Joe Eisen
Joe Eisen is Rainforest Foundation UK's Programme Officer for the Participatory Mapping Project. Joe is helping communities from several countries in the Congo Basin to learn how to map their forest lands in the hope of tackling the destruction of rainforests and to stop their homes being destroyed.
The Road to Ikobé - 09/08/2010
After nearly 6 months, it feels good to be back in Gabon, this beautiful, mysterious country full of extremes.
Significant oil wealth and a relatively small population have given it one of the highest gross per capita incomes in sub-Saharan Africa. The capital Libreville boasts architectural designs that one would associate more with Dubai than the Congo Basin, the main supermarket showcases the finest in French produce and the roads have what must be one of the highest concentrations of 4x4 vehicles of any city in the world. Of course, these statistics and monuments to wealth only tell a part of the story. Most of Libreville's inhabitants get around in shared taxis which cost around 10p a ride although because of their poor state, many roads in the capital are only really accessible by 4x4s. You don't find many cars in Libreville.
One of my aims for this trip is to join a mission of different NGOs to prepare for a participatory three-dimensional mapping exercise with indigenous Babongo and Mitshogou communities in the remote Ikobé district in the Nyounia province. Before heading off on our long journey, we make one last stop to refuel and get our last bits and bobs at "Gare Routier", the departure point for rural Gabon. This is a bustling and chaotic place, never more so than in the intense African midday sun, where urban meets rural Gabon, where people make final preparations for trips to their villages and where hawkers court clients to cram into their dilapidated and yet somehow indestructible minibuses.
It doesn't take you long out of Libreville before the signs of urban living fade away and the extent of the wealth gap between the urban rich and rural poor is laid bare. Homes made of concrete and corrugated iron roofs soon become interspersed with those made of wood, earth, bamboo and raffia. Before long you are immersed in the sights, smells and sounds of the forest (which makes up around 80% of the entire national territory) or the occasional sight of a colourfully clad mother and her children heading home to their village, baskets laden with firewood. Along the roadside, rusty old oil barrels, relics of the 70's oil boom, display any surplus manioc, bananas, palm wine or bush meat for sale to passers-by on their way back to Libreville. The occasional vehicle headed the other way carrying building materials or consumer goods as people return to their villages for the holiday.
As we head south at dusk, always such a magical light in the forest, we notice that the road to Fougamou (our home for the night) is being paved. This is no doubt evidence of President Ali Bongo's much heralded road building programme since taking over after the death of his father and ruler of Gabon for 42 years last year. Where the road here hasn't yet been paved, red dust released from passing logging trucks gives the foliage on the roadside a kind of artificial golden tinge. It is the height of the dry season.
Early the next day, we arrive at Sindara, a ferry river crossing which marks a frontier into what seems another world. Once over the river its hard going as the road turns into a track that is barely passable in the rainy season. Our progress over the mountainous (and stunning) landscape is only made slower as we are forced to stop and reinforce makeshift bridges or to clear fallen trees blocking our path, the collateral damage of an elephant's search for fruit just hour before us. So seldom does traffic pass here these days (sometimes only one vehicle a week) that it is not uncommon to encounter all kinds of wildlife here.
Perhaps the remoteness and inaccessibility of the region is what maintains its distinctive cultural identity. Unlike most of the Congo Basin, decades of Christian missions appear to have made little impact here and you'll be lucky to find a church for 200kms. This area is the cultural heart of Bwiti, a set of animistic traditions that has spread across Gabon and beyond. As we pass through the villages here, we witness different initiation ceremonies and rituals, which are characteristically taking place in the dry season.
The indigenous Babongo and Mitshogou communities traditionally live by farming, hunting, fishing and gathering but are today facing new pressures. As the government seeks to develop an alternative to the ailing oil-based economy, large swathes of these forests are being handed out to foreign logging companies or as protected areas. By helping these communities to construct a 3-dimensional model of their traditional lands and resources it is hoped that the government and loggers can better take into account their rights.
I'll have to blog next about my trip as a passenger on a local mini bus for another time (window falling off, petrol tank leak, ran over a dog, covered in dust - vision is highly overrated).
