Macau, China, Oct. 28, 2024 (Lusa) - The deep economic crisis in Equatorial Guinea has left the population living in fear of famine, warns musician Negro Bey, who blames corruption for the squandering of oil revenues and accuses the West of hypocrisy.
The discovery of offshore oil reserves by US companies in 1996 made Equatorial Guinea one of the countries with the highest per capita income in Africa.
However, this discovery has not translated into greater well-being for the country's population, which in 2023 ranked 145th out of 191 states in the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Index.
‘How is it that in a place that benefits from this level of wealth, you can see people dying of hunger every day?’ he lamented in an interview with Lusa Negro Bey, who describes himself as a “rapper” challenging the regime.
‘Sometimes I'm asked: ‘Aren't you afraid’? The fear I have most is that there won't be rice, there won't be milk for the babies, there won't be light in the houses, there won't be drinking water, and that's a fear in [Equatorial] Guinea,’ said the 40-year-old musician, who spoke to Lusa in Macau.
At the end of July, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema acknowledged that Equatorial Guinea is experiencing an ‘unprecedented economic crisis’ and promised ‘drastic measures to avoid the possible collapse of the economy’, since ‘reserves are exhausted’.
Negro Bey recalled that back in 2016, he had asked, in the song ‘Carta Al Presidente’ (‘Letter to the President’): ‘What will become of our people when oil runs out in the future?’.
The rapper said that his songs ‘speak only, and without hesitation, of what everyone already knows, but nobody says, that many in the public administration steal’.
According to a report released in January, Equatorial Guinea is considered the third most corrupt nation on the African continent, dropping one place to 172nd out of 180 in the Corruption Perception Index.
In August, one of the President's sons, Ruslan Obiang Nsue, went on trial accused of illegally selling an aeroplane belonging to Equatorial Guinea's state airline and risks an 18-year prison sentence.
Nsue has been under house arrest since January 2023 on the orders of his half-brother, Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, known as ‘Teodorin’.
In July 2021, the French courts sentenced Teodorin to a three-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 30 million euros for embezzling public funds.
Negro Bey also accused the West of hypocrisy, pointing out that it continues to do business with the African dictatorships it criticises.
‘But they don't care because they take what they want, leave and don't care what they do with the rest. And then they say it's not your fault,’ said the musician.
Negro Bey spoke to Lusa in the Chinese region of Macau, where he gave two concerts as part of the 16th Cultural Week of China and Portuguese-speaking Countries, organised by Forum Macau.
Equatorial Guinea has been a member of the Forum for Economic and Trade Cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) since 2022, a community it has also been a part of since 2014 VQ/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
