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A New Voice from Equatorial Guinea
A New Voice from Equatorial Guinea
As the African Union meets in Malabo, a small "Colectivo" blogs in secret to tell the story of Equatorial Guinea the mainstream media ignores. Will the global wave of protests reach the oil-rich African state?-
On The Stream, we spoke with Tutu Alicante, the executive director of EG Justice.
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From the Colectivo's manifesto:
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The Equatorial Guinean Youth Collective, we are a youth organization, born in Equatorial Guinea in secret, to organize and fight for our legitimate rights and interests, joining the youth, strengthening the youth movement.
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[Note: All posts here from the blog have been translated from Spanish using Google Translate.]
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In their call to action, the Colectivo references the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia.
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We have teamed up to find the exchange of news, views and the effective support of workers and democratic organizations in the imperialist countries and mainly of Central African countries, as young people and workers who have brought down dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt.
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In their latest post:
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The Guinean youth constitutes 63% of the population and has the ability to drag the people of Equatorial Guinea to overthrow the dictatorship.
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It is clear that Obiang and his regime are afraid of youth, first revolutions of Tunisia, Egypt and other African countries such as Spain now have a crisis in the regime.
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The Colectivo claims also to have been inspired by the recent youth protests in Spain against the government's austerity measures.
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Thanks to Spanish television and also a few weeks after the outbreak of the revolt of young people in Spain, due to problems of light and for those who can afford to buy a satellite dish in Spain we have learned that a group of young people are demonstrating against the policies of their government peacefully, and they are doing, and here in Guinea, given our underground, we are studying how we can activate the machinery to make it work here.
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The blog criticizes the booming oil industry in the country...
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Today Guinea's economy is based on exploitation and plundering of oil multinationals, mostly American (ExxonMobil, Amerada Hess, etc.). While the family gets out of the country Obiang billions of dollars.
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...as well as structural reforms proposed by the IMF.
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In a country where no infrastructure exists, in which young people, workers and peasants have no rights, no education, health and the most basic public service!
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The Colectivo's accounts of life in Equatorial Guinea run counter to the claims of Teodoro Obiang, the country's long-serving president. From the government-sponsored YouTube channel:
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Obiang currently heads the African Union. This week, the AU is hosting a summit in Malabo, the country's capital, and has placed the small African state in a momentary spotlight.
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From Human Rights Watch:
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While most citizens of Equatorial Guinea languish in poverty, President Teodoro Obiang's government, which holds the revolving AU chairmanship, spent more than US$830 million to construct a luxury complex for the summit outside the nation's capital, Malabo.
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And Amnesty International:
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Political opponents as well as some 100 students have been arbitrarily arrested and detained in recent months, apparently as a pre-emptive measure to prevent any demonstrations during the summit. Many of them were reportedly ill-treated.
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“President Obiang’s government is already among the worst human rights abusers in Africa and the continuing persecution of political opponents is deplorable." All demonstrations in Equatorial Guinea have been banned following the mass uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa.
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The #AUSummit has also received attention on Twitter.
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El Mercado Publico in the old part Malabo. No tourist items sold here. Only essentials (eg clothes, hardware, etc) http://twitpic.com/5end8q
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#AUsummit: The #AU making #Teodoro #Obiang chairman tells more about AU than the dictator #Corruption #AUYVC2011 #Malabo http://t.co/f6EdBt5
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#EquatorialGuinea lavishes funds on #AU summit as its people suffer in poverty. Typical of govt's misuse of resources. http://bit.ly/moNQRw
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What do you think? Can a blogging collective effectively challenge their government's narrative? Let The Stream know via Twitter or Facebook.
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