The Wonga Coup by Adam Roberts Page B

called Equatorial Guinea ‘one of the continent’s forbidden zones for free expression and an unchanging hell for journalists’.
    Few countries have embassies there. The United Statesbriefly closed its offices in 1995, with officials dismissing Equatorial Guinea as a ‘basket case’ and ‘a nasty little dictatorship in the middle of nowhere’. When the erstwhile American ambassador, John Bennet, spoke out about the torture of prisoners, he was accused of witchcraft after police spotted him at a graveyard during an election ‘taking traditional medicine given to him by election-boycotting opposition parties in order that the vote would come out badly [for Obiang]’. He was warned: ‘You will go to America as a corpse.’
‘An authentic cannibal’
    It is hard to imagine what more Obiang could do to be like a Bmovie villain. Environmental activists accuse him of profiting from large-scale dumping of toxic (and possibly radioactive) waste on a pristine Atlantic island, Annobon. Others say his diplomats ship large quantities of drugs around the world. One was caught at New York’s JFK airport trailing cannabis from a hole in his suitcase as he strolled through the terminal. In 1997 Spanish police arrested and jailed an ex-minister of information from Equatorial Guinea, Santos Pascal Bikomo, for drugtrafficking. He wrote a public letter describing how Obiang, his son Teodorin and his brother Armengol distributed drugs in Europe using shipments of tropical timber, diplomatic bags and even Obiang’s baggage during state trips. Others even accuse Obiang of cannibalism. Such claims may be made merely to score political points, but Severo Moto, an exiled opponent, made his accusation with some elan in 2004. He warned he would face persecution and certain death in Equatorial Guinea and called Obiang an ‘authentic cannibal’ who hungered for his testicles. On Spanish radio he said Obiang ‘systematically eats his political rivals’ and was a demon. ‘He has just devoured a police commissioner. I say “devoured” asthis commissioner was buried without his testicles and brain.’ Moto added: ‘We are in the hands of a cannibal.’
    Obiang retorted that ‘international credibility is not important to us’. In turn, most of the world ignores his speck of territory off Africa’s west coast. In most atlases the country lies hidden under the staple. Few outsiders, not even Africa experts, can name a famous Equatorial Guinean. Just one man earned headlines. A 22-year-old swimmer called Eric Moussambani briefly became famous at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Dubbed ‘Eric the Eel’, he floundered so slowly in the 100-metre freestyle event that the world’s press became enchanted. Eric took nearly two minutes to cross the pool, roughly twice as long as the fastest swimmer. A jellyfish would have moved faster, but sports journalists made him into a star, concocting ever less plausible stories about him. According to some, the first time he completed 100 metres in a single stretch was in Sydney. Others said he trained in the wild. His bemused manager complained: ‘Why do they keep printing that he swims with crocodiles? It makes us look like savages. Who would swim in a river with crocodiles?’ His own mother said her boy ‘liked going to the beach’ but he had never been keen on swimming. She said he had merely wanted to see Sydney.
    That aside, Equatorial Guinea draws interest from one source: an industry that is notoriously willing to do deals with repressive governments. The oil industry, dominated by big American oil firms like ExxonMobil, flocked to Equatorial Guinea in the late 1990s. The small country proved a remarkably tempting corner for western companies – and an irresistible one for mercenaries, too.

5
The Gushing Prize
    â€˜And the place had to have oil. I mean, who’s going to do a coup in