Video: African Passion: The Crazy Dictator Who Ate the Entire Treasury of the State
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Francisco Nguema Ndonge Macias came to power in 1968, after Equatorial Guinea was declared not a Spanish colony, but an independent state. Perhaps this was one of those cases when life under the leadership of the outside was better than under the "native" government. During his reign, the president destroyed everything that was associated with the concept of a developed country, and after a coup d'état he ate the entire state treasury.
Before Nguema Ndonga came to the presidency, Equatorial Guinea (then still Spanish Guinea) was far from the most backward state in Africa. Competently organized management of plantations of cocoa beans allowed the population to live comfortably.
After the new ruler became the head of state, he called on the entire indigenous population to oppose all the Spaniards who lived in the country at that time. People with white skin had to literally fight for their lives and flee en masse. Nguema Ndongo dismissed the previous cabinet of ministers (since only two out of 12 people survived) and put his relatives in leading positions. During 10 years of his rule, the dictator reduced the population of Equatorial Guinea by half, out of 300 thousand only 140 remained.
Nguema Ndongo had one answer to requests from ministers, employees and ordinary workers: to execute everything. The Minister of the Interior, who tried to stop the pogroms, was publicly beaten with gun butts, and the Minister of Education, who opposed the closure of schools, was beheaded. The country very quickly plunged into darkness, both literally and figuratively: the president disconnected the entire country from electricity.
With each year of his reign, Nguema Ndongo showed signs of insanity more and more. He talked to those he executed, wandered for hours in closed rooms and invented things to prohibit. All schools were closed, it was forbidden to say the word "intellect" aloud. The churches now sang the praises of the god Nguema, who "created Equatorial Guinea."
The entire treasury was kept by the president at home under the bed in suitcases. It was replenished at the expense of money that foreigners paid as a ransom for their captive compatriots.
In the end, the president's nephew, who commanded the National Guard, staged a coup in the country, and Nguema Ndongo fled into the jungle, taking suitcases of money with him. Two weeks later he was caught. There was no money with him. As it turned out later: Nguema ate dollars all the time in the jungle. The former president was tried and shot. The country is still ruled by the nephew of the mad dictator.
By the way, Nguema Ndongo was very friendly with another African dictator Bokassa, who ate his opponents.
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