Rise and fall of the Spanish dream in Africa. Former civilian colonists' emotions and their gendered experiences facing African voices

This chapter approaches the Spanish colonization in Morocco and Equatorial Guinea through the experiences and emotions of the Spaniards who migrated to these countries. Emotions of colonial dreams emerged in the narratives of Spanish informants in search of an economic paradise that, with colonial independences, changed into bitterness and imperial nostalgia. These Spanish narratives are confronted with African voices to observe what reality paradise had for subaltern groups. The result of the comparison was shocking because some African voices remembered the colonial past with nostalgia. That point was interpreted as a powerful criticism to their unequal current political systems.My research has been supported by the Project “Enriching European Cultural Heritage from Cultural Diversity and Collaborative Participation” (2017–2018) (EUIN2017-85108), and by the Research and Development Project titled “African Memories: Reconstructing Spanish Colonial Practices and their Imprint in Morocco and Equatorial Guinea” (2016–2018) (HAR2015-63626-P, MINECO / FEDER, UE), both from the Ministry of Economy-Competitiveness of Spain, and both directed by Y. Aixelà-Cabré