From Burundi to Gabon: Through the lenses of a millennial African woman
"My purpose is here," I told myself as I landed in Burundi after a four-year journey studying in the United States. I had always known I wanted to come back and work on the continent, but Gabon was never on my radar. I only knew three to four facts, memorized in high school, about the country’s independence in 1960 and the first president Léon Mba. In a matter of two weeks, between two selection emails, I was, however, ready to move from Burundi to this country I had just looked up on Wikipedia to refresh my high school notes. I packed up my life again in two suitcases and boarded that flight to Libreville despite all the COVID-19 restrictions in place.
As soon as I landed at the airport, loud French voices reminded me of how not francophone Burundi is, because Kirundi, our national language, does most of the work. I was at first nervous, for I hadn’t really used the language since high school. But as soon as I settled in, French eased its way back in during my conversations with colleagues, neighbors, and taxi drivers. The latter would always greet me with a "Tu es gabonaise?" (Are you Gabonese) full of suspicion, and I would wonder how striking it was that I was not from here.