The Spanish Language of Equatorial Guinea

John Lipski is Professor of Introduction Spanish and Linguistics at Pennsylvania State Univer- he Spanish of Equatorial Guinea is one of the best- sity. He has written exten- sively on the Spanish of kept secrets among world languages, and when men- Ecuatorial Guinea and its Ttioned, immediately evokes curiosity and wonder. relation to indigenous lan- Many people have never even heard of Equatorial Guinea, guages of the area including and few know that Spanish is the official language of a sub- a major study, The Spanish Saharan African nation. Even fewer have ever heard Equa- of Equatorial Guinea, 1985. torial Guinean Spanish or have any information about its characteristics. Given that Spanish is in contact with sev- eral African languages of the Bantu family, some might sup- pose that Guinean Spanish would have the characteristics attributed to “Afro-Hispanic” language in previous centu- ries (e.g. in Golden Age Spain, then in various South Ameri- can nations, and finally in the Spanish Caribbean), or that it would bear some resemblance to the various Afro-Hispanic and Afro-Portuguese creole languages found in West Africa and the Caribbean (Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, Annobón, Afro-Colombian Palenquero, Papia- mentu, etc.). Alternatively, given the minimal usage and pro- ficiency in ex-colonial official languages among many other West African nations, it might be supposed that Spanish has no real presence in Equatorial Guinean life, but is rather a political symbol used actively only by a privileged elite. In fact, Spanish of Equatorial Guinea has none of the charac- teristics just enumerated, although it shares enough internal coherence to be considered a legitimate sub-dialect of world Spanish. As a result, a detailed description of the status of Spanish in Equatorial Guinea transcends the limits of this

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies Volume 8, 2004 116 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies tiny nation and reflects a potential impact Following the overthrow of Macías in 1979, on more general areas of study. Equatorial Guinea continues to struggle Equatorial Guinea consists of the is- under the crushing weight of post-colonial land of Bioko (formerly named Fernando destruction and, while highly dependent on Poo), which contains the capital, Malabo Spanish technical aid, has moved gradually (formerly Santa Isabel), and the continen- into the French sphere of influence in Af- tal enclave of Rio Muni (with capital Bata), rica, underlined by the entry of Equatorial between Gabon and Cameroon, as well as Guinea into the CFA monetary zone in the tiny Annobón Island, located to the south late 1980s. of São Tomé. In 1964 Spanish Guinea (as Like most other African nations, the colony was known) achieved status as Equatorial Guinea contains a variety of eth- an autonomous region, and the nation be- nic groups, each speaking its own language. came independent in 1968 when Spain The indigenous group on Bioko is the Bubi. yielded to international pressure. Despite Also found in Malabo and its environs are the lack of colonial independence wars, numerous Fernandinos, descendents of pid- Equatorial Guinea lurched violently into gin English-speaking freed slaves from Si- the post-colonial era with a nightmarish erra Leone and Liberia, who arrived in eleven-year regime, headed by Francisco Fernando Poo in the nineteenth century, as Macías Nguema, which nearly destroyed well as a handful of natives of São Tomé the country’s infrastructure, expelled all for- and Principe, Cape Verde and other African eigners and exiled, jailed or murdered nearly nations. During the colonial period, nearly half of the Equatorial Guinean population. half of the island’s population consisted of

Town of Luba facing the sea. John Lipski 117

Nigerian contract laborers (largely Ibos and Fernando Poo, pidgin English has gener- Calabars), who worked on the cacao plan- ally been preferred, despite fierce campaigns tations. Although nearly all Nigerians were by Spanish missionaries and educators and expelled by the Macías government (and few complaints by many Equatorial Guineans, have returned), this group reinforced the who scold their children for speaking pichi. English spoken by the Fernandinos, with the Spanish is also widely used for inter-ethnic result that nearly all residents of Fernando communication, and occasionally French Poo speak pidgin English. This pidgin lan- surfaces, due to the presence of numerous guage, known as pichi, pichinglis or broken- natives of Cameroon, and the fact that thou- inglis, constitutes the true lingua franca of sands of Guineans took refuge in Cameroon Fernando Poo/Bioko (Lipski “Pidgin En- and Gabon during the Macías regime, and glish”). learned at least the rudiments of French. The principal ethnic group in Rio Muni is the Fang, also found in Gabon and Spanish in Equatorial Guinea Cameroon, who have dominated the re- maining groups and have formed the stron- In comparison with most other West gest nuclei in the national government; the and Central African nations, Equatorial Fang have also emigrated in large numbers Guinea contains a high proportion of profi- to Fernando Poo, although not originally cient speakers of the metropolitan language, native to that island. The playero groups in this case Spanish, which is largely attrib- (Ndowé/Combe, Bujeba, Benga, Bapuko, utable to the efforts of the Spanish educa- etc.) are found along the coast of Rio Muni, tional system (Negrín Fajardo). Colonial and most of their languages are at least par- education was predominantly in the hands tially intelligible mutually. There are few re- of missionary groups, particularly the Claret maining pygmies in Rio Muni, and those order, but Spanish government schools also that are found live in scattered areas of the played a significant role in implanting Span- interior and do not constitute a linguisti- ish as an effective language of communica- cally or culturally influential group. tion. On Fernando Poo, nearly all natives Pidgin English is not widely used in of the island speak Spanish with consider- Rio Muni, except in Bata, due to the influx able fluency, although there are a few eld- of residents of Fernando Poo and of natives erly residents who had little or no contact of Cameroon, Nigeria and other English- with Spaniards during the colonial period speaking areas. Most playero speakers and a and who consequently have limited abili- large number of Bubis also speak Fang, due ties in this language. On Annobón Island, to the impact of the latter group in the na- despite its nearly total isolation from the tional government, and the forced learning remainder of the country (and indeed, from of Fang during the Macías government, the remainder of the world), nearly all resi- although the Fang rarely speak other in- dents speak Spanish quite well, although digenous languages. In Rio Muni, the prin- this language is rarely used spontaneously cipal lingua franca for inter-ethnic commu- in daily communication, since Annobón nication is, in theory, Spanish, although Islanders speak fa d’ambú, a Portuguese-de- Fang vies with Spanish, given the political rived creole similar to the dialects of São and social hegemony of this group. On Tomé and Príncipe. In Rio Muni, nearly 118 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies all playeros speak Spanish, except for those of older and younger compatriots, although who have remained in isolated areas dis- it is not likely that this relatively short time tant from schools and government centers, period of separation from active use of Span- and the same is true for Fang living in the ish will have any major long-range linguis- principal cities and towns. In the interior, tic consequences for Equatorial Guinea. it is still possible to find many Fang in more It is impossible to calculate exactly the remote areas who speak little or no Span- proportion of Equatorial Guineans who are ish, despite its status as the national lan- reasonably fluent in Spanish, given the lack guage, and official announcements, masses of official data, but on Fernando Poo and and speeches are often delivered in Fang to the urban areas of Rio Muni this percent- ensure communication. This diversity of age is almost certainly around 90%, and language ability is largely due to the his- even in the interior of Rio Muni a figure of torical facts of colonization, for although around 60%-70% would probably not be Fernando Poo, Annobón and Rio Muni unrealistic; this in effect places Equatorial were ceded to Spain in 1778 by Portugal, Guinea at the forefront of African nations effective colonization of Fernando Poo by which have successfully implanted the the Spanish only began after 1850, and former metropolitan language as an effec- Annobón contained no Spanish presence tive vehicle of national communication. At until 1885. Rio Muni was not colonized the same time, it is safe to affirm that few until after 1900, when territorial disputes Equatorial Guineans are true native speak- with French African territories were finally ers of Spanish, in the sense of Spanish be- settled, and Spanish colonization of the in- ing spoken naturally in the first years of the terior of Rio Muni did not become effec- home environment, and no legitimate tive until after 1930. Equatorial Guinean raised in that nation is From the beginning, the Spanish gov- a monolingual speaker of Spanish. Many ernment insisted on exclusive use of Spanish Guineans speak Spanish spontaneously (and as the colonial language, although mission- even exclusively) in their homes, often en- aries and other functionaries had to learn couraging their children to speak Spanish pidgin English and the native languages in in preference to indigenous languages or order to function effectively, and Equato- pidgin English, but according to my exten- rial Guinea had and has one of Africa’s high- sive observations, which include consider- est functional literacy rates. This has oc- able personal contact with Equatorial Guin- curred despite the fact that during the last ean households, the reality is somewhat dif- seven or eight years of the Macías regime, ferent, with Spanish being freely mixed with use of Spanish in public functions and even the native languages of the respective speak- in private life was prohibited, and a largely ers. Objectively, it is frequently impossible unsuccessful attempt was made to imple- to assign a conversation to a single language ment Fang as the sole national language. category. And in this fashion many Equa- At the same time, the post-colonial educa- torial Guineans are certain that they are tional system largely ceased to function. The speaking “only” Spanish, Fang, Bubi, etc., result of this hiatus is a generation of young when in reality their linguistic production Guineans whose active competence in the is marked by a high degree of code switch- Spanish language is significantly below that ing and introduction of words from other John Lipski 119 languages. There is a small population of is conspicuous by its absence, despite the virtual monolingual pidgin English speak- fact that it probably has more active speak- ers, the “street children” in Malabo, of Bubi ers than Bubi, and surely more than Combe, parents but raised as homeless orphans, who Bujeba and Annobonese. In fact, the only speak no Bubi, almost no Spanish, and consistent reference to the existence of pid- whose linguistic interactions are carried out gin English comes in the works of Spanish entirely in pichinglis, in direct reflection of educators and missionaries, who generally the only linguistic common denominator have deplored this “degenerate” language in the Malabo streets and marketplaces. and have sought to devise strategies for its Despite the high percentage of Guin- elimination, although in recent years a more eans who possess a considerable active com- tolerant attitude has developed. Thus the petence in Spanish, this language is not used first-time visitor to Fernando Poo is sur- extensively in daily interaction, at least not prised at the unexpectedly widespread use in pure form; in Equatorial Guinean homes, of pichinglis, and is struck by the utter fu- the vernacular languages continue to hold tility of campaigns to exterminate it. In sway, mixed with pidgin English on Fernan- terms of the official versus real language do Poo. In those cases of mixed-ethnic mar- standards, Equatorial Guinea thus falls in riages, originally rare but recently somewhat line with many former European colonies more frequent, use of Spanish or pidgin in Africa and Asia, and yet despite its lim- English is more common, although given ited use as a medium of natural daily com- the wide knowledge of Fang, if one of the munication, Spanish continues to enjoy a partners is Fang this language is also used. vigorous existence in Equatorial Guinea, a Officially, all government activities are car- fact which sets this nation apart from many ried out in Spanish, and yet a visit to any others which have traversed a similar colo- government dependency reveals that when- nial and post-colonial linguistic evolution. ever Guineans sharing a common native The reasons for this phenomenon are many language—including pidgin English— and difficult to trace, but one important come together, these languages predominate factor is the poignant search for national in all but the most formal ritualized com- identity, the fact of being the only Spanish- munications. Even the socially stigmatized speaking nation in the midst of French-, pichinglis continues to play an important English- and Portuguese-speaking neigh- role in day-to-day activities of the govern- bors, and of being a tiny unknown nation ment, although not the slightest mention struggling to throw off the devastating ef- is made of this language in any government fects of postcolonial destruction. Equato- document. This is in striking contrast to rial Guineans abroad often prefer use of the native Equatorial Guinean languages, Spanish even when they share a common which are given official recognition in pub- vernacular language, reinforcing their iden- lications, and which are used for a few hours tity as Equatorial Guineans and adopting each day in radio broadcasting over the two the Spanish language as an unmistakable (government-operated) radio stations; the badge of national origin. Even more so than languages used are Fang (the greatest pro- in other African colonies, which depended portion), Bubi, Combe/Ndowe, Bisio/ on European nations that were more diver- Bujeba, and Annobonese. Pidgin English sified and that had a greater impact on the 120 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies rest of the world, Equatorial Guineans were counts of Guinean Spanish, including atti- molded into a mentality which found it tudes of speakers within Equatorial Guinea. difficult to conceive of international cultural La lengua española en Guinea Equitorial by contacts separate from Spain, and which Quilis and Casado-Fresnillo is a compre- regarded Spanish national phenomena as hensive treatise on Equatorial Guinean properly Guinean concerns. Unlike other Spanish complete with a compact disc of African nations whose linguistic diversity recorded samples. Granda offers many in- is so immense that the former colonial lan- dividual observations on Equatorial Guin- guage is the only viable medium of national ean Spanish, including theories of the in- communication, Equatorial Guinea could fluence of individual indigenous languages conceivably have implemented Fang as a on particular aspects of Guinean Spanish. national language, given the hegemony of Since Spanish is not the first language the Fang over the other ethnic groups and of most Guineans, their Spanish is charac- the fact that many of the latter have already terized by considerable individual variation, learned Fang out of necessity. Even pidgin but some common traits emerge which are English could be suggested as a means of found at least some of the time in the speech rejecting the inevitable colonial stigma of of nearly all Equatorial Guineans. They in- the European languages, since pidgin En- clude: glish, while of European origin, has a dis- (1) Syllable- and word-final /s/ is tinctly African character, and has quasi-offi- strongly pronounced, as in northern Spain. cial status in neighboring Nigeria and In particular there is no aspiration to [h] as Cameroon. The choice of Spanish as a na- found in Andalusia, the Canary Islands, and tional language is both a reflection of close much of Latin America. Although most cultural ties with the metropolis, and of the instances of final /s/ remain as [s], the sound realistically high level of proficiency in Span- occasionally disappears altogether without ish which characterized Equatorial Guinea having passed through the stage of a weak- when it was poised for independence. ened variant first, as occurs in most other Spanish dialects. This is particularly true in Linguistic Features of Equatorial the first person plural verbal ending -mos, Guinean Spanish: Phonetics in which the /s/ carries no grammatical function, and in which /s/ was routinely A number of early studies commented lost in literary imitations of Africans’ Span- briefly on the Spanish of Equatorial Guinea, ish from earlier centuries. usually focusing on the speech of expatri- (2) Spanish intervocalic /d/ is uni- ate Spaniards but occasionally describing the formly pronounced as a stop [d] or even a second-language approximations of native tap [r], and almost never as a fricative, as Guineans. My books The Spanish of Equato- is found in monolingual Spanish of other rial Guinea and El español de malabo offer nations. This trait is shared by most sec- the first comprehensive descriptions of ond-language learners of Spanish around Guinean Spanish, focusing on phonetic the world, since the stop-fricative alterna- details but also giving information about tion of /b/, /d/ and /g/ is not common in grammatical structures. Quilis and Quilis other languages. Earlier literary represen- and Casado-Fresnillo offer numerous ac- tations of Africans routinely represent /d/ John Lipski 121 as r reflecting this pronunciation (Lipski puede serr una ilusión pasajerra más, ade- “Literary ‘Africanized’”). más su comporrtamiento […]. (139) (3) Syllable- and word-final /l/ and /r/ are routinely distinguished, despite the fact (5) Word-final /n/ is rarely velarized that Bantu languages do not distinguish to [K], although this sound is frequent in these sounds, and most have no [r] sound word-final position in most native Guinean at all. This stands in contrast to the many languages, and the velarization of final /n/ literary imitations of Africans, in which the in the Spanish Caribbean has sometimes tendency to pronounce /r/ as [l] in all posi- been mistakenly attributed to African in- tions is characteristic (Lipski “Literary fluence. ‘Africanized’”). Very occasionally word-fi- (6) One common strategy observed nal /r/ or /l/ disappear in Guinean Spanish. among most Equatorial Guineans when (4) Most Equatorial Guineans do not speaking Spanish is the more or less sys- distinguish between Spanish single /r/ and tematic assignment of a different tone to trill /rr/; at times the trill is pronounced each syllable, often at odds with the simple instead of the single sound, although the equation tonic stress = high tone and atonic opposite change is more frequent. This trait syllables = low tone. This is because in the is rarely mentioned, but is immediately ap- indigenous languages of the country (with parent to outside observers. A rare literary the exception of Annobonese creole), every attestation—one of the few cases in which vowel carries a lexically-determined tone, a native Guinean author introduces local either high or low. When speaking Span- features of Spanish—is Donato Ndongo- ish, the tones rarely are used consistently, Bidyogo’s novel Las tinieblas de tu memoria so that a given polysyllabic word as pro- negra, in which one character’s non-native nounced by a single speaker may emerge overuse of the trill /rr/, seseo, and occasional with different tonal melodies on each occa- grammatical lapses in Spanish are portrayed sion. What results is a more or less undu- mockingly: lating melody of high and low tones, at times punctuated by mid tones and rising/ “osiosidad es madrre todos visios” (eso lo falling contour tones. Such a pronunciation decía así, eu castellano) […] el que no is radically different from the more usual “trrabaja” no come (en su castellano) […]. intonational patterns in native varieties of (71) Spanish, where the pitch register varies “a Dios rrogando y con el maso dado” (en smoothly and gradually across large ex- su castellano). (72) panses of syllables, and where a syllable-by- “el trrabajo diggnificarr al hombrre” (en syllable tonal change rarely or never occurs. su castellano) ya lo dijo nuestro Señor To the European ear, a syllable-based tonal “comerrás el pan con el sudorr de tu alternation as produced by an African enffrente” (en su castellano). (73) learner of Spanish causes a sing-song ca- alabado sea Dios Padrre Dios me envía los hios parra que los guíe porr el camino dence, and may blur the intonational dif- rrecto y El sabe porr qué seguirrá siempre ferences between statements and questions. su santa voluntá […]. (74) In the absence of a perceptible stress accent, […] perro padrre no ve usté que hase unos syllable-level tonal shifts may obliterate such años también nos parresió que querria serr minimal pairs as trabajo/trabajó. Some re- sacerrdote y luego se le olvidó hasta rresarr, corded examples follow (“= high tone,” = 122 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies low tone, no accent mark = a mid-range Lò vénden pàra tènér dinéro. tone): Háy dè múcha cláse. Se vóta. Fang woman in Malabo, has also lived in Spain: Older Combe man, works in Bata: el què tiéne dìnéro nò hábla […] Còn escòpétà. yo pènsába qu’èstá arríba […] Con trámpas. víno èl amígo dè su màrído Yó pàgue cíncò mil pèsétas. nó hablà cònmígo Ló que úno dèséa. comò estóy ahí me pòngo mì pijáma ì Hàblámos en la èscuéla. andándo] Tiéne còlor à asi. Linguistic Features of Equatorial Mientràs él està aquí èn casa, que nó mèta esòs líos àqui.] Guinean Spanish: Grammar

Bubi man in early 20s, from Barrio B, near Equatorial Guinean Spanish has few Malabo: consistent grammatical traits, since speak- Háy àlgunos què, cuandó èstán èn casa, ers’ abilities range from essentially native- comò són bubi, hàbláran èl bubi sólàmèntè. level fluency to only a partial command of Cuàndó uno yá està en là ensàñánzà Spanish. Average speakers (e.g. those who media cogè là ìdiomà que quierè.] have not lived in a Spanish-speaking coun- Me faltà un sólò publò què no hé ido. try or who have no other special contact Los que están en el bósque sònn sàlvájes. with Spanish) typically exhibit some or all en ésà parte ès pelìgrósò bàñarsè. of the following traits: (1) It is frequent to hear the subject Bubi man, late 20s, from Baney: pronoun usted combined with verbal end- Puéde dùrár sùs seséntà años. el árbol nò tienè mànéra dè desàrròllárse. ings corresponding to tú, e.g. usted sabes, Tènian tòdà clasè de àbónos. usted dices, etc. This may stem from the fact Si, háy compràdóres. that during the colonial period Spaniards almost always addressed Guineans of all ages Young Bubi man from Bapuku: as tú (most frequently through the verb Buscàn ùnòs cuántos que puèdàn ir à endings, with reduced use of overt subject asi destájò.] pronouns), while it was expected that Dèspués de ùn áñó, do áño, nótas que Guineans address Spaniards as usted. se pròdújo bàstánte.] (2) There are some fluctuations in Nó tengò tiémpo. subject-verb agreement, with use of the third-person singular form as default a com- Combe man from Bata: mon option, as occurs in many creole lan- Plàyéro somòs tódos nòsotròs. guages and vestigial dialects of Spanish (as Si háy dòs fáng què éntiendèn cómbe se puéde hàblar èl cómbe, ¿no?] well as in vernacular non-standard Brazil- àquí hay múcho plàyéros. ian Portuguese): yo tiene, nosotros trabaja, etc. A typical example is Desde los cinco años Bubi woman from Barrio B, in Malabo: [yo] lleva en España […]. Occasionally the en éste pàís lo vénden àsí. copula son is used as invariant verb, much Se séca en ùn secàdéro as occurred in Afro-Cuban speech (Lipski John Lipski 123

1999): Nosotros son lo mimo, pero el combe y Guinea region. It is likely that a certain el ndowé no son iguales […] porque no llama percentage of the slaves came from the very todos combes […]. territories that are now part of Equatorial (3) Errors and omission of common Guinea, particularly the island of Fernando prepositions such as de, a, and en are fre- Poo, which was at times used as a slaving quent; en is often used with verbs of mo- station. Phonetically, morphologically and tion, as in Voy en Bata ‘I’m going to Bata.’ syntactically, the Bantu languages share a (4) Equally sporadic are noun-adjec- number of important similarities, although tive agreement lapses, both in gender and of course the differences are equally signifi- number: Cada vez que llegamo, la casa esta cant. Few employ word-final consonants está cerao. with any regularity, and none employs con- sonantal desinences for such operations as Reasons for the Non-creole verbal and nominal inflection, using sys- tems of prefixation instead. Most of the Status of Equatorial Guinean Bantu languages use a phonemic system of Spanish tonal contours in addition to segmental contrasts, a number of them do not differ- The linguistic features of Equatorial entiate /l/ and /r/ phonologically, and a great Guinean Spanish bear little resemblance to number have word-initial prenasalized con- Afro-European creole languages, nor does sonants, generally written mb-, nd-, ng-, etc. one find most of the features typically as- Few have the equivalent of a second person cribed to African speakers in Spanish lit- vs. third person pronominal distinction, erature, from the fifteenth century to the corresponding to the tú-usted distinction in twentieth. The reasons for these discrepan- Spanish. Many of these same characteris- cies are many, and highlight the importance tics are also shared by the languages of the of Guinean Spanish in the disentangling of Sudanese groups of West Africa (the region earlier Afro-Hispanic language and the pos- of Senegal, Cape Verde, the Gold Coast, sible permanent African imprint on Latin etc.), whence came many slaves destined for American Spanish. On the surface, Equa- Latin America, although major linguistic torial Guinea might appear to be a typical differences separate the two language fami- example of Spanish-African interfacing, lies. paralleling the developments in the Span- At any given time, the proportion of ish-speaking areas of the Americas, and lead- Spaniards to Guineans was quite small, ris- ing, in the latter areas, to the formation of ing to a maximum of about 5% in the capi- various forms of pidgin and creole Spanish, tal city of Santa Isabel, but dropping to a and to a series of linguistic deformations fraction of a percent in rural regions of Rio whose precise origin remains puzzling up Muni. Those Guineans in most constant to the present. The native languages of contact with the Spaniards generally came Equatorial Guinea belong to the macro- to be employed in plantation labor, particu- Bantu families, and are similar in general larly on Fernando Poo, and while no sys- structure to many of the languages brought tem of slavery ever existed in Spanish to the Caribbean region by Portuguese slave Guinea, the working conditions and socio- traders, coming from the Congo/Angola/ cultural setting of large-scale farming on 124 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies

Fernando Poo was not radically different in large measure from the poorest and most from that found in such areas as Cuba, remote areas of Spain; the first conquista- coastal Mexico and Brazil. Black laborers dores were largely small farmers or artisans worked under a system of overseers, with who exchanged the risk of hardship and the transition from black to white in super- death in the new world for the possibility visory capacities being effected toward the of acquiring wealth and a noble title that top of the administrative hierarchy. The lack were completely beyond their reach in of a significant creolization of Spanish in Spain. Later settlers were largely soldiers of Equatorial Guinea, and the lack of distinctly fortune, followed by small farmers who had “Caribbean” Spanish structures which have exhausted their opportunities in Spain. Even largely been attributed to African influence at the end of the Spanish empire in the in the latter region, have to be sought in Americas, represented by Cuba and Puerto the fundamental differences that character- Rico at the end of the nineteenth century, ize Spanish colonization in Africa and in most recently arrived Spaniards came from the Caribbean. the parched areas of the Canary Islands, and Although the time factor of colonial from the most backward regions of Galicia presence might seem significant (50-100 and Extremadura. The majority of these years in Equatorial Guinea versus several settlers were only partially literate, and few centuries in the Caribbean), it is of little could be considered well-educated profes- real importance, as evidenced by two facts. sionals, although many subsequently ac- The first is that pidgins and creoles can easily quired a significant educational and profes- develop after only one or two generations, sional level in their new homelands. Spanish as exemplified by such areas as Hawaii, Cape Guinea, on the other hand, was from the Verde, the Netherlands Antilles, Surinam, beginning settled by a combination of func- the Virgin Islands, and Annobón. More- tionaries and civil servants, missionaries, over, despite the presence of black slaves in and small entrepreneurs, both in agricul- Spanish America from the middle of the ture and in commerce. A group of prosper- sixteenth century, the large plantation soci- ous plantations was set up by Castilian and eties which gave rise to the conditions pro- above all Catalan landowners, whose cul- pitious for creolization did not come to tural level was considerably above that of prominence until well into the nineteenth the Spaniards that continued to emigrate century, when the proportion of black slaves to America, and since Guinea was never an and freedmen became significantly larger attractive place for massive immigration, than the white population in many areas. those Spaniards that chose to live in Guinea Thus, for all intents and purposes, the time generally made this choice in view of supe- interval under consideration for both areas rior salaries or perquisites, available only for is comparable. the middle and professional classes. Indi- The differences are as significant as rect evidence of the cultural and educational the similarities, and account for the unique level of the Spanish colonizers in Guinea is profile of Equatorial Guinean Spanish. The found in the particulars of Equatorial Guin- sociocultural profile of the Spanish who re- ean Spanish, which while containing a num- sided in Equatorial Guinea was in general ber of significant differences from peninsu- considerably different from that of the colo- lar Spanish, contains virtually no elements nizers of the New World. The latter came typical of uneducated Spanish usage, such John Lipski 125 as abound in Latin American Spanish. The guage into an effective vehicle for daily com- only consistent phonetic deformations are munication resulted in the fixation of non- those characteristic of middle-class Span- standard forms which, left to drift in the iards from central Spain, for example re- absence of normative influences, eventually duction of -ado to -ao and of para to pa. gave rise to creolized variants, a few of which Of perhaps even greater importance continue to exist. Equatorial Guinean la- is the fact that, unlike in the Americas, borers rarely embodied the juxtaposition of Spaniards in Equatorial Guinea did not gen- more than two ethnic groups (Fang and erally immigrate with the intent of perma- occasionally Bubi), and when in the present nently establishing themselves, but rather century the indigenous labor force was vir- of working for a given time period, and tually replaced by nearly 50,000 Nigerians, nearly always returned to Spain. The result the latter’s lingua franca, pidgin English, was a reduced sense of permanency, and a rapidly became the most useful vehicle of greater bilateral contact between Spain and communication on Fernando Poo, continu- expatriate Spaniards in Guinea. Even though ing even past the exodus of the Nigerians. a number of Spaniards were born in Guinea, So effective was the transference of pidgin few considered themselves as anything other English to Fernando Poo (spoken originally than Spaniards, similar to their countrymen by the Fernandinos and other descendents in the Canary Islands or Ifni, and there were of settlers from Sierra Leone and Liberia), few families that had lived continuously in that it was adopted for daily communica- Spanish Guinea for more than a single gen- tion by native Guineans, even those shar- eration. The amount of miscegenation was ing the same native language. This is in also considerably less in Guinea than in the striking contrast to the use of Spanish in Americas, as Spanish settlers brought a Equatorial Guinea, where except for more higher proportion of Spanish women, a fact highly educated citizens, or in the case of visibly evident in the small number of mu- official public functions, communication latto Guineans, as opposed to the Carib- among members of the same ethnic group bean region of Latin America. is conducted primarily in that group’s lan- Arguably the single most important guage. This preference may be explained by factor in determining the non-creole status the more cosmopolitan nature of Fernando of Equatorial Guinean Spanish is that in Poo, particularly its capital, in comparison the African territories there never occurred with Rio Muni. In the latter territory, de- the massive linguistic and ethnic fragmen- spite its land frontiers with the rest of con- tation that resulted from the Atlantic slave tinental Africa, little contact with neighbor- trade, which placed in daily contact Afri- ing nations has taken place, due to poor cans who spoke a myriad of different native communications and political difficulties, languages and who shared no common lan- both in colonial times and more recently. guage. These circumstances forced the co- During the Macías government, thousands lonial languages (or the incipient pidgin of Guineans took refuge in Gabon and Portuguese learned on shipboard or in the Cameroon, and those that have subse- slaving stations) into the role of lingua quently returned have brought a somewhat franca, and the rapid push to convert a ru- expanded perspective, but few residents of dimentary and partially understood lan- neighboring countries ever moved to or even 126 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies visited Rio Muni. Fernando Poo, on the other extreme of the emotional dimension, other hand, has been a way-station in west Spanish is rarely used to express high de- Africa for several centuries, changing hands grees of affection, love, passion or endear- nearly half a dozen times, and because of ment. When speaking to a child belonging its insular nature, straddling the Gulf of to another ethnic group, most Guineans will Guinea, it is a cultural crossroads. From the either use their own native language, earliest days of Spanish colonization, Santa whether or not it is understood by the child, Isabel contained numerous Europeans of or in appropriate cases will use pidgin En- various nations, as well as Kru, Mende, glish, at times with some Spanish words Ibo, Calabar, Hausa, Angolans, and Sao mixed in. Guineans involved in professional Tomenses, and even a small contingent of situations are well acquainted with the Span- Asians. Even in post-colonial times, the ish vocabulary appropriate to their profes- constant influx of merchants and tempo- sion, but may not be comfortable with rary residents from other parts of Africa, words dealing with home life or small farm- such as Cameroon, Nigeria and Ghana, has ing, which they would rarely have occasion reinforced the Babel-like atmosphere of to use in Spanish. This is particularly true Malabo, and particularly in the market- in the case of the names of many fruits, places, where a sizeable portion of the mar- vegetables, plants and small animals and ket vendors are not native Guineans, the birds, whose Spanish names may be known need for more effective trans-lingual com- to Guineans, but which are rarely used spon- munication is strongly felt. Most non- taneously. Guineans resident in Malabo come to learn As well as never serving as the sole some Spanish, and some speak it quite well, vehicle for inter-ethnic communication, the on a par with native Guineans, but conver- Spanish language was never removed from sations with Africans of unknown ethnic the national environment of Spanish Guinea origin usually use pidgin English as an for a long enough time to result in the loss opening gambit, and rarely Spanish. When of awareness of its structure, nor were cul- the unknown interlocutor is dressed in tra- tural and linguistic contacts with Spain in- ditional Moslem fashion, Hausa may also terrupted for a significant period. One of be attempted. The total result is a lack of the factors that most facilitates the forma- pressure on the Spanish language to fulfill tion of creoles is an initial contact with the all needs of daily communication, being colonial language, followed by a rapid cut- acquired only in the measure necessary to off of contact with native speakers of that fulfill school or professional functions. It is language, a process in which the colonial noteworthy that hardly any Equatorial language suffers no constraints and receives Guineans use Spanish to curse or insult, and no infusions from the continued presence indeed most do not even possess the requi- of native speakers of the colonial language. site vocabulary items. Those in daily con- In this linguistic vacuum, influence of the tact with Spaniards have picked up the ubiq- native languages of the soon-to-be creole uitous coño, and occasional joder and the speakers is free to grow, and the end result accompanying euphemistic variants, but is frequently a new language containing these words are not used in the same fash- large proportions of both the original lan- ion as by native Spanish speakers. At the guage and the supraordinate language. Such John Lipski 127 has occurred, for example, in Haiti, Cape a number of Spaniards have returned to Verde and Guinea-Bissau, Annobón, Sey- Equatorial Guinea, heading cooperative chelles, Trinidad, the Philippines, and most missions and serving as advisors to govern- probably with Afrikaans in South Africa. ment agencies. In addition, the majority of In Spanish Guinea, contact with Spain was priests and lay brothers are Spaniards, since never broken off, except for the last years of most Guinean priests were expelled or ex- the Macías government, an insufficient time ecuted during the previous government, and for any significant linguistic changes to take the current group of seminarians will not place. From the arrival of the first perma- be ordained for several more years. The nent Spanish settlers, the Spanish language impact of a small group of religious figures was a living force in Equatorial Guinea, and is not to be underestimated, particularly on those Equatorial Guineans who had any Fernando Poo, for in the majority of the contact at all with the Spanish language were small towns, mass is said once or twice a at the same time in contact with Spanish week by a visiting priest, and attendance at nationals who traveled freely to Spain, and these masses is impressively high. The who insured the presence of Spanish lin- masses are held entirely in Spanish (except guistic usage as current in Spain. in the case of a few Guinean priests), and The confluence of the above-men- church members often present spontaneous tioned factors guaranteed that Spanish was prayers and offerings in the congregation. never to become creolized in Equatorial The sacristans and other attendants are resi- Guinea, and indeed the historical profile dents of the respective towns, and their ac- seems more propitious to the gradual death tive participation in the mass adds to the of Spanish in this area, caused by its inad- contact with the Spanish language in areas equate implantation as a colonial language. where few if any resident Spaniards are to When one compares English language pro- be found. In many areas the religious per- ficiency in many parts of Nigeria, Ghana, sonnel also provided the only consistently Sierra Leone, Uganda, etc., or Portuguese available medical services, which increased in Angola, Mozambique or Guinea-Bissau, their contact with all members of the popu- the unusual tenacity of the Spanish language lation. Currently, the Spanish government’s in Equatorial Guinea becomes more evi- cooperative mission has established a net- dent. Despite the clearly nationalistic trends work of doctors and paramedics through- of the previous government, and its frus- out Equatorial Guinea, which has the sec- trated attempts to implant Fang as the sole ondary effect of insuring constant contact official language, and despite the existence with the received Spanish language for large of grammars and written conventions for segments of the Guinean population. Fang and the presence of radio broadcasts Clearly, the data from Equatorial in this language, Spanish continues to be Guinea are insufficient in themselves to the language of officialdom, but surprisingly sustain or reject any theory of creolization a large number of Guineans who have no and second language development, but they contacts with the government are insisting are suggestive in that they provide a relevant that their children learn and use Spanish, test case for the diversification and spread not only in schools but also in private life, of a colonial language across a wide range a situation not typical of many other Afri- of mutually unintelligible ethnic languages. can nations. With the overthrow of Macías, In addition, Equatorial Guinea continues 128 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies to constitute a unique sociolinguistic con- fective educational system and relatively figuration within western and central Africa, small population account for the non- and an anomaly within the Spanish-speak- creolization of Spanish in Equatorial Guin- ing world, due both to the peculiar nature ea. Although recent descriptive studies have of the Spanish spoken in that nation, and put the Spanish of Equatorial Guinea on the remarkable vigor which Spanish has the map of world Spanish, considerable re- demonstrated from the earliest colonial pe- search remains to be done on this small but riods to the present. unique multilingual and multiethnic speech community, whose full potential is only Summary and Conclusions beginning to be realized.

The Spanish of Equatorial Guinea Works Cited presents both challenges to accepted mod- Granda, Germán de. “Bibliografía del español els of language contact, and test cases for en Guinea Ecuatorial.” Granda, Español de América 470-76. theories of the influence of African lan- ———. “Un caso de transferencia léxica in- guages on Spanish in other continents. The tercolonial: Cuba-Fernando Poo (Bioko).” Guinean data permit the separation of key Anuario de Letras 23 (1985): 131-59. linguistic, demographic, and social variables ———. Español de América, español de África which have become inextricably jumbled y hablas criollas hispánicas. Madrid: Gredos, together in other parts of the world, includ- 1994. ing regional dialects of Spanish providing ———. “El español en el Africa subsahariana.” the input to Guinean Spanish learners, the Africa 2000 3 Epoca II, 7 (1988): 4-15. ———. El español en tres mundos: retenciones widespread retention of native African lan- y contactos lingüísticos en América y África. guages and the relatively reduced need to Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, communicate intra- and interethnically in 1991. second-language Spanish, the socioeco- ———. Estudios de lingüística afro-románica. nomic profile of Spaniards in colonial Span- Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid, ish Guinea, and the specific facts of colo- 1985. nial and postcolonial history as applied to ———. “Fenómenos de interferencia fonética Equatorial Guinea. The Guinean data show del fang sobre el español de Guinea Ecua- torial: consonantismo.” Anuario de Lin- that mere contact between Spanish and West güística Hispánica 1 (1984): 95-114. African languages is not sufficient to pro- ———. “La lengua española en el Africa sub- duce stereotypically “Africanized” Spanish, sahariana: estudio histórico-lingüístico.” and that much—perhaps most—of the Cuadernos del Sur (1986-87): 3-20. “Afro-Hispanic” language described for ———. “Las lenguas de Guinea Ecuatorial: ma- other continents and time periods is more teriales bibliográficos para su estudio.” The- reflective of the Andalusian/Canary Island saurus 39 (1984): 170-92. dialects spoken by native Spanish speakers ———. Lingüística e historia: temas afro-hispá- nicos. Valladolid: Universidad de Vallado- than of any specifically African contribu- lid, 1988. tions. Moreover, the fact that indigenous ———. “Origen y configuración de un rasgo languages were never removed as the pri- sintáctico en el español de Guinea Ecua- mary vehicles of communication among torial y en el portugués de Angola.” Granda, Equatorial Guineans, coupled with the ef- El español en tres mundos 255-68. John Lipski 129

———. “Perfil lingüístico de Guinea Ecuatorial.” ———. “Modern African Spanish Phonetics: Homenaje a Luis Flórez. Bogotá: Instituto Common Features and Historical Ante- Caro y Cuervo, 1984. 119-95. cedents.” General Linguistics 26 (1986): ———. “Préstamos léxicos de aculturación en 182-95. dos lenguas bantú de Guinea Ecuatorial.” ———. “A New Look at Afro-Hispanic Pho- Granda, Estudios 127-39. Also in Cahiers nology.” Ed. Osvaldo Jaeggli and Carmen de l’Institut de Linguistique de Louvain 11 Silva-Corvalan. Studies in Romance Lin- (1985) 87-106. guistics (1986): 121-35. ———. “Préstamos léxicos del pidgin English ———. “Pidgin English Usage in Equatorial en el criollo portugués de Annobón.” Estu- Guinea (Fernando Poo).” English World dios Románicos 1 (1985) 101-12. Wide 13 (1992): 33-57. ———. “Procedimientos de aculturación léxica ———. The Spanish of Equatorial Guinea. Tü- en el fang ntumu de Guinea Ecuatorial.” bingen: Max Niemeyer, 1985. Granda, Español de América 456-69. ———. “The Spanish of Equatorial Guinea: ———. “Sobre un fenómeno sintáctico del Research on la hispanidad’s Best-Kept Se- español de Guinea Ecuatorial: la marca- cret.” Afro-Hispanic Review 19 (2000): 11- ción en superficie de los pronombres per- 38. sonales sujeto.” Granda, El español en tres ———. “The Spanish of Malabo, Equatorial mundos 269-84. Guinea and Its Significance for Afro-His- ———. “Sociolingüística de un microespacio panic Studies.” Hispanic Linguistics 1 criollo-portugués de Africa (Annobón).” (1984): 69-96. Lingüística Española Actual 7 (1985): 277- ———. “A Test Case of the Afro-Hispanic Con- 92. nection: Final /s/ in Equatorial Guinea.” Lipski, John. “Contactos hispano-africanos en Lingua 68 (1986): 357-70. Africa y el Caribe.” Studies in Caribbean Ndongo-Bidyogo, Donato. Las tinieblas de tu Spanish Dialectology. Ed. Robert Hammond memoria negra. Madrid: Editorial Funda- and Melvin Resnick. Washington D.C.: mentos, 1987. Georgetown UP, 1988. 50-65. Negrín Fajardo, Olegario. Historia de la educa- ———. “Contactos hispano-africanos: el español ción en Guinea Ecuatorial: el modelo educa- guineano.” Anuario de Letras 23 (1985): tivo colonial español. Madrid: Universidad 99-130. Nacional de Educación a Distancia, 1993. ———. El español de Malabo: procesos fonéticos/ Quilis, Antonio. “Actitud de los ecuatoguine- fonológicos e implicaciones dialectológicas. anos ante la lengua española.” Lingüística Madrid/Malabo: Centro Cultural Hispano- Española Actual 5 (1983): 269-75. Guineano, 1990. ———. “La actitud de los guineanos ante la ———. “Evolución de los verbos copulativos lengua española.” Africa 2000 Año IV, en el español bozal.” Lenguas criollas de base Epoca II, 10-11 (1989): 76-83. lexical española y portuguesa. Ed. Klaus ———. La lengua española en cuatro mundos. Zimmermann. Frankfurt: Vervuert, 1999. Madrid: Editorial MAPFRE, 1995. 145-76. ———. “La lengua española en Filipinas y en ———. “Fonética y fonología del español gui- Guinea Ecuatorial.” La lengua española hoy. neano: implicaciones para la dialectología Madrid: Fundación Juan March, 1995. hispánica.” Africa 2000 Año II, Epoca II, 105-16. 1 (1987): 9-17. ———. “Léxico español del café en Guinea ———. “Literary ‘Africanized’ Spanish as a Re- Ecuatorial.” Homenaje a Alonso Zamora search Tool: Dating Consonant Reduc- Vicente. Madrid: Castalia, 1989. 237-42. tion.” Romance Philology 49 (1995): 130- ———. “Nuevos datos sobre la actitud de los 67. ecuatoguineanos ante la lengua española.” 130 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies

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