Equatorial Guinea

Portuguese navigators began to visit the Gulf of Guinea as early as the 15th century, but Spain and the Spanish language were not present in the area until the signing of the Treaty of San Ildefonso (1777) and the Treaty of El Pardo (1778), through which Portugal ceded sovereignty over the island of Fernando Poo and the adjacent mainland territories to Spain, in exchange for other territories in South America. Due to the huge difficulties involved in the undertaking, Spain was unable to exert any effective form of control until 1843, when the expedition by Juan José Lerena y Barry took place; 1858, when the first Spanish governor, Carlos de Chacón y Michelena, was appointed; or in 1875 and 1884, when the two expeditions of discovery by Manuel Iradier took place. Although the colonial powers that met at the Congress of Berlin (1884-1885) agreed to grant Spain some 100,000 km2 on the continent, due to a lack of interest in the matter and due to France’s voracity, the final borders of Spanish Guinea landed up being 28,052 km2. This consisted of the Fernando Poo (now known as Bioko), Annobón, Corisco, Elobey Grande and Elobey Chico islands, and the mainland territory of Río Muni. All of them achieved independence in 1968 under the new name of Equatorial Guinea (EG). Since then, Spanish has remained the official language and the main language of communication between the different EG communities. The Academia Ecuatoguineana de la Lengua Española (Equatoguinean Academy of the Spanish Language) was founded in 2013. In addition, two main Bantu languages are spoken: Fang is spoken on the mainland and Bubi on the island of Bioko. In the coastal strip of Río Muni, there are a number of minority languages, which are also based on Bantu. In addition, there are two Creole languages, one based on English – Pichi or Pichinglis –and another based on Portuguese – Annobonese – typical of the island of Annobón. As regards translation, the Claretian missionaries were responsible for culture and education since their arrival in the colony in 1883. From the start, and in accordance with the evangelisation models used by Spain in other parts of the world, they implemented a complete programme of translation of biblical, liturgical and catechetical texts from Spanish into the local languages. As a result, from very early on, their disciples began to write and publish in Spanish in colonial times, laying the foundations for a rich post-colonial literature in Equatoguinean Spanish and making it the only Spanish-speaking country in sub-Saharan Africa. This phenomenon has begun to attract an international audience, with numerous translations. Some Equatoguinean writers have published bilingual volumes of their works: A Bépátto (Los del Barrio) (2017) by Justo Bolekia (1954-) was first written in Bubi and then self-translated into Spanish