Abstract
The start of the 20th century on Bioko Island (Equatorial Guinea) coincides with the expansion of Spanish colonisation. Around 1910, the intense process of “Hispanicisation” began, totally disrupting native Bubi society. The colonial government, together with the intense evangelisation carried out on the island by the Catholic Church, weakened and modified Bubi power structures. Colonialism also provoked important changes in Bubi family structure and the evangelising mission was, fundamentally, directed toward controlling and transforming marriage practices. This text analyses how the loss of the political function of the Bubi chieftainships affected marriage practices and examines the other variables that influenced these changes and their effects on the present-day situation of Bubi women. Finally, the text explains how the practices and values that the evangelisation managed to introduce influenced the construction of Bubi ethnic identity.
Highlights
The start of the 20th century on Bioko Island (Equatorial Guinea) coincides with the expansion of Spanish colonisation
I analyse how the historical-political development of Bubi society in a specific period accelerated the expansion of evangelisation on Bioko Island and the changes that both processes provoked in Bubi social structure, in marriage alliances
In the first half of the 20th century, two factors converged that were decisive in the transformation of legal rivala re eoto marriage into today’s mododo practice
Summary
The start of the 20th century on Bioko Island (Equatorial Guinea) coincides with the expansion of Spanish colonisation. Colonialism provoked important changes in Bubi family structure and the evangelising mission was, fundamentally, directed toward controlling and transforming marriage practices. In only a few years, there was a changeover in the native political structure, moving from decentralised government in headquarters dotted around the island to a centralised headquarters (to a consolidated chieftainship) that culminated in the emergence of a kingdom (the Bagitari dynasty).2 The reinforcement of this political power provoked a hierarchical stratification of Bubi society, especially in the southern villages, with Moka Valley as its political and religious centre, where both headquarters were located. This hierarchical structuring made it necessary to maintain strategic marriage alliances. At the turn of the century, Claretian missionaries began to contact King Malabo, the succeeding monarch, whose political power was weaker and who presented no resistance, and the mission managed to establish itself in Moka Valley.
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