The Wonga coup : guns, thugs, and a ruthless determination to create mayhem in an oil-rich corner of Africa

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Title:

Author:

Roberts, Adam.

ISBN:

9781586485009

9781586483715

Personal Author:

Roberts, Adam.

Edition:

1st ed.

Publication Information:

New York : PublicAffairs, c2006.

Physical Description:

xv, 303 p. : maps ; 25 cm.

General Note:

Originally published: London : Profile Books, 2006; sub-title on original ed. The British mercenary plot to seize oil billions in Africa.

Abstract:

"Old-fashioned colonial arrogance and newly minted corporate greed collide in The Wonga Coup, the story of the plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea, a tiny African nation roughly the size of Maryland. Humid, jungle-covered, and rife with unpleasant diseases, even some in the region call it "Devil Island." Its president in 2004, the year of the coup plot, was a man accused of cannibalism, witchcraft, mass murder, billion-dollar corruption, and general rule by terror. With so little on the surface to recommend it, why was it the target of a gaggle of battle-hardened mercenaries, traveling on an American-registered plane, flown originally by American pilots, adapted for military purposes and previously used by the National Guard? The motive lay beneath the sea bed: oil. Lots of it, perhaps as much as in Nigeria or Angola."

"The Wonga Coup plotters were inspired by Frederick Forsyth's The Dogs of War, a novel written in 1973 that handily, and not at all coincidentally, describes how to overthrow the government of a country all but identical to Equatorial Guinea. Real life, though, trumps fiction, as the plot in 2004 ensnares a British prime minister's son, the Spanish government, a major Washington, D.C. bank, and an old Etonian mercenary determined to go out with one final, spectacularly greedy act of international piracy." "The Wonga Coup is adventurism run riot, in which antique colonial attitudes are resurrected by wealthy prospectors keen to fight a small private war for profit. It proves, if proof were needed again, that while it is power that corrupts, it is oil that corrupts absolutely."--BOOK JACKET.

Subject Term:

Political corruption -- Equatorial Guinea -- History -- 21st century.

Coups d'état -- Equatorial Guinea -- History -- 21st century.

Mercenary troops -- Equatorial Guinea -- History -- 21st century.

Mercenary troops -- Great Britain -- History -- 21st century.

Mercenary troops -- South Africa -- History -- 21st century.

Mercenary troops -- Zimbabwe -- History -- 21st century.

Petroleum industry and trade -- Political aspects -- Equatorial Guinea -- History -- 21st century.

Geographic Term:

Equatorial Guinea -- Politics and government -- 1979-

Electronic Access:

Contributor biographical information http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0828/2006047254-b.html
Publisher description http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0828/2006047254-d.html

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168023688084	967.18032 R643W 2006	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Equatorial Guinea is a tiny country roughly the size of the state of Maryland. Humid, jungle covered, and rife with unpleasant diseases, natives call it Devil Island. Its president in 2004, Obiang Nguema, had been accused of cannibalism, belief in witchcraft, mass murder, billion dollar corruption, and general rule by terror. With so little to recommend it, why in March 2004 was Equatorial Guinea the target of a group of salty British, South African and Zimbabwean mercenaries, travelling on an American-registered ex-National Guard plane specially adapted for military purposes, that was originally flown to Africa by American pilots? The real motive lay deep below the ocean floor: oil.

In The Dogs of War , Frederick Forsyth effectively described an attempt by mercenaries to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea -- in 1972. And the chain of events surrounding the night of March 7, 2004, is a rare case of life imitating art -- or, at least, life imitating a 1970s thriller -- in almost uncanny detail. With a cast of characters worthy of a remake of Wild Geese and a plot as mazy as it was unlikely, The Wonga Coup is a tale of venality, overarching vanity and greed whose example speaks to the problems of the entire African continent.