The Spanish Language of Equatorial Guinea

The Spanish Language of Equatorial Guinea John Lipski is Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at Pennsylvania State University . He has written extensively on the Spanish of Ecuatorial Guinea and its region to indigenous knguages of the area including a major study, The Spanish of Equatorial Guinea, 1985Introduction The Spanish of Equatorial Guinea is one of the bestkept secrets among world languages, and when mentioned , immediately evokes curiosity and wonder. Many people have never even heard of Equatorial Guinea, and few know that Spanish is the official language of a subSaharan African nation. Even fewer have ever heard Equatorial Guiñean Spanish or have any information about its characteristics. Given that Spanish is in contact with several African languages of the Bantu family, some might suppose that Guiñean Spanish would have the characteristics attributed to "Afro-Hispanic" language in previous centuries (e.g. in Golden Age Spain, then in various South American nations, and finally in the Spanish Caribbean), or that it would bear some resemblance to the various Afro-Hispanic and Afro-Portuguese creóle languages found in West Africa and the Caribbean (Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tomé and PrÃ-ncipe, Annobón, Afro-Colombian Palenquero, Papiamentu , etc.). Alternatively, given the minimal usage and proficiency in ex-colonial official languages among many other West African nations, it might be supposed that Spanish has no real presence in Equatorial Guiñean 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 on more general areas of study. Equatorial Guinea consists of the island of Bioko (formerly named Fernando Poo), which contains the capital, Malabo (formerly Santa Isabel), and the continental enclave of Rio Muni (with capital Bata), between Gabon and Cameroon, as well as tiny Annobón Island, located to die south of Sao Tomé. In 1964 Spanish Guinea (as the colony was known) achieved status as an autonomous region, and the nation became independent in 1968 when Spain yielded to international pressure. Despite the lack of colonial independence wars, Equatorial Guinea lurched violently into the post-colonial era with a nightmarish eleven-year regime, headed by Francisco Macias Nguema, which nearly destroyed the country's infrastructure, expelled all foreigners and exiled, jailed or murdered nearly half of the Equatorial Guiñean population. Following the overthrow of Macias in 1979, Equatorial Guinea continues to struggle under the crushing weight of post-colonial destruction and, while highly dependent on Spanish technical aid, has moved gradually into the French sphere of influence in Africa , underlined by the entry of Equatorial Guinea into the CFA monetary zone in the late 1980s. Like most other African nations, Equatorial Guinea contains a variety of ethnic groups, each speaking its own language. The indigenous group on Bioko is the Bubi. Also found in Malabo and its environs are numerous Fernandinos, descendents of pidgin English-speaking freed slaves from Sierra Leone and Liberia, who arrived in Fernando Poo in the nineteenth century, as well as a handful of natives of Sao Tomé and Principe, Cape Verde and other African nations. During the colonial period, nearly half of the island's population consisted of Town of Luba facing the sea. John Lipski 117 Nigerian contract laborers (largely Ibos and Calabars), who worked on the cacao plantations . Although nearly all Nigerians were expelled by the Macias government (and few have returned), this group reinforced the English spoken by the Fernandinos, with the result that nearly all residents of Fernando Poo speak pidgin English. This pidgin language , known as pichi, pichingas or brokeninglis , constitutes the true lingua franca of Fernando Poo/Bioko (Lipski "Pidgin English "). The principal ethnic group in Rio Muni is the Fang, also found in Gabon and Cameroon, who have dominated the remaining groups and have formed the strongest nuclei in...