Maite Esí Befak Karassín, “Maite en el país del petroli”. Consum i mercantilització dels cossos joves a Malabo

Abstract

In the Equatorial Guinea of the era of oil extraction, new forms of consuming and commodification are taking off. These forms are sometimes new, while sometimes they can be continuing old colonial practices. In this article I describe some of these practices in which the young bodies turn into commodities and objects of investment. This phenomenon is not exclusive to Equatorial Guinea. It is a transnational issue and a practice
of what I define as youth. Some of the critiques to these practices show how tensions emerge from the collision of different moral prospectives. The individualization processes embedded to consumption and urban life are in tension with some old fundamental institutions like the family.