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Equatorial Guinea
Spain relinquished island and mainland territories under UN pressure.
- Independence
- October 12, 1968
- Before
- Spanish Guinea
- Metropole
- Spain
- Leader
- Francisco Macías Nguema
- Transition
- Negotiated
- Movement
- MONALIGE, MUNGE and other nationalist groups; Macías's independence coalition
Treaty Claims and a Plantation Colony
Portugal ceded Fernando Pó, its islets and trading rights on the adjacent coast to Spain by the Treaty of El Pardo in 1778, but effective Spanish rule over the island began only in the mid-nineteenth century, and the mainland enclave of Río Muni was delimited by the 1900 Treaty of Paris. Fernando Pó's cocoa plantations depended on contract labour, first from Liberia, until abuses ended recruitment there around 1930, and later from Nigeria.
Provinces, Autonomy and UN Pressure
Facing UN scrutiny after it joined the organisation in 1955, Franco's Spain reorganised the colony as two overseas provinces in 1959. Nationalist groups such as MONALIGE, founded in exile by Atanasio Ndongo, lobbied for independence, and the UN General Assembly called for it in 1966. A referendum on 15 December 1963 approved a limited autonomous regime, which began in 1964 with Bonifacio Ondó Edu as head of government.
A Rapid Transfer of Power
A constitutional conference in Madrid in 1967–68 produced a constitution approved by referendum on 11 August 1968. Francisco Macías Nguema, who campaigned against both Spanish tutelage and Ondó Edu, won the presidential run-off on 29 September. Equatorial Guinea became independent on 12 October 1968, but within months Macías turned on Spain and his rivals, and by the spring of 1969 Spanish troops and most Spanish residents had been evacuated.
Chronology
- 1778 — Treaty of El Pardo transfers Portuguese claims to Spain
- 1959 — Colony reorganised as two Spanish overseas provinces
- December 15, 1963 — Referendum approves limited autonomy, effective 1964
- December 20, 1966 — UN General Assembly Resolution 2230 on the question of Equatorial Guinea
- August 11, 1968 — Independence constitution approved by referendum
- September 29, 1968 — Macías Nguema wins the presidential run-off
- October 12, 1968 — Independence
- August 1979 — Macías overthrown by his nephew Teodoro Obiang
Aftermath
Macías established one of Africa's most violent dictatorships: tens of thousands were killed, with some estimates exceeding 50,000 in a population of about 300,000, and a third or more of the population fled abroad. His nephew Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo overthrew him in August 1979, and he was executed that September. Obiang has ruled since, sustained by oil production that began in the 1990s.
Legacy
Spain's late and hurried withdrawal left a fragile state that Macías rapidly turned into a personal tyranny, devastating its economy and population. Oil wealth since the 1990s has not ended authoritarian rule under Obiang, now one of the world's longest-serving heads of state.