Tiny but oil-rich Equatorial Guinea has long escaped the youth exodus that plagues other African nations, but a decade of economic decline and rising unemployment has left many eager to leave.
The discovery of offshore oil in the mid-1990s made the country the third richest in Africa in terms of per capita income.
But the economy has been hit hard since oil prices collapsed in 2014, reducing government revenues, and it fell into recession last year.
Despite its natural oil wealth, many of its 1.6 million residents live in poverty. The unemployment rate has reached 8.5%, according to data from the African Development Bank.
“I will go to the United States, regardless of the job, it is not difficult to find a job,” vowed 32-year-old Paciencia Mangue.
Her degree in economics isn’t enough, she said, and she’s tired of wasting her time.
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“To get a good job here, you have to know someone in the government or have a relationship with those who run the country.”
Laura Ntogono, a 27-year-old who works at a nail salon, said the idea of ​​starting a new life in Los Angeles was never far from her thoughts.
“What you can’t find in your country, you can find elsewhere,” he said.
The trend is not discussed in the press — there is no social media buzz or official statistics.
But daily conversation is rife with the issue in the authoritarian, closed West African country, which is led by 82-year-old President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the world’s longest-serving president.
In recent years, not a day goes by without news of another young man from Equatorial Guinea leaving for the United States, an AFP reporter said.
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‘take a tip’
A 44-year-old married father of four who asked to be identified only as Manulo, a pseudonym, has been living in Jacksonville, Fla., for about a year after losing his job at the National Social Security Institute.
“After three years of unemployment, I couldn’t make ends meet… I sold my car and got a visa,” Manulo told AFP from the United States.
He declined to reveal how much he earns, suggesting he was on another level to return home.
The minimum wage in Equatorial Guinea is 128,000 CFA francs ($210) a month, according to data from the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa.
But his job as a dog allows him to send $500 (€450) home to his family a month.
Border “test”
Some disaffected Equatorial Guineans manage to go directly to the United States after obtaining visas. others fly to Brazil or Nicaragua, sometimes via Spain, to enter illegally from Mexico.
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Based on accounts heard by AFP, few choose the Sahel route to cross the Mediterranean.
Exile comes with a hefty price tag — 1.6 million CFA francs ($2,620) for a plane ticket from the capital Malabo to Sao Paulo and a Brazilian visa.
But that still leaves the hardest part—paying smugglers to cross the U.S. border.
Some may come close to paying with their lives.
Geraldina Adang, 33, said she spent two months on dangerous, illegal routes to travel from Brazil to Mexico early last year.
He then waited three months to cross the Mexico-US border.
“We suffered,” said Adang, who now washes dishes in California. “To enter the United States, death is not far.”
Celestine Fuenfin, a 36-year-old cleaner from Cameroon who set off from Malabo to reach Las Vegas via Mexico, described her perilous journey as “suffering” and an “obstacle course”.
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“Lost Hope”
The dream of leaving for a better life is one shared by many on the continent, according to a recent poll.
Nearly six in ten young Africans are considering leaving their countries within three years to find work, with the United States leading the way, according to the Ichikowitz Family Foundation’s survey of 16 African countries.
“With or without a visa, I will get to the United States,” said taxi driver Angel Ondo, 25.
“Many of our friends who were taxi drivers like us have already left” through Brazil or Nicaragua, then Mexico, he said, in front of his car.
While Equatorial Guinea saw a wave of political exiles flee to Spain after independence in 1968, the reasons for them to leave today are great.
“Lack of individual and collective freedom, lack of strong, independent institutions, systematic corruption, mismanagement of public affairs and lack of respect for human rights are behind the exodus,” said rights activist Joaquin Elo Ayeto of the NGO Somos. .
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Sociology professor Elias Ba Ngonga blamed “disillusionment, lost hopes for political change, social policies and lack of fair distribution of government revenue”.
Source: AFP