The Romance Studies Department with the help of Humanities Futures and the Africa Initiative welcomes novelist, journalist, and historian, Donato Ndongo Bidyogo. By bringing to the fore the experiences of Equatorial Guinean exile and immigration, Ndongo’s work highlights human rights issues and challenges the very construction of area studies. Looking forward to the future of the humanities, Ndongo encourages us to see beyond the traditional confines of the nation to think about language as a mobile tool that crosses borders and redefines disciplines.

Born in Niefang (Equatorial Guinea), journalist, historian and novelist, Donato Ndongo Bidyogo is a prolific writer. Throughout his career Ndongo has employed fiction as the vehicle to express his political views on migration and isolation. While his novels have garnered attention for their portrayal of the migrant experience in Spain he was originally trained in African History. As a journalist and academic in Europe and the United States he took it upon himself to denounce the Macías dictatorship and disseminate information about his country. He will speak to the power of storytelling to overcome boundaries and disciplines as well as the important role African intellectuals play in doing so. By bringing to the fore the experiences of exile and immigration, Ndongo’s work challenges the very construction of area studies in our contemporary world where globalization has put nationalities in question.