Introduction M’baré N’gom is Professor hat is Spanish literature? In many ways this spe- and Chair of Modern Lan- cial issue of the Arizona Journal of Hispanic guages at Morgan State Uni- Cultural Studies begs the question. But it is not versity-Baltimore. An expert W rhetorical. We do not necessarily insist that Spanish litera- on African Francophone and ture is much broader than supposed, or that it may include Afro-Spanish literature, he some or all of Latin American literature, or that it may en- has written extensively on Equatorial Guinean litera- compass literature written in Catalan, Galician or Euskera ture and culture. Among his along with literature written in Spanish from northern Af- many publications are Diá- rica (Ceuta, Melilla, the Rif) or a growing body of works logos con Guinea (1996). written from (or in exile from) Equatorial Guinea, the only African Spanish speaking country south of the Sahara and Michael Ugarte is Professor the focus of this volume. Nor do we necessarily put forth the of Spanish Literature at the notion that literature includes cultural artifacts along with University of Missouri-Co- “great works.” Indeed, the opposite of all these positions may lumbia. Ugarte is the author be argued eloquently: that we muddy already murky waters of books and articles dealing when we force these categories into the realm of Spanish with modern Spanish litera- ture and culture, among literature. It may be true that what we need is not more far- which is Shifting Ground: fetched connections and comparisons, but specificity, limi- Spanish Civil War Exile. He tations, the honesty to say, “That particular text or issue falls is currently working on a out of my realm of understanding.” book on Spain’s cultural re- Our intention in putting together this issue is not to lations with Africa in the answer the above question, but simply to reflect on it. And twentieth century. this reflection will, we hope, come to the fore as our readers begin to peruse the contents of the volume and perhaps stop to read an essay, interview, or discussion. To us, more impor- tant than that nagging question—What is Spanish litera- ture?—is the need to disseminate information on a tiny Span- ish speaking spot on the globe and in passing to expose cer- tain realities (imagined and otherwise) that do not receive Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies Volume 8, 2004 108 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies enough attention. As one of the contribu- square miles with a population of less than tors to the pedagogy piece points out, Africa a million. Located on the west coast of cen- is only dark because of the West’s ignorance tral Africa, the nation is comprised of two of it. Indeed, to fill the need for specificity geographic and cultural entities. The island concerning the realities of Africa and Equa- of Bioko (formerly Fernando Poo) in the torial Guinea along with their complex re- Bight of Biafra is inhabited by the Bubi. The lations with Europe may be this volume’s area called Rio Muni south of Cameroon primary intention, a goal more difficult to and northwest of French speaking Gabon realize than may be imagined. Access to and is inhabited by the Fang. Spanish has been dissemination of Equatoguinean culture is the official language of Equatorial Guinea not easy. The publishing outlets are not only from 1778, through independence (1968), poorly funded but the distribution of their to the present, yet indigenous languages have also prevailed. The most widely spo- ken is Fang, the predominant ethnic group of continental Rio Muni extending into Gabon and Cameroon. The area’s first European arrivals were the Portuguese whose interest in Fernando Poo had to do with the exploitation of slaves, fruits, and minerals. In 1778 this island passed to Spanish sovereignty. In the eigh- teenth and nineteenth centuries, the Span- iards paid little attention to it other than as a possession providing free labor, coffee, and other fruits. There were, however, expedi- tions into continental Africa, and in 1900 the area of Rio Muni became a Spanish possession through a treaty with France. In the twentieth century, Spain began taking greater political interest. During the products is severely limited. When one adds dictatorships of Miguel Primo de Rivera to this that the mere act of producing a cre- (1923-1930) and Francisco Franco (1936- ative work of dissent in Equatorial Guinea 1975), colonial administrative units were may land an author or artist in jail—the established to regulate activities in Morocco horrific jail (both real and imagined) of and the areas on the African central west Playa Negra described in Donato Ndongo’s coast whose duties would be to “foment the Los poderes de la tempestad—to say nothing culture, morals, and well-being of the in- of the shortages of electricity and clean wa- digenous people of the Gulf of Guinea and ter, one begins to acquire a first-hand un- to insure their adhesion to Spain” (Ndongo, derstanding of the materiality of cultural España en Guinea 166). After the Spanish canons.1 Civil War, Franco extended his predecessor’s As we fill in the basic “social-studies” policy with the expansion of the Bureau of data, we point out that Equatorial Guinea Moroccan and Colonial Affairs. Ironically, is a former Spanish colony of some 19,000 due to Franco’s paternalistic policies, there M’baré N’gom and Michael Ugarte 109 was an economic amelioration: an increased We hope this volume will participate budget for health, education, and agricul- in a timely discussion among Hispanists and ture which bolstered the production of cof- non-Hispanists on the tensions between the fee, cocoa, and lumber. so-called developed cultures and those un- Equatorial Guinean independence in der imperial domination less than a cen- 1968 was followed by the dictatorship of tury ago. As is the case with the founders of Francisco Macías (1970-1979), which gave this journal, the contributors understand the rise to a coup plotted by his nephew, Teodoro culture of a given area to be multi-faceted: Obiang. The latter promised democracy, yet the high along with the low, literary texts Obiang’s rule (1979-present) has turned as not only embodiments of an aesthetic into an autocracy in which critics have been construction but also as telling indicators imprisoned, tortured, or executed. The eco- of cultural conflicts and tensions, images nomic decline, collapse of the infrastruc- including those in the communications in- ture and increased poverty bring us to the dustries, music, cultural representations and discovery of oil in the eighties and its de- manifestations of space. velopment in the nineties which has made Thus our first section, “Culture,” for the new arrival of the “first world” as we comprises a series of three essays on “ex- begin the twenty-first century—this time tra-literary” phenomena: the first is per- in the form of energy conglomerates such haps the most basic and provides a wealth as Exxon-Mobil, Triton Oil, and other of necessary information. “The Spanish Texas-based companies. Today Equatorial Language of Equatorial Guinea” by John Guinea is among the poorest countries in Lipski (an earlier version of which appeared Africa despite the oil boom: the infant mor- in Afro-Hispanic Review 2000) deals with tality rate is 95 per every thousand births. the labyrinthine connections and relations Some Guineans have addressed these issues, among the variety of languages spoken in but many dissidents have been sent into Equatorial Guinea and thereby treats a exile or jailed (Silverstein, Liniger-Goumaz, great deal of related issues (anthropologi- Klitgaard, Nerín). cal, political, social, historical, ethnic) Some say that we humanists are ex- some of which will be addressed in the rest periencing an intellectual crisis due to the of the essays. Igor Cusack’s work on “Equa- erosion of foundational knowledge and val- torial Guinea’s Cuisine” and the politics ues. This issue of AJHCS represents not as of nutrition is anything but a guide for a much a refutation that we are in crisis, but prospective tourist searching for that an affirmation of the intellectual excitement country’s best and most authentic restau- (a renewed rigor) that can emerge as a re- rants; it is a fascinating study on how the sult of the questioning of old knowledge. nation’s eating habits are revealed to the Indeed, a series of interrogations are being world community. One might say that posed today by a group of social critics and eating as a cultural practice along with its theorists concerning perceptions and reali- representations reveal a variety of political ties of formerly colonial nations as well as tensions, especially in an area of Africa in the relationships between those postcolonial which many citizens are malnourished. cultures and their past colonizers (Bhabha, They also add complexities to the notion Spivak, Said, Appiah, Ngugi, Ashcroft). of national identity. 110 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies Concluding this section on culture, Equatoguineans. The book is at once an Dosinda García Alvite discusses one of introduction to the culture and literature Spanish Guinea’s most popular cultural of this land as well as a collection of works products, the musical duo from Equatorial (poetry, stories, fragments of novels, essays). Guinea now living in Spain, Las Hijas del Given that Literatura de Guinea Ecuatorial Sol. Perhaps as much of a contemporary is by no means exhaustive, it gives the reader Spanish (peninsu- the impression lar) phenomenon that for such a as a “native” or ex- tiny country with otic one, Las Hijas a relatively small del Sol seems to population, ev- be Spain’s main eryone seems to source of knowl- aspire to being a edge of its former writer—compari- colony.