ekottomagazine
TABLA DE CONTENIDOS
Ëtyö TV
Cultural Resistance
Wë Bötyö
Photos and videos
Videos and social media
Digital Survival
Ëtyö TV
Food
Nuevo single de Mastho Ribocho, obra literaria El patuá jamaicano tiene Ëtyö Palabras de Audrey McLaren, Löbëla de Justo Bolekia Boleká, Vövíla (Palmera africana) de Mario Mulé Ribala.
Soésiöbo and Carlos Bolete Lobete
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 we will focus on four basic sections and four complementary ones.
INFORMATION, INTERVIEWS, ACTIVITY AND PROMOTION, and SOKKÒ, ËTYÖ LAÖTYA, OPINION y EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL
A general story on a specific theme of each edition.
INFORMATION: Its content will be based on knowing the path of our guests. That is, what you could call their biography.
2. INTERVIEW. Focused on the professional field.
3. ACTIVITY: Focused on our guest's current affairs.
4. PROMOTION: Publicize everything related to the works of our guest or in its case what it believes necessary to promote related to his or her professional work.
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.
ËTYÖ LAÖTYA
It is a section of learning and knowledge about the Bóbë-Bubi identity in its different manifestations.
With the magazine Ë KOTTÓ, we will bring culture a little closer to our homes.
Editorial
CULTURAL RESISTANCE
Yes, cultural resistance, with a capital R.
The demise of a culture does not depend exclusively on its use and transmission to future generations; sometimes it depends on many factors.
It is true that one of the most important and effective priorities is its use, learning, and transmission, but believe me, this editorial is not the result of what is sometimes pejoratively called victimhood, because in one way or another, even if it is not conclusive, we are sure that any historian or professional statistician could confirm this view.
It is not easy to maintain an ancestral or linguistic culture in such a small territorial space for many centuries, whether it is the center of social mobility where the great linguistic cultures of the world have set foot or continue to set foot in a small territorial space of barely 2,017 km2, and where the native inhabitants are not numerous enough to resist so much pressure from linguistic diversity and variety. However, despite the adversities, the native language and cultural expressions of the indigenous people can still be heard.
Humans, if they are not extremely conscious, tend to always choose what they understand to be useful for their intellectual development and improvement of their lives, a consequence that often leaves ancestral identity behind. Is this a law of life?
The case of the Bubi language and culture has its pros and cons. As a language and culture that is part of the so-called Bantu languages, it has a particularity that allows it to take advantage of its uniqueness in its cultural expressions, which are almost unique in the African spectrum. However, this same uniqueness sometimes has its limits, as the linguistic part does not have a linguistic community that is linked to another language in Africa, unlike other communities that do not have to resort to a Western language to communicate with their peers.
It is true that this isolation is gradually being broken, as science has found a solution whereby many descendants of the Bubi people who were taken far from the land of their ancestors to the continents of Europe and America are recovering their identity. And, in the case of the Bubi, every day there is more scientific evidence identifying many cases related to the Bubi people, which means that there is hope that the Bubi language and culture, and their cultural resistance, may not be in vain, as many of these children are already learning the language and its cultural expressions.
This does not mean that the Bubi culture and language, as human heritage, do not need protection, empathy, and transmission, first by their speakers by nature so that new generations receive the legacy of their ancestors, learn and transmit their mother tongue and culture, but the departments of cultural and educational power, their moral contribution to the protection of this human heritage is very important and necessary.
Etyotv.com is a modest tool that, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by new technologies, contributes its grain of sand to this cultural resistance, creating content that can be used by anyone who wants to be part of this spirit of solidarity in this cultural resistance, so that this bad dream never comes true and the Bubi language never disappears from the face of the earth.
Historia
ËTYÖ TV
EtyoTV is a project exclusively in the Bubi mother tongue, with subtitles in English and Spanish.
One of the main objectives of this project is to broadcast its content in the format of an Internet television channel, until it achieves the status of a conventional channel.
At the moment, its content is launched via a website and uploaded to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.
The financial resources that this project may obtain in the future, through private contributions, public or corporate subsidies, will be an opportunity to fulfill this dream of protecting a language that is in danger of disappearing from the face of the earth if this nightmare is not reversed. At the moment, we have an active schedule of four audio and video programs on our platforms.
INTERVIEWS.
This section consists of interviews related to the Bubi language and culture. The interviewees will be people from all social classes of the Bubi culture and identity. The name of the program is WE BOTYO (Are you Bubi?).
CONTESTS.
This is a program about knowledge of the Bubi language, based on showing an image and having the contestants say the name of that image. The name of the program is: TAPÁNA- HMÉRA (think and answer).
HUMOR.
Choice of a topic that can entertain viewers without any intention of offending, denigrating, or insulting anyone. Simply HUMOR. The program is called PELETYA.
MUSIC AND DANCE.
Produce and publish exclusively music and dance pieces by artists whose works are expressed in Bubi. The name of the program is TOMETYÉ LA BILERI. This name is provisional and subject to change.
GASTRONOMY.
Showcase AfroBubi cuisine in its different flavors. This program is called: LÖRËI LUÈLUÈ (good food).
SOKKO.
The news programs will also be in the Bubi language. Sokko is a news program specifically focused on culture. The name of this section is SOKKO (news).
DOCUMENTARIES, SERIES, AND CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING.
The goal is to create original material in the Bubi language with Spanish or English subtitles, as well as to publish content that may be useful to the community, even if it is in any language, but with the option of translating it into the Bubi mother tongue.
Interviews
Maiky Moiche
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Joven Maiky, how are you?
Maiky Moiche:
We're still going strong here.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Our program has a name in our culture. I'm going to ask you, it's the name of the program we do: Are you Bubi?
Maiky Moiche:
I am Bubi. You can see I'm very Bubi.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
I'm very happy, you're very Bubi. Let's move on to another question: Which generation of singers come here to record their songs?
Maiky Moiche:
Here, it's a space for everyone. Here you can come, a kid, young people, sisters, everyone. If you just want to record a song, it doesn't matter if you do Afrobeat, Bitkusi, or Katyá.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
But I wanted to ask you something else, is that what you meant? What kind of songs do they compose when they want you to work on their songs, let's say the genre of music?
Maiky Moiche:
We here, we here, we know how to make songs, we record songs. You see, no, but the people who come here, the number of people who come here, they ask for Afrobeat and also, since we're young, they like to rap too. It's possible that Afrobeat and rap are what we do most.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Don't you do Katyá?
Maiky Moiche:
If people who do Katyá come, they do it too. I mean, we have a lot of singers who have come here to record Katyá. If we're going to name names, Vitus Kake does Katyá here, Cocal Bass does Katyá here, you've done Katyá here too.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
I've already tried it.
Maiky Moiche:
But it may be that Afrobeat and rap are the songs we record the most here. But we still do Katyá.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Mastho Ribocho is the one who was here doing Katyá, but the one asking you the questions today is Ntá Bëtyubo. Thanks, Maiky.
Liki Loribo Apo
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Our guest today is LIKI LORIBO APO. Boyopé. Greetings.
Liki Loribo Apo:
Thank you.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
How are you?
Liki Loribo Apo:
Thanks, I'm still here. I, too, greet all the people who are watching us today. Thank you for having me.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
We thank the Bubi association, for this great gesture, for allowing us to do this interview, in their workspace. And, you for making it easier for us to do this interview here.
Liki Loribo Apo:
For me, there is no problem, therefore, the Bubi association always if there is an activity, it is not denied because, for this is working for our language.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
The name of this program is: Wë bötyö?
Liki Loribo Apo:
I'm bubi, I'm a bubi being, I'm part bubi and I work on bubi.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Why we speak bubi.
Liki Loribo Apo:
You've already said it. We speak bubi.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
How has the bubi society received the work you do, the bubi is difficult to learn?
Liki Loribo Apo:
Society, thank God, receives any work that looks at the language, the Bubi language, the culture and the bubi. What usually happens inside, there are usually people, in this union, there is always someone who we can say is the hindrance, who seems to itch to see that someone is doing this work. But, what you asked me, society receive the tongue well. Because it is the language, our language that we are committed to. Our language, if we don't work, will disappear. The older and younger ones receive it well. That's not to say that these works are accented because
Ntá Bëtyubo:
There's still a lot of work to be done.
Liki Loribo Apo:
There's still a lot of work, it's been 2 days since we've started writing bubi, that we have started to write our language, in the past we were speaking only our language is now when it has ways of writing well, there is still work to be done. That is why all these books that we are writing today will be reviewed again tomorrow to improve them, let's remove things and add others but, today the village thank God and I also thank the people, my works have been well received. The question of learning, language hahahahahaha.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Because there are people who say, Bubi is difficult to learn and then writing, it's a problem.
Liki Loribo Apo:
What bothers me that it seems like the language is difficult, the classes I teach, what I've set out to do is to pass a word one at a time, continuously when you want to pluralize them. because you say 1. A person. But within this unity, if it's a loaf of bread, you say: a loaf of bread. is no longer a bread. (Rilé) That's where the confusion comes in. There are other things, but if you do your part, little by little you learn.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
I think there are still words to improve because there are times when you think that if you say a phrase, you think it's right but
If I say it like that, I can make a mistake.
Liki Loribo Apo:
It's like that, because our language, you know there's a phrase that ends in a certain way, the other one starts in a different way, what's happening, it's starting to consume the other. You have to put them together. If you're a beginner. That he is just starting out, he has not grown up in a bubi-speaking environment and the bubi community, that gives him pain.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Our generation has been fortunate. We haven't learned bubi, as we've heard our grandparents talk at home, there weren't many things to look at either.
Liki Loribo Apo:
Because in these times, we hadn't noticed the bubi. We were speaking bubi because your father, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, they all expressed themselves in bubi you grow up with it, but now that we're already looking at, that I have to write my language, I have to transmit it to those children, is that when we have begun to notice that this phrase is like this? Well, that's how this phrase is? We've always talked about it
You say come, be here, be there, go there You don't notice the word. You're not developing it. You express it because we've grown up with it. Now that we look at the words, We exclaim, we say, how strong this word is. How sweet, isn't it? That's right.
Ntá Bösöpé Bolekia
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Ntá Bösöpé. Greetings.
Ntá Bösöpé:
Thank you.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Thank you for accepting our invitation from ËtyöTV. Our interview today is about our language. Are you Bubi?
Ntá Bösöpé:
I am Bubi. I'm real Bubi. You are Bubi too.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Because we speak Bubi.
Ntá Bösöpé:
We talk Bubi, we are Bubis.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
If I'm not mistaken, you blazed the trail, the path to learning to write in bubi. If there are no learning spaces like people
will learn to write?
Ntá Bösöpé:
I understand what you're saying, today. Now.
You can work with phones, we can work by teaching people to write in Bubi, but we have to start by the alphabet a, b, c. We have to start small, because, people want to learn how to write the language very fast. They think writing the bubi language is a piece of cake. No, no. It's hard work because the Spanish, we have it in us. English, we have it in us. There are other languages. Then, if we want to write bubi, there will be some letters that torpedo bubi writing. In this sense we must have a medium like ETYOTV. Than two days, three days a week let people know that tuning into etyotv, I'll learn how to write bubi, little by little the letters, because if you say O, O. You can't write it the same o, o, o, o
Ntá Bëtyubo:
It's a big problem..
Ntá Bösöpé:
Kids can do it.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Yes, kids can do it.
Ntá Bösöpé:
We are very old, grandparents, can't do it.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Our minds are already with errors.
Ntá Bösöpé:
But children can do it. So look. ëë type o. How am I going to write like this? It's not like that, o
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Thank you, thank you. Ahhh Ntá Bösöpé. It's a real problem.
Ntá Bösöpé:
A lot of trouble.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Wëka tyó pëta, greetings.
Wëka tyó pëta:
Greetings to you too.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
How are you?
Wëka tyó pëta:
I'm doing great.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
I hope things are going well.
Wëka tyó pëta:
If they leave, if you're not in pain, if you're not sick and you haven't died, fight it.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Wëka tyó pëta, Are you Bubi?
Wëka tyó pëta:
I'm Bubi. Yes.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Because we speak Bubi.
Wëka tyó pëta:
Yes.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
What's the name of the place, the space, where you actually record the music? We know that the music business is going through a rough patch and these are your first steps. ¿How are things going?
Wëka tyó pëta:
First of all, the name of the studio is Riopopuá.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
Riopopuá.
Wëka tyó pëta:
Riopopuá. I named the studio Riopopuá because it's something that came from far, far away. It's a very long story.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
But don't make me sad, we want to do something cheerful.
Wëka tyó pëta:
It's a very long story. The name Riopopuá, things are there, I don't make my music because I want to make money. It's something that's in my blood, something I carry in my heart. It's something I think that if I learn this job well, if I do it, I can help my little brothers and sisters.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
But if a person works, they have to eat.
Wëka tyó pëta:
Yes, they usually eat something, they don't usually do it for nothing, but what I'm thinking about is that I can help the people in my town.
Ntá Bëtyubo:
That's a good thought, but because if someone does a job, they usually thank their protective spirit.
Wëka Tyó Pëta
Activity
Children descended from the island of Bioko in America.
Learning the language of their ancestors.
OPINION
BÖSUBÓBBÈ MAY MATA
Digital Survival
Today, talking about cultural preservation is not a romantic concept, but rather an urgent necessity. Ancestral languages and cultures do not disappear solely due to lack of use or poor intergenerational transmission: their survival depends on a complex network of social, demographic, historical, and technological factors. In this context, the Bubi culture and language have faced a unique challenge for centuries, conditioned by the constant pressure of large linguistic cultures that have passed through Bioko at different stages of history.
Even so, Bubi cultural resistance has endured. In 2025, we still find Bubi people fighting to keep this ancient language alive. It is natural for human beings, when there is no deep awareness of their identity, to adopt what they consider most useful to improve their lives. But when that choice involves stripping away their ancestral heritage, the uncomfortable question arises: is it really a law of life or is it a consequence of the lack of opportunities to develop and project their own culture?
The Bubi language has extraordinary cultural richness and unique expressions within the African spectrum. However, it also faces significant limitations: unlike other languages, Bubi does not have a large, connected linguistic community with which to establish natural exchange without resorting to Western languages. This linguistic isolation, however, is beginning to break down thanks to science, which has allowed many descendants of the Bubi people—scattered throughout Europe and America—to recognize their origins and reconnect with the identity of their ancestors.
But this recovery cannot depend solely on individual enthusiasm. Bubi culture, as human heritage, requires protection, empathy, and institutional commitment.
In this struggle for cultural survival, digital platforms have become essential allies. Tools such as EtyoTV represent modest support in size but immense in impact. Taking advantage of new technologies, they generate content that allows anyone, on and off the island, to join this cultural resistance. The same is true of Ekotto Magazine, with various blogs, podcasts, and community spaces on social media.
Digital platforms offer something that previously seemed unthinkable: a global community of interconnected Bubis, able to learn, teach, share, and reproduce content in their mother tongue without geographical limitations.
TikTok is perhaps the best example of a fertile territory that has not yet been fully exploited. Millions of people post all kinds of content there: humor, history, education, music, debates, challenges... and also languages. Small communities around the world are using TikTok to revitalize languages that seemed doomed to disappear. Why not the Bubi language?
Short videos teaching words, everyday expressions, stories, music, or traditions could become a powerful tool for reaching younger generations.
Technology has diversified cultural production. Media outlets such as EtyoTV and Ekotto Magazine have already shown that, with determination, creativity, and intelligent use of the digital environment, it is possible to defend the Bubi language against historical forces that seemed inevitable. Every video, every article, every post on TikTok or Instagram is another piece in the mosaic of cultural resistance.
The survival of the Bubi language cannot depend on chance. It depends on use, transmission, innovation, and a constant presence in the spaces where the world is being built today: digital platforms. As long as there is a single person capable of writing, narrating, singing, or thinking in Bubi, there will be culture. But if we can get thousands to do so—even if they are thousands of miles away from Bioko—then there will not only be survival: there will be a future.
BÖSUBÓBBÈ MAY MATA
SOKKÒ
TIMELY NEWS
New single!
Poet's Blog
LÖTÓ’ÓLLÓ
Ö lötó’ólló ló oberi lue ribellè
Ëbóbë Kó lötó’ólló luaò
Kó vöótè wè eria’.ö.
Ö lötó’ólló ká rihóle, ka eteba,ká rimmamabió
wë pálá o párá lötó’ólló á tyílèrò itè atá,
hèrahò ö winnòò, ë tébáò,
ö wétáò,
Ö lötó’ólló kò bösori wè
tyekkú bö lè ökana bö, lö lókka,
lë kárityöbbò, lö bötatté,
lé bíriia biaó.
Kò böhai bö lè alla ‘ bö ë tyé tö purí ë.
Ë bëkeu bia betyö bi la rekèssa
ë bó wella ò lötó’ólló,
I nokkò í útubbam ka’ó :
ë bëtyètye bié biöllo bi kákabia
ë biëtta wëlla biá bikëbíkë.
Ö lötó’ólló Kó vöótè wè eria’ö le ribobo re biëká biao.
Ö lötó’ólló Kó böe, ló bö’ó bottó wà ribötyö rito.
“É ribötyö welá rima o le’á tölló, wae a ló lötó’ólló luá abobé, ötyommá.”
Soésiöbo. ©️2024
Ë ILÁM (MI VOZ)
by Carlos Bolete Lobete
Ë ilám.
Ballá ná bá la ipölla
öámmo ö böém wëla.
Biebba la ëhëá ná ë nkòm wëla
ë la tuturó.
Ë ilám.
Ballá ná bá la etya.
Ë röppa wëla bí la seballa la ëháe,
bësari ná bí la sölla ë bi íkkiò bí hatte
lë sihúruru.
My voice.
Words that emerge
from the depths of my soul.
Sound waves that slide in the tunnels of my neck
slither.
My voice.
Words that grow.
In pain they dream of calm,
symphonic notes that let their breath fly
with the breeze.
Ë KOTTÒ
Publisher
Diversity Ëtyö Project
Magazine Director
Barbara May
Editor in Chief
Tomás May Pelico
Designer
Böhulá
Colaboration
Eduardo May Mata
ISSN 2833-4124
© 2025
All rights reserved.
May not be reproduced without the written permission of Ë KOTTÒ.
Contact