Murder and Violence in Malabo
In February 2012, I spent a few days in Malabo on the Island of Bioko in Equatorial
Guinea, which was Spain's only colony in Africa. In colonial days
Malabo was known as Santa Isabella and Bioko as Fernando Poo.
Equatorial Guinea also has a piece of territory on the African mainland
known as Rio Muni which lies between Cameroon and Gabon.
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| Map of Equatorial Guinea showing both Bioko Island and Rio Muni |
Since 1968 when the country became
independent, Equatorial Guineans have lived under two repressive
dictators, both stemming from the same family. The current president,
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teodoro_Obiang_Nguema_Mbasogo
is the nephew of the first president, Francisco, Marchias Nguema, who
many considered insane and who on Christmas Day in 1975, has 150 coup
plotters killed in the national stadium while a band played "Those Were
the Days." For more on the country's sordid political history see the
following link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equatorial_Guinea#Politics
Shortly after independence, the State
Department opened an embassy in Malabo and assigned two officers -- a
charge' d'affairs and an administrative officer. The stress of opening
an embassy on Fernando Po must have gotten to the Charge' as in 1971 he
radioed the Embassy in nearby Yaounde, Cameroon to report that the
Administrative Officer was involved in a communist plot. The embassy
directed that the consul from Douala immediately charter a plane to
Malabo and to take control of the embassy. Upon arrival he found that
the charge' had killed the administrative officer in the embassy under
very mysterious circumstances. It was a bizarre case that shocked
Washington and led to the closing of the embassy which had only recently
opened. The following two articles from the Foreign Service Journal
review the murder and its aftermath.
I first heard about this murder shortly
after entering the foreign service in the late 1970s and had no idea at
the time that I would play a role in reopening embassy Malabo in the
1980s while I was posted in Yaounde. At that time Ambassador Hume Horan
was accredited to both Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea and oversaw a team
from Yaounde that helped set up the new embassy on a floor of Malabo's
Hotel Impala. Despite Equatorial Guinea's close proximity to Cameroon,
there were no scheduled flights to Malabo from either Yaounde or
Douala. We therefore chartered a small plane to Malabo every few weeks
to assist new staff that had been assigned there. At that time Malabo
was the poorest place I had ever been and was without electricity or
running water. The new embassy and the residence that was set up for
the first resident ambassador ran off of Caterpillar generators 24 hours
a day. It has often been said that one can tell how poor a place is
from its garbage. There was virtually no garbage in Malabo and I never
saw a dog, a cat, or a rat which says something about their source of
protein. And when we were there for a few days, we never knew what we
might find to eat in the island's few restaurants. Malabo is the only
place I have eaten porcupine. Despite the poverty, there was virtually
no crime due to people's fear of the violent police state they lived
under.
The embassy we opened in the early 80s
was closed for a second time a few years later as a budget cutting
measure when it was determined that our interests in Equatorial Guinea
didn't warrant a full time presence. However with the discovery of oil
in 1996, an embassy was established for the third time and with a new US
Government-owned chancery compound now under construction, we can now
probably assume that a US presence will remain.
Equatorial Guinea has been the target
for at least two coup attempts. The first, against former President
Marchia, is said to be the setting for Fredrick Forseyth's book "The Dogs of War" which was made into a movie by the same name. The second, the so-called Wonga Coup,
took place after oil was discovered. It was led by Simon Mann, an
Englishman living in South Africa and the son of former British Prime
Minister, Margaret Thatcher, is said to have helped finance this
attempt.
Here are a few links related to these coups:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Forsyth(see section on controversies)
With the discovery of oil in Equatorial
Guinea, Malabo no longer resembles the place I visited in the 1980s. It
is now crawling with international oilmen, businessmen and construction
workers. A new four lane highway crosses the island and there are
several first class hotels, including one with an 18-hole golf course.
An impressive new hospital, staffed with more than 40 M.Ds from Israel
also recently opened. On the surface, Malabo appears to be quite
affluent but I doubt that the country's new found wealth trickles down
very far and I believe that most of the population still remains very
poor.
Add something on the Dogs of War movie.
Add something on the Dogs of War movie.
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