Neighboring French Guiana makes it difficult for Brazilians to enter – 09/19/2024 – Guia Negro

French Guiana is a French overseas territory in South America that borders the Brazilian state of Amapá. Unlike France, where Brazilians only need to present their passport to enter, here you need a visa to cross the border. Until last week, permission was only given at the Embassy in Brasília and at the French consulates in São Paulo, Recife and Rio de Janeiro. Now it is issued in Macapá, every 45 days.

The history of disputes over the region, which is rich in minerals, including gold, seems to make the French avoid Brazilians in Guinea-Bissau. There is also the fact that this “piece of Europe” in the middle of America offers better health, education and so-called quality of life. In addition, the French are afraid that greater connections between the regions could result in a fight for the country’s independence.

An interesting fact is that French Guiana was formed by black people who were enslaved and came from the Ivory Coast region of the African continent to build a fortress in the 16th century. Today, around 90% of the population is black, and there are also indigenous communities in its extension that is in the Amazon, in addition to white French people who live there.

In total, around 300,000 people live in the territory of which Cayenne is the capital. The city is home to colorful Creole houses and popular street markets. The region’s natural beauty includes rivers, waterfalls, the Amazon rainforest, and the Atlantic Ocean.

In addition to French Guiana, France maintains Guadeloupe and Martinique as colonies on the American continent. In all three territories, Creole culture and history mark the local identity, as does the Creole language, which is based on French and combined with West African languages, which presents some differences in each location. The cuisine carries strong traces of the African diaspora, with Creole cuisine using spices from the continent, such as almonds, cinnamon and nutmeg.

The cities on the banks of the Maroni River, on the border with Suriname (a former Dutch colony), are those that best preserve the traditions and architecture of the black people, such as Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni. In the same region, Maripasoula and Papaichton are communities formed by enslaved people who fled from neighboring Suriname and lived freely in Guinean territory.

October 10 is Maroons Day, a holiday in Suriname and celebrated in Guinean communities, which honors the heritage and contributions of the Maroon people who fled slavery to live freely. Among the cities in French Guiana that will celebrate is Apatu, which will host festivities and Brazilian groups of marabaixo, an Afro-Amapa cultural manifestation, on October 12 to celebrate the date.

History recalls that the French once disputed with the Brazilians the territory that is now the state of Amapá. While the dispute was not resolved, French and Guinean traders who had freed themselves from slavery founded the Independent Republic of Cunani. The new country occupied part of what is now Amapá, with attempts at separation between 1886 and 1912, never being recognized by Brazil or France, but it even had its own currency.

VISA

The visa requirement means that the flow of Brazilians into French Guiana is quite restricted. The binational bridge that connects Oiapoque, in Amapá, to Saint-Georges-de-l’Oyapock (São Jorge do Oiapoque), in Guyana, was completed in 2011, but was only inaugurated and began receiving crossings in 2017. It represents the first land connection between Amapá, which has no road access to the rest of Brazil, and also between French Guiana, which only had river or air crossings with its neighbors.

The delay in opening is justified by the lack of reciprocity regarding visa requirements for Brazilian and French citizens entering each other’s territory (the French can enter Brazil without a visa for up to three months, while Brazilians need to obtain a visa to enter French Guiana, a rule justified by the French government based on the high levels of illegal immigration by Brazilians working as gold miners in French Guiana).

On the bridge, I saw that only one side benefits from its structure. Cars and people from French Guiana can easily access Brazil, while Brazilians have to go through bureaucracy to get to the other side. Because of the currency conversion, there are, for example, Guineans who cross the bridge every day to have lunch on the Brazilian side.

It is a fact that Brazilians also circumvent the rules by entering the country illegally or even enrolling their children in schools on the French side and then applying for a permanent visa after five years, which means that 1/3 of the Guinean population is born in Brazil.

Last week, the French government granted a long-standing request from Brazil to have visa applications processed in Macapá. Short-term tourist visas will not yet be processed in the capital of Amapá, but a team from the French embassy will be in the city every 45 days to capture fingerprints and recognize the dossier, facilitating the process without the need for Amapá residents to travel to Brasília. The next scheduled dates are October 21-23.

In Belém, which has weekly Air France flights to Cayenne, visas are also not issued. The bureaucratic complications make it difficult for us Brazilians to get to know French Guiana better, a region whose people have many connections and the same ancestry as us: Africa!

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