Trifonia Melibea Obono

Trifonia Melibea Obono Ntutumu Obono (born 27 November 1982) is an Equatorial Guinean novelist, political scientist, academic and LGBT activist. Her novel La Bastarda is the first novel by a female Equatorial Guinean writer to be translated into English.

This name uses Fang people from Equatorial Guinea naming customs: her surname is Obono, her father's surname is Ntutumu and her mother's surname is Obono. The surnames are chosen by their respective parents.
Trifonia Melibea Obono
Obono in 2016
Born
Trifonia Melibea Obono Ntutumu Obono[1]

(1982-11-27) 27 November 1982
Afaetom, Evinayong, Equatorial Guinea
Occupation(s)Writer, academic and activist

Academic career

Obono has a degree in Political Science & Journalism awarded by the University of Murcia in Spain and later studied there for an MA in International Development.[2] She is a professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the UNGE (National University of Equatorial Guinea) in Malabo,[3] as well as teaching since 2013 in the Afro-Hispanic Studies Center of the UNED.[3] She is currently studying for an PhD at the University of Salamanca looking at gender and equality.[4] Obono has written on how women's lives in Spanish-speaking Africa have been visualised through postcolonial and African perspectives.[5]

Literary career

Obono has published four novels in Spanish: Las mujeres hablan mucho y mal (2019),[6] La albina del dinero (2017),[7] Yo no quería ser madre (2016),[8] La Bastarda (2016).[9] All works deal with the themes of women's rights, gender and sexuality. Obono has been described as one of the bravest writers due to her confrontation of these issues.[10] Her work is also concerned with legacies of Spanish colonisation in Africa[11] and she is an expert on the history of "Spanish Guinea".[12] Her work makes an important contribution to black African, Spanish-speaking, Atlantic cultures.[13]

La Bastarda is the first novel by a woman from Equatorial Guinea to be translated into English.[14] Due to its lesbian protagonist, the book is currently banned in Equatorial Guinea. Translated by Lawrence Schimel, an extract is included in the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa (edited by Margaret Busby).[15]

LGBTQ+ activism

Obono is outspoken about LGBTQ+ human rights issues in Equatorial Guinea.[16] She uses her literary work as activism, by writing LGBTIQ+ characters, she provides representation for others are not heterosexual.[17] She has written about the taboos that mean that homosexuality is not discussed in her country and uses her global platforms to call these out as false.[18] Obono herself is bisexual.[19]

Awards
  • 2019 - Global Literature in Libraries Initiative Award[20]
  • 2019 - Ideal Woman Award (Equatorial Guinea)[21]
  • 2018 - International Prize for African Literature[22]

References
  1. "Tipos Infames: Autor: OBONO, TRIFONIA MELIBEA".
  2. "Biografías de autores sobre la literatura africana en español - Biblioteca Africana". www.cervantesvirtual.com. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  3. "Miembros – CEAH". 7 February 2019. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  4. "Trifonia Melibea Obono". Words Without Borders. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  5. Obono, Melibea Trifonia; Camps, Inés Plasencia (2018). "Visualizando el género: la transformación de la mujer en la Guinea española a través de la imagen y sus legados desde la perspectiva poscolonial y africana". Cartas Diferentes: Revista Canaria de Patrimonio Documental (14): 159–180. ISSN 1699-9037.
  6. "Las mujeres hablan mucho y mal". Grupo Editorial Sial Pigmalión (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  7. Quincoces, Sonia Fernández (28 December 2017). "Los 10 libros africanos más destacados". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  8. "'I didn't want to be a mother'". New Internationalist. 17 February 2020. Retrieved 7 March 2020.
  9. "Trifonia Obono's "La Bastarda": First English-Language Novel by an Equatoguinean Woman". Brittle Paper. 9 March 2018. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  10. "Trifonia Melibea Obono: "En España me llaman "la negra", en Guinea Ecuatorial "la españolita""". abc (in Spanish). 12 December 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  11. Karlsson, Anna (2018). El hombre blanco de piel negra : Los ideales y estructuras coloniales en Herencia de bindendee de Trifonia Melibea Obono Ntutumu Obono.
  12. Allan, Joanna (9 April 2019). Silenced Resistance: Women, Dictatorships, and Genderwashing in Western Sahara and Equatorial Guinea. University of Wisconsin Pres. ISBN 978-0-299-31840-6.
  13. Celaya Carrillo, Beatriz (2017). "Atlántico negro y africano: travesías de Inongo-Vi-Makomè, Maximiliano Nkogo Esono y César A. Mba Abogo". Transmodernity: Journal of Peripheral Cultural Production of the Luso-Hispanic World. 7 (2). doi:10.5070/T472035430. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  14. "In Review: La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono - Asymptote Blog". Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  15. Gabi-Williams, Olatoun (2018-10-11), "Frankfurt Book Fair 2018: The African Stage", Borders.
  16. "Trifonia Melibea Obono: 'I Did Not Want to Be a Mother: On LGBTQ Rights and Livelihood in Equatorial Guinea.'". The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  17. "How Do You Advocate for LGBTQ Rights When Your Culture Has No Word for Gay?". Electric Literature. 19 September 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  18. Obono, Autora invitada: Trifonia Melibea (9 January 2018). "10 mitos sobre mujeres que aman a otras mujeres en Guinea Ecuatorial". El País (in Spanish). ISSN 1134-6582. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  19. "The PEN Ten with Trifonia Melibea Obono". PEN America. 28 June 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2019.
  20. "Trifonia Melibea Obono Ntutumu ha ganado un premio GLLI por su novela 'La bastarda'. Diario Utamboni | asodeguesegundaetapa.org" (in European Spanish). Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  21. "Trifonia Melibea Obono Ntutumu es la Mujer Ideal de Guinea Ecuatorial 2019. | asodeguesegundaetapa.org" (in European Spanish). Retrieved 30 December 2019.
  22. Basilio, por. "Premio Internacional de Literaturas Africanas "Justo Bolekia Boleká" 2018". Grupo Editorial Sial Pigmalión (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 December 2019.
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