During his presidency, his country was nicknamed the Dachau of Africa.[4] More than a third of Equatorial Guineas population fled to other countries to escape his brutal reign.[5] He was known to order entire families and villages executed. Three important pillars of his rule were the United National Workers Party, the Juventud en Marcha con Macías militia/youth group, and the Esangui clan of Río Muni. The countrys instruments of repression (military, presidential bodyguard) were entirely controlled by Macías Nguemas relatives and clan members. The presidents paranoid actions included banning use of the word intellectual and destroying boats to stop his people fleeing from his rule[1] (fishing was banned).[6] The only road out of the country on the mainland was also mined.[7] He Africanized his name to Masie Nguema Biyogo Ñegue Ndong in 1976 after demanding that the rest of the Equatoguinean population replace their Hispanic names with African names. He also banned Western medicines, stating that they were un-African.[7] Macías Nguema was the centre of an extreme cult of personality, perhaps fueled by his consumption of copious amounts of bhang[2] and iboga,[1] 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 Africanized 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 Marcias Nguema.[8] During Macías Nguemas regime, the country had neither a development plan nor an accounting system for government funds. After killing the governor of the Central Bank, he carried everything that remained in the national treasury to his house in a rural village.[2] During Christmas 1975 he ordered about 150 of his opponents killed. Soldiers dressed up in Santa Claus costumes murdered them by shooting at the football stadium in Malabo, while amplifiers were playing Mary Hopkins Those Were the Days.[9] By the end of his rule, nearly all of the countrys educated class was either executed or forced into exile—a brain drain from which the country has never recovered. He also killed two-thirds of the legislature and 10 of his original ministers.[10]
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 10:45:41 +0000
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