Could you please tell us what your linguistic biography is? My first language was Bubi. The mother tongue, what you say. However, the Spanish colonizations brought Spanish to school and brought families into school. Colonization brought us some benefits, but it led to the loss of our culture, until the disappearance of our names. Spanish colonization did not help to get closer to our culture. Instead, it imposed its Spanish character through repression. If we were talking about a baby boy, they humiliated us and punished us. Our parents didn't know how to speak Spanish, but they had to learn, through their children, that they took Spanish home from kindergarten. In
our villages, Spanish had neglected domestic language. The child was given Spanish at school and parents were asked not to talk about the cover. That is how we have moved away from our language. Do you talk about your experience? Perhaps from the ancestors? It is a vital experience of previous generations, but I still live the consequences. I actually talk about the cover, learning from parents, and my kids don't talk. I think I have made

a mistake and now I have to recover the lost, always talking about the cover and the motivation of those around me. If not, if I go unconcerned, I speak Spanish, also the neighbor in Spanish, we are
lost, we will not receive too much.

You started to get off the bubi, as you said. Yes. In our village, local schools predominate in the primary stage. You don't need to go to town until high school begins. I, for example, did the catechesis with cover. I think my generation was one of the last to do covered catechesis. I remember the professor threatening us: “Whoever does not speak of Bubie will not make the first communion!” We were really motivated, and we started talking about the baby boy! Is catechesis, therefore, one of the last in the sea, your generation? Of course. He came with the colonization of the Spanish churches, established the Catholic religion forcefully and rejected his beliefs and cultures: “Do not act according to the laws of your parents, which is contrary to the law of God!” they said. And we had to abandon our culture and assume Judaeo-Christian culture. They have all been known to our people. How did they get out of school? For example, I didn't get punishment because I didn't speak Spanish, but my family did, the older siblings. With shells filled with manure inside, they had a dirty tie under their neck. This odor caused, of course, a setback that forced those who hit him talking about the deck to take him hung until he handed him over to another. Treatment, right? Abuse. In short, it is the treatment of minority language speakers. Major languages have been strongly imposed. He tells us that he received no sanctions at the time. Although I experienced an episode. Also in my time, we were forbidden to speak at school the language inherited from my mother, from the baby's drinking. Even though our peers and colleagues could belong to the same people, be in the same room, we were forbidden to talk about the bubie among us. We threatened punishment. “Here we don’t talk about the deck!” the teachers told us. Of course, right? If they caught us, they gave us a booklet to copy over and over again a phrase: “It’s forbidden to talk about the deck in class. It is forbidden to speak in deck class. It is forbidden to speak of deck in class...”. As for physical punishment, I once received a shout from a professor: he wanted to give me in the face and put his hand to protect the cheek, but he knew how to touch me, and I still carry the mark. I have not forgotten the name of that professor! On the other hand, colleagues also triggered the denunciation: “Professor, you are talking about a Buddhist!” And maybe they would do it on their knees, with their arms crossed. For a thousand! However, these episodes did not occur in the primary stage, in local school, but in high school time, in the city.

And what is the current situation? Because you, as a member of a
sociocultural association promoting the Bubi, have been in Garid… I am part of the Sociocultural Society Ëvovλ/Ëbobλ. It was created in
2015 and I entered it in 2018, invited by a friend: “Let’s go to a meeting!” he said. “What meeting is it? I thought. And they welcomed me all. They wanted to work for the Bubie, and one by one, a group of people formed. Blessed is the project started! I didn't know him, but some had little clarity. He saw that he did almost us and put people to work in promoting our language and culture. Right now we have started to take a little force and we have made a diagnosis of the situation of the language. What does this diagnosis say? According to the 2015 census we were 130,000 inhabitants on the island of

Santa
Isabel, before their name was Bio. We have about 32 villages, although it's actually 28, because the rest have been lost. People have emptied places and migrated to the city in search of better resources to find a more enjoyable habitat. Also in 28 localities, most of them talk about the roof -- at least those over 15 years old. Another thing is among the kids, the kids get tired of the deck and they're losing out. That is the problem, and that is where our partnership is trying – always according to our abilities – to organise and take part in the cultural centres of the peoples. Above all, however, we want to promote the use of language and standardize the Bubi. What does it mean, perhaps
a unified bus station? We need standardized writing. As you have done here, the batua. I said that we are

28 peoples, we are all Bubi peoples, we are talking about Bubias, but we have different linguistic varieties. Like here, right? When we’ve been in the Northern Basque Country, we’ve known that they speak there unlike Aretxabaleta. The same is true of our peoples, we have various linguistic varieties. Within this diversity one can distinguish between eight and ten varieties, but all are muddy.

So you'd like to join the bubie. It is what I have come to search for Garid, what we would like to do also in the case of the Nasa language, to establish dialectal ensembles. Garabide can help us to standardize our language! If we decided on a unified writing, we would teach boys and girls to read and write. We may have to speak bilingual at first, but in the future we would like to prioritize the Bubi. That's what we're also in our partnership, with the help of philologists, teachers, Buddha speakers and non-speakers. They are, above all, motivated people. What is the attitude of the Government of Equatorial Guinea towards bubiela? We have six ethnic groups in Equatorial Guinea. The country is divided into two parts, the mainland, and the islands, and the ethnicities

are
fang, bubi, annobones, fdembo, conubes, the

variety of vision, the bujebera and the balenque, and the criollos. We all talk about pidjinglish, but that language is pretty new, because our parents didn't know how to talk about pidjinglish. For example, in my family, my parents spoke Spanish and said, "You, aize, your non-Spanish language! Besides, I don’t understand myself!” They told us that ours was the Bubi and that we had to talk about the Bubiera. When he
realized at the time of the parents that we were talking about pidjinglish, they told us that we weren't talking about pidjinglish, that it wasn't official, that it wasn't worth, and even that they didn't understand us. In what language does the Administration work? Spanish. In what language does the health system work? Spanish. In what language is teaching provided? Spanish. In what language are the media? Spanish. In what language does culture materialize?

Each











ethnic group has its own culture and language. What leads your community from your stay at Garabide? I've been moved by a



lot, but I'm going to tell you one. We were in Gipuzkoa, in the city hall of San Sebastian, and they told us the story of a woman. Elbira… Zipitria. Of course! Elbira Zipitria! So I say I'm indebted to Garider. When I heard of that woman, who taught the Basque in
her house, who knew the prison, but who, nevertheless, continued to teach in Basque… I thought the behavior of that woman was great! It is not my case, I will not be put in jail for wanting to teach anyone to the Buddha, because today all languages have the same rights, but I would like to go from here and give more fire to our association, and show here that people speak on the street in Basque, in town hall, in church, at least in the churches where I was, and in the department stores. That’s what you’ve seen… I’ve seen that the Basques are a lot in your villages. The Bubians

are
not many, but few, the Bubier speakers love us, but we have to try to go back to our project. We say “we have to talk”, but many times we do not go further and we have to go further: we need awareness campaigns, more people to help us in the partnership, more agents. We also need institutional support, but the institutions will not help us if we do not get us to speak in our language, if we do not achieve standardization. When this happens, we can challenge the government, demand linguistic planning in the political, administrative and other fields. No one prohibits us, but we must encourage the regular use of language. Whoever knows little, use it, without forcing the speakers to always speak in Spanish. I've seen
more women in this Crane Experts Program than men. What is man in, what is woman in work for the roof? In my language there is

a proverb: “Women educate. Educate the woman and educate the nation. Educate man and educate a person.” That is, expressing that man does not share his education. It comes from the camp home, it goes in front of the television and there. However, women will work non-stop. And the transmission of language has also come from the mother. It's what our grandmother said: "When you're pregnant, the child experiences all your emotions, joys and sadness. Talk!” A good message from the sage loves! And it's true that when the child comes into the world, even before he's cleaned, they put us in the mother's chest for the child to hear our smell. Then breastfeeding will come, and that's when you first drink the bubi. Soon we'll get to instinct and talk, because we think all the information comes into it. Next, it will start to look at you, it smiles… That’s what it has always been like, and

so
the mother transmits to the child the knowledge that comes from her family. But the father also has his part, not to say “Go ask my mother!”. No, please.

All together

“As the Administration does not care at all, we are trying to prestigious our association with the Bubi. Thanks to Unesco, we have learned that all languages have the same dignity, that everyone should be respected, that they have the same rights. The Government of Equatorial Guinea is best celebrating International Mother Tongue Day. Or at least it announces. But nothing else. We, on the other hand, want to celebrate our language every day throughout the year, organising courses in Buddhism, inventing events and enhancing the use of Buddhism. So far, they have worked hard on the roof, but each on its own. No one thought they had to work together, but it’s time to try it all together!”