The language I brought with me: this is how Central Africa sounds in Spain

Emigrating is not always synonymous with leaving behind;

sometimes, it is an exercise in expansion.

Of the traditions, of the music, of the languages ​​... These four protagonists know it well.

Some have lived in Spain for decades and do not plan to return to their countries of origin, they come from the heart of Africa and have inherited a culture and language that they refuse to leave behind.

Central Africa, which includes just seven countries, hides a treasure: it is one of the most linguistically rich in the continent.

Although it is difficult to quantify - because the line between dialect and language is very fine - experts believe that languages ​​range between 200 and 600; the vast majority of them Bantu. This family comprises a huge range of tonal languages ​​and with more than twenty nominal classes, while Spanish, for example, only has two: masculine and feminine.

But this nursery of dialects is fragile.

Especially when their speakers emigrate and when not even the countries of origin consider them official.

In this region, as in most of the continent, only colonial languages ​​are official.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo it is French;

in São Tomé and Príncipe, it is Portuguese;

in Equatorial Guinea, with almost a hundred speakers, Spanish, French and Portuguese are maintained.

And in Cameroon, English and French share space.

For this reason, as an act of vindication, Evaristo Oko Kongwe has dedicated 20 years of his life to creating a grammar, which is now a reality, to reflect in writing his ndowé

maternal, that of the inhabitants of the Equatorial Guinean coast.

The actor Marius Makon wears his base from Cameroon with pride and has found in his friend, the soccer player Samuel Eto'o, an interlocutor to continue talking about him;

Besha Sita Kumbu continues to practice lingala with the women of her family and Dionisio Rosa Jordão reviews the Creole forro in every song she dances.

So they do not forget.

So that they are not lost.

This is a sound tour of the conscious decisions (or not) that make their mother tongues continue to live on the other side of the world.

Dionisio Rosa Jordão, 33 years old, dancer Santo Tomé and Príncipe

JAIME VILLANUEVA

Music is what brings me closer to the crioulo lining

• City of origin:

  São Tomé and Príncipe

• Current residence:

  Madrid

• Language:

  Creole lining

• Speakers:

  69,000

• Countries where spoken

  : São Tomé and Príncipe

• Alphabet:

  Latin

• Official status:

  the only official language of the country is Portuguese, although Creole forro is spoken by more than 80% of the population

• Curiosities:

  his name means "free slave" in Portuguese, and comes from the Arabic حر ḥurr, which means "free"

Marius Makon, 37, actor and businessman, Cameroon

JUAN BARBOSA

When you see me, you give Marius a hug, not a base

• Hometown

  :

  Edea (Cameroon)

• Current residence:

  Alicante

• Language:

  Basa

• Speakers:

  230,000 in Cameroon

• Countries where spoken:

  Cameroon, Benin, Nigeria and Ghana

• Alphabet:

  the Latin alphabet is used

• Official

  status

  :

  has no official status

• Curiosities:

  The famous Cameroonian philosopher and intellectual Achille Mbembe belongs to the Basa people

Besha Sita Kumbu, 36, artist Democratic Republic of the Congo

SANTI BURGOS

Lingala is the most beautiful thing in my life

• Hometown

  :

  Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

• Current residence:

  Madrid

• Language:

  Lingala

• Speakers:

  10 million

• Countries where it is spoken: It

  is a Bantu language spoken in the northwest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo although it is also spoken in Angola and the Central African Republic

• Alphabet:

  Latin

• Official status:

  the only official language of the country is French.

  However, Lingala and three other languages ​​(Kikongo, Swahili and Chiluba) are considered national.

• Trivia:

  While French is used as a lingua franca in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lingala was historically the language of the army and until today it is the lingua franca of the Congolese armed forces.

Evaristo Oko Kongwe, 66, linguist Equatorial Guinea

JUAN BARBOSA

Ndowé has the same dignity as any other language

• City of origin:

  Ngone-Manga (Equatorial Guinea)

• Current residence:

  Granollers, Barcelona

• Language:

  ndowé

• Speakers:

  between 100,000 and 900,000

• Countries where spoken:

  Equatorial Guinea

• Alphabet:

  the Latin alphabet is used

• Official

  status

  :

  has no official status

• Curiosities:

  the modern Grammar of the ndowé written by Evaristo Oko and Próspero Mambo-Matala Isua is a work of more than 20 years during which they studied more than five thousand words

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• Credits

• Audio coordination and production: Lola Hierro and Noor Mahtani

• Format: Brenda Valverde

• Art direction: Fernando Hernández

• Design: Ana Fernández

• Layout: Itziar Amor

• Audio production: José Juan Morales

• Future Planet Director: Lola Huete Machado

• Thanks to M. Carme Junyent, professor of general linguistics at the University of Barcelona, ​​for her help on the context of African languages

• This Planeta Futuro / ELPAÍS special is possible thanks to the alliance with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation