Francisco Macías Nguema

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Francisco Macías Nguema

Francisco Macías Nguema (born January 1, 1924 in Ndegayong , † September 29, 1979 in Malabo ) was the first president of Equatorial Guinea from 1968 to 1979 .

Early years

He came from the Oyem region in Río Muni , the mainland territory of what was then the Spanish colony of Spanish Guinea , and was one of the catches that make up the majority of the population. His parents came from neighboring Gabon , which they left because of the poll tax there . After attending school, he worked for the Spanish administration from 1943 or 1944. He was the owner of a small coffee plantation near Mongomo, where he became mayor and translator at the district court for locals.

When the country was granted autonomy as Equatorial Guinea in 1964 , he became a member of the provincial parliament of Río Muni and deputy head of government with responsibility for public works.

Presidency

After the constitution for the new state was adopted, he was elected President of Equatorial Guinea in the second ballot in September 1968. He had his support from the people of the mainland, while his rival, the previous head of government Bonifacio Ondó Edu , received the most votes on the islands. He received 68,130 votes and Ondó Edu 41,252. In the parliamentary elections, which also took place in September, his party IPGE received 8 of the 35 seats.

On 12 October 1968 he took in Madrid at the ceremony for the dismissal of Equatorial Guinea to independence. Relations with the previous colonial power Spain quickly cooled when he had many Spaniards expelled and at least rhetorically took a Marxist course. 1970 all existing parties were forced to single party Partido Unico Nacional de los Trabajadores merged and Macías Nguema declared himself on July 14, 1972. "president for life". The country was declared a People's Republic in 1973 with the promulgation of a new constitution . In a referendum on July 29, 1973, the constitution was approved with 99% of the vote. Although he had been "President for Life" since the previous year, he was confirmed as President in October 1973 with almost 100% of the votes.

He filled all key positions in the military and business with members of his family clan and thus plundered the already poor country. He initially took over the Ministry of Defense himself. When Equatorial Guinea was largely bankrupt, he legally obliged the entire population of the country to do forced labor , also to replace the 60,000 displaced plantation workers from Nigeria .

In terms of foreign policy, he oriented himself towards the Soviet Union and, as a strategic ally, was able to rely on its support. In the mid-1970s, around 500 Cuban military advisers were in the country.

During his reign he turned Equatorial Guinea into a police state in which all human rights were disregarded. More than a third of the population at the time fled to neighboring countries (around 100,000 refugees), including Macías Nguema's wife. An unknown number of people were locked in camps, the death toll is said to have been between 10,000 and 50,000. In the final phase of his rule, all churches were closed and the country declared an atheist state. In addition, an extreme personality cult was practiced. Despite his honorary title el Gran Maestro de Educación Popular, Ciencia y Cultura Tradicional ( Spanish , meaning: “ Grand Master of popular education, science and traditional culture ”) all schools were closed during his reign. Nguema named the island Bioko , which until the end of the colonial period was called Fernando Póo , in Masie-Ngueme-Biyogo-Insel (after himself). After its disempowerment, the island received its current name. He also renamed the capital Santa Isabel Malabo .

He is said to have killed two thirds of the former parliament and ten former ministers. The Bubi people are said to have suffered particularly under their reign of terror. Along with Jean-Bédel Bokassa and Idi Amin, he was considered one of the cruelest dictators in recent African history. He has also been compared to Pol Pot because of his struggle against intellectuals .

Fall

On August 3, 1979, he was overthrown by his nephew, General and Army Commander Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo . After initially escaping, he was found guilty of genocide, human rights violations, theft of public property and treason in a brief trial, and sentenced to death 101 times . There was no court of appeal, and so he and some of his followers were executed in Playa Negra prison on September 29 . The execution was carried out by soldiers from Morocco because the locals were allegedly afraid of “magical powers” ​​Macías Nguemas.

Before his death, he made his wife and children flee to North Korea , where they spent the next decade and a half.

His nephew and successor initially promised fundamental reforms, but soon returned to some of his executed uncle's recipes, even if his rule is judged to be milder in comparison.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. J. Tyler Dickovick: The World Today Series: Africa 2012. Stryker-Post Publications, Lanham, Maryland in 2008, ISBN 978-1-61048-881-5 .
  2. ^ Dan Gardner: The Pariah President: Teodoro Obiang is a brutal dictator responsible for thousands of deaths. So why is he treated like an elder statesman on the world stage? ( Memento from June 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Ottawa Citizen. November 6, 2005.
  3. Rich in Oil, Poor in Human Rights: Torture and Poverty in Equatorial Guinea. on: spiegel.de , August 28, 2006. (Engl.)
  4. Alejandro Artucio: The Trial of Macias in Equatorial Guinea . International Commission of Jurists, S. 20-27 .
  5. James Pearson: Cold War childhood: An African dictator's daughter in Pyongyang. In: Reuters. October 2, 2013, accessed March 28, 2017 .
  6. Do you know Equatorial Guinea With open cards from February 4, 2017

literature

  • Francisco Macias N'Guema , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 45/1979 of October 29, 1979, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of the article freely available)
  • Fischer Weltalmanach - biographies on contemporary history since 1945. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1985, ISBN 3-596-24553-2 .
  • Randall Fegley: Equatorial Guinea. An African Tragedy. Lang, New York et al. 1989, ISBN 0-8204-0977-4 .

Web links