Equatorial Guinea

When you think of Spanish colonies, you think of the New World. However, Spain colonized the Philippines, Guam, Western Sahara, Ceuta, Melilla and Equatorial Guinea.

Equatorial Guinea is a slice of land wedged between Cameroon to the north and Gabon to the south. The capital, Malabo is on an island several hundred miles to the north of the mainland part of Equatorial Guinea.

I have translated 2 documents from Equatorial Guinea during my career as a legal translator. One was an oil-related document and the other was a birth certificate. I don't think that all of the inhabitants speak Spanish fluently, but those who do speak what sounds like Castillian Spanish to my ear. They in fact pronounce the "z" like Spaniards, which I found to be surprising given that the norm is for this feature to disappear when the Spanish language is spoken far from the Iberian Peninsula.