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Julie & Mita – Arena Blanca, Bioko

Shot on assignment in Equatorial Guinea, considered one of Africa’s most notorious pariah states. The situation on the ground proved more complicated then the stories recycled in the international media. While revenue from vast oil reserves discovered in the mid-1990s grossly enriched a cadre of elites, it has also brought roads, electricity and clean water to many areas.

The highway circumnavigating the island of Bioko is one of the finest I have ever travelled, possibly because the President’s son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, owns over a hundred exotic cars. Here two Equatorial Guineans find a moment of happiness on the beach near the capital Malabo.

Osceola Refetoff