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History’s Most Lunatic Events and People

Khalid Elhassan August 21, 2020 34 min

La Belle Alliance - Battle of Waterloo — Blucher, left, meeting Wellington at Waterloo. Wikimedia

13. Rise of a Lunatic

The Spanish colony of Equatorial Guinea in 1910. Wikimedia

When Macias Nguema was orphaned, he was taken in by some wealthy Spaniards, who saw to his education in a Catholic school. He muddled his through to graduation, but was no brainiac – after completing his education, Nguema failed a civil service examination three times. However, Nguema had political talents, and got himself elected mayor of a town under the Spanish colonial administration.

When Equatorial Guinea began a transition phase to independence in the 1960s, Nguema served as a member of the territorial parliament. When the country gained independence in 1968, he was elected president. That 1968 election has been the sole free election held in Equatorial Guinea to date: Nguema, and his family after him, have held the country in an iron grip ever since. Early in his rule, Nguema made clear what he thought about elections by executing his defeated electoral opponent.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.