the least visited country in Africa

Trying to minimise my long-distance flights (for both environmental and cost reasons) I had organised back-to-back trips in Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea, although the cost bit didn’t really work as the 45-minute flight from Port Harcourt to Malabo actually cost me more than the Malabo to Mumbai flight I was taking one week later!

Equatorial Guinea is apparently the least visited country in Africa, with just 6,000 foreign tourists per year, and to be honest there isn’t that much to attract your typical tourist – I mean the coastline is beautiful, but you wouldn’t go there for a beach holiday!  I was again on a tour focused on the traditional cultures, but as with Nigeria it is hard to pin down precise days and times of ceremonies or even meetings, and several of those on the itinerary did not materialise.  But we covered a lot of the country – both the island of Bioko where the capital (Malabo) is situated and the mainland, Rio Muni.  There were only three of us, with one participant having missed his flight from Spain, and thankfully we were all well-travelled people and so were relaxed about the itinerary.

I recommend the Wikipedia page on the history of this country as it is fascinating, but what that page doesn’t mention is how much better the country has become, in some ways at least, under the current president, presumably since the oil money started to flow in.  Indeed the place was quite surreal in some respects, for example the very high quality roads crossing the country – with no vehicles on them.  We could drive for an entire day on these great roads through the largely unspoiled forests, and only see (very few) other vehicles once we arrived in a town.  Our flight from Malabo to Bata (on the mainland) was perhaps indicative, with the airline we were supposed to be flying with (Ceiba) unable to start the plane, and so Cronos Air (who apparently haven’t paid their staff for about eight months) supplying a plane for the Ceiba crew to fly us in.  & earlier my flight into the country from Port Harcourt had been organised by the tour company’s Malabo agent as the Cronos website does not provide any working means of paying for a flight, apparently the only way is at their office in Malabo, in cash!!

We did see plenty of posters and statues of the president throughout the country (always dressed in a suit and tie), although anyone we raised the subject with hated him and his elitist family.  He was born in what was apparently a small village, but the government funds he has put into this place (Mongomo) is perhaps best illustrated by the picture at the top of this post, the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception.  Churches/cathedrals have obviously been opened up again since he took power, as this picture is the interior of Bata cathedral, and we did go inside various other churches and cathedrals too.

As for the traditional culture, the advert for this tour that made me sign up, referred to the Bwiti ceremony (the initiation into a spiritual movement that combines animism, ancestor worship, and sometimes elements of Christianity) – something that’s long been on my bucket list.  But … This Is Africa … we found out earlier in the day that the ceremony was not going to take place that night after all).  Thankfully they were able to organise a blessings ceremony in its place – not the same, but still interesting, as the participants, their faces covered in some white powder, whirled around with flaming wood torches, placed candles at a Christian cross, and various other things I couldn’t interpret, all to the beat of percussionists at the back of the room.

We also saw the Ndong Mba dance, which concerns the way men’s troubles are caused by women – or rather, by men’s weakness in being ruled by their dicks (sorry, the ‘correct’ word doesn’t really sound right in this context) – where the (male) dancer interacted with me a couple of times in ways that were very funny, and I spent my time there laughing at (with) the performance rather than taking photos.