Brice Oligui mows down human rights in Gabon
Under the reign of Brice Oligui, the Gabonese transition is sinking into an alarming authoritarian drift. Endless curfews, nighttime roundups, humiliating haircuts: young people are targeted and human rights are trampled. Meanwhile, France and the United States are rolling out the red carpet for the transitional president, turning a blind eye to these practices worthy of totalitarian regimes.
This morning, family photo with those rounded up last night by the National Gendarmerie.
— 𝗔𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗲𝘆 𝗥𝗼𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗼 (@RotondoAndrey) December 15, 2024
However, it seemed to me that I had read in the Transition Charter and the new Constitution, provisions prohibiting the practice of humiliating and degrading acts. pic.twitter.com/mwxVGrjJzP
The disturbing spectacle of a dictatorship taking shape
When Brice Oligui Nguema promised a "new beginning" after ousting Ali Bongo, many finally saw hope. Today, this hope is being razed... literally. Under the pretext of establishing order, the regime is attacking the fundamental rights of Gabonese youth. Covering what was supposed to be a democratic transition with an authoritarian veneer, the recent excesses recall the dark hours of totalitarian regimes.
The latest episode: the return of the midnight curfew, for a cumulative total of a year and a half of nighttime confinement. That's not all. Anyone who dares to defy the ban finds themselves arrested, crammed into makeshift detention centers, and humiliated by forced haircuts. Yes, haircuts, shaved heads. In 2024. These mass roundups particularly affect young people. And for the operation? Dodgy razors, broken bottles, transforming a punishment into a potential health disaster.
The symbolism of the razor: Between humiliation and oppression
Shaving an individual’s head is more than a gesture. It is removing their humanity, exposing them as a symbol of deviance. This practice is not new, but its use in authoritarian contexts is chilling. The Nazis shaved prisoners in camps to dehumanize them; Mao Zedong applied the same fate to political opponents in China; the medieval Church shaved “heretics” to mark them with the seal of exclusion.
What does this brutal resurgence mean under the Gabonese transition? An attempt at total control over bodies and minds. Oligui, by shearing his opponents or ordinary citizens in search of freedom, draws a clear line: obedience or forced submission.
So, is cramming young people together like cattle your idea of order? Do you think you can run a country with roundups and humiliations? Even a shepherd knows that he must not mistreat his flock if he wants it to move forward. Beware: a humiliated youth ends up… https://t.co/8Tms6q4uK2
— Omar Bongo Ondimba (@OmarBongoOdimba) December 16, 2024
France, silent accomplice?
Spending the people's money to participate in the inauguration of a parish, however famous it may be, is something that only African presidents can do.
— Paddy'$ Mw@mba (@MwambaPaddy) December 8, 2024
And meanwhile, the world applauds. Or almost. Oligui, crowned with a speech of reform, was received last week with great pomp at Notre-Dame de Paris by Emmanuel Macron, in a strong symbolic gesture of international recognition. But what exactly are we celebrating?
Is Gabon in 2024 a land of justice and human rights, or a dystopia where young people hide from the forces of law and order at dusk? Does France, the champion of human rights, know whose hand it is shaking?
Social networks, the enemy of the regime
As if physical humiliation were not enough, Oligui and his team have opened another front: that of online “activists”. By declaring war on the anti-regime diaspora and critics on social networks, they are particularly ferocious towards dissenting voices. The case of Sydney Moussavou, a young man imprisoned at the end of the summer for an inelegant mockery, clearly illustrated this drift. Through purges of his entourage and repression of freedoms, Oligui is transforming the transition into tyranny.
A double-edged shave
Brice Oligui seems determined to eclipse the abuses of his predecessor with even more spectacular methods. But history will remind us: forced shaving is a double-edged sword. If it humiliates today, it galvanizes resistance for tomorrow.
Can the international community stand by and do nothing? Can France, the homeland of the Enlightenment, be satisfied with official photos without questioning the actions of its guest? Does the United States, in the midst of a renaissance, want to associate its image with a country that shaves children? One thing is certain: the Gabonese people will not forget who shaved them or who abandoned them.
@LeMonde_Afrique @RFIAfrique @afpfr @DworaczekBendom @gabonmediatime where have human rights gone?
— Séraphine Mavoungou (@serafinevg) December 16, 2024
You humiliate them and film them… for what purpose?
— The Only 🇬🇦 Non Hypocrite. (@ObiangEtame) December 17, 2024
Why do soldiers always have to film the humiliations inflicted on people?
The highlight of the show is that no one will be punished.
In a few days, new recruitment of future hairdressers for curfew violators
