Saint Columban
Kulumban Saint Columban | |
|---|---|
 Flag | |
| Capital and largest city | Patria |
| Official languages | English |
| Common languages | Columbé |
| Demonym | Columbayo |
| British overseas territory | |
| Population | |
• Estimate | 25,809 |
Saint Columban,[a] or simply Columban and rarely in full as Saint George, Saint Paul, Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Columban of Luxeuil,[b] is an island in the Malorabin Islands, an archipelago within the Poccasin Archipelago. It is governed as a British overseas territory with English as its official language. However, only around 300 people are estimated to speak English exclusively on the island; the vast majority (98.8%) of the island instead speak Columbé, a dialect of Bemé, the official language of the neighbouring Poccasin Federation.
Before European colonisation, Saint Columban was inhabited by Seru peoples who arrived from present-day Myanmar and Bemang peoples who arrived from Malaysia. The Portuguese arrived and built a colony in 1775 and ruled the small island for 115 years until the British invaded and acquired the island in the aftermath of the Pink Map War. The British, uncommonly for the time, successfully dismantled most of the remains of the former Portuguese colonial administration, and renamed the island to its present name in 1892; a year later, the British began to heavily import Poccasin slaves[c] into Saint Columban, a process that only halted permanently in 1914 with the outbreak of World War I.
Despite calls for independence throughout the 20th century and a civil war in the 1990s (started by the Marxist-Leninist guerilla group Columban Liberation Army, Grup Pirido Kulumban), Saint Columban has remained a British overseas territory where all Columbayos are by law British citizens.
References
- ^ Columbé: Kulumban [kʌlʌmban]; Bemé: Senkolumbang; Ketaserang: Nqenkeeci or Nqenkeeti; Portuguese: São Columbano
- ^ Portuguese: São Jorge, São Paulo, São Francisco de Assis e São Columbano de Luxeuil
- ^ Enslaved Poccasins were not administratively considered "slaves", allowing British colonists in the Poccasins to continue the slave trade despite the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act and the earlier 1807 Slave Trade Act abolishing such practices in the British Empire.