Presentación del libro "Ceiba II (Poesía inédita)" de Raquel Ilombe del Pozo Epita

Casa África collaborates with the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) to present the book by the Equatorial Guinean poet Raquel Ilombe del Pozo  Epita, published by Verbum entitled Ceiba II (unpublished Poetry).

The presentation at Casa África will be led by Mr. Teodoro Bondjale, secretary of the Federation of African Associations of the Canary Islands (FAAC) who is from Equatorial Guinea like the author.

The publishing house Verbum published this work last March in an edition prepared by Benita Sampedro and Baltasar Fra Molinero. Much of the author's poetry, which comes to light with this book and that until now we were unaware of, was composed over three decades, from the sixties to the nineties.

This poetry, is set between two eras and two geographies (that of Spain during the period of Franco and after Franco, that of Guinea in colonial times and after independence), documented in an emphatic fashion where colonialism and dictatorships are intersected with narratives of power and resistance.

Raquel Ilombe del Pozo Epita was born in the island paradise of Corisco (Equatorial Guinea, then Spanish colony) in 1931 and died in Madrid in 1992.

Although born during the Spanish colonial era, she moved when she was vey young from Equatorial Guinea to Spain, her work does not cover exile like other Equatorial Guinean authors of the diaspora. This issue as such does not appear in her work, but focuses on finding her origins, her identity and longing for her native Africa.

With a Guinean mother and Spanish father, the family moved to Spain, specifically the province of Burgos, before she was one year old. She studied Music and Declamation at the Conservatory of Madrid and returned to Equatorial Guinea after many years, after marrying.

Her first published collection of poems was Ceiba (1978) in Madrid. Written between 1966 and 1978, between Madrid and Bata, in this work Ilombe unleashes her longing for her homeland, seamlessly integrating African and Spanish elements in her poetry.

In 1981 she published Leyendas guineanas, a collection of 8 legends and  traditional Fang, Bubi and Ndowe folk tales. In order to obtain the material for the book, she had to go the lesser known corners of the country in an attempt to cover a tradition that was disappearing, that of storytelling, so important in her native country. This work is considered to be the first children's book from Equatorial Guinean  literature.

In addition to these works, Raquel Ilombe composed many poems that were left unpublished, many of which are brought together in this publication now presented in Casa África. The date is 21st May 2015 at 7.30p.m. in the Nelson Mandela Auditorium.