Equatorial Guinea, the only African country to use Spanish as an official language, is an example of how a uniquely African sociolinguistic setting challenges linguists to develop a new approach to examining the reality of linguistic ‘decolonization’ in a multilingual country which is deeply divided along ethnic, political and linguistic lines.
The tiny country of Equatorial Guinea, encapsulates, from a linguistic perspective, an exceptionally complex model of postcolonial ambivalence towards the colonizing language , and a perfect case study for the development of a new theoretical framework that can be used to approach a uniquely African sociolinguistic setting. The use of Spanish as an official language in the multi-ethnic, multilingual state of Equatorial Guinea remains, in the minds of many, the linguistic thread holding a deeply divided society together. Ngugi wa Tiong'o's call for the abandonment of European languages in Africa carried unwelcome echoes of the banning of Spanish in 1968, by Macías Nguema, which had catastrophic consequences for this society. Surrounded by English, French and Portuguese speaking countries, Equatorial Guinea's ruling elite have also not hesitated to use language as a tool in their quest for ever-greater economic expansion. The recent discovery of rich oil reserves in Equatorial Guinean waters has created a new linguistic reality, with neocolonialist overtones. These efforts to manipulate an already fraught postcolonial linguistic setting have come at the expense of any official support for the various indigenous languages of this multilingual society, adding to the sense of alienation and disempowerment felt by many Equatorial Guineans. Kwame Appiah (1991), describes postcoloniality as 'a condition of pessimism', and it could certainly be argued that the future for the indigenous languages spoken in Equatorial Guinea looks bleak. This paper will explore, through the lens of Equatorial Guinea, how Equatorial Guinean citizens have been let down by an exoglossic language policy that fails to recognize their African cultural and linguistic reality. I will also explore the role of external actors, particularly Spanish cultural institutions in perpetuating the cycle of linguistic, post-colonial damage.
