The indigenous people of Africa, after many years of colonialism, had the right to dream of better days. Yet the atrocities of the white man that Africa had endured were nothing compared to the animal brutality of the native dictators. Many heroes of liberation turned into bandits. One of them was undoubtedly Francisco Macías Nguema.
The "race for Africa" began in the late nineteenth century and the partition of the continent was roughly reduced to the "first come, first served" method. The Berlin Conference finally sealed the division of influence and a period of brutal exploitation of natural resources - gold, diamonds, cocoa and oil - began. Colonialism left a deep mark on history. This condition lasted until the 1950s and 1960s. However, throwing off the yoke of colonialism did not mean a relief for the indigenous peoples, much less dreams of a different life.
Brutal Psychopath in Power
Equatorial Guinea gained independence from Spain in 1968. Its first president was Francisco Macías Nguema - a madman, cruel and extreme chauvinist who led the country to a massive economic collapse in just a few years. During his reign, a quarter of the population was murdered, mainly intellectuals, doctors, officials and alleged enemies of the state . To get rid of one potential rebel, he was able to burn entire villages.
Francisco Macías Nguema was one of the cruelest dictators in Africa
Like many of the inhabitants of this area, Macias obsessively hated the Spaniards. His aggressive policy led to the departure of nearly 7,000 of them, and Francisco Franco himself believed that leaving Spanish citizens in their place was too dangerous.
The symptoms of madness could already be seen at the independence conference in Madrid, where Macias he delivered a passionate praise of Nazism :
In my opinion, Hitler is the savior of Africa (...) He strove to end colonialism around the world. (...) Although it is said that he persecuted the Jews, his intention was to fight colonialism, but he was misunderstood and then he wanted to rule all the peoples of Europe.
He was not discouraged by the audience's confusion. In Equatorial Guinea, however, the inhabitants had not heard the speech and knew little about Macias himself. They remembered that he had engaged in the struggle for independence, spoke passionately and had promised a lot in the election campaign. So they voted for him in the first election. In 1969 he said about himself:
I was considered a madman. When was that crazy? My only madness is madness for freedom, but when I achieved it the madness left me once and for all.
Macias was probably aware of his mental problems, as he secretly examined himself from this angle, but it did not result in his resignation from the acquired power. In the book "Land of dictators" we can find some gloomy descriptions of how a dictator works:
Macias, as usual, wanders around his estate alone, mumbling and shouting the names of his victims. Next to it, he has a collection of human skulls, whom he worshiped, believing they would bestow him on. (...) Recently, he ordered the servants to prepare a table for eight guests, and then he sat down alone and talked with the dead.
During his reign, he became more and more unpredictable. This was due to the addiction to marijuana and iboga - a strong hallucinogenic drink. Hanged 150 political opponents at a football stadium during Christmas. The execution was accompanied by lively music .
Convicted of possessing Spanish olives
In a Spanish villa in the eastern part of the capital, Malabo, Raimundo junior fell asleep next to eleven brothers and sisters. He has no idea what has happened in the country, so he sleeps soundly, but his father is on the alert in the adjoining room. As a man in high office, he witnessed some of the actions of the president, and protecting his children and four wives means a life of constant fear for him. He does not know, however, that his name, Raimundo Ela Nve, is on the list of convicts, list de asesinados. The fact that he belongs to the ruling class does not hinder this at all. Raimund's name has been on the list for three months.
To be on it, it was enough to suspect a conspiracy or favor the Spaniards. Even casual, social chats over a beer could end up in jail. To arrest, it was enough to have Spanish newspapers or books, and sometimes products kept in the kitchen - olives or Spanish sausage.
The militia in Equatorial Guinea were not under any control. Permanent abuse of power took place in prisons. Prisoners were tortured, beaten and murdered. The most common form of execution was brutal tormenting to death with sticks. In the trials of alleged conspirators, the role of their defenders was played by lawyers whose role was limited to submitting applications for the death penalty (sic!) . The abuse of prisoners took cruel forms. In the book The Land of Dictators there are memories of an eight-year-old witness who was taken by a soldier to the prison:
It was very dark. Faint light came only through the small openings at the top of the walls. (...) The prisoners, mostly naked, sat in cells polluted with excrement and full of nuisance insects. (…)
The boy was ordered to help in getting rid of the body of a prisoner who had been beaten to death.
Soldiers invited their families to the prisons to watch as the inmates were forced to dance by the fire at night:
When they lost their strength, they began to stumble and fall, the soldiers then poked them with an iron rod glowing in the flames. whenever someone fell, it was the same; in the end, they all staggered, trying to stay on their feet, half-conscious with exhaustion, and the soldiers mocked them and urged them on with red-hot iron.
In 1979, the dictator's rule officially criticized the United Nations. In the same year, the president executed several family members, which ultimately led to his undoing. The ruler, who looked for danger everywhere, was afraid of everyone on the outside, was overthrown by his loved ones. The paradox was that the reason why the dictator's cousin decided to carry out a coup was not the scale of the destruction in the country or the atrocities committed by the dictator, but the actions against his own family.
Macias is just one of the stories Africa had to experience. Similar fates happened to the inhabitants of Congo, Zimbabwe, Libya and Nigeria.
Source:
The article is based on the book:Ziemia dktatorów. About the people who stole Africa. Paul Kenyon, Jagiellonian Publishing House 2019