethnic group hails from Mboko, the area southwest of Mount Cameroon.

[1] Tradition makes them the descendants of Isuwu na Monanga, who led their migration to the west bank of the Wouri estuary.

When a descendant of Isuwu named Mbimbi became king, the people began to refer to their territories as Bimbia.

However, a major commodity was slaves, most bound for plantations on nearby islands such as Annobón, Fernando Po, Príncipe, and São Tomé.

British traders became the dominant European presence in the region by the mid-19th century, and the Crown used them to enforce abolition of the slave trade in the Gulf of Guinea.

[4] William was also asked to forbid practices the British viewed as barbaric, such as sacrificing a chief's wife upon his death.

[5] With William's blessing, Bimbia became a haven for repatriated slaves and escapees from the illicit trade, which continued for many more years.

King William sold a portion of his domains to the missionary Alfred Saker, who then founded Victoria (today known as Limbe).

Traders exploited this atmosphere, and beginning in 1860, German, French, and Spanish merchants had established contacts and weakened the British monopoly.

[8] On 17 February 1844, King William I of Bimbia and the chiefs of Bimbia concluded a treaty with Lieutenant Edward Charles Earl, commander of the English brig Rapid in which the slave trade was prohibited in exchange for goods worth $1,200, and free trade was guaranteed.

Women come from chop farm with raw food to exchange for fish and bring things like accra banana, groundnuts and koki beans.

The women work until morning on the efefe to sort out the fish in their different species, put on very big baskets called ‘ndenge’ and start drying them on the ‘wokas’.