She heard her first words watching the Mexican soap opera Marimar and, from then on, knew she wanted to learn that strange language. Gloria Ane has just started a master’s degree in Hispanic philology at the Félix Houphoüet-Boigny University in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, but she is only one of the 3.5 million Spanish learners in sub-Saharan Africa — a figure that has more than doubled since 2014. Demographics, the rise of Latin music and cinema, soccer as a global phenomenon, and migration — together with the decline in French’s prestige — are allowing the Spanish language to gain ground in Africa. On June 10 the new Aula Cervantes headquarters in Abidjan was inaugurated, and another is already planned for Cameroon, which with 1.2 million learners is the fifth-ranking country in the world by number of students.Seguir leyendo