Francisco Macías Nguema (1924–1979) was a politician who served as the first President of Equatorial Guinea from the country's independence in 1968 until his overthrow in 1979. He is widely remembered as one of the most brutal dictators in history.

A member of the Fang people, Macías held numerous official positions under Spanish colonial rule before being elected the first president of the soon-to-be independent country in 1968. Early in his rule, he consolidated power by establishing an extreme
cult of personality, a one-party state ruled by his United National Workers' Party and declaring himself president for life in 1972, which was then ratified by a referendum the following year. Due to his dictatorship's severe human rights abuses and
economic mismanagement, tens of thousands of people fled the country to avoid persecution while Equatorial Guinea was internationally nicknamed the "Dachau of Africa". His rule also led to significant brain drain as intellectuals and educated classes
were particular targets for his persecution. In 1979, he was overthrown in a coup d'état by his nephew Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and was subsequently tried and executed. Depending on the source, during his government, anywhere from 50,000 to 80,000
of the 300,000 to 400,000 people living in the country at the time were killed. He has been compared to Pol Pot because of the violent, unpredictable, and anti-intellectual nature of his government.

Francisco Macías Nguema was born at Nfengha, Spanish Guinea, to parents from Woleu-Ntem Province, Gabon. He belonged to the Esangui clan, part of the Fang, Equatorial Guinea's majority ethnic group. His family settled in Mongomo, where he grew up. Mací
as Nguema was the son of a witch doctor who allegedly killed his younger brother.

Medical reports from his early career suggested that Macías Nguema was mentally unstable. Based on a report from 1968, the Service de Documentation Extérieure et de Contre-Espionnage argued that he suffered from mental disorders and venereal diseases
whose effects of his psyche were worsened by his regular consumption of drugs such as cannabis in the form of bhang, and iboga, a drink with strong hallucinogenic effects. Several contemporaries such as the French ambassador to Equatorial Guinea argued
that Macías Nguema was insane. Some observers have posited that Macías Nguema may have been a psychopath, a disorder potentially enabled, in part, by reported childhood psychological trauma, and that his behaviour could have been affected by other
possible mental illnesses, as well as his reported periodic use of drugs. Journalist Paul Kenyon described Macías Nguema as "dangerously mentally ill".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_Mac%C3%ADas_Nguema

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