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The Witch Doctor President and Other Horrific Rulers

Khalid Elhassan December 25, 2019 32 min

38. Political Rise

The Spanish colony of Equatorial Guinea in 1910. Wikimedia

The orphaned Nguema was taken in by some wealthy Spaniards, who saw to his education at a Catholic school. He muddled his through to graduation, but was no brainiac – after completing his education, Nguema failed a civil service exam three times. However, he 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, and when the country gained independence in 1968, he was elected president. To date, that 1968 has been the sole free election held in Equatorial Guinea: Nguema, and his family after him, have held the country in an iron grip ever since. Early in his reign, 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.