A Super Quick History of Equatorial Guinea

INTRO This is Africa, and here is Equatorial Guinea. Now let's have a look, shall we? As in so much of Western Africa, Equatorial Guinea was likely first populated by Pygmies, who were subsequently displaced by the influx of the taller Bantu speakers in one of the demographic altering migrations that occurred in ancient Africa. Eventually, mainland Bantu folk crossed the waters to settle on the island of Bioko, which would later become part of Equatorial Guinea. Then, for centuries and centuries, we don't really know what was going on, as no written language was developed. The fog begins to disperse in the 1470s, when the Portuguese began navigating around the African coast in search of a passage to India for trade. The Portuguese got a whole sugar plantation system going on Bioko, encouraged by the rich volcanic soil, but disease and native resistance reduced productivity. The Queen of Portugal gave the regions to Spain in 1778, Spain wanting a handy spot for slave acquisition for the Americas, and Portugal wanting Spain to recognize Portugal's claims to Brazil. Spain had little luck against yellow fever on Bioko, and concentrated on the mainland before essaying back, and Equatorial Guinea today is the only African country where Spanish is spoken by the people. In 1827, the British began patrolling the area to stop the slave trading going on. Spain's attempts at further developing its colony were hampered by sicknesses then endemic to tropical Africa, and their desire to expand their territory during the dawn of the 20th century was impeded by the French. Cocoa and coffee plantations were set up. Logging boomed, but there weren't enough workers, so a smuggling system arose to sneak in people from Nigeria. By the 1960s, Spain was finally investing in its African colony, knowing that it would soon be independent and have to stand on its own feet. Education, infrastructure, and healthcare were improved, and Equatorial Guinea became independent in 1968, with Francisco Macias Nguema as first president. He was a monster. A psychologically disturbed, drug-addicted son of a witch doctor who called himself the Unique Miracle, but was instead a Unique Nightmare, who banned medicine for not being African, ordered all people who wore glasses to be executed, and had his opponents slaughtered by soldiers dressed in Santa Claus outfits. He arrested priests, and murdered intellectuals, and thousands of innocents, and presided over a dictatorship of fear, until he was finally overthrown by his nephew in 1979, and shot to death. This nephew was Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, and he also became a dictator. While nowhere near as bad as his uncle, Obiang declared himself a god, and is responsible for a lot of murder and torture. In 1995, the Americans discovered oil in Equatorial Guinea, and you'd think this newfound wealth would enrich the nation. It hasn't. Someone's keeping it all for themselves, while the people suffer. The country today has a medium level of human development, which is a step up from many other nations in Africa, but government corruption, and human rights transgressions continue unabated, and let's hope things get better soon. Anyway, that's it for Equatorial Guinea, and that's all from me for now. Buh-bye!