ABSTRACT
Since its founding in 1939, the newspaper Ébano played a pivotal role in reaffirming Spanish national Catholicism in Equatorial Guinea. Ébano faithfully espoused this ideology’s views regarding Equatoguineans’ moral education, particularly through the use of the colonizers’ language. After independence in 1968, this ideology of the colonial period was re-appropriated in different ways during the presidencies of Francisco Macías and Teodoro Obiang, the latter of whom is still in power today. These administrations recycled established ideas as a strategy of governance to either distance themselves from or align themselves with the former colonizers. A critical discourse analysis of Ébano’s publications over time reveals this evolution of policy through dyadic relations of power such as colonists/locals and African nationalism/Spanishness, among others. Given the current political climate, this analysis illustrates the long history of official press as the mouthpiece of state ideology in Equatorial Guinea.
