The Wonga Coup: Guns, Thugs, and a Ruthless Determination to Create Mayhem in an Oil-Rich Corner of Africa

Roberts, Adam

ISBN 10: 1586485008 / ISBN 13: 9781586485009

Editore: PublicAffairs, 2007

Pages are clean and are not marred by notes or folds of any kind. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Codice articolo G1586485008I2N00

Riassunto:

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, billiondollar 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.

Informazioni sugli autori:

Adam Roberts is a staff correspondent of The Economist. For four years he was the publication's Johannesburg bureau chief, reporting from Madagascar, Congo, South Africa, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone and—illegally—from Zimbabwe, as well as from many corners in between. He has also reported from South- East Asia, the Balkans, Europe and the United States. A former student of international politics at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, he is now based in London.

Adam Roberts spent six years in India as the Economist's South East Asia correspondent based in Delhi. Previously the Southern Africa correspondent in Johannesburg and the News Editor of Economist.com, he is now the European business and finance correspondent in Paris. He is the author of the Economist's special report on India and of The Wonga Coup (PublicAffairs 2006). Twitter: @ARobertsjourno

Dati bibliografici

Titolo: The Wonga Coup: Guns, Thugs, and a Ruthless ...
Casa editrice: PublicAffairs
Data di pubblicazione: 2007
Legatura: Paperback
Condizione: As New
Condizione sovraccoperta: No Jacket