The World’s Most Successful Failed State

The story of buildings and corruption in Equatorial Guinea

Some sources:

[aigai]

I lived in Malabo for a year, working for a construction company. This video is well prepared but you will never understand the level of corruption, and level of authority unless you live there. The most corrupt place I ever lived, by far, and just consider I lived in Belarus, Russia, and Mozambique as well. No place I've ever seen reaches the level of corruption in EG. It's been more than a decade since I came back from Malabo, but to this day if I sleep uncomfortably I see that I am going back to live there in my nightmares. Hate hate hate that place. Don't get me wrong, I love the locals, those people have nothing. No running water, no access to clean water, health care, proper education, or anything. Still, they're always friendly and despite the hellish conditions they are living in, they always have big smile on their faces. However, they have the most corrupt, the absolutely worst police force possible. Not a single second I felt safe in that island, I was anxious each time I saw a police car. If you are a foreigner, police will for sure stop you and they will steal your cash. If they don't like the amount, you'll be thrown into jail. If you're a local, police will beat you, torture you, do whatever they want. That psychopath who calls himself the president built thousands of modern apartment blocks in Malabo, thousands of apartments. All were empty. I have no idea why they were built, to keep them empty. especially while most of the locals were living in tin roof huts with no running water, no power, with absolutely nothing. Where else thousands of apartments with power, running water, and proper infrastructure were waiting there empty. I've never seen such cruelty in my life. Imagine you're someone who lives in a dark, tin-roof hut infested with rats and you watch those empty buildings. Despite everything, locals were like diamonds. Always a big smile on their faces, always helpful and friendly.

[tjsogmc]

I did some research on EG a few years ago because I was offered a job there in the oil industry. Everything in this video is very true, but omits one of the major problems with the country. Everyone who is "human" lives in the cities, everyone else in the country is considered part of the animal life. Slavery is not illegal, it's just "discouraged".

[oyugioyugi]

I am Kenyan, and I remember a teacher telling us that smoking weed can make you a psychopathic murderer because Francisco Nguema used to smoke a lot of weed. Scared the crap out of me as a kid haha

[andreasottohansen]

It is frankly amazing how often the story of a former colony is "They gained their independence, installed a native government, who then just continued what the colonizers did".

[tsardudebroii]

You forgot the damn insane part of Fransisco Nguema's story. He called himself a "Marxist-Hitlerist" and said that "Hitler wanted to liberate Africa, he just got distracted." I can see why everyone thought he was insane. He is TNO's Burgundian System ideology, but as a person. Only like 2 people can claim that title.

[beluga]

This is downright evil. What hurts more is that these leaders never get what they really deserve...

[Sam_Sam]

Equatorial Guinea is like the most authoritarian nation to ever exist only 2nd to places like Eritrea and Turkmenistan. I’m surprised Hoser did video on it.

[orboakin]

As an African (Nigerian, specifically), i will never stop saying that dictatorships have never EVER done anything good for Africa. As flawed as democracy is, it is far better than tribal authoritarianism.

[TIENxSHINHAN]

Africa is such an interesting continent because half of the problems there are due to the fact that the freedom fighters and revolutionaries of the 20th century became corrupt dictators and are still in power to this day. Now that the leaders of the post-colonial era are starting to die off or get overthrown, you're starting to see the continent stabilize and develop because they don't have sociopaths as leaders anymore.

Something that's also interesting about the old African revolutionaries is that most of them were "Marxists" and "communists" but pretty much all of them created some of the most ruthlessly capitalist countries on the face of the planet. Once you read up on them, you find that many of them never actually cared about socialism or communism and only adopted the ideologies in order to receive military support from the Soviet Union.

[Joridiy]

Fun Fact: during the decolonisation, Bioko (Fernando Pó back then) was the one asking Spain to get a separated independence from Río Muni while Río Muni wanted a conjoined independence together. In the end, Bioko ended getting the better part of the deal, with a better development than Río Muni.

[corey]

For a long time I used to think the problems across Africa were the after effects of European colonialism, but while that may be partially true, it's become clear that's no longer the biggest issue.

Political corruption has completely destroyed so many of these countries. It's like these people saw how bad colonialism was & thought "why don't we kick this up a notch!"

It's just sad to see... Even when the oil runs out & these dictators lose their money, it'll just plunge the country in more chaos. Warlords vying for what little power & territory they can control will trash what's left of the country, and the average people are the ones who will suffer most

[LarryNgetich]

I'm Kenyan and I didn't know this place existed. Thanks, hoser! The corruption is unreal considering how bad I thought we have it here.

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

The wildest thing Francisco Macías Nguema did: On Christmas Eve 1969, Francisco targeted dissidents by rounding them up in a stadium and having soldiers dressed as Santa aim at them while Mary Hopkin’s Those Were the Days played to cover their screaming. And for those who weren’t aimed at, had to bury themselves up to their necks and be eaten by red ants. But regarding the Black Beach prison where dissidents have been imprisoned, when his nephew overthrew him, Francisco was fittingly sent there where he was finally executed by firing squad in September 1979.

A fascinating fact about Francisco Macías Nguema is that Francisco's daughters and son Monica, Maribel, and Paco, were all sent to be raised in the DPRK with their mother in 1979 to study and reside under the care of Kim Il-sung. Monica for example was only seven when this happened. However, just months after their arrival, Francisco was ousted that year, so them and her mother were stranded in the DPRK. Soon afterwards, her mother left, abandoning them. Despite this, Kim Il-sung continued to fulfil his promise to take care of her and sent her to a military boarding school, regularly checked in on her, and helped her graduate Pyongyang University of Light Industry. She viewed him as a second father.

[DonPedroman]

As a Spanish I have read in the internet both equatoguineans that say " we would be better if we remained with Spain " and those who say " everything wrong nowadays is fault of the Spanish ", it makes me laugh a lot.
Strength to my brothers in tropical Africa.

[somekek]

Man this video reminds me of Geography Now doing a vlog there and just showing all the good and new projects without any critical approach. He even said that Bioko is home of 80% of the people. I don't even know where paul got that number.

Thanks for exposing the real situation of Equatorial Guinea.

[vipidd]

as a spaniard, i would absolutely love to visit equatorial guinea but not Bioko. I would love to visit Rio Muni, I feel like that would truly show me a better perspective of what the country is really like.

[eriqmav]

Africa as a whole has so much potential but the "leaders" are holding the continent back

[fnord]

Also regarding Fransisco Nguema, he had about 186 dissidents executed in Malabo’s national stadium on Christmas Eve. All the executioners were dressed as Santa Claus, while “Those Were The Days” played over and over again.

[pablothewartortle]

I think a “how are the Ex-Soviet states doing today” would be pretty interesting.

[alexv]

To develop an economy, you need rule of law and inclusive politics. The state monopolies and extractive, exclusive institutions that prop up kings or single-party dictatorships can grow briefly but ultimately will always stagnate.