Francisco Macías Nguema (born Mez-m Ngueme, later Africanised to Masie Nguema Biyogo Ñegue Ndong; 1 January 1924 – 29 September 1979), often mononymously referred to as Macías, was an Equatoguinean politician who served as the first President of Equatorial Guinea from the country's independence in 1968 until his overthrow in 1979.
He is widely remembered as one of the most brutal dictators in history.
Francisco Macías Nguema was born on 1 January 1924, as Mez-m Ngueme at Nfengha, Spanish Guinea, to parents who had been expelled with the rest of their clan from what is today Woleu-Ntem Province, Gabon, at a time when the Spanish Colonial Guard had not yet exerted control over the jungled area.
He belonged to the Esangui clan, part of the Fang, Equatorial Guinea's majority ethnic group.
His family settled in Mongomo, where he grew up.
Macías Nguema was the son of a witch doctor who allegedly killed his younger brother as a sacrifice.
Macías Nguema managed to survive several bouts of tuberculosis as a child, which left him with a profound fear of death for the remainder of his life.
He was educated at a Catholic school through to primary level.
He changed his name to Francisco Macías Nguema at this time after being baptized by Spanish Catholic missionaries, and would come to learn Spanish in addition to his native Fang.
During his adolescence, he worked as a servant for some wealthy Spanish settlers, being described as helpful and obedient, which earned him ridicule and mistreatment by other non-Christianized Fang, and showed an inferiority complex with respect to the Spaniards.
Medical reports from his early career suggested that Macías Nguema was mentally unstable.
1930
Macías Nguema failed the civil service exam three times in the 1930s.
Regardless, he eventually became a clerk in the Spanish colonial administration, after passing the exam on the fourth try with assistance and some favoritism from colonial authorities, serving as court interpreter.
1940
In the 1940s, he also worked for the Forest Service in Bata, the Río Benito Public Works Department, as a catechist in Bata, and in the Bata Public Works Service.
1960
He became assistant interpreter, mayor of Mongomo, minister of public works, and finally deputy president of the Governing Council within a single year in the 1960s after Spanish Guinea was transformed from a colony to a province of Spain.
He also served as a member of the territorial parliament.
Even at this early point of his career, Macías Nguema already exhibited erratic tendencies.
In a conference to discuss the future independence of Equatorial Guinea at Madrid, he suddenly began an "incoherent eulogy of the Nazis", claiming that Adolf Hitler had wanted to save Africans from colonialism and only got "confused", causing him to attempt to conquer Europe.
At one point he declared himself a "Hitlerian-Marxist".
1961
In 1961, he first travelled to Madrid as spokesperson for a delegation which honoured Francisco Franco, Spain's dictator, on the 25th anniversary of his seizure of power.
At the time, Macías Nguema generally displayed no anti-Spanish sentiment and collaborated with the authorities, preferring to work towards eventual independence within the existing system.
Unlike many Equatoguinean activists at the time, he was never jailed by the Spanish.
As court interpreter, Macías Nguema eventually began taking bribes to manipulate his translations to absolve or incriminate defendants.
The Spanish interpreted his important role in many trials as evidence for influence and talent for leadership, and began to rapidly promote him.
1964
In 1964, Macías Nguema was named deputy prime minister of the autonomous transition government established the prior year.
Around this time, Macías Nguema himself came to fear that he was mentally unstable.
1968
A member of the Fang people, Macías held numerous official positions under Spanish colonial rule before being elected the first president of the soon-to-be independent country in 1968.
Based on a report from 1968, the French foreign intelligence service SDECE argued that he suffered from mental disorders and venereal diseases whose effects on his psyche were made even worse by his regular abuse of drugs such as cannabis in the form of the edible derivative bhang, and iboga, a drink with strong hallucinogenic effects.
Several contemporaries, such as the French ambassador to Equatorial Guinea, argued that Macías Nguema was insane.
Some observers have posited that Macías Nguema may have been a psychopath, a disorder potentially enabled, in part, by reported childhood psychological trauma, and that his behaviour could have been affected by other possible mental illnesses, as well as his reported periodic use of drugs.
Journalist Paul Kenyon described Macías Nguema as "dangerously mentally ill".
Before the 1968 Spanish Guinean general election, aged 44, he travelled to Madrid, where he was treated at the Ruben clinic.
Despite these concerns, Macías Nguema ran for president of the soon-to-be independent country against Prime Minister Bonifacio Ondó Edú on a strongly nationalist platform in 1968.
1972
Early in his rule, he consolidated power by establishing an extreme cult of personality, a one-party state ruled by his United National Workers' Party and declaring himself president for life in 1972, which was then ratified by a referendum the following year.
Due to his dictatorship's severe human rights abuses and economic mismanagement, tens of thousands of people fled the country to avoid persecution.
This led to Equatorial Guinea being internationally nicknamed the "Dachau of Africa".
His rule also led to significant brain drain as intellectuals and educated classes were particular targets for his persecution.
1979
In 1979, he was overthrown in a coup d'état by his nephew Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and was subsequently tried and executed.
According to various sources, anywhere from 20,000 to 80,000 of the roughly 200,000 to 300,000 people living in the country were killed under his regime, with tens of thousands more fleeing the country.
He has been compared to Pol Pot because of the violent, unpredictable, and anti-intellectual nature of his government.
