Francisco Macías Nguema
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| “ | There is no other God than Macías Nguema. | „ |
| ~ The national motto of Equatorial Guinea during Nguema's rule. |
Francisco Macías Nguema (born Mez-m Ngueme; Africanised to Masie Nguema Biyogo Ñegue Ndong; 1 January 1924 – 29 September 1979) was the first President of Equatorial Guinea, from 1968 until his overthrow and subsequent execution in 1979 at the hands of his own nephew, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has remained president of Equatorial Guinea to present day.
Biography edit
Born as Mez-m Ngueme to parents from Gabon, Macías Nguema was the son of a witch doctor who allegedly killed his younger brother. He belonged to the country's majority Fang ethnic group. As a boy of 9, Nguema saw his father punched to death by a Spanish colonial administrator when he tried to use his title of chief to negotiate for better wages for his people and as this one burned alive one of his brothers as a ritual. Nguema was orphaned a week later when his mother committed suicide, leaving the boy and 10 siblings to fend for themselves.[1] This sacrifice was due to the fact that the "Bweti a Njobe" practiced by the ethnic Fang demanded human bones to obtain political power. He was about to die on one occasion which caused him a terrible fear of death, known as thanatophobia.
Macías Nguema failed the civil service exam three times. However, he eventually rose to the position of mayor of Mongomo under the Spanish colonial government, and later served as a member of the territorial parliament. In 1964, he was named deputy prime minister of the autonomous transition government.[2] He ran for president of the soon-to-be independent country against Prime Minister Bonifacio Ondó Edu on a strongly nationalist platform in 1968. In what has been the only free election held in the country to date, he defeated Ondó Edu in the runoff and was sworn in as president on 12 October. Ondó Edu briefly went into exile in Gabon and was officially reported to have committed suicide on 5 March 1969, although it is reported that Edu was actually executed soon after his return on trumped-up charges of having been planning a coup.
Despite killing another Ethnic Fang, he told them that the power was theirs, incited ethnic violence, transferred them en masse to the Ndowé population centers and imposed the (mwa djang) as a system and supported the murder of all the independentists and politicians. Ndowé ethnic group, to continue to give way to the Fang brought from the forests to occupy the Ndowé territory as a reward for their support. Once the Ndowé were weakened, Macías extended Fang sovereignty, taking them from the forests to the territories of the other Bubi and Ambo Peoples, to finally continue with the murder of the politicians of the remaining ethnic groups; Fang, Bubi, Ambo and Bissió, who could interfere with him.
On 7 May 1971, Macías Nguema issued Decree 415, which repealed parts of the 1968 Constitution and granted him "all direct powers of Government and Institutions", including powers formerly held by the legislative and judiciary branches, as well as the cabinet of ministers[2]. On 18 October 1971, Law 1 imposed the death penalty as punishment for threatening the President or the government. Insulting or offending the President or his cabinet was punishable by 30 years in prison. On 14 July 1972, a presidential decree merged all existing political parties into the United National Party (later the United National Workers' Party), with Macías Nguema as President for Life of both the nation and the party. During his presidency, Equatorial Guinea became infamously known as "the Dauchau of Africa" due to the amount of people who were killed and by the time of his overthrow, his government had garnered condemnations from the United Nations and European Commission. Depending on the source, during his government, anywhere from 50,000 to 80,000 of the 300,000 to 400,000 people living in the country at the time were killed. According to Pennsylvania State University professor Randall Fegley, this was proportionally worse than the Nazis' rampage through Europe.
In 1976, some 25,000 Nigerian cocoa workers were evacuated from the country by the Nigerian government as a result of threats and physical attacks on these workers by Macías government forces, 36 that had already started in 1970 including the murder of almost a hundred Nigerians over labor claims. Macías ordered his Youth to attack the Nigerian embassy based in Malabo.
Among the torture methods used during his dictatorship were "The swinging" (tying the prisoner by the feet and keeping him hanging while being beaten), "The splints" (wooden splints were placed on both sides of the calves, the ankles and the soles of the prisoner's foot, tightening them together using ropes), "Los grillentes" (closed metal rings on the prisoner's wrists) and "El rombo" (pressing the detainee's elbows onto his back until they are joined, and then tying them in that position). Given the brutality of these methods, many prisoners died while suffering from them. Prisoners were taken out of their cells and forced to sing a song of praise to Macias as they danced non-stop around a campfire. of fire.
The entire culture of the country, including for example popular music ("Revolutionary Songs", full of praise for his person), should glorify the regime. Macías carefully supervised what was broadcast on the radio. Literary production was banned, so many authors had to develop their careers in exile. Statisticians were also heavily repressed, and as a consequence, little economic data was generated on Equatorial Guinea during the 1970s. When the Equatorial Guinean director of the Institute of Statistics published demographic data considered too low by Macías, he was mutilated to "learn to count". there was a point when anyone who wore glasses (a symbol of intellectualism) was killed.
Macías himself is said to have frequently visited the prison and, with the conviction that prisoners were being treated "too well", executions were on the rise, this was confirmed at his trial.
Macías Nguema was the centre of an extreme cult of personality, and assigned himself titles such as the "Unique Miracle" and "Grand Master of Education, Science, and Culture". The island of Fernando Pó had its name Africanised after him to Masie Ngueme Biyogo Island; upon his overthrow in 1979, its name was again changed to Bioko. The capital, Santa Isabel, had its name changed to Malabo. In 1978, he changed the national motto to "There is no other God than Macías Nguema"
In 1979, after his overthrow and the raid of his palace, it was discovered that the palace contained food forbidden to the population. It also contained hams, cheeses and Spanish olives, since all Spanish products were prohibited to the population. As of August 7, 1979, Macías fled accompanied by a loyal troop, taking suitcases full of money with him in a car, although previously Macías had burned a large part of the national treasure stored in one of his houses (three billion of ekweles) as revenge for the coup. On August 18 he was finally captured and imprisoned, on September 24 he was transferred to the Playa Negra prison and executed on the 29th by Moroccan soldiers.[3]
He has been compared to Pol Pot because of the violent, unpredictable, and anti-intellectual nature of his government.
Some observers have posited that Macías Nguema may have been a psychopath, a disorder potentially enabled, in part, by reported childhood psychological trauma, and that his behaviour could have been affected by other possible mental illnesses, as well as his reported periodic use of the psychoactive plant Iboga and large quantities of cannabis.[1]
Torture techniques edit
- "The swing" tie the prisoner by the feet and keep him hanging while being hit
- "The splints" wooden splints were placed on both sides of the inmate's calves, ankles and soles, tightening them together with ropes,
- "The grillers" closed metal rings on the prisoner's wrists
- "The rhombus" press the elbows of the detainee on his back until they meet, and then tie them in that position. Given the brutality of these methods, many prisoners died while undergoing them.
- "Dances" They were forced to sing a song of praise to Macias while they danced non-stop around a campfire for five or six hours.When a prisoner got tired and tripped, a guard would beat him with an iron bar heated in the embers of the fire.
References edit
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Dark Days Of Equatorial Guinea, Scooper News
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Francisco Macías Nguema (1924 - 1979), Blackpast
- ↑ Equatorial Guinea Reports Coup, The New York Times