Equatoguinean Literature in Spanish - Beginnings

Beginnings

The beginnings of Equatoguinean literature in Spanish are connected with La Guinea Española (Spanish Guinea), the missionary journal of the seminary of the Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on the island of Bioko. This journal, which was founded in 1903, was profoundly colonialistic and directed to a white audience; it did not include contributions from Guinean writers. However, in 1947 a new section was added in which writers recorded local stories and myths to "preserve and disseminate" them (their ultimate purpose was to become better acquainted with the Equatoguinean peoples in order to help them civilize). This gave the African Guinean students of the seminary an opportunity to become writers for the journal; at first, they merely transcribed the local oral tradition of the griot or jeli, but gradually, their writing became a bridge between African oral tradition and European written tradition. Among these writers are Esteban Bualo, Andrés IKuga Ebombebombe, and Constantino Ocha'a Mve Bengobesama; they maintained a strong ethnographic component in their writing, but they also set the stage for a new native literature.

The first Equatoguinean novel was Cuando los combes luchaban (Novela de costumbres de la Guinea Española) (When the Kombes Fought: A novel of the customs of Spanish Guinea), by Leoncio Evita Enoy (Udubuandyola, Bata, 1929-), edited in 1953. The novel takes place in Río Muni, among the Kombe or Mdowe ethnic group (that of the author), in a precolonial era. It is written from the point of view of the protagonist, a white Protestant missionary; on occasion, he is used by the author to contrast European civilization with the savagery of African customs, which are explained in detail. This rejection by the author of his own identity, classified under the so-called "literature of consent," was widely used by the Spanish colonial authorities as an example of the civilizing effect of African colonization.

In 1962, the second Equatoguinean novel, Una lanza por el Boabí ("A Spear for the Boabi"), by Daniel Jones Mathama (San Carlos, 1913?-?), was published; it is sometimes erroneously considered to be the first. The protagonist of this novel, Gue, is an African who tells the story of his life. The writing has an autobiographical character; for example, the character Boabi, Gue's father, is based on Maximiliano C. Jones, Daniel Jones Mathama's father, who was a local authority sympathetic to the colonial government. The plot follows Gue's childhood in Fernando Poo, his move to Spain and his return to Guinea after his father's death. From the ethnographic point of view, the novel is very interesting, detailing the customs of the Bubi ethnicity of the island of Bioko. It may also be classified as part of the "literature of consent," since Boabi is the perfect example of a savage who is civilized by contact with the colonizers: "it is an inescapable duty to proclaim far and wide the great work that Spain is doing on that island."

Between 1962 and 1968, the year of Equatorial Guinea's independence, no important works were published; however, some authors continued to edit stories, legends, and ethnographies in various journals: Marcelo Asistencia Ndongo Mba, Constantino Ochaá, Ángel Nguema, Rafael María Nzé, and Francisco Obiang.

In contrast to other African literary traditions, no anticolonial works or works about combat appeared, and poetry did not attain great importance. Also, the authors of the time period attempted to reach the audience of the colonial power, not the local audience.