William Luis

Nous, les équatos: Equatorial Guinean Immigrants in Contemporary Gabon Author(s): Jeremy Rich Source: Afro-Hispanic Review, Vol. 28, No. 2, Equatorial Guinea (FALL 2009), pp. 113-130 Published by: William Luis Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41349277 . Accessed: 25/06/2014 16:21 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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Nous,

les équatos

: Equatorial

in Contemporary

Guinean

Immigrants

Gabon

Jeremy Rich Middle Tennessee State University September2000, a Gabonese landlordbegan an argumentwitha familythat had originallymoved to Librevillein the mid-1970s. The landlord berated In the familyof five about their late rent. Barbara, the 61 -year-oldmatriarch of the family, repliedwithangerthat her Gabonese clientsnever paid her on time forthe sauces and oils she sold them.Infuriated,the middle-agedlandlordyelled, " "You people are not Gabonese! You cannot act this way! You are just équatos! Except for the word équatoya Gabonese French term for immigrantsfrom Equatorial Guinea, the entire conversationwas in Fang, the dominant African language of both the Rio Muni mainland enclave of Equatorial Guinea and the northernhalfof Gabon. Barbara and her landlordshared a common language and ethnic identity,even as national histories and legacies divided them by have a border.Such selectiveuses of Gabonese national identityagainstforeigners a long history.In Gabon, immigrantsfromEquatorial Guinea have long been associated with povertyand crime since their arrival in large numbers during the despotic Macias Nguema regime (1968-1979). In 1979, the Gabonese governmenteven organized a series of violent attacks on Guinean immigrants in similar fashion to persecution of Benin residents of Gabon in 1978 and Cameroonian nationals in 1981. The complicatedrelationshipbetween the two countrieshas changed after the economic fortunesof Equatorial Guinea rose when oil production began in 1995. Some Equatorial Guineans have founda profitableniche forthemselves in the oil and timberindustriesin Gabon, especiallywith the dramaticgrowth of Chinese demand forGabonese naturalresourcesafter2000. In July2007, 1 met Roberto,a Guinean timbercamp managerworkingin a Gabonese village located near the central Gabonese town of Booué. His European-style modular house, with a parabolic dish, gourmetfoods importedfromFrance and Spain, and expensivewardrobestood in sharpcontrastto the restof the neighborsof the impoverishedtown. Roberto and his brotherAlex were clearly the wealthiest people there. The two men took pride in their success and kept praisingthe orderlylifein Equatorial Guinea in comparisonto what theyfeltwas the chaotic

Review• Volume 28, Number 2 • Fall 2009 Afro-Hispanic

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Rich Jeremy and undisciplinednature of Gabonese society.Their love for Spanish football teams, global hip-hop fashion trends, and their alliances with Chinese firms revealed how they had inserted themselves into contemporarytransnational cultural and economic patterns that demonstrated their wealth, far from the strugglesof Barbara'sfamily. The lives and viewpointsofGuinean immigrants in Gabon deserveattention fromanyone seeking to understandthe Guinean diaspora. Naturally,Guineans in Spain and elsewhere in Europe have been the main subject of attention for scholars examining this country'spatternsof migration.However, the vast majorityof Guineans living abroad do not have the means to leave Africa, and over 65,000 of themlived in Gabon- accordingto the Gabonese government - in the mid-1990s (Liniger-Goumaz 409-10). While the painful experiences of the generation of Equatorial Guinean refugeesin Gabon during the 1970s are often mentioned, no scholarly work has yet considered the expressions of national identity in this community.Economic opportunitiesand family connections now draw Guineans to their southern neighbor.The examples of Barbara and Roberto's verydifferentsocial positionsdemonstratehow class, ethnicity,and generationdivide this communitytoday.This essay will examine changing notions of national identitiesand immigrantexperiencesof Guineans livingin Gabon, althoughit will not investigatein detail the shiftingdiplomatic relationshipsbetween the two countries. Instead, the main source of research comes fromdirectinterviewsand oral recordsof incidentscollected between 1998 and 2008. I have chosen to change the names of Equatorial Guinean informants out of concernfortheirprivacyand safety.With such a smallpool of interviewees, it would be a mistaketo conclude that the perspectivescollected here necessarily representthe majorityof Guineans in Gabon. For example, the sizable number of Guinean bush meat huntersin northernGabon is excluded here. Furthermore, the informantscrucial to thisessay probablydo not representan accurate sample of Guineans in regardsto social class. The group of 15 individualsinterviewed forthisarticleare wealthierthan mostGuineans livingin Gabon. The positionof Equatorial Guineans residingin Gabon has changed in the last decade. However, Gabonese public perceptions of Guineans have been largelyshaped fromthe hard timesof the Macias Nguema regimeof the 1970s, when thousands of destituterefugeesfled across the borderto finda precarious withprofessionalskillsstillstruggle sanctuaryof safetyin Gabon. Even immigrants today with popular Gabonese stereotypesof uneducated Guineans. Immigrants who have lived in Gabon for over three decades often present themselves

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Nousyles équatos as victimsof the Gabonese government'sdiscriminatory policies. The adversities of the journey fromGuinea to Gabon are seen as a foundationof immigrant identity,and because of their previous hardships,some immigrantsfrom the Macias era also contend that theyhave more empathythan Gabonese nationals. The perceptionsof Equatorial Guineans in Gabon are diverse, but they regularlycritique Gabonese society as disorderlyin comparison with their homeland. AnthropologistJennifer Johnson-Hankscontends that Fang and Beti people in Cameroon have an elaborate code of personal honor that praises a public persona of self-control,which resemblesthe principleof self-discipline among Fang-speakersin Equatorial Guinea and Gabon (Johnson-Hanks).Heavy alcohol consumption,unrestrainedanger,and an unwillingnessto hide adulterous of thiscode. I contend thatthisconcern relationshipsare all seen as transgressions with a public performanceof restraintand self-controlhas become a major element in Equatorial Guinean identitiesin Gabon. The tremendouseconomic inequities in Gabon, the reign of presidentOmar Bongo Ondimba from 1967 to 2009, and the poor state of education and medical facilitiesare seen as signs of the moralweaknessesof Gabonese people. West Africanimmigrantsalso mock Gabonese people for their supposed corruption, laziness, and promiscuity. Guineans are presentedas orderlyand respectfulof others in comparisonwith the chaos of Gabonese society.Catholic missionariesnote how Christianshad to lay down their lives for their faith in Guinea during the Macias era, but Gabonese Catholics have not yet lived throughsuch tryingtimes. Some male Guinean professionalsstate they preferwomen fromtheir home country to Gabonese who onlyseek financialrewardsfromintimaterelationships. Such praise for self-discipline suggestsan ambivalentview of the present governmentof Equatorial Guinea that may stand at odds with the opinions of Equatorial Guineans livingabroad in the United States or Europe. It is rare to in Gabon publiclyendorsedemocraticreform,and some hear Guinean immigrants argue that Teodoro Obiang Nguema's regime provides discipline for Guineans sorely lacking in contemporaryGabon. Priests praise Obiang Nguema for his supportof Catholic institutions,in contrastto Omar Bongo's Muslim faithand antipathyforCatholicism. Guinea's financialsuccess in recent years is referred to as proof of Equatorial Guinea's superiority.Constructions of an orderly, well-organizedEquatorial Guinea serve as a foil to the heritageof impoverished immigrantsin Gabon. While members of the Equatorial Guinean diaspora in Europe and the United States have the luxury of criticizingthe lack of democraticinstitutionsat home, theircounterpartslivingin the authoritarian

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Rich Jeremy regime of Gabon, closer to their home country,have less freedom and less resourcesto committo politicalactivism. A Short History of Equatorial Guinean Immigrantsin Gabon Since the mid-nineteenthcentury,people frommodernEquatorial Guinea have lived in Gabon. American Protestantmissionarieswith stations along the coast of Equatorial Guinea broughtcoastal Kombe-speakingworkersto Libreville (Porter; Bushneil; Milligan 276-88, 320-28). This town served as a major commercial center for internationalexportsof ivoryand rubberfor Equatorial Guinea until France ceded Rio Muni to Spain in 1900. Fang-speakingpeople regularlycrossed the ill-defined borders of the two colonies throughoutthe colonial era. Some Gabonese Fang chose to sell cocoa and coffeein Spanish territory, especiallysince Gabon's terribleroads preventedeasy access to Libreville. Benga-speakingpeople livingon Corisco Island in Spanish Guinea and the Cap Esterias region visited Gabon regularlythroughoutthe colonial period (Nze Olióme). Equatorial Guineans and Gabonese people also dodged forced labor details and tax obligationsby moving back and forthacross the bordersof the two colonies (Anonymous; Mba-Mve). In the 1950s and 1960s, lower duties on importsled some Gabonese people to consider Bata as a betterplace to buy foreigngoods. Intermarriagebetween Equatorial Guinean and Gabonese families was common throughoutthe colonial and post-colonialeras. AfterGabon became independentin 1960, and Equatorial Guinea followed suit in 1968, migrationpatternschanged. The ascension of Omar Bongo to power in Gabon in 1967 signaleda new policytowardsimmigrants. Gabon's mineraland oil resourcesbroughta significantamount of wealth to the countryfromthe late 1960s onward. This boom attractedtens of thousandsof immigrantsfromother Central and West African countries. Christopher Gray has noted how the Gabonese governmentfosteredxenophobia as a means of developing a sense of Gabonese identity(Gray). Although people fromEquatorial Guinea never underwentthe indignityof mass repatriationsthat immigrantsfromBenin and Cameroon faced,theydid endure harassmentand poor livingconditions. Once economic and political conditionsworsened under Macias Nguema over the course of the 1970s, thousands of Equatorial Guineans fled fromRio Muni to Gabon. In 1979, the United Nations High Commissionon Refugeesset up camps and supportforthese newcomers(Klinteberg;Fegley120-29; Sundiata 65; Cusak 227-28). Since the Gabonese government refused to accept

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Nous, les équatos professionalcredentialsand fewrefugeesspoke French,EquatorialGuineans found few job opportunitiesoutside of farming,hunting,and pettytrade. Immigrants struggledas a result,especiallysince Gabon's dependence on food importsmade the cost of livingin its cities extremelyexpensive.However,it would be a mistake themselveswith to thinkthatrefugeesfacedinsurmountablebarriersto integrating Gabonese people. The majorityof the immigrantsspoke Fang and often had Gabonese familymembers.Intermarriagebetween Fang people fromGabon and Equatorial Guinea commonlyoccurredpriorto the advent of the Macias Nguema Young refugeesand the childrenof immigrants regime,and continued afterwards. attendedschools in Gabon, wheretheylearnedFrenchand thuscould competefor jobs than some ofthe oldernewcomers.Last but not least,Equatorial better-paying Guineans were not associated with criminalenterpriseslike Nigerians,or racist behavior,as has recentlybeen the case withthe large numberof Chinese migrant workersand businesspeople enteringGabon. Macias Nguema's PartidoÚnico Nacional de los Trabajadores(PUNT) party governmentsoughtto block the movementof refugeesbeforethe 1979 coup. The implementationand rationale of this policy remains unclear,as do many issues related to the secretiveera of PUNT domination.According to some Equatorial Guineans who fledto Gabon in the 1970s, governmenttroopsarrestedpeople who triedto flee. Macias Nguema banned fishingand boats to ensure that people did not leave the country.The Gabonese governmentdoes not appear to have refused refugees,althoughthe closed archivesof the Gabonese governmentand the lack of researchon Equatorial Guineans in Gabon makes any firmassertionson this topic a matterof conjecture.At least in the cases cited in this essay,no refugees were repatriatedback to Equatorial Guinea in the 1970s. After1979, the relationshipbetween the two governmentsoscillated from friendshipto antipathy,but political tensionshave rarelyled to dramaticchanges in movement between the two countries, even with ongoing debates about the supposed cession of the Elobey Islands to Gabon and the status of Mbanie and Cocotiers Islands. In 1982, altercationsbetween Equatorial Guineans and Gabonese people in Libreville led the Gabonese government to document and monitor the Equatorial Guinean population (Liniger-Goumaz 189-91). Another Gabonese governmentexpulsion of illegal immigrantsin 1995 sent hundredsof people back to Equatorial Guinea. Since the late 1990s, both states have claimed tinyislandson Mondah Bay due to the valuable underseaoil deposits (Frynas; McSherry). However, the pro-Western foreign policies of both governmentsand theirmutualeconomic interestshelp explain whythese tensions

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Rich Jeremy have rarelyinfluencedmigrationpatterns.Accordingto both Equatorial Guinean and Gabonese informants, it is commonplace forpeople livingnear the borders ofboth countriesto crossthe frontier withoutvisas. The Gabonese townsofBitam, Cocobeach, and Oyem regularlyattractEquatorial Guineans. It is easy formost people fromRio Muni to do business in these towns, since Fang people make up the majorityof each of these border settlements.How individual Equatorial Guineans in Gabon have understoodthese changes varies greatly.The following case studiesindicate the diversityofimmigrantexperiences.Even thoughit would be a mistaketo generalizefroma verylimitedsample, there is a divide between older people able to recall the Macias Nguema era and youngerimmigrantsborn after 1975. All of the informantshad encountered the prejudices of Gabonese people, and theyconsciouslysoughtto distinguishthemselvesfromthe Gabonese. Their critiques of Gabon resemble the complaints of many Gabonese people themselves,especiallyin theirassessmentsof social and politicalproblems. "We SufferedSo Much in Those Days": Barbara's ImmigrationNarrative Between 1998 and 2008 Barbara's immigrationfromEquatorial Guinea to Gabon was a common topic of conversationin her family.Born in 1939, she made a verysharpdistinctionbetween the happydays of the 1950s and 1960s and the horrorsof the firstdecade of Equatorial Guinea's independence.She belonged to a Fang familyfromeastern Rio Muni, near the Gabonese border,and her Catholic parents sent her to a mission school in Bata for her education. After her familyrejected her adolescent hopes of becominga nun, she became a maid and traveledwithher Spanish employersto Madrid in the early 1960s. Upon her returnto Bata several years later she became a telephone operator.According to Barbara,Guinea's economyand standardoflivingwas betterthan thatofGabon in the 1960s. The Gabonese government'sduties on manyimportedgoods made merchandisein Bata cheaper than Libreville.Barbara considered independence to be a disaster.Perhaps only the terrorof the 1970s can explain how a colony under the authoritarianSpanish governmentbecame an object of nostalgia. Barbarawas not keen on sharingherexperiencesunderMacias Nguema,but her familymembersloved to recountthe troublesBarbaraovercame. She lost her job, and turnedto pettytradingand makingodikasauce fromthe seeds of the false mango tree. This labor-intensivetask requiresgrillingseeds, smashingthemwith a mortar,and then makingthe end resultinto bricks.Like manyotherpeople, she saw her economic resourcesdecline dramaticallythanksto the new government.

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Nous, les équatos Yet, other policies of the Macias Nguema governmentangered Barbara farmore than the economic downturn.Above all, the persecutionof the Catholic Church by the governmentof Equatorial Guinea infuriatedher. She attended mass daily in her later life in Gabon and had close friendshipswith nuns and priests to curtailthe influenceand prestigeof the Catholic in Libreville.The state'sefforts Church testifiedto the evil natureof the Macias Nguema governmentas faras she was concerned. Barbara had wanted her children to be educated in Catholic schools, but she could not do so in Guinea duringthe 1970s. She and her family rejected bwitias pagan, and the government'sapparent supportfor indigenous religiousbeliefs was abhorrent to her. In 1976, Barbara finallychose to flee to Gabon afterwatchingher countrydeteriorate.She lefther husband behind. Barbara walked over 100 kilometersthroughdense rainforeststo cross the frontierinto Gabon, accompanied by her three young childrenMaria, José,and Juan. She never discussed if she traveled with other people or the specific circumstancesof her departure.Accordingto her,she simplycould no longerbear stayingin her homeland. Her children took pride in her heroic exodus, since in the face of adversity.But it demonstratedher courage and her resourcefulness her travailsdid not end when she came to Libreville.Like so manyotherrefugees, she had no familyconnections in Gabon and could not speak French.Gabonese employersrefusedto accept her credentialsas a telephoneoperator.She could not obtaining go back to workin her previouscareer.Barbara also had greatdifficulty a permitto stayin Gabon, and actuallynever regularizedher immigrationstatus. However,her fluencyin Fang allowed her to communicatewith manyGabonese people and to learn about lifein the city.A Gabonese Fang familylet her rentout a house in a middle-class neighborhood.She thus avoided livingin poorer and more distant sections of the city known for their large Equatorial Guinean communities,such as Nzengayong,Avea I, and Avea II. Barbara drew on her backgroundworkingwithEuropeans and her skillat commerceto constructa new life. Although her husband eventually came to Gabon as well, his marital infidelityled to their permanent separation. On her own, Barbara presented herselfas a faithfulChristianand a hard-workingemployee.Her self-imageas a woman wrongedby the Guinean governmentand by her familyhelped her to find sympatheticpatrons.ForeignCatholic missionaries,Lebanese traders,and well-off Gabonese familiesall furnishedsupport,whetherbyprovidingjobs or bygivingher medicine when needed. Her familydeveloped friendshipswith many Gabonese people, regardlessof ethnicity,and relied on networksof customersforBarbara's products as well as their neighbors.Chronic unemploymentand the ongoing housing shortagehave forcedmany Gabonese and immigrantsto work together AHR-

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Rich Jeremy simplyto survive. After we had met in the summer of 1998, I, too, became a foreignerwho providedBarbara'sfamilyaid. Barbara and her familyalso relied a great deal on a network of other immigrantsfromEquatorial Guinea. When possible,theylived in close proximity to other Guineans. Younger immigrantsclaimed Barbara was like a mother to them, even if they had no biological connection. Immigrantsalso formed commercial alliances. Barbara became part of a group of Guinean huntersand tradersinvolved in the lucrative bush meat trade in the 1980s. She regularly traveledto the isolated Fang villageof Assok to buymeat wholesale,and then she broughtit to the Gabonese capital to sell to other female food vendors. When Barbara spoke of her generalopinions of her home country,she repeatedlystated that she felt wrongedby the unfairprejudices of Gabonese people. When her televisionshowed images of violence, she often remarked:"We people suffered so much in the old days." Equatorial Guineans in Gabon had more sympathyfor victimsof unrestthan manyGabonese, since her generationof immigrantsknew fullwell what it meant to lose livelihoodsand familymembers,and to be exiled fromhome. Since she had eitherlost or never received her visa documents,she had to find ways to evade police searches. In Gabon, law enforcementofficers regularlydemand identificationcards fromforeignersas a means of collecting bribesfromimmigrants withoutthe necessaryvisas. Barbaraalwaysavoided arrest, that she was an old ruralGabonese woman who could only mainlyby pretending speak Fang. It is littlewonderthat she befriendedmanyWest Africanimmigrants who had encounteredsimilarchallenges. Barbara's familydrew mixed reactions from their Gabonese neighbors. Because of theirprecariousfinances,theychanged homes and neighborhoodsfive timesbetween 2000 and 2008. From the late 1980s until 2000, the familyrented a house froma well-offGabonese Fang family,the Ndongs. The middle-aged matriarchof the family,a school teacher with an advanced graduate degree, consideredBarbara and her childrento be woefullyuneducated. Other members of the landlord's familywere somewhat friendlier, but still criticizedEquatorial Guineans fortheirinabilityto speak Frenchcorrectly. In December 1999, Barbara's landladychose to cut offtheirwater supplyon the groundsshe could not longer allow her tenants to pay their rent late. Barbara moved to a different neighborhood,where she rented a house froma much poorer Gabonese Fang family.These new landlordsbroughtup the Equatorial Guinean originsof Barbara and her childrenquite a bit,oftento disparageall Equatorial Guinean immigrants as unscrupulousand poor.However,othertenantsfromGabon and othercountries treatedthe Equatorial Guineans as equals. 120 - AHR

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Nous, les équatos The recent economic upswingof Equatorial Guinea had little impact on Barbara'sfamily.On a fewoccasions, some relativesfromBata visitedthe family. They invited Barbara and some of her adult childrento see Bata, but this offer drew no takers. Barbara herselfdid want to returnto Bata one day for a trip. Her limitedeconomic resourcesmade such a plan impossibleto carryout though. No relatives from their homeland provided them any financial support. Not the political situationin Equatorial Guinea hardlyever came up as surprisingly, a topic of conversation.Barbara's sense of national identitywas fairlycomplex. Sometimes, she adamantly considered herself Spanish, even though she acknowledgedher Fang and Guinean ancestry.She avidlywatched the Olympics and the WorldCup. Whenever Spain won a medal or scored a goal, she cheered, "¡Viva España!" She had kept her old identificationpapers fromcolonial days. At other times, she highlightedher Equatorial Guinean background. For her, the exodus of the 1970s had united immigrantsin a common storyof hardshipand survival.While her youngerrelativesalso spoke of the hard timesof the Macias identifiedthemselvesas Gabonese. They had neverleft period,her childrenfirmly Gabon since their childhood. None of them ever expressed any wish to go to EquatorialGuinea. They did not know anyEuropean languagesotherthan French, althoughtheircommand of Fang would have allowed them to communicatewith mostpeople in Rio Muni. The traumasof oppressionand exile had shaped Barbara'sview on national identityand her life in Gabon. Like other Equatorial Guineans who settled in Gabon in the 1970s, she had sufferedas a resultof the prejudicesof Gabonese people towards their neighbor.Narratives of loss and redemptionallowed her to presentherselfas particularlysympatheticto the troublesof others,in contrast to the supposed coldness of Gabonese people. The personal virtueof Equatorial Guineans drew the most attentionin Barbara'spride forher country,ratherthan economic or political achievements.Immigrantswho arrivedin the 1990s held some opinions similarto Barbara, but their perceptionsof their homeland also divergedin strikingwaysas well.

Equatorial Guinean Missionaries in Gabon The Claretians, a Catholic religiousorder originallyfounded in Spain in the mid-nineteenthcentury,now maintainseveral churchesin Librevilleand the southeasterncityof Franceville. While thisorderhad been the dominantCatholic congregationin Equatorial Guinea duringthe colonial period, theyonly moved one parishin a well-offneighborhood into Gabon in the 1960s. The priestsstaffing AHR ~

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Rich Jeremy of Librevillehave largelycome fromEquatorial Guinea since the early 1990s. Between 1998 and 2008, the head pastor,Father Ndong, was a close relative of a leading oppositionpoliticianfromEquatorial Guinea. Some churchmembers believed he could not returnhome because ofhis relative.Three otherpriestsfrom Equatorial Guinea also were stationedfromtimeto timein Glass: FatherAntonio, Father Gabriel, and Father Emmanuel. Like Ndong, all three of these priests belonged to Fang-speakingfamilies.Antonio spentmostof his timebetween 2003 and 2008 in Libreville.He and Ndong were both born around 1955, and so had become priests during the persecution of the Catholic Church under Macias Nguema. Emmanuel and Gabriel were much youngerthan theirolder colleagues. These two priests served churches in Equatorial Guinea, but they came to Librevillewhen Antonio and Ndong traveledfortheirstudiesor duringcertain holidays.All the priestsagreedthatthe adversitiesof the Church duringthe 1970s gave Equatorial Guinean Catholics a differentperspective from Gabonese Christians.Just as other immigrantscriticizedGabonese people for their lack ofempathy,the priestsat timesfelttheirchargesdid not understandwhat it meant to sacrificethemselvesfortheirfaith.The majorityof Gabonese people belong, at least nominally,to the Catholic Church, but evangelical and Pentecostal Protestant churches have grown tremendouslysince the early 1980s. Also, indigenousspiritualmovementssuch as bwitiare extremelypopular.Omar Bongo converted to Islam in 1973. Despite Bongo's occasional criticismsof the dogma and influenceof the Catholic Church,his governmentnever launched a program to remakeChristianity. In contrast,Macias Nguema's governmentjailed and killed priests,banned Christianreligiousassemblies,and exiled missionariesin the 1970s (Fegley 75-78, 83-84, 99-101). It is in this light that Equatorial Guinean missionaries view Gabonese Christians. Although no Guinean priests ever explicitlyraised their differenceswith their Gabonese congregationsin their sermonsbetween 1999 and 2008, theydid commonlyraise several topicsthat also emergedin Barbara's narratives.Priestsregularlycriticizedpeople fortheirlack of discipline.The willingnessof manyCatholics to engage in sexual relationships outside of marriageand theirinvolvementin indigenousspiritualpracticesdrew the ire of FatherNdong and FatherAntonio. Such transgressions revealed a lack of fortitudeon the part of their congregants.Comparisons between Equatorial Guinean disciplineand Gabonese lassitudeagain allowed immigrantsto take the moral high ground in keeping with Fang conceptions of self-controlas a key elementin properbehavior. FathersEmmanueland Gabrielwereespeciallyforthright on thissubject.For Father Gabriel, Catholics in Guinea took theirfaithmore seriously."We know 122 -AHR

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Nous, les équatos what we went throughunder Macias," one of them noted in 2007. The fact that the Church in Guinea had endured such pains had inspired them to become priests.This kind of heroismserved to redeem Guineans and to take theirfaith seriously.Their contentions reflected the same opinion Barbara shared: the horrorsof the 1970s had tested the abilityof people to defend their faithand defendthemselves.Gabonese people had simplynever gone throughthis ordeal, which helped explain theirsupposed lax morality. There appeared to be a generationaldivisionbetweenthe youngerand older priestsabout the changingpositionof Guinea's fortunes.Neither FatherAntonio nor Father Ndong ever spoke to me about the present conditions of their homeland. However,Gabriel took pride in recent developmentsin Guinea. The riseofoil was makingthe countrya betterplace. Much to myinitialshock,he went so faras to praise PresidentTeodoro Nguema. "He does a lot forthe church. He goes to hear mass. Even ifthe bishopsspeak out about problemsin the country,the presidentdoes not do anythingto quiet them. The mass is a good place to try to reach him," he said in June 2007. Such comments can only be understood in the context of the Macias Nguema government'spolicies towardschurches. It is highlyunlikelythat Father Ndong, the brotherof a vocal opponent of the Equatorial Guinean government politicians, would have concurred. Father Antonio never raised political issues, except to complain about the problem of corruptionin both the Equatorial Guinean and Gabonese governments. One thing that brought the differentpriests together was their work All the priestsregularlyhelped as patronsofotherEquatorialGuinean immigrants. Barbara by providingmoney,food, and medicine. Other Guineans, especially middle-agedand elderlywomen, regularlyturnedto theirchurch forassistance. These relationships were often described through a vocabulary of kinship. Gabriel describedBarbara in the followingway: "She is like a motherto us. How could we not help her?" Women reciprocated through activities commonly associated with women in both countries. They brought food to the priests and helped clean the church on occasion as well. Just as the congregation made up of women, veryfewmen turnedto the as a whole was overwhelmingly priestsforaid. Whetheror not thisparticularparishservedto establisha sense of home for Equatorial Guinean immigrantsin similarfashion to urban churches associated with ruralmigrants,as seen in the Anglican Church of the Congo, is a question that deserves more attention (Wild-Wood). Several choirs of women fromBata occasionallyvisitedGlass and sang hymnsin Fang and Spanish. However,masses

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Rich Jeremy werealwaysheld in French,and the congregationwas mostlymade up ofGabonese people. The membership of choirs and organizations in the parish tended to followethnic ratherthan national lines. Several aid associations and choirswere made up of Fang-speakingpeople fromEquatorial Guinea and Gabon. Gabonese congregantsnever publicly raised any complaints about Equatorial Guinean parish members.It is hard to say how typical this situation is within church communities associated with Equatorial Guineans. Some Pentecostal churches established by Equatorial Guineans can also be found in Libreville, but no studieshave been done on these communities.The 1970s held a keyrole in shaping the opinions of Equatorial Guinean priestsin Gabon. Like Barbara, priestspresentedthose troubledtimesin a mannerthat allowed them to present themselves as disciplined and sympatheticto others. Their survival of the at least in their persecutionsof the Macias Nguema period made them different, view, fromGabonese Christians.However, generationaldifferencesshaped how theylooked at contemporaryproblemsin theircountryof origin.All fourpriests worked to support Guinean immigrantsin Libreville,but their consideration of politics in Guinea differed.Youngerpriestsopenly praised theirgovernment's respect for theirchurch, and to some degree they took pride in the expanding economy of Equatorial Guinea. Other youngerEquatorial Guinean immigrants shared the optimismof the priests. "There is Discipline in Guinea": Roberto's Story I met Roberto in July2007. I had just arrived in a village of roughly one hundredpeople located in Central Gabon. Althoughmyresearchdealt with Gabonese canoe workers,it was hard to ignore Roberto's position as the most affluentman in the village. The village chief recommended that I speak with Roberto,and the youngGuinean man was morethan happyto show offhis house. He and his half-brother Juan,both in theirmid-twenties,had a modular home. They enjoyed watching Spanish programson satellite television.Their parents were a Guinean woman and a Spanish man who owned a largetimberconcession. The brothersowned several pick-up trucksalong with the company's vehicles. Roberto explained that Chinese companies were purchasing large amounts of okoumétimber.Such profitsmade lifein a relativelyisolated Gabonese village attractive.Roberto decided to befriendme, even thoughmy initialconversation with him began ratherawkwardly.I spoke to him in Fang, since most Guineans in Gabon come fromthe Rio Muni area. A few minutesinto the conversation he told me in French"People assume thatall Guineans are Fang." He was not. His 124 -AHR

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Nousyles équatos motherbelonged to a coastal Kombe clan, and he onlyknew Spanish and French. Roberto had lived in Gabon since the late 1990s, so he knew the terrainwell During our conversations over the following week he expressed his views on Guinea and Gabon. Robertoand Juandistinguishedthemselvesfromtheirneighbors.Both men spoke French fluently,but preferredto watch Spanish television. Roberto's Maria, was a youngFang-speakingwoman fromGuinea who spoke little girlfriend, French. Since very few people in the town spoke Fang, Maria had difficulty communicatingwith anyone outside of Roberto's family.Several adolescent relatives of the two brothers visited from Libreville during my stay. Their expensive clothes and Equatorial Guinean heritageseparated them, again, from most people in town. While neighborsrarelydiscussed the Equatorial Guinean backgroundof the brothers,they nearly always broughtup their wealth, their mixed-race background, and the fact that they were the biggest employers in the village. Roberto and Juan spoke of the differencesbetween Gabon and Guinea. They rarelydid so in the presenceof Gabonese. When I said to Robertothatmost of the Equatorial Guineans I knew back in Librevillehad no money,he replied, "Thingsare changingnow."The boomingChinese demand fortimberhad allowed Roberto to live comfortablyin Gabon, but Roberto did not intend to stay. He wanted to save enough money to starthis own business in Bata. The young man explained,"I do not like democracy.You see how these people live, how they drink.In Guinea, there is discipline.They know what the rules are. You would never see anyone give an American troublethere.But here, people do what they want." This juxtapositionof the social disorderof contemporaryruralGabon with EquatorialGuinea is verysimilarto comparisonsmade byelderlyGabonese people between the present and the colonial era. At firstglance, Roberto's statement is puzzling.Despite the rhetoricof governmentofficialsand publications,Gabon is hardlya model of democracy.Omar Bongo retainedpower from1967 untilhis death in 2009, and his PartiDémocratique Gabonais is stillin power.Hardly any Gabonese have any illusionsthat the PDG intendsto ever release theirgripover the country.Gabon and Equatorial Guinea are dominated by a small clique of politiciansdependenton strongmenfortheirpositionsand theirwealth.How then could Robertospeak of a freeand anarchic Gabon and a well-orderedGuinea? It would be best to treat Roberto's comments on democracy as a form of social commentary.His assertionthat Gabonese democracywas a signof social disorderis shared by a fairlylarge group of Gabonese people. A fair number of Gabonese informants,especially those born before 1950, argue that life was AHR-

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Rich Jeremy betterunderFrenchrulebecause of the disciplineimposedbywhites.Elderlynuns and lay membersof the Catholic missionat Donguila in 2000 and 2004 presented unpaid labor in the mission fieldsand corporal punishmentforstudentsin the colonial era as positive experiences. People learned to obey and to control themselves,unlike youngergenerations.Bu/itipractitionerssometimesstate that familieswere solid beforeChristianityand colonialismbecause of the discipline and authorityof adult men. Other informantsclaim disordercame to Gabon well afterindependence in 1960. While people disagree on when Gabon was an orderlyplace, fewquestion the idea thatyoungpeople are out of controltoday. The openly authoritarianregimeof Guinea maintained social stability,at least accordingto Roberto. Roberto's frequentcomparisonsbetween the composureof Guineans with the unrestraineddrinkingand promiscuity ofGabonese people reflecta perception of individual honor common to Fang and Beti people in southern Cameroon, are hardlyconfinedto Fang people, Guinea, and Gabon. Such self-presentations comes withdisapprovalof behavior that denotes though.Praise forself-discipline a lack of self-control,such as public displaysof anger or flauntingan adulterous affairbeforea spouse. Gabonese people likewisecommend self-composure,ormore accurately- they criticize other people for not being able to discipline themselves. Government authorities have exploited these anxieties about personal honor in regardsto immigrants.Crime storiesin the governmentdaily newspaper LUnion regularly feature Guineans- and above all Nigeriansas deceitful,ruthless,and violent. Roberto parriedthese assertionsby describing Gabonese people as undisciplined.One must keep in mind that Roberto'svillage had very few Fang people living there; it may be that there was an ethnic component to Roberto's critiques of Gabonese village behavior, even though he never mentionedethnicitydirectly. Like other Guinean immigrants,Roberto praised Spain. "Out of all the Africancountries,Guineans have the easiest timegoing to Spain. It is easy forus. [The Spanish] want us there," he stated, while watching images of illegal Moroccan and West Africanimmigrantsbeing arrestedon a boat in the Canary Islands on a Spanish televisionnews program.Juanhad dual Guinean and Spanish citizenship.For Roberto,the fiiendlyrelationsbetween his countryand its former colonial ruleragain showed how Equatorial Guinea was a success. Though some Gabonese mightlong forcolonial rule,most people blame France formaintaining Bongo's reignand blockingeconomic and political progressin the country.The Gabonese governmenthas alwayshad close ties withFrance since independence.

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Nous, les équatos Macias Nguema's multiple effortsto break free of Spanish influence have no parallel in Gabon, which helps explain whymanyGuineans mighthold Spain in higher regard than the more ambivalent feelings of Gabonese people towardsFrance. I asked Robertoseveral timesabout the economic boom in Guinea afteroil exportsbegan in 1995. He noted how some Gabonese now went to Guinea to find work.When I asked him what these new immigrantscould expect in Rio Muni, he made it clear that Gabonese people were welcome in his country."It is not like he said. Roberto again juxtaposed the here. We know how to treat foreigners," generosityand virtue of Guineans with Gabonese peopled lack of empathyfor foreigners.Guinea trumpedGabon in its hospitalityas well as its burgeoning economy. Roberto's presentationof his homeland and his foreignhome is not dissimilarto the perspectivesof older people fromGuinea who arrivedin Gabon and his beliefin Equatorial beforethe late 1990s. Althoughhis financialprosperity fromother Guinea's brighteconomic futurevis-à-visGabon made him different he too thoughtof his countryas a disciplinedand orderlysociety.The immigrants, moral superiorityof Equatorial Guineans in contrast to the selfishnessand disorderlyconduct of Gabonese people also was an important part of his discussion. He too praised Spain for its close ties to its formerAfricancolony. he never mentionedthe era of Macias Nguema. Roberto had come Interestingly, willinglyto Gabon, ratherthan fleeingforhis life.The brotherswere born in the early 1980s, and so they had not lived under the PUNT government'sreign. to determinefromthe limitedsample of narrativesunderreviewhere It is difficult if Roberto's social class or his youth led him to not emphasize the catastrophes of the 1970s. Perhaps his Kombe minoritystatus may have made him cautious to voice criticismof Fang people. At least forhim, though,Equatorial Guinea's presentand futuredeservedmore attentionthan its grimpast. Conclusion in Gabon hold a rangeofperspectivesabout EquatorialGuinean immigrants theirhomeland and theirhost country.Althoughthe viewsof Equatorial Guinean in Spain, in the Americas,and in Europe have so farreceivedgreater immigrants academic attention,it is importantto rememberthat most Equatorial Guineans livingoutsideof theircountryresidein Cameroon, Gabon, and Nigeria.In Gabon, Equatorial Guineans have formeda large and diverse community.A few have foundlucrativepositions,but most immigrantsface bleaker prospects.Gabonese

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Rich Jeremy stereotypesabout the povertyof their northernneighborsmay not accurately be applied to everyimmigrant,but many Equatorial Guineans struggleto make a living as farmers,hunters,and pettytraders.These case studies furnishsome preliminaryobservations on Equatorial Guinean national identity and give a broader perspective of what exile representsfor a considerable proportion of Guinean society.Nearly all the informantsreportedGabonese discrimination towardstheircountryand towardsimmigrants, and theyjuxtaposed theirstoriesof resistanceand courage withthe supposedlyspoiled characterof Gabonese people. of Fang-speaking Equatorial Guineans likewise constructedself-representations disciplinedindividualsbattlingthe disordersof political oppressionat home and differedfromone another xenophobia abroad. Yet Equatorial Guinean informants as well. There seems to be a generationaldivide over the contemporarystate of affairsin theirhomeland.It is importantto rememberthatimmigrants likeRoberto are respondingto the negativeand patronizingattitudesofsome Gabonese people, who developed their prejudices based on the exodus of refugeesthat occured over thirtyyearsago. Of course,it should also be noted that individualEquatorial Guineans and Gabonese have intermarriedand maintained close economic alliances and friendships.As the memoryof the 1970s fades slowly into the past,Gabonese have turnedto complainsabout Nigerianand Chinese immigrants, while Equatorial Guineans are not viewed in the same demeaning way as they once were. The broaderscholarshipon Equatorial Guinea can draw some insightsfrom the experiencesof Barbara,Roberto,and the Catholic priests.New transnational ties based on religionand economic opportunityforgedafterthe 1970s now link Equatorial Guinea and Gabon together.The marginal position of the first post-colonial immigrants no longer applies to everyone. The children and grandchildrenof those who arrived in the 1970s often have no interest in returningto Equatorial Guinea. However, more recent arrivals are likely to returnto their homeland. Finally,youngerand older immigrantsjuxtaposed Guinean order with Gabonese social disorder.Their opinions do not constitute unqualifiedsupportfor the presentgovernmentof Equatorial Guinea, but they do suggestthat immigrantsin neighboringAfricancountriesmay be less likely to belong to the politicaloppositionthan othermembersof the Guinean diaspora. One should also note that the small sample of immigrantsdiscussedhere did not include any political activists.Finally,it is necessaryforresearchersto cross over national and linguisticboundaries that too oftenexaggeratedifferences between in people living the Gulf of Guinea region. Equatorial Guineans and Gabonese

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Nousyles équatos people have experienced authoritarianrule, an oil boom, and a sudden flood of Chinese investment. Churches, multiethnicneighborhood coalitions, and povertyshape most Equatorial Guinean and Gabonese lives. Scholars of the two with countrieshave to acknowledge the need to communicatemore effectively one anotheriftheywish to understandthe interplaybetween the two nationsand the region.

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Rich Jeremy : Colonialism andtheSearch Boulder: Ibrahim. Guinea , StateTerror, Sundiata, forStability. Equatorial 1990. Westview, . Leiden:Brill, inCongo(Democratic Emma.Migration andIdentity Wild-Wood, Republic ofCongo) 2008.

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