Equatorial Guinea holds a unique distinction: it is the only Spanish-speaking country in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only three countries in the world to have Spanish as an official language that is not in Latin America (the others being Spain and Andorra). A former Spanish colony, it gained independence in 1968 and retained Spanish as its main official language. French was added as a co-official language in 1998 when Equatorial Guinea joined the Francophone community, and Portuguese was added in 2010. Despite this multi-official linguistic architecture, the Fang people — a Bantu group spanning Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Cameroon — make up about 80% of the mainland population and their language is the dominant mother tongue, though Spanish is the language of education, government, and urban prestige.
