Wovea oral history names a man from the island of Bioko as their forebear. His ship washed ashore at Mboko, the area Southwest of Mount Cameroon, where he married a local woman. They then moved southeast and settled at Ambas Bay. The Wovea likely lived along Ambas Bay in the 17th or 18th century, and they could have participated in the same migration from Mboko that brought the Bakweri and Isubu to their current territories.