Cuando las almas no pueden ser custodiadas: el fundamento identitario en la colonización española de Guinea Ecuatorial

Abstract

In 1777 the Spanish monarchy obtained from Portugal the islands of Fernando Poo, Corisco and Annobón «and adjacent continental territory». For the first time since the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, the right of Spain to hold territories of its own in south-Saharan Africa was recognised. The reality, however, was attracting them to the British overseas sphere of influence as the sale of slaves was gradually replaced by the «legal trade». Only the late entry of Spain into the contemporary colonial system brought with it the gradual conversion of Guinea into a «productive colony», promoted ideologically and economically by the Claretian Missionaries. In Spanish colonies, African people had to «earn» a new identity, presented and offered as a civilizing challenge to those who were seen as lacking any identity whatsoever. This article attempts to describe the ideological principles and practical mechanisms used by the missionaries to impose in Africa a dream that in Europe was slipping out of their grasp, principles and mechanisms inherited from their European experience and from the ecclesiastical objectives set in motion, throughout the 19th century, on the old continent.