He executed his uncle to take power in 1979, and he is still president today
Teodoro Obiang seized Equatorial Guinea in a military coup in August 1979, overthrowing his own uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema. Two months later his uncle was executed by firing squad. That was nearly 47 years ago. Obiang is still president today, the longest serving head of state on earth outside of royalty. Longer than Biya. Longer than anyone alive.
Before the coup, he ran Black Beach prison, a place Amnesty International described as a living hell. He won his sixth term in 2022 with 94.9 percent of the vote. State media in his own country has described him as being like God in heaven, able to kill without accountability. His opponents call Equatorial Guinea the North Korea of Africa.
Then came the oil. ExxonMobil struck it offshore in 1995, and the country now pumps around 380,000 barrels a day, the third largest producer in sub-Saharan Africa behind Nigeria and Angola. On paper, Equatorial Guinea has the highest income per person on the entire continent. In reality, more than three quarters of its 1.5 million people live below the poverty line. Half of them have no access to safe water. Its vaccination rates are among the worst in the world. In 2015, more than half of all school aged children were not in school at all, the fourth worst rate on the planet..
Now follow the money. His son Teodorín was made Vice President in 2016. A French court convicted him of stealing more than 100 million euros from the public treasury, which he spent on a mansion in Paris, a fleet of sports cars, and Michael Jackson memorabilia. Human Rights Watch documented two yachts linked to him worth 250 million dollars together, more than Equatorial Guinea spent on health and education combined. Obiang himself owns a six storey building on Avenue Foch in Paris. Another son runs the ministry of mines.
Read those addresses again. Paris. Malibu. The oil money did leave Africa, exactly as it always does. But France did not take this one. An African president shipped it out himself and bought property in the very capital we accuse of looting us.
We have never forgiven France for stealing Africa’s wealth. Obiang has been stealing Equatorial Guinea’s for 47 years, and most Africans cannot even name him.
-HistoricalAfrica