ekottomagazine
NO. 52 - JULIO 2026
Cultural Magazine - Revista Cultural
TABLE OF CONTENTS
# A Fantastic Month
Jacqueline Miller
Jacqueline Miller
Photos and video
We Are All Still Ruiche
Africa Linguistics Day 2026
Carlos Bolete Lobete
Culture, Society, Plus More
ekottomagazine.com
Ë KOTTÒ, is a magazine of the cultural field in all its disciplines.
We are committed to bringing culture closer to our readers. Our goal is to give visibility to sectors that lack this opportunity of presence in large media platforms.
Our publications will be monthly and will focus on four basic sections and four complementary sections.
EDITORIAL, INFORMATION, INTERVIEWS, ACTIVITIES.
1. EDITORIAL: A general account of a specific topic in each edition.
2. INFORMATION: Its content will be based on learning about our guests' backgrounds, or what could be called their résumés.
3. INTERVIEW. Focused on the professional sphere.
4. ACTIVITY: Focused on our guest's current activities.
OPINION
It is a section for sociocultural opinion articles.
SOKKÒ
It is a section with a variety of socio-cultural news.
POET'S BLOG
A section for poetry and poems.
EMPLUSTV
Ekotto magazine channel on YouTube.
Culture, society, plus more.
With the magazine Ë KOTTÓ, we will bring culture a little closer to our homes.
Editorial
# A FANTASTIC MONTH
The month of June has been magical for the Bubi language and culture.
In this editorial for issue number fifty-two (52) of *Ekottomagazine.com*, we want to highlight the importance of the Bubi language and culture in two settings where the focus on their effective revitalization raised awareness among many attendees.
In early June, the Bubi language cause was in the spotlight at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom.
And, at the end of the same month, at the Spanish Cultural Center in Malabo, the organization Ëvóvë-Ëbóbë organized a strategic seminar on the revitalization of the mother tongues of Equatorial Guinea.
These were two very interesting and important events that highlight the reality of the current state of mother tongues on the African continent.
What is the point of embracing terminology related to Pan-Africanism and Bantu roots if, with each passing day, Africa is losing the foundation of its true identity—one rooted in its mother tongues?
People who, for one reason or another, closely follow how African mother tongues are falling out of everyday use are raising their voices around the world, urging institutions across the African continent to take this historical reality into account.
Africa without its mother tongues is a Westernized Africa. What is Africa without its uniqueness on the face of the Earth?
Keep reading the cultural magazine *Ekottò*. We are obsessed with the cultures of the world and, in a special way, with African cultures and the living presence of their mother tongues.
Story
JACQUELINE MILLER
Dr. Jacqueline Miller, Hon. DHL (Humanities), is a multidisciplinary artist, Kuumba practitioner, Circle Keeper, and Creative Reparations practitioner whose work explores the intersections between creativity, memory, and cultural repair. Through healing-centered art and community-centered practices, she helps individuals and communities reclaim their own creative voice, lived experience narratives, and lineage of wisdom disrupted by historical and contemporary systems of erasure.
Inspired by her own search for ancestral belonging and identity, Jacqueline’s work centers remembering those who came before us, restoration, and the power of creative expression as pathways toward healing and collective repair.
Here’s the story. I remember the room before I understood the weight of it. There was space in the center, and the walls were labeled Europe, Asia, Mexico, Spain. It felt like a simple exercise. Something educational. Something neutral. We were told to move and “Go stand where your great-great-grandparents are from.”
People moved quickly. They seemed to know where to go before they had to think too hard about it.
Then there were those of us who didn’t. We stayed in the center.
Not because we didn’t want to move, but because we didn’t know where to go. No wall called us. No country held us with certainty. No direction felt fully true.
We were standing still, but something inside of me was moving, trying to reach, trying to remember, trying to make sense of a question that didn’t have a clear answer.
The facilitator spoke again. “Move to where your grandparents are from.” Then, “Move to where your parents are from.”
History didn’t move us across the room. It placed us in the middle.
That was the first time I felt it. Not confusion. However, occasional sadness. It was something deeper.
After that day, something stayed with me. It demanded my attention.
I started noticing the way people talked about where they were “from.” The ease and certainty of it. The pride that came with naming a place, a people, a story that had not been interrupted. I couldn’t say the same.
What I had were fragments. Stories passed down in pieces. Names that weren’t known. Places that started in the United States, as if that was the beginning of my lineage.
I began to ask questions inside myself.
Where was I from before here?
What was taken that I don’t even know to look for?
What did my ancestors know that I don’t yet understand?
One day my baby sister handed me a small box and said, “This is for you. You like stuff like that.” She handed me a DNA kit. I was ecstatic that she thought of me. She knows who much I value our history. After seeing the results of that test, I learned about the test that does more than provide percentages. It tells you match with land and people. I knew the results would be across the waters. However, I was unfamiliar with a place called “Equatorial Guinea” that is a paradise, sacred land with beaches, rich in palm oil and approximately 88 degrees? Totally made sense. That’s what I have always dreamed of.
My results reminded me of that dream. The center of the room that I stood in 15 years ago, came back to me. This confirms that the place where my roots lay that had been separated, renamed, and rearranged was not erased despite the many attempts.
I immediately researched to see the people, their faces, the children, the animals, the sand and everything else to fill the void that I carried for decades by not knowing where my roots lay.
As I sat with the results, I remembered that body had been holding parts of this story all along.
I then had a deeper understanding that my body carries adaptations from places that required awareness, strength, and endurance for survival’s sake. Adaptations were drawn from inherited intelligence. I recognize how history lives in our bodies. I realize how stress can be passed down, how environments shape health and how resilience and exhaustion can exist at the same time.
I stopped asking, “What’s wrong with me?” “My body learned to adapt to survive.”
As of 2021, I think about the center of that room now. The center is no longer a place of absence. It’s a place where the facilitator’s prompts followed me to a community meeting where our ancestors were being named and honored. I was saddened by only being able to go so far with my ancestors’ name while not knowing the place where their roots lay. This was no longer acceptable for me as I thought about how I would feel if my grandchildren did not know my name, my history nor where I lived. That was not acceptable.
So, my DNA didn’t give me an identity. It gave me language for what was already within me.
I am from people who lived full lives before they were ever displaced. I am from people who endured the unimaginable and still passed something forward.
I am here and not to stay in the center with no place to move, no opportunity to honor and not fully recover.
The center was the beginning of my return.
In 2021, I received my African name Wakabootye which means lover of nature and art. I have been fulfilling my name for decades since my birth.
As a researcher, artist, and thought leader whose work centers art as a site of human dignity and repair, based on my work and lived experiences, I chose to complete a dissertation as a contribution to the field. Through my dissertation, I examine how early experiences with creative expression shape how individuals come to understand their value. My work introduces the concept of value repair that highlights how storytelling, memory, and artistic practice can restore dignity when it has been overlooked or misunderstood. I create spaces for reflection, connection, and healing through public offerings, circles, and community-centered engagement.
The body of my work argues that African and diasporic creativity especially children’s art was interrupted through systems that extracted culture, eliminated sources, and converted living knowledge into files. Through circular visual frameworks, embodied memory, and ancestral return, the project reframes repair as restoration of context rather than correction of expression.
My framework restores creativity to its original function as knowledge, positions children as theorists, treats the body as archive, and understands repair as cyclical return rather than linear resolution.
The scope of my work also highlights enslavement as creative interruption by removing African children from family, land, lineage; severing cyclical systems of learning and creativity as survival under constraint.
Film, Television, Theater, Songwriting
Background work with Empire, The Chi, Chicago Med, Chicago PD & Chicago Fire
Background work with Robert Townsend’s Of Boys to Men
Background work for The Princess Ajayla Movie
Principle Role with Cyber Hoax and Battered Clergy
Two original songs on Battered Clergy Soundtrack
Covenant
Joy
Gospel Music Recording Artist, Victoria
I’m In His Will
One of His Miracles
Music Performances
Apollo Theater, Harlem NY
Pre-Grammy Awards Showcase
Public Art
City of San Marcos
Published Poet & Spoken Word Artist
Featured Artist
Published “When the River Speaks”
San Marcos Record, San Marcos, TX
Jazz & Poetry Performance
Museum Debut
More Than One of Us
Hooray for June 19th
Playwright
Walking In Black Patent Heels
Reclaiming Our Crowns
Interview
JACQUELINE MILLER
Ko bóyálo è Wakabootye? Kawele?
Thank you for accepting our invitation.
1. You recently received an Honorary Doctorate in Humanities. Congratulations! Your dissertation discussed “art as a site of human dignity”. Please tell us about the relationship between art and human dignity.
Potoo! I am honored to have received such a high recognition of the decades of laboring in love. One of the first forms of art that one makes is a “mark or a line.” Neither of them is, just a mark. It is presence, expression, authorship and risk. Even before language is fully formed, children often make a mark. This says, “I am here.”
2. Please talk about some of your findings from your research on creativity in the African Diaspora. What is erased creativity, survival creativity, and free creativity?
My research on creativity within the African Diaspora does not reduce the sacred and embodied dimensions of human expression by positioning creativity as leisure, entertainment or extracurricular. Creativity is understood as a living knowledge system. It is one that carries memory, relationship, survival, ritual, and continuity across generations. Creativity is essential. It moved with the drum and carried echoes of instruction and return. The enslavement of African children was forced from the African continent, violent separation from family, suppression of language, ritual and art, functioned as a systemic interruption of creative development. Enslavement of African people often is framed as exploited labor, severing of ties from land, language and family resulting in psychological trauma. I have spent time going deeper within to search for hidden and erased areas of theft such as creativity that African people were born into. Art, music, storytelling, design, movement, adornment, rhythm, and craft were integrated into daily life and learning. African children were removed at ages when creativity is most developmentally expansive. How cruel to be punished for expressive practices such as song, drumming, drawing, language and play. This was deliberate suppression of imaginative capacity. Creativity was transmitted intergenerationally, learned through observation and ritual that was reinforced and encouraged by elders, and community. I traced my own “line” and asked, “How did creativity survive despite interruption?” Creativity is evidence of resilience. I did not stop at an analysis of the interruption of creativity as a result of enslavement. I have and continue to promote, emphasis and make space for unapologetic and this radical contribution as an advocate of the necessity of repair. I created a creative reparations model that includes ancestral recognition by reclaiming play and artistic expression, refusal to critique Black children’s art through Eurocentric standards, art without extraction, grading or pressure to produce and adults unlearning their own internalized creative suppression. Healing and repair are in the making.
3. When you took your DNA test, you found that your ancestral roots come from the Bubi people from Bioko Island and you received a Bubi name, Wakabootye. How did this impact your life?
Another rich question for this interview that I absolutely love. Potoo. Receiving my name, Wakabootye was so impactful that I asked several people to send me a recording of them saying my new name. I wanted to hear the sounds, syllables, breath and pacing in different voices. I imagined myself being called Wakabootye as a child. As I often did as a child, I created a game centering “Waka.” I learned that Waka is a sacred meaning for canoe or vessel. It is more than transportation. It represents lineage and carrying people across waters. Also, Waka is a style of music in parts of West Africa. It is rooted in rhythm and storytelling.
4. You have stated that creativity contains ancestral memory. What has your ancestral memory revealed to you?
Oh this question. Through creativity, my ancestral memory revealed the connection our ancestors had with elephants and the maternal depth, healing and return they hold. After embarking upon a deeply consecration to heal from trauma, I began painting. As my process and technique was to allow my body to guide my use of colors, rhythm, pace and direction, I noticed that elephants would emerge. I noticed a pattern of their appearance in addition to places I would see artwork of them in various places outside of my home. After learning that elephants carry deep emotions that are similar to humans. While I was on a trip with a group who had planned a visit to the local zoo, and just as I experienced as a child on school fieldtrips everyone was looking to see the elephants. This was a very different experience for me. I saw three elephants who were separated from one another via gates. I then reflected on what I learned about elephants. The one I perceived to be the mother, continued returning to the smaller ones reaching her trunk inside the gate and making physical content with both, trunk to trunk. After a few minutes, the elephant walked away and was no longer visible. I noticed her head and body sunken in. I noticed her sad face when walking away. There was a bucket of food and water placed there for her. She refused. I again, reflected on elephant’s intelligence and matriarchal ways of knowing and remembering. My hope is that they be reunited together with their herd and their home. I look forward to sharing more of my deep embodied experience of elephants.
5. Your poem “Self” is a very honest and powerful poem. You said you wanted to stop ignoring yourself and be your true self. What inspired you to write this poem? What do you hope people will take away from it when they hear it?
What inspired me to write “Self” was the differences I experience pre and post learning about where my roots lay and who my “tribe” is. I fluctuated back and forth on which self I would be based on which sounded the best at the moment or which I could be most proud of. This means, I was unsettled and unaccepting of my whole self. Learning Bubi affirmations settled the case for me. Etyo, words and language is so powerful especially when using and speaking to affirm your “Self.” I want others who might hear the poem to reflect on themselves and “To thyself be true.”
6. You are the founding director of your organization, Healthy Actions Intervening Responsibly. Please tell us about what your organization does.
. Healthy Actions Intervening Responsibly has evolved over the past eight years from primarily focusing on Black girls who are adultified to improving conditions and systems that them and their families come into contact with. H.A.I.R. provides training and technical assistance all audiences who are interested in the well-being and safety of Black girls.
7. You have been a domestic violence and empowerment advocate for 30 years. You have spent a lifetime helping to improve people's lives. How does it feel when you see a person’s life transform for the better? How important is community care to you?
When I see a person’s life transform for the better, as a result of my work, I feel a deeply and immense embodiment of “knowing” and joy. Because we are all connected not only as human but we are connected with nature as well. I find it affirming that when resources come together both time, responsibility, connectivity, intelligence and the human spirit, everyone can be restored to wellness and wholeness. Community care is important to me because it is essential for wellness and the oncoming generations.
8. Your poem, “Friend of the River,” talks about protecting the river and keeping it clean. Tell us about your B.A.N.G.L.E.S. project and how it incorporates practices that protect the environment.
My B.A.N.G.L.E.S project protects the environment by not handling plastic as if it disposable. I have taken my inquiry of materials that are often disposed to learning about the theory of “waste.” As a visual person, I thought of the Atlantic Ocean and the impact of it being used as dumping place for unwanted materials I felt disrespectful to our ancestors. I consider “friends” as stewards and responsible for caring for Mother Earth and all of her goods including handling her offspring with care. That includes water. I am thrilled to be a new faculty member of the Global Institute that bridges African diasporans with those on the African continent. My B.A.N.G.L.E.S. project is offered as a virtual six-week master course.
9. Your art piece entitled “Abundance” was chosen to be shown at The Community Galleria. How did it feel to be one of twenty artists chosen to be a part of the exhibit? Tell us about the inspiration behind that piece.
I was completely ecstatic when I received the email announcing the acceptance of “Abundance” for the Inaugural Community Gallery at my local City Hall. It was my first public art display and it was juried. I had recently come out of writings and reflections on scarcity and abundance mindsets.
10. One of the things that your work centers around is cultural repair. For the people in the African Diaspora, whose connection to their ancestral heritage was disconnected, what strategies would you suggest to repair that cultural connection? What cultural repair strategies have you personally implemented for your own life?
The strategies I suggest for people in the African Diaspora to repair the ancestral heritage and ties from cultural connection is to search and trace their roots. One of the critical strategies that took place during enslavement was forcing African Diasporans off the continent. Being forced off the land, severed family ties, stripped them of their identity and made use of their mother tongue illegal. For decades, I felt an identity void. I felt deeply sorrowful about not knowing the names of my fore parents. I regularly heard everyone have roots that lay in Africa. I would not be satisfied until I learn what part and place in Africa does my roots lay? I was unsettled by not having that information. After returning to my home city after being away for nearly a decade, I reconnected with the community through various projects related to safety, community engagement and youth empowerment. As a result of these opportunities, my desire to learn about my ancestral heritage became stronger as community meetings opened with libations and calling the names of those who came before us. This was to acknowledge their sacrifice and labor of love. My sister told me that she had a gift for me. I eagerly awaited to receive it. After she handed me a DNA kit, I thought I must have in some way given my family the impression that I desired to trace our roots. While handing me the kit, my sister said “this is for you. You like stuff like this.” It felt like a gold mine right in my hands. I waited and watched for the results multiple times a day. The results were in. Just as I felt and “knew.” My roots trace back to those who were forced off of the land whose mother tongue was removed and made illegal to use in new and foreign lands we were taken to. Within six months, I sought out a Rites of Passage journey. Water Ways led by two community leaders was at its birthing point. I became the first recipient of its inauguration. Over the course of a year and a half, my sense of “knowing” with its goods and treasures within me were unlocked, discovered and explored. Five years later, the void I initially felt has been filled. Clarity has manifested and my return to being whole and walking and living as my whole, divine and sacred self.
11. You are a gospel music recording artist. Please tell us about that experience.
I come from a family of singers on my father’s side. There is a history gospel music artists within my family. I remember many days as a child that our family gathered in the front room exchanging laughter, conversation and gospel songs. What started at home spilled out into the community, schools and churches. Many days while being alone and sitting quietly, I would hear songs that comforted, soothed and inspired me. Very soon, I began to write my own as forms of creative expression. During long drives, I found myself singing – new songs, original songs. I decided to make a demo of three songs and shared them with various groups of people. I later realized that I’d been writing songs for a long time but decided to take it to another level. As my interest grew in the genre of gospel music I decided to audition for a showcase. This was to test my confidence and overcome my fear of public performance. I was selected to participate in the Road to Stardom Showcase. The results of that performance was an all-expenses paid trip to Harlem, NY at the infamous Apollo Theater. Winning was not my goal, endurance was. I returned to my home city with the testimony that I overcame my music mistakenly being erased meaning I dared to sing my song acapella. A year later, I was invited to perform at the pre-grammy awards showcase. Three years later, two of my original gospel songs were recorded by gospel singer and artist in the Dreamgirls Stage play. A year later, three of my original gospel songs were selected as film tracks for two independent film, Cyber Hoax and Battered Clergy.
12. When you performed at the Jazz and Poetry event, we hear your singing voice alongside your spoken word poetry. Is this a style we will hear more from you?
That is definitely the plan. I have several upcoming performances during a Juneteenth event and well as a jazz and poetry encore. My collection of poetry and music is in the making.
13. Your character in the play, “In the Name of Love” is very funny. Do you like playing comedic characters?
That is a great question. I can’t say that I like playing comedic characters mainly because it is way out of my comfort zone. Although I love laughter and find joy in it, I never considered myself as comedic. Usually in roles such as the one “In the Name of Love” I have to do a lot of inner work to release and let loose. My inner-child is what helps me to bring the comedic side out.
14. You are an interdisciplinary artist. You write and perform spoken word poetry, create visual art, sing and song write, and write plays. Do you have a favorite form of artistic expression? Is there a new form of artistic expression you would like to try?
Just when I thought I had a favorite form of artistic expression, I discovered I had other forms such as moving from music and songwriting to poetry to songwriting, to fashion designing to visual art and now dance, choreography and writing a comic book. As I am currently completing a course in art therapy, I am listening deeply for what new form of artistic expression that wants to emerge. One of the other forms of artistic expression I am pursuing is learning to play the acoustic guitar as an accompaniment instrument on my poetry.
Thank you for sharing your story with us. Is there anything else you would like to say to the readers of Ë Kottò magazine?
Potoo, Potoo. I am deeply grateful for this opportunity. This interview caused me to remember many of the opportunities and experiences that I didn’t remember mainly because I was naturally doing them as forms of creative outlets and expressions rather than as “goals to do or be” such as one does on career paths. With that being said, I just remembered an experience that takes me back to “gospel music.” My curiosity and love for Mahalia Jackson, who was proclaimed to be “The World’s Greatest Gospel Singer” during her time, led me to the front door of her Chicago Southside home. Towards the end of reading her bibliography, a picture of her home was in the book. I decided to visit there, knock on the door and ask the resident(s) if they knew they were in Mahalia Jackson’s home. To my surprise, the door was answered where the occupants were new owners and were indeed aware they were living in “The World’s Greatest Gospel Singer’s” home. The new owners were high profile city officials. This experience encouraged me to knock on doors even when uncertain who’s behind them. It is very well possible that you will have a hands-on encounter with history.
Activity
First commissioned multimedia art piece
A long time dream to create a comic book manifested in a handcrafted version of a gouache painting for a realistic and embodied experience of turning the pages.
Inauguration of my artwork on public display at a City Hall community gallery in Texas.
This piece was created and featured during my facilitation of a Healing Elements of the Arts Civil Rights Project with youth and staff of ABJ Civic Arts Center.
Layers of Liberation this artwork emerged during times of stillness in 2020.
Commotion Ink abstract artwork created by ink and acrylic. Juried for a City Hall Arts Gallery.
OPINION
BÖSUBÓBBÈ MAY MATA
We Are All Still Ruiche
The cancellation, for the second consecutive year, of the mother tongue event organized by the Evobe association on the island of Bioko is a great loss for our culture and for all those committed to preserving our mother tongue.
We are referring, of course, to the event that the Evobe Association held every year on the island of Bioko to commemorate International Mother Language Day. Whether up close or from afar, many of us witnessed thousands of people gathering to celebrate culture and highlight the importance of using our mother tongue.
This event was a true gem: a magnet capable of attracting tourists from all over the world, because language and culture are just as valuable as our beaches and waterfalls. Nations that have known how to protect and promote their cultural heritage have understood that identity can also become a source of wealth and development.
One cannot help but wonder: Why is there so much talk about promoting mother tongues if we are unable to sustain an event that did precisely that—promote and honor a mother tongue? The Evobe Mother Tongue Festival was a serious, well-organized event with a clear vision. By canceling an event of this magnitude, what message are we sending to future generations? That our languages and cultures are expendable? That their preservation isn’t worth the collective effort?
Those of us committed to preserving our mother tongue must insist and urge the institutions and relevant authorities to bring this event back. And this is not a plea for compassion or a supplication. It is about recognizing an obvious merit. We should all thank Evobe for the wisdom and courage to have created a festival capable of bringing together the island’s peoples alongside guests from different corners of the globe.
Let’s consider a perfectly plausible scenario. Imagine that just 500 visitors—members of the diaspora, African Americans of Bubi descent, or others interested in our culture—travel to Bioko to attend the event. If each were to spend an average of 800 euros on lodging, restaurants, transportation, and the purchase of handicrafts and traditional products, the economic impact could exceed 400,000 euros—that is, around 262 million CFA francs. Although this is merely an estimate, it suffices to illustrate the enormous economic potential of a cultural initiative of this nature.
Can we afford to ignore an event with such economic and cultural potential? The loss is not merely financial. Every edition that is not held represents a missed opportunity to strengthen our identity, pass on our mother tongue to new generations, and showcase Bioko’s cultural richness to the world.
Because a language that is no longer spoken is also a part of our collective memory that is at risk of disappearing. Defending our mother tongue is, ultimately, defending our history, our identity, and our future.
BÖSUBÓBBÈ MAY MATA
SOKKÒ
TIMELY NEWS
THE BUBI LANGUAGE FEATURED AT
AFRICAN LINGUISTICS DAY 2026
UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX
UNITED KINGDOM, LONDON
BÖSUBÓBBÈ MAY MATA
1. What was your first experience like participating in an international event dedicated to African languages, where the Bubi language was represented?
The experience was truly enriching. I felt a sense of responsibility to represent our Bubi language with the greatest possible dignity and to give it the place it deserves within the landscape of African languages.
The overwhelming majority of attendees, despite being specialists in Bantu studies and African languages in general, had never heard of the Bubi language before, which sparked enormous interest and curiosity. When I began to speak about the geographical location of the Bubi people, their origins, and their language, I felt that the time had come to talk about us beyond the former colonial power, Spain.
Likewise, it was particularly enriching to share experiences with renowned experts from different parts of the world, including researchers from Malawi, Burundi, Sudan, Ghana, Botswana, and Madagascar. I had the opportunity to learn about the sociolinguistic situation in some of these African countries. I felt a healthy sense of admiration upon learning that in Malawi, virtually 100 percent of the population communicates in their mother tongue and that this language has a well-established presence in the education system.
I also learned about the challenges faced by schools in Ghana regarding the teaching and use of mother tongues. All in all, I believe it was an extremely enriching experience for all participants.
At the end of my presentation, I received numerous questions about the Bubi people and their language. In fact, we had to extend the time allotted for discussion, since for many of these experts—who are accustomed to working with Africa’s vast linguistic diversity—encountering the reality of the Bubi people was a true revelation.
2. Do you consider meetings like this to be an ideal platform for advocating for and promoting the development of the Bubi language?
Without a doubt, and that was precisely one of the main objectives of my participation. I took the opportunity to highlight the challenges currently facing the Bubi language, including its gradual decline in use among children, adolescents, and young adults; the rapid spread of Pidgin; the language’s limited presence in the media; and the interruption of intergenerational transmission.
Regarding language revitalization initiatives, attendees were able to watch a short video—available on social media—about the Evobe Mother Tongue Event. During my presentation, I highlighted the extraordinary work this organization has been carrying out on the island through this event. Participants were shown footage of people enjoying traditional cuisine, cultural presentations, and various activities aimed at promoting and celebrating the Bubi language. I also explained the important role Evobe has played in raising awareness among the Bubi population about the need to preserve and actively use their language. Many of the attendees—experts in African history, cultures, and languages—were deeply impressed by the images and the scope of this initiative.
However, after presenting these positive aspects, the most difficult part of the presentation arrived. I had to inform the attendees that the event has been suspended since 2025. I explained that this situation may represent not just a step backward, but many steps backward in the struggle to preserve and revitalize our language.
Indeed, this work of raising awareness and fostering understanding has been one of the main objectives of the efforts carried out by Evobe through the Mother Tongue Event. When it is held again, many of us will understand that the commitment to the revitalization of mother tongues is a serious one.
3. Based on this experience, what short- and medium-term measures would you propose to promote the recovery and revitalization of the Bubi language?
In the short term, I believe it is essential to resume the Evobe Mother Tongue Event. The groundwork has already been laid; we are not starting from scratch. Evobe has more than proven its experience and organizational capacity, so it would suffice to allow the continuation of an initiative that has already yielded very positive results.
I believe this event is one of the most effective tools currently at our disposal for revitalizing our language. It is difficult to understand how one can claim a commitment to revitalizing mother tongues while, at the same time, preventing the holding of one of the main forums dedicated precisely to that goal. It would be comparable to claiming a desire to promote sports among children and young people while closing stadiums and sports centers.
In the medium term, I consider it essential to work toward ensuring an effective presence of the Bubi language both in the education system and in society at large, especially through the media. However, all of this will only be possible if the population is fully aware of the importance of using and passing on our language.
Indeed, this work to raise awareness and foster understanding has been one of the main objectives of the efforts carried out by Evobe through the Mother Tongue Event. When this event is held again, many of us will understand that the commitment to the revitalization of mother tongues is genuine.
STRATEGIES FOR THE REVITALIZATION OF NATIVE LANGUAGES
BENJAMIN CHONI LOLA
1. The end of June was very rewarding for all culture lovers. Ekotto Magazine wasn’t physically present, but we were there in spirit and in thought at the seminar organized by Ëvóvë-Ëbóbë at the Spanish Cultural Center in Malabo (CCEM). Do you think this event was worthwhile?
Of course it was, as many of the attendees said so and have suggested organizing similar events every year in other parts of the country. Of the 79 people who registered, 62 participated in the seminar, and of those, 59 received certificates. Of those who received certificates, 53% were women. This seminar is likely the first one organized in Equatorial Guinea on the topic of revitalizing mother tongues, and—as in other sectors—more such events should be organized to train and motivate teachers, broadcasters, program hosts, researchers, and the linguistic communities working with mother tongues.
2. Based on the research conducted, can it be confirmed that the mother tongues of Equatorial Guinea are in danger of extinction, or that some are more at risk than others?
In the sociolinguistic study conducted by the Ëvóvë/Ëbóbe Association during the 2019 Ëbóbë Event in the village of Bososo, it was concluded that Bubi is not the language of communication between parents and children, and that a higher percentage of women than men between the ages of 15 and 35 do not know how to speak Bubi. These findings, along with others I have not mentioned, indicate that our language is dying out. Studies by Professor Dr. Justo Bolekia Boleká and those conducted by UNESCO also indicate that the Bubi language is in danger of extinction. The same can be said of the other languages of Equatorial Guinea, as none are officially taught in the country’s schools, despite the government’s rhetoric in recent years about implementing policies to strengthen national languages. It is true that some national languages are more at risk of extinction than others due, in my opinion, to a lack of awareness among the population or the linguistic community itself, since the use of national languages at home and in many other settings is not prohibited. During the seminar, one woman said that there is no way to revitalize and strengthen her mother tongue because her indigenous communities have disappeared due to the coexistence of people from other majority languages and cultures in the country and intermarriage between people from different ethnic groups.
3. In the specific case of the Bubi language, is there, following that seminar, any urgent plan for its revitalization?
The seminar was primarily intended for people engaged in activities to strengthen the mother tongues of Equatorial Guinea, such as teachers, broadcasters, translators, radio and television program hosts in mother tongues, writers, researchers, cultural facilitators, etc. The participants were briefed on the reasons for revitalizing the mother tongues of Equatorial Guinea, a basic overview of languages at risk of extinction, the agents of language revitalization, the linguistic ecosystem, and social engagement; and, finally, the experience of the Ëvóvë Association in revitalizing the Bubi language over the ten years we have been holding the Ëvóvë-Ëbóbë event—from 2014 to 2024—was presented.
At the end of the seminar, the following proposals were made for the revitalization of our country’s native languages: to continue raising public awareness about the danger of extinction facing our languages; to use native languages especially at home and wherever people meet others with whom they can communicate; to continue carrying out language-strengthening activities in villages, in schools, on the radio, on television, and online, and that the government develop language policies that promote the development of our languages and our identities.
4. We know that the decision to once again enjoy a sea of colors celebrating Bubi Mother Tongue Day is not in Ëvóvë’s hands. Is there any hope that such a day will come again?
The Ëvóvë Association has not stopped organizing activities to strengthen the Bubi language and culture, even though it is no longer possible to bring together, as before, nearly all the villages of Bioko in one place for a week to celebrate Bubi Mother Tongue Day. It’s possible that government authorities will once again authorize these activities, but I don’t think it will be the same as in past years, since there is a great deal of discouragement among the volunteers who used to organize them; no one—or almost no one—has believed the official explanation given for why the Ëvóvë/Ëbóbë events were banned and why large gatherings in a single town were prohibited. As long as some of us are still alive, we will not stop seeking other strategies for the revitalization of our language and culture—the Bubi language and culture.
Poet's Blog
ËBARI LË ÁTTO*
Na halló ë bisóppí biè ërubba bí pérö booba habba hellá hè *Iobotyobotyo* na ë työkkó ë tyí há séttaèlla.
I búbbú ya ítyí ë bëḿpo biáö, ë itóhi rí a tyátyöri a bańtanta bá batté, ëá ba sèro o hèya.
Ërubba è ëbari ë la béëla i kólla, ë áttë ënné ë työkkó kè ëhuèhuè è billó immá.
Na halló, lèllo, há la hḾmèlla ribötyö rihè, habba hellá ha la ríöbba relá.
Hè habba na ë rihólè ri ókkama a bahuèe.
Hè habba hellá, ë ribolló bötéllo, há la áttëa bihuto, há la akkó bësörí la binëkánëkka, na bi tyáa öppá’a ká bí la huëa.
Ëtyé ë ribötyö rá ömma ri la papèlla'ë, káhò ette ri la sétella há rá bötyö wellá.
Ë ripë’u ri la mpölla rè, i nö’ó lë bisalóle, la la työtyóbia ö tösòpísòpi tö la tyiálla tö ë télle bötèllo.
Ë bëtyíö bí la sáalló billakó,
kóri ötyòma bí tyá síbba télle ná iláppu la wera ë bësekka biá betyö.
Ë bilabba biè úwèró a labbé: a baiè tyía ókkia sibèllö samuáe sí pusálle la bòllá. Ë bétyibi lë birikiriki bi bá úberi ë rihólè rá bòllá bábbò. Ëmmai a baíssö bëllé!
Ë billó bí la úkuba kasökasö.
I nokkò ná yè la lëkèlla ba
a bëtyö la púplla o hutya ö löréi, ë ripé’ám ri ta beí hábba wá’é, tyálla tyóo tótora obbó, Tyá sóttë ë bihóttö bí hétte.
Ë riökkö rí húbièria abëtyö,
ë biátto bí hétyió kua yá bëkotto.
Ë ibarityiö, ë ëhuéhué ë po hétyölla sótte ë biúhá bi lépeya biè i nabba yáó attá.
Ë bësotyi biè itóhi bi la pélla ö tókkó tö booba.
Hè amma bá la rá i hḾmè yá batyílé babbò, hé bellá bá la hútta ë ibekké biábo, bá la mpura ë biéllá biábo, bá háam *bëlokko biè ëkura*.
*(Lösöbbé) Bolete Lobete*
If here the dewdrops water the earth, there is a place where the *desert* and the drought never end.
Dust invades our nostrils; the sun completely dries out the leaves on the trees.
The morning dew heralds the rains; the drought heralds the heat of each day.
If here, today, new life sprouts, elsewhere another fades away.
There is a place where love unites families.
There is another place where hatred breaks the bonds; ropes are braided with vines—those that will soon be untied.
Where one’s life begins, another’s ends.
The sprouting shoot, the banana groves, and the malanga plants absorb the sap they find in their path.
Some work at night because the night never obstructs the way if light illuminates the path of mortals.
Good deeds have turned bad: parents are so agitated they have no time for their children. Hard work and social media have robbed them of their children’s love. Woe to their wives!
The days grow dark quickly.
While their eyes slumber, men learn to rise early in search of bread; though the reward is not enough, the goal is to satisfy their hunger—until the hours pass.
Joy has faded from their faces; the afternoons are draped in mourning.
In the mornings, the heat can strip bare even the bones that rest beneath our skin.
The sun’s rays reach the earth’s core.
Some feed on the sweat of their ancestors; others prop themselves up on their elbows, filling their stomachs—they resemble *slaves to drink.*
*Carlos Bolete Lobete*
*Lösöbé*
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Ë KOTTÒ
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Diversity Ëtyö Project
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Barbara May
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Tomás May Pelico
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Böhulá
Colaboration
Eduardo May Mata
ISSN 2833-4124
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