Francisco Macías Nguema

Podcast Transcript

In 1968, the colony of Spanish Guinea was granted independence and became the Republic of Equatorial Guinea.

In its first open election, which turned out to be its last, it elected as president Francisco Macías Nguema.

He very quickly turned out to be a dictator. However, he wasn’t just a dictator. He became one of the worst dictators of the 20th century.

Learn more about Francisco Macías Nguema, his reign of terror, and how he single-handedly wrecked Equatorial Guinea on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

What do you think of when I say the names of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein, or Kim Il-Sung?

You probably think of some of the world’s worst dictators. Horrible people who did horrible things.

Yet, there is someone else that you should think of when you think of the worst of the worst world leaders of the 20th century. Francisco Macías Nguema.

There is a good chance you have never heard of him before. By the end of this episode, hopefully, you’ll see that he has earned a well-deserved place amongst the worst leaders in history.

The reason why you might not have heard of him before is that Equatorial Guinea is a very small country that doesn’t get much attention.

Before I get to the man who called himself Macías, first, a bit about Equatorial Guinea.

Equatorial Guinea was a former colony of Spain known as Spanish Guinea. The country is small and has two geographically separated parts: the mainland region, known as Rio Mundi, and several islands in the Gulf of Guinea, the largest of which is Bioko, and is home to the capital, Malabo.

It is the only country in Africa that speaks Spanish. It is bordered by Cameroon to the north and Gabon to the south and east.

As with most African colonies, independence movements developed after World War II. Spain granted the colony autonomy in 1963, and it became independent on October 12, 1968.

Francisco Macías Nguema was born in 1924 in Río Muni. He was a member of the Fang ethnic group, which was the dominant ethnic group on the mainland.

His early life was marked by limited formal education, reaching only the elementary level before working various jobs, including as a court interpreter and later as a coffee plantation administrator.

He increasingly benefited from the colonial administration’s advancement, rising from a court clerk and interpreter to mayor of Mongomo and, by 1964, deputy prime minister of the autonomous government, positions that poised him to seize power at independence.

Macías founded the Idea Popular de la Guinea Ecuatorial or IPGE, positioning himself as a champion of Fang interests and rural populations. His political strategy was shrewd, recognizing that the Fang constituted about 85 percent of the population and had been somewhat marginalized by Spanish colonial policies that favored the more urbanized and educated populations on Bioko.

The crucial moment came during the 1968 constitutional convention and subsequent elections. Spain had hoped that more moderate, educated leaders would emerge to lead the new nation. However, Macías skillfully exploited ethnic tensions and rural-urban divides. He campaigned as an authentic African leader who would restore traditional values and protect Fang culture from foreign influence.

His opponents, including Bonifacio Ondó Edú, were portrayed as tools of Spanish neocolonialism despite their superior education and administrative experience.

The 1968 presidential election was remarkably close, requiring a runoff between Macías and Ondó Edú. Macías won by appealing to ethnic solidarity and promising to expel foreign influence, including Spanish settlers and businessmen. His victory speech ominously declared that he would build a nation “for Africans, by Africans,” which many interpreted as a threat to the substantial Spanish population and other minorities.

Independence came on October 12, 1968, with Macías as the first president. Initially, there were hopes that democratic institutions would take root. The new constitution included provisions for civil liberties, separation of powers, and regular elections.

The transformation from elected president to dictator accelerated rapidly between 1969 and 1972.

Macías began concentrating power in his hands, dismissing competent civil servants and replacing them with loyal but unqualified supporters, primarily from his own ethnic group and region.

He declared states of emergency to justify suspending constitutional rights, then extended these indefinitely.

Opposition figures were arrested, tortured, or executed. Ethnic Bubi leaders and intellectuals were disproportionately targeted, especially on Bioko Island.

One of his first orders of business was creating the Juventud en Marcha con Macías or JMM. It was modeled loosely on fascist and revolutionary youth movements like Hitler Youth or Mao’s Red Guards, and played a central role in consolidating his regime and enforcing loyalty through terror, indoctrination, and violence.

Ondó Edú fled the country but was extradited to Equatorial Guinea by Spain. He was arrested, tortured, and either executed or committed suicide in March 1969.

1969 also saw the expulsion of Spanish personnel and the closure of institutions. Spanish missionaries, educators, and medical professionals were expelled. Western-style education, media, and religious institutions begin to be dismantled. The Catholic Church lost protection, and churches were increasingly harassed.

On Christmas Eve, 150 of his opponents were brought to the national stadium and executed on grounds of allegedly plotting a coup. They were killed while the song “Those Were the Days” by Mary Hopkin played on the stadium sound system.

Now that you know that, you will never listen to that song the same way again…

Macías started referring to himself in grandiose titles and demanded portraits of himself in public places. Some of the titles he gave himself included the “Unique Miracle”, “Grand Master of Education, Science, and Culture”, “Master of All the Powers of the Revolution”, “Father of the Nation”, “immortal”, and “invincible”.

What little press and radio there was became tools of state propaganda.

In 1970, with most of his adversaries gone, he established the Partido Único Nacional de los Trabajadores, or PUNT, which was declared the only legal political party. All other parties were banned or forcibly merged. Loyalty to the party become equated with loyalty to the president.

In 1971, Decree 415 was issued. This decree gave the president complete control over all branches of government. It removed any pretense of institutional checks and concentrated all executive, legislative, and judicial power in Macías’s hands.

Later that year, Law 1 was passed, which criminalized dissent. Under this law, criticizing the president became punishable by decades in prison or execution. Even private comments or jokes were grounds for arrest.

Later that year, he began to see education as a threat to his rule. He abolished private education, burned books, banned the use of the word “intellectual,” and closed libraries and schools. Wearing glasses or reading foreign books was viewed with suspicion, and members of the intelligentsia were purged or exiled.

He famously declared that education was unnecessary and that Equatorial Guineans should return to traditional ways of life under his guidance.

In 1972, he declared himself president for life.

A 1973 referendum officially approved the regime, with a vote reportedly showing 99.9% approval…which was, of course, a totally legit election.

Economically, Equatorial Guinea under Macias was a disaster. Spanish businesses and plantations, which formed the backbone of the economy, were confiscated or abandoned as their owners fled.

The cocoa industry, which had provided most export revenue, collapsed as skilled managers and workers left the country. Macías replaced technical expertise with political loyalty, leading to the breakdown of infrastructure, telecommunications, and basic services.

Under his regime, repression and terror became the norm. Entire villages vanished, mass arrests and executions were routine, and political, ethnic, and intellectual opponents, especially among the Bubi minority, were mercilessly targeted.

Estimates suggest that between 20,000 and 80,000 people were killed or forced into exile, representing up to one-third of Equatorial Guinea’s entire population.

Initially, some African leaders viewed him sympathetically as an authentic African nationalist standing against neocolonial influence. However, as reports of atrocities mounted and refugees flooded neighboring countries, international opinion turned decisively against him.

Spain, despite its colonial history, found itself hosting thousands of Equatorial Guinean refugees and became a center of opposition to the Macías regime.

Not surprisingly, Macías aligned with Eastern Bloc nations, drawing support from the Soviet Union, Cuba, and North Korea while severing ties with Spain and the West.

His paranoia began to extend to his own family. Everyone had to walk on eggshells around him, constantly showing their support and never doing anything which could be considered a threat to him or his regime.

By the late 1970s, Equatorial Guinea had become a failed state. The economy had collapsed entirely, with no functioning currency, infrastructure, or institutions. The population had declined dramatically through death and emigration. Even Macías’s own supporters began to recognize that his rule threatened the nation’s very survival.

The end came through a family coup in August 1979. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Macías’s nephew and head of the National Guard, led a military uprising that quickly succeeded. The irony was thick: the man who had destroyed so many families through suspicion and paranoia was ultimately brought down by his own nephew, whom he had trusted with military command.

The fall was swift and decisive. Macías attempted to flee but was captured trying to escape with a large sum of money. His trial became a moment of reckoning for the nation, as survivors testified about the horrors they had endured. The proceedings revealed the full extent of his crimes against his own people, documenting systematic torture, mass murder, and the deliberate destruction of the nation’s social fabric.

Macías was executed by firing squad in September 1979, ending eleven years of rule that had transformed a relatively prosperous small nation into a devastated wasteland. His death marked not just the end of a dictatorship but the conclusion of one of Africa’s most destructive post-independence governments.

The new president of Equatorial Guinea became Teodoro Obiang, Macias’s nephew.

Initially, Obiang’s takeover was welcomed both domestically and internationally. After eleven years of Francisco Macías’s reign of terror, almost any change seemed positive.

The early years of Obiang’s rule, from 1979 to the late 1980s, were marked by efforts to rebuild basic state institutions and restore some semblance of normal life. The new government reopened schools, attempted to restart the collapsed cocoa industry, and encouraged some refugees to return. Spain and other international partners provided assistance, hoping to help stabilize the country after the devastation of the previous decade.

However, it became clear relatively quickly that while Obiang represented a departure from his uncle’s extreme brutality, he had no intention of establishing genuine democratic governance.

The discovery of oil in the 1990s changed the economic fortunes of the country.

This oil wealth had profound implications for Obiang’s rule. On one hand, it provided resources to improve infrastructure and living standards for some segments of the population. The capital city of Malabo was rebuilt with modern buildings, roads, and facilities.

On the other hand, the concentration of oil revenues in government hands strengthened authoritarian tendencies by reducing dependence on taxation and popular consent.

Obiang has amassed a fortune estimated at around $600 million with money located in banks around the world.

He has also adopted some of the megalomaniac habits of his uncle. He has developed his own cult of personality. In 2003, state radio claimed that he is like God in heaven “who has all power over men and things” and that “He can decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to hell because it is God himself, with whom he is in permanent contact, and who gives him this strength…”

A series of sham elections have been held over the years, with Obiang receiving between 90 to 100% of the vote each time.

46 years after the downfall of Macias, Obiang is still the president today and is currently the longest-serving non-monarch head of state.

At 83 years old, his son is currently scheduled to succeed him.

Many African countries have suffered from dictators or autocrats since achieving independence. However, few have suffered like Equatorial Guinea, which has experienced literally nothing else. By selecting the wrong leader in their only fair election, they went down a path that almost destroyed the country and led to the deaths of thousands of people.