Esperanto Revolutionaries and Geeks: Language Politics, Digital Media and the Making of an International Community

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4

When Esperantists Meet, or What Makes This Community International?

The books that Andrei and I packed at the headquarters of UEA in Rotterdam reached Seoul in the second week of July 2017. One week later, I was also on my way from France to South Korea to attend the 102nd Universal Congress of Esperanto. As I arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport, in Paris—which was busier than normal due to the summer holidays—I could already feel the enthusiasm of other Esperantists for the congress as two of them found and contacted me through the mobile phone app Amikumu. They, too, were about to fly to Incheon Interna- tional Airport and used the GPS on their mobile phones to locate fellow Esperantists at the Parisian airport, chat with them and warm up for the congress while waiting for their departures. As the message exchange through the app unfolded, I managed to meet one of them, Nicole, a middle-aged woman from the outskirts of Paris, and her husband.

The couple promptly identified me at the boarding gate, as we were among the few non-Asians boarding for South Korea. While we joined the queue and exchanged our last words before taking seats on opposite sides of the plane, I recognised that this flight would be the last occasion for the next few days on which I would speak French. From the moment

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I set foot in South Korea, all my meaningful conversations would be held in Esperanto, and questions on the streets about where to go and what to eat would tentatively be in English, with many misunderstandings—or in Korean, if I only could.

The largest annual materialisation of the Esperanto community was about to take place. Just like my French fellow travellers, many other Esperantists from around the world were thrilled to visit Seoul, see old friends and meet new people during that week at the 'capital city of Esperantujo'. Since Esperanto is meant to bring together people from different national and linguistic backgrounds, the Universal Congresses of Esperanto are the paramount occasions during which these purposes are realised. In this regard, if being part of this community is mostly about communicating verbally across national borders, what do Esper- antists talk about once they meet? What can—and what cannot—be communicated and shared once they gather? To what extent is a fellow Esperantist seen as a fellow or as an Other, and what kinds of otherness are at play in these encounters that materialise Esperantujos internation- ality?

Based on an ethnographic account of the 102nd Universal Congress of Esperanto, this chapter analyses how certain understandings of nation- ality emerged historically among Esperantists, foregrounding national diversity as the proxy of difference to be valued and celebrated by partic- ular forms of cosmopolitan openness. I argue that, as Esperantists from across the world are regarded as carriers of differences perceived through the scope of nationality, Esperanto becomes the mediator that forges stereotyped perceptions of alterity to, then, overcome them and partially turn congress participants from national Others into fellow Esperantists. This results in the making of this community being grounded on sets of cosmopolitan principles, which inform the sociabilities that will take place during such meetings. Looking at what motivates Esperantists to get together face-to-face, I explore how a specific grammar of national diversity is highlighted and addressed, examining how this community emerges in constant tension via an internationalism that simultaneously embraces nationalities and rejects nationalisms.