Cédric SPILTHOOREN
This post is also available in: French
Guinea Equatorial is the only country in Africa where the official speaking language is Spanish. The continental part is situated in central Africa, between Cameroon in the north and Gabon in the south. One of the particularities of this country is to have its capital Malabo located on the Bioko Island, forty kilometres distant from the Cameroon coast. My main photographic work was realised in Malabo, different portraits of people with similar life headways. These men and women are born on ”burning land”. Against their will, many of them had to leave their land. They came back later when they felt the situation had improved. They all are truly and emotionally involved in art with each having their own specificities, vector of their culture. In that frame of mind I first met and took contact with them at the French cultural center, institute where they regularly go. It’s in their home that I realised my main portraits. Because they opened their door to me, they revealed to me a part of their own history…a history of local people of Malabo