00:01:27.000 --> 00:01:34.000
Hardly anyone remembers Equatorial Guinea was a Spanish colony.
The only narrative we know comes from the colonizers.

00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:56.000
This film documents a six-year investigation.
It includes found footage provided by settler families.

00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:20.000
The native population was not free, except for an elite group
of emancipated farmers in the service of the Spaniards.

00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:38.000
Acacio Mañe was one of the first independence leaders.
He was arrested by settlers in 1959 and disappeared.

00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:13.000
Acacio Mañe left here because a captain
from Franco's government called him.

00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:22.000
Acacio left immediately
in the regular bus.

00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:30.000
We have not seen him
since he left for Bata.

00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:34.000
We never saw his body.

00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:45.500
Son of Acacio Mañe

00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:38.000
Six years earlier

00:04:47.500 --> 00:04:49.500
I would have been born in Africa

00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:53.000
if things had not become
more complicated.

00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:00.000
My father was a judge

00:05:00.100 --> 00:05:02.500
and later became general attorney
of the Spanish Guinea

00:05:02.700 --> 00:05:05.500
for fourteen years.

00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:10.500
I think my family
was happy in the colony,

00:05:11.000 --> 00:05:13.500
except for my father.

00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:18.000
He was a discreet man
who fulfilled his responsibilities,

00:05:18.500 --> 00:05:20.500
but something serious happened

00:05:21.000 --> 00:05:23.500
that was never taken
to talk about.

00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:29.000
My family has idyllic memories
of life in Fernando Poo.

00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:35.000
I have always felt
outside of that nostalgia.

00:05:37.000 --> 00:05:40.000
When my father died,
I became interested.

00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:45.000
I wish he had told me
why they left Guinea.

00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:52.000
I am a publicist

00:05:52.100 --> 00:05:54.500
and I had no idea
where to start.

00:05:56.000 --> 00:05:58.000
That's why I called David.

00:05:58.100 --> 00:06:00.000
He is a journalist

00:06:00.100 --> 00:06:03.100
and he is one
of my best friends.

00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:10.000
David was slowly going blind,

00:06:10.500 --> 00:06:13.500
as a result of
an inherited disease.

00:06:27.000 --> 00:06:30.000
I really want to go
to your family home, to Medina.

00:06:33.000 --> 00:06:35.000
At last, I don't know it.

00:06:36.000 --> 00:06:38.500
Two of my brothers
are waiting for us there,

00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:41.000
two of them are confirmed.

00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:49.000
I think, as I told you by
phone, they should be aware of this,

00:06:53.000 --> 00:06:56.000
and if they contribute
something,much better.

00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:02.000
How are you coping
with your eyesight?

00:07:02.500 --> 00:07:05.500
Here it goes. More or
less in a stable phase,

00:07:06.000 --> 00:07:09.500
although you don't know
what the stability is,

00:07:10.000 --> 00:07:14.000
because sometimes you feel
more clumsy,you see worse,

00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:22.000
sometimes you don't know if
it has to do with an advanced stage,

00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:27.000
a further step in
the progression of vision loss,

00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:32.000
or if it is simply because
you have little rest,

00:07:32.500 --> 00:07:36.000
you are very tired in the computer,
reading, so on and so forth,

00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:40.000
the truth is that sometimes
I do feel fatigued.

00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:44.500
But, well, more or less,
as long as you can get by

00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:48.000
and do the things you usually do

00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:51.000
and you don't crash much,

00:07:51.100 --> 00:07:54.000
we're on the right track,
aren't we?

00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:04.500
I'm looking forward
to meeting you

00:08:05.000 --> 00:08:08.000
here in the creature's nest,

00:08:08.500 --> 00:08:10.500
from the family.

00:08:11.000 --> 00:08:12.500
- David...
- Hello, how are you?

00:08:12.600 --> 00:08:15.000
- I am Miguel, the older brother.
- My pleasure.

00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:18.500
- How was your trip?
- Very good.

00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:26.000
Be careful here, David.
There is very little light.

00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:33.000
Yes, how dark it is, yes.

00:08:34.000 --> 00:08:36.500
I open a bit, don't I?
You, the issue of light...

00:08:37.000 --> 00:08:40.000
Yes, little by little, so
it doesn't go in, very good.

00:08:40.200 --> 00:08:43.200
Well, you have suddenly entered
the nineteenth century.

00:08:43.500 --> 00:08:45.000
Fuck.

00:08:45.100 --> 00:08:47.200
I'm going to open here.

00:08:47.500 --> 00:08:50.000
And those paintings, those portraits?

00:08:50.100 --> 00:08:53.350
They are photos, painted photos.
They were in fashion then.

00:08:53.500 --> 00:08:56.500
I don't know who they are.

00:08:57.000 --> 00:09:02.000
I think he was in the Americas,
but I don't know exactly.

00:09:02.500 --> 00:09:05.000
in Mar del Plata, I think,
I don't know.

00:09:05.500 --> 00:09:08.000
Come in, come this way.
Watch out for the lamp.

00:09:10.000 --> 00:09:13.000
- What's Mon looking at?
- He is there...

00:09:13.500 --> 00:09:15.500
I'm looking for the key
to that trunk.

00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:18.000
Ah, the key to the trunk.

00:09:20.500 --> 00:09:26.300
This trunk travelled to Guinea with us.
It came and went and came back.

00:09:27.000 --> 00:09:31.000
It's one of those
wardrobe-type trunks.

00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.000
This one travelled with us
from Santa Isabel.

00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:48.000
Look, a sabre.
I don't know when this is from.

00:09:48.500 --> 00:09:51.000
Is that a sabre? A sword?

00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:01.000
A cane, I guess the one they
gave to my father maybe when...

00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:06.000
Here it is, his morning coat.

00:10:08.500 --> 00:10:13.000
This must be older than Carracuca,
as they used to say.

00:10:15.000 --> 00:10:18.000
Look, it's a cross.

00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:25.000
Well, I don't know if
this is the one in the image...

00:10:29.000 --> 00:10:32.000
David could access
to Super 8 films

00:10:33.000 --> 00:10:36.000
and reviewing
a religious procession,

00:10:36.100 --> 00:10:38.850
suddenly, to my surprise,
I saw dad walking by.

00:10:39.000 --> 00:10:41.000
Here it is for
you to see him.

00:10:41.500 --> 00:10:45.000
I think it's the only
moving picture of dad in Guinea.

00:10:45.100 --> 00:10:49.800
Sons of the Attorney General
José Antonio Fernández-Dans

00:10:50.000 --> 00:10:53.000
Just a moment, eh?

00:10:58.000 --> 00:11:01.000
Dad was not much
of a social butterfly.

00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:04.850
His austerity may served to cover up
the political past of my grandfather,

00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:08.500
who worked for the government
of the Second Republic.

00:11:09.000 --> 00:11:11.500
Iberia

00:11:13.500 --> 00:11:15.500
Santa Isabel, Bata, Madrid.

00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:20.000
Look, June the 10th, 1959.

00:11:52.000 --> 00:11:55.000
The trips we took by plane
lasted two days.

00:11:55.500 --> 00:11:57.500
We travelled to Douala, and
to the Canary Islands,

00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:02.000
and from the Canary Islands to Madrid,
but the boat trip was one month.

00:12:12.000 --> 00:12:14.000
The reason for going to Guinea
was because at the time

00:12:14.500 --> 00:12:17.000
going there meant
earning more than here.

00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:21.000
Of course, the consequences
of war on the family

00:12:21.200 --> 00:12:24.000
were quite dire, economically.

00:12:25.000 --> 00:12:29.000
He had to go there
to help here.

00:12:34.000 --> 00:12:36.000
Is it a reel?

00:12:36.500 --> 00:12:39.000
Yes, it is a reel.

00:12:42.000 --> 00:12:44.000
Some of them are broken...

00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:48.000
I think they are from my family.
Look, this is my mother.

00:12:48.500 --> 00:12:52.500
In the house of Santa Isabel,
on the terrace.

00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:04.500
- I think my mother had a comfortable life there.
- Very comfortable, her best years.

00:13:05.000 --> 00:13:07.500
It was a much more
relaxed life.

00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:11.500
From working for her brothers,
all day long there,

00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:16.000
she moved to another status
in which my father, he adored her.

00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:21.000
All of a sudden
she was like a princess.

00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:26.000
That's right,she found
the little shoe.

00:13:52.000 --> 00:13:56.000
There were ships coming from Germany
and England, there were things...

00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:03.000
For example, here we had little cars,
minicars, a bit rubbish,

00:14:03.500 --> 00:14:07.500
and there you had English cars,
German cars, toy cars,

00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:10.000
a real beauty,
with combine harvesters.

00:14:10.500 --> 00:14:12.500
Those were there and did not
go to the mainland (Spain),

00:14:13.000 --> 00:14:15.000
if they went to the mainland
they would be in the rich homes.

00:14:29.500 --> 00:14:32.500
The settlers' home movies
repeat similar images.

00:14:33.000 --> 00:14:35.000
Dream houses, modern cars,

00:14:35.500 --> 00:14:40.000
the casino pool, the servants,
they all tell the same story,

00:14:40.500 --> 00:14:44.000
the same paradise that
my family remembers,

00:14:45.000 --> 00:14:48.000
that my mother missed so much.

00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:05.000
Most of them did not go back to
living as they did in Guinea.

00:15:09.500 --> 00:15:12.500
- Who filmed this, your husband?
- Yes, Yes.

00:15:13.000 --> 00:15:15.000
Later we would sent them
here to Barcelona

00:15:15.500 --> 00:15:18.300
so our parents,
they could see them.

00:15:18.500 --> 00:15:22.500
Widow of the manager
of the colonial exploitation FRAPEJO

00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:27.000
What a face the whole
family would make

00:15:29.000 --> 00:15:32.000
- Look, how beautiful she is.
- For sure, I am the protagonist here.

00:15:34.000 --> 00:15:37.000
That beautiful colonial house
may come out at some point.

00:15:37.500 --> 00:15:40.000
- Yes, this house was beautiful.
- This house is really nice, isn't it?

00:15:40.500 --> 00:15:43.500
- Very much so. It had a terrace...
- Life was very good.

00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:48.000
Imagine, I had a servant for me,
a maid for her. And she...

00:15:48.500 --> 00:15:52.500
Parties and beach.

00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:19.000
Hey, by chance,
did you know my family?

00:16:19.500 --> 00:16:21.500
It is possible.

00:16:22.500 --> 00:16:25.500
This is my father.
This is in Bata.

00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:33.500
No, this does not ring a bell.
Anybody.

00:16:35.500 --> 00:16:38.500
Your father is the one on the right?

00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:44.000
Here he is in his office.
Nothing...

00:16:47.000 --> 00:16:50.000
It was clear he had no social life.

00:16:51.000 --> 00:16:56.000
Didn't your mother also have a touch
of nostalgia in her everyday life?

00:16:56.500 --> 00:17:01.000
As the years went by she became
more and more nostalgic.

00:17:04.000 --> 00:17:08.000
I imagine she knew for sure that
life would not return,

00:17:10.500 --> 00:17:14.000
that she enjoyed it
but would never come back.

00:17:40.000 --> 00:17:43.000
I say to everyone
who saw 'Out of Africa',

00:17:43.500 --> 00:17:48.000
life in Guinea was much better
than in the film 'Out of Africa'.

00:17:56.000 --> 00:17:59.000
All of us who lived
there are nostalgic.

00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:03.000
It was a pleasant life

00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:10.000
but later we had the trouble
of the trial against Don Faustino,

00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:15.000
all that became a bit rarefied.

00:18:15.100 --> 00:18:19.100
Colonial court judge

00:18:34.000 --> 00:18:37.000
Faustino Ruiz González,
born in Andalusia, very stubborn.

00:18:38.500 --> 00:18:41.500
He was a soldier, very stubborn.
That was his property.

00:18:43.000 --> 00:18:46.000
He poked and cut.

00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:50.000
I remember once
at the St. Isabel County Council,

00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:53.500
he gave an abject speech,
and he said:

00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:56.000
'Spain placed its flag here,

00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:01.000
those who believe this flag will come out,
they will have to dream three times',

00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:05.000
and he scared people.

00:19:05.100 --> 00:19:09.100
Equatorial Guinea
National Liberation Movement

00:19:16.000 --> 00:19:21.000
On visits to the district headquarters,
Faustino Ruiz spent his whole life saying:

00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:27.000
'Franco sends you greetings',
and the tribal chiefs applauded.

00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:32.000
In twenty years he could not
learn to say this in Fang,

00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:35.000
so he did not have
to be translated for people.

00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:39.000
That was colonisation.

00:19:39.100 --> 00:19:43.100
Equatorial Guinea
National Liberation Movement

00:19:48.000 --> 00:19:50.000
A governor in Guinea

00:19:50.500 --> 00:19:53.500
was like a viceroy
in America in colonial times.

00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:59.000
He even had the privilege
to declare us personae non gratae

00:19:59.500 --> 00:20:03.000
and within 24 hours we had
to get on a plane and disappear.

00:20:06.000 --> 00:20:09.000
He was extremely annoyed
because three judges

00:20:09.500 --> 00:20:11.500
had the audacity to judge him.

00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:16.000
From that point on life became
quite uncomfortable for you, didn't it?

00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:22.000
To tell you the truth, I was afraid that
I would be expelled at any moment.

00:20:23.000 --> 00:20:27.000
I felt very well there,
I liked it, I played tennis every day,

00:20:27.500 --> 00:20:32.000
I had a lot of friends, but I thought,
Don Faustino would probably expel us.

00:20:33.500 --> 00:20:36.000
I had that fear.

00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:40.500
A tribunal was formed in order
to prosecute the governor general

00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:44.000
for the disappearance
of a black farmer.

00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:49.500
Menéndez and my father
were part of that tribunal.

00:20:54.000 --> 00:20:57.000
I imagine it would be very difficult
for them to continue there.

00:21:00.500 --> 00:21:03.000
Everyone feared Faustino Ruiz.

00:21:11.500 --> 00:21:15.000
My father was not banished,
but he suffered the consequences.

00:21:17.000 --> 00:21:20.000
The conflict with the governor
reached Minister Carrero Blanco.

00:21:23.000 --> 00:21:27.000
On his return to the mainland (Spain),
he was posted far from home.

00:21:28.000 --> 00:21:31.000
When I was born,
he was a judge in Puertollano.

00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:46.000
I don't know if you are aware
that your father participated

00:21:46.500 --> 00:21:50.000
in the prosecution of
the governor general of Guinea

00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:54.000
for a murder that
could have been a state crime.

00:21:54.500 --> 00:21:58.500
I do know that at some point,
my father told me,

00:22:03.500 --> 00:22:06.500
Don Faustino was there,
bothering him,

00:22:06.700 --> 00:22:09.000
and told him to get out of his side,
I don't know much, really,

00:22:09.500 --> 00:22:13.000
and my father replied him:
'you will have put up with it, don Faustino,

00:22:14.500 --> 00:22:17.000
here the civil authority is me',

00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:21.000
in an official event,

00:22:21.500 --> 00:22:24.000
but that's the only thing
my father ever said to me.

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:27.500
The only thing,
the only thing.

00:22:33.500 --> 00:22:36.500
Does the name of
Acacio Mañe ring a bell?

00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:40.500
Acacio Mañe, he rings a bell,
the name rings a bell.

00:22:41.000 --> 00:22:44.000
He was arrested for
pro-independence issues,

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:48.000
in the hustle and bustle
of dungeons...

00:22:48.500 --> 00:22:51.000
- It seems that they got out of hand and...
- He was killed.

00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:56.000
They killed a lot of people.
Not while I was there, but afterwards.

00:22:57.500 --> 00:22:59.500
This is a case
from the year 59.

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:03.000
So then I was.
Yes, I was.

00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:17.000
While I was living there,
I didn't know any of these problems.

00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:22.000
There were disappearances
at that time when...

00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:26.000
But not so much was known,
not so much was known.

00:23:26.500 --> 00:23:30.500
Or they hid them from us, the women,
I don't know, I don't know.

00:23:37.000 --> 00:23:39.000
Around 7,000 Spanish settlers

00:23:39.500 --> 00:23:43.000
had unthinkable privileges
under Franco's dictatorship.

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:50.000
They treated the black population as minors,
except for an emancipated elite.

00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:05.000
These notebooks...
Look, Corazón de María. San Sebastián.

00:24:07.300 --> 00:24:09.800
Well, who knows who belonged to.

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:15.500
Look, Malabo.
Funny that I have this, isn't it?

00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:18.000
These are by Món, by Alejandro...

00:24:22.500 --> 00:24:27.000
Look, David, here's some more.
Here you go.

00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:32.000
Here you have
a lot of work.

00:24:33.000 --> 00:24:36.000
All right, I'll have a look at it.
Great, Mon.

00:24:37.000 --> 00:24:44.000
Everything behind has to be interpreted
in the best way, close to what happened, right?

00:24:47.000 --> 00:24:51.000
Each of us went about our business,
the family home has remained here,

00:24:51.500 --> 00:24:56.000
papers were left, some may disappeared,
some may not, I don´t know.

00:24:59.500 --> 00:25:02.500
Since dad died, we have
hardly touched his office.

00:25:03.000 --> 00:25:06.000
I had trouble digging
through their files.

00:25:07.000 --> 00:25:11.000
David did so, but found nothing
related to the governor's trial.

00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:24.500
At that point we entered
into a puzzle.

00:25:25.000 --> 00:25:27.500
We had to look for the summary
in official archives,

00:25:28.000 --> 00:25:31.000
locate witnesses and try to talk
to the victim's relatives.

00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:31.000
- Yes, it's me, David.
- Hello, I can finally get in touch with you.

00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:37.000
Were you told or did you
really know what happened?

00:26:39.000 --> 00:26:43.000
Does your father know what happened
to his father, to your grandfather?

00:26:43.500 --> 00:26:48.000
Yes, my father knows the whole story.
It is a painful story.

00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:55.000
As you know,
they were Spaniards,

00:26:57.000 --> 00:26:59.500
My father knows
well the names

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:04.000
of all those who led
him to his death.

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:09.000
He knows the story much better
than me, as you may know.

00:27:11.000 --> 00:27:13.000
What I could find out is

00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:18.000
that a trial was
opened for his death,

00:27:18.500 --> 00:27:21.000
for his murder,
his disappearance,

00:27:23.000 --> 00:27:28.500
and they tried to put
those responsible in the dock.

00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:35.000
I don't think so,
I don't think so.

00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:40.000
On my grandfather's death
everything was planned.

00:28:06.000 --> 00:28:09.000
The General Archive of the
Administration has almost

00:28:09.500 --> 00:28:13.500
all the documentation generated
by the Franco dictatorship.

00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:17.300
We are looking for a judicial
summary that was investigated

00:28:17.500 --> 00:28:22.000
in the Spanish Guinea
in 1960 or 1961.

00:28:23.000 --> 00:28:26.000
Just the fair and necessary
conservation work is done.

00:28:27.000 --> 00:28:32.000
We can not go deeper into
the descriptions of the documentation.

00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:37.000
The researchers themselves
have to search for the documents,

00:28:37.100 --> 00:28:42.500
Administration General Archive
Deputy director

00:28:44.000 --> 00:28:47.000
It is something
we should also do

00:28:47.500 --> 00:28:50.000
to make it easier for you.

00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:19.500
Can the entire folder be scanned?

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:22.000
Or just a few documents?

00:29:23.000 --> 00:29:25.000
They are not many documents.

00:29:25.500 --> 00:29:28.500
I believe it can be scanned,
we will consult.

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:33.000
Look, this is Acacio Mañe's file.

00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:43.000
The only photo I got to see
of what Acacio was really like,

00:29:45.000 --> 00:29:50.000
born in 1906 in San Joaquín,
fully emancipated,

00:29:51.000 --> 00:29:54.000
in a good economic position,
with a strong ascendancy over the natives.

00:29:57.000 --> 00:30:03.000
You see, they had them under control,
where they held meetings.

00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:09.000
I mean, they had informers,
it was clear:

00:30:09.000 --> 00:30:12.000
'In all of these meetings,
the most prominent is Acacio

00:30:12.500 --> 00:30:15.000
because of his phobia
and hatred of whites'.

00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:19.000
'At the end of March, a meeting
was scheduled to take place in Yaounde.

00:30:19.500 --> 00:30:21.500
with the assistance of Enrique Nvo,

00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:26.000
in which he would exchange views
with the Cameroonian Prime Minister

00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:30.000
and with representatives from Nigeria,
Ghana and other African territories'.

00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:35.000
Enrique is said to have been
at the United Nations headquarters.

00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:42.000
The Atlantic Charter is a letter
that was addressed to the UN,

00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:45.500
where they wanted to stake their claim.

00:30:46.000 --> 00:30:48.500
In the end things didn't start happening

00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:52.000
until they reached the United Nations.

00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:10.000
What is said here, they visited
his house, in San Joaquín de Njiacom,

00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:16.000
and made fruitless enquiries
for his location.

00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:29.000
See what this classified document
says about Acacio Mañe.

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.000
It says, it was reported a man
from Micomeseng told sure

00:31:37.000 --> 00:31:42.500
that Acacio Mañe died
because the Europeans killed him.

00:31:43.000 --> 00:31:46.000
That was discovered through
letters addressed to his child

00:31:47.000 --> 00:31:50.000
who studied at
the high school in Spain then.

00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:59.000
We still cannot
find the summary.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.000
Acacio Mañe, above all, was the most
respected person in Rio Muni,

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:08.000
respected by whites and blacks alike.

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:13.000
Acacio Mañe was an organised person.

00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:17.000
Did Acacio Mañe die by
the colonial government? Yes.

00:33:18.500 --> 00:33:21.500
How did he die?
I wasn't there.

00:33:23.000 --> 00:33:26.000
The truth is that
a letter was written

00:33:26.500 --> 00:33:30.000
and this letter reached the UN:
Why has Spain to be here?

00:33:33.000 --> 00:33:36.000
When this letter got to the UN,
what was going on?

00:33:37.500 --> 00:33:40.000
who could infiltrate this letter?

00:33:40.500 --> 00:33:43.500
This letter brought
the problems, the raids.

00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:47.000
They started arresting people.

00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:05.000
The problem was that Acacio Mañe
was ahead of his time.

00:34:05.500 --> 00:34:08.000
He went around the villages
giving subversive ideas,

00:34:08.500 --> 00:34:10.500
that it was necessary to rebel
against the whites...

00:34:11.000 --> 00:34:13.500
So, this came to the attention
of don Faustino.

00:34:14.000 --> 00:34:18.500
Don Faustino allowed, he thought,
by beating him up,

00:34:19.000 --> 00:34:24.000
he would desist from proselytising.

00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:29.000
The wrong thing was they beat him up
and got out of hand.

00:34:29.500 --> 00:34:33.000
They didn't think that he was
going to die but he died.

00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:38.500
People say on the day of his death

00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:43.000
his friend Nicolás Preboste Belzunce
called him and said to him:

00:34:43.500 --> 00:34:45.500
'You have to go to confession.
But why?

00:34:46.000 --> 00:34:48.000
You have to go to confession'.

00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:53.000
He confessed and was sent
to the afterlife.

00:34:53.500 --> 00:34:56.000
He was sent to the sea.

00:34:57.000 --> 00:35:01.000
From the mass, he didn't
even cross the street.

00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:05.000
That's what people say.

00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:12.000
How much time
do we have here?

00:35:13.000 --> 00:35:16.000
I don't know, about an hour
and a half or so.

00:35:17.000 --> 00:35:20.000
So little? Yes?
Do you have everything under control?

00:35:20.500 --> 00:35:23.000
Yes. I don't know
if it's this way.

00:35:24.000 --> 00:35:27.000
Yes, we´ll be able to see
what we are interested in.

00:35:28.000 --> 00:35:31.000
How do you feel here?

00:35:31.500 --> 00:35:34.000
You studied in the Claretians.

00:35:34.500 --> 00:35:38.500
Well, all my childhood,
until I was 14.

00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:46.000
Well, lights and shadows.
Don't think that...

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.000
A time for growing up,
getting an education,

00:35:54.500 --> 00:35:58.000
so many things affect you,
but well, lights and shadows.

00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:01.000
I don't know
what to tell you,

00:36:01.500 --> 00:36:03.500
like any other congregation
in that period.

00:36:04.000 --> 00:36:06.000
Were they hard on you?

00:36:06.500 --> 00:36:10.000
Not with me, but with
my colleagues, I think so.

00:36:12.000 --> 00:36:14.500
They marked,
they traced life,

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:18.000
they tried to order our lives,
more or less, to focus.

00:36:46.000 --> 00:36:50.000
Let's see if I can find
some more photos.

00:37:11.000 --> 00:37:15.000
I think that, in this photo,
which is from the year 57

00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:22.000
Yes, that seems
to be Nicolas Preboste.

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:31.000
He is said to be the last
person to see Acacio Mañe

00:37:32.000 --> 00:37:35.000
before he disappeared in Bata.

00:37:36.500 --> 00:37:39.000
Just two years earlier, right?

00:37:44.000 --> 00:37:49.000
This photo, they are priests
when they were seminarians.

00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:55.000
José Viñas,
I think he's here.

00:37:55.200 --> 00:37:58.300
This one says Viñas here.

00:37:58.500 --> 00:38:01.000
Young, wasn't he?

00:38:02.000 --> 00:38:05.000
Acacio Mañe was a mission
teacher in Concepción,

00:38:05.500 --> 00:38:07.500
where I spent several years.

00:38:08.000 --> 00:38:12.300
He was a very good person,
and a lover of his country too.

00:38:12.500 --> 00:38:16.500
Claretian missionary

00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:20.000
He was baptised with the name
of the mission's superior, Acacio.

00:38:21.000 --> 00:38:25.500
He became later a politician, Christian,
wishing for Guinea's independence.

00:38:26.000 --> 00:38:28.500
The police knew this
and arrested him.

00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:31.500
He was arrested and
was taken to Bata.

00:38:32.000 --> 00:38:35.000
He alerted one of
our priests in Bata:

00:38:35.500 --> 00:38:38.000
'The police are calling me,
I don't know what they want.

00:38:38.500 --> 00:38:41.800
If you didn´t do anything wrong,
you didn't hunt elephants...',

00:38:42.000 --> 00:38:44.500
so hunting elephants was forbidden,

00:38:44.600 --> 00:38:47.800
'no, no, then go easy, go easy'.

00:38:48.000 --> 00:38:51.000
Later they found out that
he was put in jail.

00:38:51.500 --> 00:38:55.000
Some days later he was taken
to a ship and thrown into the sea.

00:38:56.000 --> 00:39:01.000
This was Acacio Mañe.
It was a crime of the Spanish police.

00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:05.000
The prosecutor who was there
brought the case to trial

00:39:05.500 --> 00:39:07.500
against those authorities
who did this.

00:39:08.000 --> 00:39:12.000
My father investigated the crime.
He was the attorney general.

00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:17.000
I think he spent one month researching
in Bata, accompanied by a secretary,

00:39:19.500 --> 00:39:22.000
but all he achieved was
being removed from his post.

00:39:22.500 --> 00:39:24.500
No more was achieved.

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.000
We didn't know whether they were
punished or not, but it was a crime.

00:39:44.000 --> 00:39:48.000
The colonised weren't taken
in account, they were nothing,

00:39:49.000 --> 00:39:52.500
They were one more thing,
worthy of possession,

00:39:53.000 --> 00:39:58.000
like anything else they found
in the soils to be colonised.

00:40:02.000 --> 00:40:04.700
There was also an idea

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:08.500
that if you treated the colonised
more harshly, much better.

00:40:11.000 --> 00:40:15.000
When the political leaders
started to come out,

00:40:21.000 --> 00:40:24.500
it is curious that
this group emerged

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:28.000
from the people who
Spain prepared to consider this:

00:40:29.000 --> 00:40:32.500
in case we have to leave here
or they want to kick us out,

00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:37.000
we will have an elite
who could take power in Guinea,

00:40:38.000 --> 00:40:41.000
who are the so-called
emancipated ones.

00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:46.000
They were who had more or less
the same rights as Spaniards.

00:40:47.000 --> 00:40:54.000
Then these leaders emerge:
Acacio Mañe Ela, Enrique Nvo Okenve

00:40:56.000 --> 00:41:02.000
and all these emancipated people
who joined the struggle for independence.

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.000
The murder of Acacio Mañe,
the murder of Enrique Nvo,

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:33.000
all this was
in order to scare people.

00:41:36.000 --> 00:41:41.000
In other words, nobody can move
because you belong to Spain

00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:46.000
and you have to keep on
belonging to Spain.

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:08.000
Official documents reveal
a wider campaign of repression.

00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:13.000
They report on hundreds of detainees
and a second man disappeared, Enrique Nvo,

00:42:14.000 --> 00:42:18.000
who was another of the leaders
of the National Liberation Movement.

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.500
Son of Enrique Nvo

00:42:31.000 --> 00:42:34.000
Enrique Nvo was my father,

00:42:34.500 --> 00:42:41.000
when I saw him for the last time
in the early hours of June 3rd, 1959,

00:42:42.500 --> 00:42:44.500
and from then on
I never saw him again.

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:48.000
I don't know
exactly what happened.

00:42:49.000 --> 00:42:53.000
I had no idea what
the whole things were about.

00:42:54.000 --> 00:43:00.000
I just knew the people talked
that things were going to change.

00:43:01.000 --> 00:43:05.000
Months later they began
to talk about Equatorial Guinea

00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:09.700
ceased to be Spanish territory
in the Gulf of Guinea,

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.000
then it became
a Spanish province.

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.000
Franco tried to prevent the
decolonisation of Equatorial Guinea,

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:28.700
turning Fernando Poo and
Rio Muni into Spanish provinces

00:43:29.000 --> 00:43:32.700
but independence was unstoppable.

00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:38.000
The Franco regime only succeeded
in delaying the process.

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:52.500
Little by little
we narrowed the circle

00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:56.000
on the settlers
who were not dead.

00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:07.000
Among them was
a Navy Judge Advocate General,

00:44:07.500 --> 00:44:10.500
who was the Governor's secretary.

00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:15.000
Well, Mon,
listen to me.

00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:21.000
I managed to speak to a Navy captain,
whose name is José Cervera Pery.

00:44:22.000 --> 00:44:27.000
José Cervera Pery was assistant
to Governor Faustino Ruiz in Guinea.

00:44:28.000 --> 00:44:32.000
He knew your father
and remembers him.

00:44:33.000 --> 00:44:37.000
He rejected the possibility
of meeting us all together

00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:42.000
so you could ask
him questions directly.

00:44:43.000 --> 00:44:48.000
He told me he didn't want to see you,
he had no interest.

00:44:49.000 --> 00:44:53.000
It's very strange but
he doesn't want to talk to you.

00:44:54.000 --> 00:44:58.000
He told me directly that he excused,
but he didn't want to see you.

00:44:58.500 --> 00:45:01.000
We managed to interview him.

00:45:02.000 --> 00:45:04.000
There are many accounts,
there are many accounts.

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.500
Some say he was killed
by the Spanish state.

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:16.000
The executor we don't know who would be,
but it was done with consent.

00:45:16.500 --> 00:45:19.500
Secretary to the governor general

00:45:27.000 --> 00:45:31.000
Truly, I knew everything.

00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:35.000
Actually, there was something
strange going on there,

00:45:36.000 --> 00:45:38.500
but if anyone knew, except God,

00:45:38.600 --> 00:45:41.600
it must have been Don Faustino,
who took it to the grave,

00:45:41.700 --> 00:45:44.800
and a captain of the Guardia Civil,
who is also no longer with us,

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:47.500
who was in charge
of services and so on.

00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:52.000
I personally don't know
what to think,

00:45:52.500 --> 00:45:56.000
but, of course,
that man disappeared.

00:45:57.000 --> 00:46:01.000
As I said, this is a taboo
subject for me.

00:46:26.000 --> 00:46:29.000
Faustino Ruiz González is
a favourite son of San Fernando.

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:32.500
His bust, morning coat
and decorations

00:46:33.000 --> 00:46:35.000
are on display at
the Naval Museum here.

00:46:44.500 --> 00:46:46.500
There we met Manuel Junquera,

00:46:47.000 --> 00:46:50.000
his nephew and personal assistant
when Acacio disappeared.

00:46:53.000 --> 00:46:56.000
Junquera did not want to be filmed,
but he gave us this photograph.

00:46:57.500 --> 00:46:59.500
He closed the matter
with this sentence:

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.000
'The truth will die with me'.

00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:22.700
- Do you recognise him, don't you?
- For sure.

00:47:23.000 --> 00:47:27.000
I have to say it is by far
the worst painting of all.

00:47:28.000 --> 00:47:31.500
Don't you like it?

00:47:32.000 --> 00:47:36.000
I might be a pedant, it is
the worst painted one here,

00:47:36.200 --> 00:47:39.800
as if painted in a hurry.

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.000
Close friend of Governor Faustino Ruiz,
President Carrero Blanco,

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:50.000
who was the top leader
and mandatary for Guinea.

00:47:56.000 --> 00:47:59.000
Obviously Carrero Blanco's
reaction was not good,

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:02.500
He was not interested
in losing that.

00:48:03.000 --> 00:48:05.500
It was an estate
that provided

00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:09.000
very considerable incomes
at that time.

00:48:10.500 --> 00:48:13.000
Everything that came in
by the cocoa union,

00:48:13.500 --> 00:48:19.000
the timber union, the coffee union,
a lot of money, a lot of money.

00:48:21.000 --> 00:48:27.000
Therefore, I wouldn't say
Carrero Blanco's reaction was rational.

00:48:28.000 --> 00:48:31.500
It was totally irrational.

00:48:46.000 --> 00:48:49.000
I received this email
from the Prime Minister's Office, ok?

00:48:49.500 --> 00:48:52.500
From the archive of the
Presidency of the Government.

00:48:53.000 --> 00:48:57.000
I was referred to the AGA.
The last paragraph is the most surprising:

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:02.500
I reiterate the recommendation
we made to you before

00:49:03.000 --> 00:49:07.500
to query in the General Administration
Archive for that historical period.

00:49:08.000 --> 00:49:14.000
They reply: 'Francisco Franco Foundation
may keep interesting documents for you'.

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:17.000
Francisco Franco Foundation?

00:49:21.000 --> 00:49:24.000
What seems serious to me,
Mon, is a public institution,

00:49:24.500 --> 00:49:26.500
such as the Presidency of the Government,

00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:31.000
tells me to go
to the Franco Foundation.

00:49:50.500 --> 00:49:53.700
We insisted on the
Government Presidential Archive

00:49:53.800 --> 00:49:56.900
and we accessed the documents
of a council of ministers

00:49:57.000 --> 00:50:01.500
prior to the declaration of independence.

00:50:02.000 --> 00:50:05.000
The dossier included a report
from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

00:50:05.500 --> 00:50:09.500
on the decolonisation of Guinea.

00:50:14.500 --> 00:50:17.800
We were unable to consult
it because today

00:50:17.900 --> 00:50:22.500
remains classified
as a state secret.

00:50:36.000 --> 00:50:39.000
By then David had only five
per cent of his field of vision,

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:43.000
but he could get
fine-tuned in the details.

00:50:57.000 --> 00:50:59.000
That is how he ended up finding
himself, outside the Moncloa,

00:50:59.500 --> 00:51:03.000
the notes in the personal file
of Foreign Minister Fernando Castilla,

00:51:03.500 --> 00:51:06.000
who kept his own family.

00:51:06.500 --> 00:51:12.000
As a reaction against the Provincialization Law,
the first political groups tended
to polarize rebellion and the desire for independence.

00:51:12.500 --> 00:51:17.300
For the first time, in 1959, a group
of nationalists sent a letter to the UN
against the Provincialization Law, approved
without consulting the people of Guinea.

00:51:17.500 --> 00:51:23.500
The letter requested the sending of
a visiting commission to the UN.

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:31.500
The death of Don Acacio Mañe,
one of the main leaders,
also occurred while he was detained
at that time, due to strange circumstances.

00:51:38.000 --> 00:51:41.500
We were quite reluctant to consult
the archives of the Franco Foundation.

00:51:42.000 --> 00:51:45.000
There we came across
another Foreign Affairs document

00:51:45.500 --> 00:51:48.500
reporting Acacio's death
in strange circumstances

00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:53.000
and added that Enrique Nvo
was killed in Cameroon.

00:52:03.000 --> 00:52:07.000
There are times when
I wonder where I've got you.

00:52:08.000 --> 00:52:10.000
I have been outdone.

00:52:11.000 --> 00:52:16.000
Sometimes I remember myself it was me
who got you into this story

00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:23.000
but now it seems that you
have brought me into this story,

00:52:23.500 --> 00:52:26.000
and it is not true.

00:52:29.000 --> 00:52:31.500
Well, anyway,
I feel I'm losing you.

00:52:32.000 --> 00:52:35.000
You have become an archivist.

00:52:39.000 --> 00:52:42.000
The possibility, hell,
I thought it might be there,

00:52:42.500 --> 00:52:46.000
but then you find out
that there are so much hidden.

00:52:47.800 --> 00:52:55.000
Why are they not declassified yet?
After sixty years, all those files.

00:52:58.000 --> 00:53:03.000
I don't understand,
I don't know.

00:53:04.000 --> 00:53:06.000
What is the interest in this?

00:53:08.000 --> 00:53:12.000
You did what you had
in your hands and that's all.

00:53:13.000 --> 00:53:16.000
Don't worry, as far as
we've been able to do.

00:53:16.500 --> 00:53:20.000
We don't have our
whole lives for this.

00:53:57.500 --> 00:54:00.500
During the pandemic, we were unable
to travel to Equatorial Guinea.

00:54:01.000 --> 00:54:04.000
We had the opportunity
to continue our research.

00:54:11.000 --> 00:54:13.000
We were denied access
by Naval Headquarters

00:54:13.500 --> 00:54:17.000
to the governor's military file.

00:54:21.000 --> 00:54:24.000
It merely replied there was
no record of trial against Faustino Ruiz

00:54:24.500 --> 00:54:28.000
during his term
of office in the colony.

00:54:38.000 --> 00:54:41.500
Well, look straight ahead
without paying attention to my light,

00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:48.000
look up, down, to the right...

00:54:53.000 --> 00:54:55.000
You have the cataract
typical of retinitis,

00:54:55.500 --> 00:54:58.500
what is a posterior
subcapsular cataract,

00:54:59.000 --> 00:55:02.000
and then there's this waterfall
you have also because of inflammation.

00:55:03.000 --> 00:55:05.500
I'm not going to get it
back in any case, am I?

00:55:06.000 --> 00:55:10.000
Because of your macular scar
it is difficult, yes.

00:55:43.000 --> 00:55:46.000
Filming permits in Guinea
are almost impossible,

00:55:46.500 --> 00:55:48.500
when the time came,
visas approved,

00:55:49.000 --> 00:55:52.000
airplane tickets in hand
and a very tight budget,

00:55:52.500 --> 00:55:56.000
chance decided
instead of us.

00:56:02.000 --> 00:56:07.000
Dear Mon, you left here
sixty years ago,

00:56:09.000 --> 00:56:13.000
in your mother's womb,
and you lost this world.

00:56:14.000 --> 00:56:19.000
and now you are about to come,
suddenly, wham, Covid!

00:56:21.000 --> 00:56:24.500
What we have on our hands
is much larger than that.

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:27.400
It has much more depth

00:56:27.500 --> 00:56:30.800
that our little issues
of travels and comings and goings.

00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:34.800
I feel very small next
to what you are going to do.

00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:40.500
Sometimes I think it's almost
better that I am not there.

00:56:46.500 --> 00:56:49.800
Those days were hard.
I was devastated.

00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:53.300
I could not go to the place
where my family lived

00:56:53.500 --> 00:56:59.000
or visit Acacio's son and convey
our respect on behalf of my father.

00:57:34.000 --> 00:57:37.000
This window, from here,
my father

00:57:37.500 --> 00:57:41.000
addressed the population
to give them advice.

00:57:42.000 --> 00:57:45.800
I know very well he used to do that.
He spoke from here.

00:57:46.000 --> 00:57:52.000
Sometimes from the rooftop up there,
so that they could hear him well.

00:58:01.000 --> 00:58:06.000
Actually, David, my friend,
I think he died

00:58:07.000 --> 00:58:10.000
like someone dying
at a crossroads.

00:58:12.000 --> 00:58:15.000
The colonial white,
who taught him at school,

00:58:16.000 --> 00:58:21.000
raised him to the top,
with farms...

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:28.500
On the other side
were his brothers.

00:58:29.000 --> 00:58:32.000
He had to make a decision.

00:58:40.000 --> 00:58:42.000
Times were bad,

00:58:43.000 --> 00:58:46.000
there was an atmosphere
of independence,

00:58:47.000 --> 00:58:49.800
not only in Guinea,
but throughout Africa.

00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:53.000
All over Africa
there was that atmosphere.

00:58:58.000 --> 00:59:01.000
They came in here,
searched all this stuff,

00:59:02.000 --> 00:59:07.000
even down to the basement,
down there,

00:59:08.500 --> 00:59:12.500
entered everywhere, they didn't
leave a place without searching.

00:59:13.000 --> 00:59:17.000
That's why I say from all of this,
they left nothing behind.

00:59:18.500 --> 00:59:21.000
- Nothing remained.
- There was nothing left.

00:59:22.000 --> 00:59:26.000
From then on, the farms,
everything was spent.

00:59:27.000 --> 00:59:30.000
Everything, everything,
It was total destruction.

00:59:55.500 --> 00:59:58.000
Much of this content
was secret.

00:59:58.500 --> 01:00:02.900
The secrecy seals are all over this
because it was classified information.

01:00:03.000 --> 01:00:08.800
It was only managed by intelligence services
and the country's government.

01:00:09.000 --> 01:00:11.000
What does it say here?

01:00:12.000 --> 01:00:14.500
Background.

01:00:16.000 --> 01:00:20.500
Those who tipped off the police
these things that are written here,

01:00:21.000 --> 01:00:27.000
for me, right now,
they are traitors, nothing more.

01:00:29.000 --> 01:00:38.000
There was a real plan organised
by the colonial power with the...

01:00:41.000 --> 01:00:43.400
- Metropolis.
- With the metropolis.

01:00:43.500 --> 01:00:47.800
- They gave the go-ahead.
- With the motherland.

01:00:48.000 --> 01:00:51.000
Here it was executed.

01:00:52.000 --> 01:00:55.000
This God presented to us
as a God of love,

01:00:56.000 --> 01:01:01.000
God who stretches out his arms
on the cross to call everyone,

01:01:02.700 --> 01:01:05.400
was not the God
of the settlers.

01:01:05.500 --> 01:01:07.500
The God of the settlers,
who was not God,

01:01:08.000 --> 01:01:12.000
a simple, poor devil, nothing more,
because this was hell.

01:01:13.500 --> 01:01:15.500
I can tell you
no more.

01:01:21.000 --> 01:01:23.500
Acacio was last seen here,

01:01:24.000 --> 01:01:26.500
around the Claretian
mission of Bata,

01:01:27.000 --> 01:01:29.500
near the old cemetery
and the cathedral.

01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:35.000
A few metres away was the police
station where his trail got lost.

01:02:15.000 --> 01:02:18.700
White people are going to kill me.
He said so clearly.

01:02:18.800 --> 01:02:22.000
I tell you like it was.

01:02:26.000 --> 01:02:30.000
Did your mother know the situation?
That it was dangerous.

01:02:31.000 --> 01:02:35.000
Well, I don't know if my mother
suspected something or what.

01:02:36.000 --> 01:02:41.000
but perhaps seeing him
what a trance he was in,

01:02:45.000 --> 01:02:48.000
she would ask him
about his departure.

01:02:49.000 --> 01:02:52.000
'My friends will take care of you,
I'm leaving', he replied.

01:02:52.500 --> 01:02:55.900
So the regular bus
arrived in the morning,

01:02:56.000 --> 01:03:00.500
That was early in the morning,
No one could sleep that night.

01:03:03.000 --> 01:03:09.500
In the morning he got into the coach
and went down to Bata, until today.

01:04:06.000 --> 01:04:09.500
Acacio's grandchildren took
our crew to the house

01:04:10.000 --> 01:04:13.500
where the last political meeting that
his grandfather attended was held.

01:04:14.000 --> 01:04:18.800
Its owner, Vicente Osomo,
was imprisoned by the Spaniards.

01:04:20.000 --> 01:04:22.800
My father and Acacio
used to sit out here,

01:04:23.000 --> 01:04:25.800
This is where our first
wooden house was.

01:04:26.000 --> 01:04:28.400
Many afternoons Acacio arrived

01:04:28.500 --> 01:04:31.800
to spend the afternoon together.

01:04:32.000 --> 01:04:37.000
They used to talk
about their farms,

01:04:38.000 --> 01:04:42.500
coffee production,

01:04:43.000 --> 01:04:48.500
about sales, they talked
about things like that.

01:04:49.000 --> 01:04:54.000
But they also talked about
the need for independence,

01:04:55.000 --> 01:05:00.000
they used to comment on
that here in our house.

01:05:01.000 --> 01:05:06.000
They said we should be independent,
that whites could no longer rule,

01:05:07.000 --> 01:05:14.000
they themselves could rule the country,
but they didn't have that independence.

01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:24.000
Now I realise that
my father was right:

01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:29.000
We are without money, anything.
We are in the dark.

01:05:32.000 --> 01:05:35.500
Son of Vicente Osomo

01:05:36.000 --> 01:05:39.000
When political parties started

01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:42.800
my father was a
member of the MONALIGE.

01:05:43.000 --> 01:05:44.800
He belonged to that party.

01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:47.400
and also the whole family.

01:05:47.500 --> 01:05:50.800
They entered the house,

01:05:51.000 --> 01:05:53.500
searched among their files

01:05:54.000 --> 01:05:57.000
and in the rest of the house,

01:05:57.500 --> 01:06:00.000
even took his gun

01:06:01.000 --> 01:06:05.000
and they took him away.

01:06:05.500 --> 01:06:08.400
We were very worried
because we didn't know

01:06:08.500 --> 01:06:10.400
if he was taken to Malabo

01:06:10.500 --> 01:06:12.500
or they wanted to kill him
and throw him into the sea.

01:06:12.600 --> 01:06:14.500
We knew nothing at all.

01:06:14.600 --> 01:06:16.800
My father spent
seven months in prison,

01:06:17.000 --> 01:06:20.000
and when he came out, he was
no longer in good health,

01:06:21.000 --> 01:06:24.000
he was very ill then,

01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:28.000
He told us he was beaten
with the butt of a shotgun,

01:06:29.000 --> 01:06:31.500
his neck was hit,
he was in a lot of pain

01:06:32.000 --> 01:06:36.000
and spat a lot of blood.

01:07:41.000 --> 01:07:43.000
Spanish colonial memory
in Equatorial Guinea

01:07:44.000 --> 01:07:46.000
remains an unfinished collage,

01:07:47.000 --> 01:07:50.000
of almost absolute blindness.

01:08:18.000 --> 01:08:21.500
Dad, who is this man?
The white man next to my grandfather.

01:08:22.000 --> 01:08:25.000
He is the popular
Faustino Ruiz González,

01:08:26.000 --> 01:08:31.000
Governor General of the Spanish territories
in the Gulf of Guinea.

01:08:32.000 --> 01:08:37.000
Faustino Ruiz ordered
the execution of Acacio Mañe.

01:08:39.000 --> 01:08:41.500
He mandated it.

01:08:42.000 --> 01:08:47.000
I don't know if the instructions
were given from the metropolis.

01:08:48.000 --> 01:08:51.500
This is normal,
but he did it.

01:08:52.000 --> 01:08:55.000
So when talking
about Acacio Mañe,

01:08:56.000 --> 01:08:59.500
it is not a ghost,
it is about a man who lived.

01:09:02.000 --> 01:09:05.500
Unfortunately because he loved
their people so much,

01:09:06.000 --> 01:09:10.000
someone decided
to take him off the map.

01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:22.800
I was in Spain
when it happened,

01:09:23.000 --> 01:09:25.100
and now I wonder

01:09:25.300 --> 01:09:28.400
why his corpse
was never turned up.

01:09:28.500 --> 01:09:31.500
A great personality
like Acacio Mañe

01:09:32.000 --> 01:09:38.000
who was vice-president
of the Patronato de Indígenas.

01:09:48.000 --> 01:09:51.000
That is why
I want to say to Spain

01:09:51.100 --> 01:09:53.800
that they must
seek a solution.

01:09:54.000 --> 01:09:58.000
I don't know
what they will do,

01:09:59.000 --> 01:10:04.000
but I demand them to give back
his disappeared corpse,

01:10:05.000 --> 01:10:12.000
and once it is delivered to me,
to repair the damage caused to me.

01:10:12.500 --> 01:10:16.500
Like his farms,
he lost all his property,

01:10:17.000 --> 01:10:20.500
because of their wickedness.

01:10:21.000 --> 01:10:26.000
That's why we are all here,
to see it in this film.

01:10:28.000 --> 01:10:31.000
That's what I came
to tell you, my brothers.

01:10:32.000 --> 01:10:34.000
Goodbye.

01:10:56.000 --> 01:11:02.000
About 1,500 Guineans suffered colonial repression in the late 1950s.
On October 12, 1968, independence was proclaimed.

01:11:04.000 --> 01:11:09.500
Spain maintains state secrets about decolonization
protected by the Official Secrets Law of the dictatorship.

01:11:11.000 --> 01:11:16.000
In 2023 the Spanish Government approved a declaration of recognition
and reparation of Acacio Mañe as a victim of Francoism.

01:11:17.000 --> 01:11:22.000
His son achieved this recognition
supported by the research of this film.