Interviews with Tutu Alicante

The Arab Spring has definitely shown us one thing, that there is real power when people come together. Equatorial Guinea, like Libya, has an economy that is totally dependent on oil and, like Libya, has a government that has kept civil society and other forces in society completely apart from the economic base of the country, the economic resources. So you have a group of disenfranchised young people, old people, kids being raised in Equatorial Guinea, a country with the highest GDP per capita in Africa. And the likelihood, the possibility, the real danger of that society rebelling and demanding rights in the way that it happened in Libya, Egypt, and other countries is very, very high.

I think so far what has kept people from taking to the streets is a sense of, what happens after that. Equatorial Guinea has about a third of its population outside the country in the diaspora between Gabon, Cameroon, Nigeria and Spain. That’s a community that is very fragmented, very divided. And people inside Equatorial Guinea that could actually organize, coalesce, come together at a plaza and demand certain rights, has – they have serious doubts about the potential of that group outside – the group of politicians, political leaders outside – to actually come together and offer a better solution or a better future for the country than what they have today. And I think that doubt, that lack of certainty, that not knowing what the future holds is what is keeping young people today still at bay from organizing and taking over to the streets.

Tutu Alicante is a human rights lawyer from the island of Annobon in Equatorial Guinea. In 1993, Mr. Alicante was in a Roman Catholic seminary, preparing for the priesthood. A group of citizens, among them one of Mr. Alicante’s cousins, organized a peaceful demonstration at the governor’s house calling for respect for human rights and measures to address widespread poverty. In response, government forces arrested and killed a number of the demonstrators and burned Mr. Alicante’s family home to the ground. He left Equatorial Guinea in 1994 to pursue his education abroad.

After obtaining a law degree from the University of Tennessee and a Masters in Law from Columbia University, he worked on legal defense programs for migrant farm workers and as a consultant for a branch of the Open Society Institute promoting legal accountability and transparency in extractive industries.

Tutu Alicante founded and serves as Executive Director of EG Justice, a nonprofit and nongovernmental organization that educates, empowers, and engages a new generation of democracy and human rights advocates at home and abroad. It undertakes grassroots campaigns to reform institutions inside Equatorial Guinea and
documents human rights violations, collecting oral and written testimonies inside the country and abroad to hold violators accountable. EG Justice publishes periodic reports and educates the public. EG Justice collaborates with international institutions to bring critical human rights issues to the attention of global policymakers, including the United Nations, the African Union, and other multilateral organizations. It undertakes and supports legal advocacy to hold human rights abusers accountable in local, regional, and international tribunals and works closely with community-based partners to empower them through the litigation process.

Follow Tutu Alicante on Twitter at @TutuAlicante and follow EG Justice on Twitter at @EGJustice