ABSTRACT
Francisco Macias Nguema was the last of the continent’s three personal dictators to be overthrown, sentenced to death, and executed for criminal acts while in office. The young military junta that supplanted Nguema was overwhelmingly drawn from family relatives and former key lieutenants. Spanish colonial rule in Equatorial Guinea was oppressive, culturally paternalistic, and suffused with puritanism and middle-class value-biases. The economy of Equatorial Guinea rests almost entirely upon the production and export of cocoa, coffee, and timber, all of which have consistently been adversely affected by shortages of both skilled and manual labor. The 1969 crisis erupted on February 25,1969, in the midst of Nguema’s tour of Río Muni after his discovery that Spanish installations in Bata were still flying three Spanish flags, the symbol of Spanish sovereignty. The imbroglio and Nguema’s inflammatory speeches aroused the resident Spanish community’s worst fears—a Zaire–style massacre of expatriates—and many of the 7,000 Spaniards in Equatorial Guinea began streaming out of the country.
