The Spanish Language of Equatorial Guinea

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 characteristics 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.

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