Arrin Hawkins, one of those who took part in the team, said they learned more about the history of this former Spanish colony, the legacy of colonial rule and reality of imperialist domination in Africa today, and the thirst among youth and other Equatorial Guineans for books on the culture and history of their country and on struggles against imperialism around the world.

In addition to titles by revolutionary leaders Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Thomas Sankara of Burkina Faso, “we sold out of every title we brought by Malcolm X,” Hawkins said. The attraction to Malcolm’s explanation about the capacity of the oppressed to transform themselves and the world through struggle refutes the image promoted in imperialist countries of “Africans as poor suffering victims,” she noted.

Brian Taylor explained what they learned about the changing place of women. He pointed to the contradictions between the economic underdevelopment that has perpetuated women’s low social status in nations oppressed by imperialism, on one hand, and the growing self-confidence of many Guinean women today. One example was the significant role of women in organizing in the book fair. The pamphlet Women’s Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle by Sankara sparked particular interest among young women.

Martín Koppel described discussions with Guineans who noted the contrast between the dark streets in the capital city Malabo and the blazing lights in nearby Punta Europa, a virtually American city that is the center of the U.S. oil operations in Equatorial Guinea—a microcosm of the gulf between the imperialist and semicolonial worlds.

He remarked on discussions about a new book presented at the fair that takes up the 1968-79 reign of terror imposed under the first president, Francisco Macías, under a veneer of anti-imperialist rhetoric. In confronting this legacy, “the new generations of young people are not scarred by fear like previous generations,” Koppel noted. “They respond to the world today, and are determined to overcome the divisions” that were fostered by Spanish colonialism and reinforced under the Macías regime.

Mary-Alice Waters, the president of Pathfinder Press, highlighted the contradictions U.S. imperialism faces as it deepens its economic penetration in Equatorial Guinea, which has quickly become the third-largest oil exporter in Africa. The Pentagon is considering installing a “Forward Operating Site” in the island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe in the Gulf of Guinea. At the same time a modern working class is beginning to be born. “We saw all of the clashing class forces shaping the world today —close to the surface, not covered up by centuries of obfuscation and distortion we encounter here.”

Waters and other speakers returned to these themes in response to a question about the conditions of Guineans employed in the oil industry. “Many are glad to have the oil investment, seeing it as the only way to begin to overcome underdevelopment,” Waters said. “At the same time they deeply resent the plunder of the wealth of their country by the imperialists.”

The employment of some Guineans in the oil industry and related jobs “raises expectations of working people for better-paying jobs and a larger share of that wealth,” Koppel noted.

The audience contributed $1,600 to help with the costs of participating in the book fair and the four meetings around the country. Several dozen attended a relaxed brunch the next morning to continue the discussions.

The program was an eye-opener, said Zowadoe Mehn, a young worker originally from Liberia. “Even in other countries in Africa people don’t know much about Equatorial Guinea.”

“I learned about the future of Equatorial Guinea,” said José Contreras from Price, Utah. He is part of a group of miners fighting for a union at the Co-Op mine in Utah. The meeting drew participants from Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Washington, southern California, and Vancouver, Canada.

“I’m hoping to visit a picket line” to learn more about workers’ struggles, said Lindsey Patterson, a journalism student at San Francisco City College. She was interested in Waters’s explanation of why it was important to take advantage of the opportunity to participate in the book fair in Equatorial Guinea, as part of the fight to transform the United States and the world.

While publicizing the meeting, organizers of the event met a professor at Laney College in nearby Oakland, who invited Brian Taylor to stay over and speak to her class.
 
 
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‘Cuba’s experience is at your disposal’
Víctor Dreke, Cuba’s ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, speaks at first book fair in Central African nation  
 
 
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