◼ POLITICS Bloomberg Businessweek June 17, 2019
Development,wouldhavebeenmorethanenough
toeradicatethecountry’spoverty. Teodorin hasn’t
commented on either case, but his defense appealed
the French court ruling, saying he amassed his for-
tune legally and has immunity as vice president.
Teodorin is in charge of national security. Under
his watch, arbitrary detention, torture, and the kill-
ing of dissidents have earned the regime a human-
rights record comparable to that of Syria and North
Korea in the latest ranking by U.S.-based think tank
Freedom House. Teodorin’s half-brother Obiang
Lima, the oil minister, dismisses accusations of
rights violations and torture as “fake news” spread
by international organizations.
Any local dissent, however, is muted. Only 10
public protests were recorded in Equatorial Guinea
from 1997 through April of this year, according to
Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project,
a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization that
tracks political unrest. Part of the reason for damp-
ened dissent is the conscious underfunding of edu-
cation by the regime. Activists’ ability to mobilize is
limited by the cost of mobile internet access in the
country, which is the highest in the world: 1GB of
monthly broadband data costs $34.80, well above
the $6.96 charged in neighboring Gabon and 73¢ in
India, according to data compiled by the Alliance
forAffordableInternet.
“Terrorandfearhastaughtour peopleto
swallow their rage,” says Moises Enguru, a pastor
and rights activist. “Our generation inherited a use-
lesscountry.Theregimehaskilledourworking
culture,education,andmorals.”A groupofyoung
writersandartistsis strugglinginsecrettonurture
a generationofactivistswhocanmoreeffectively
challengetheregime.“Weneedtoeducatecritical
minds who can lead the movement,” says one of
the organizers who spoke on condition of anonym-
ity for fear of reprisal. “Change is inevitable, but it
may take a while.”
One of the few people to openly criticize the
regime is Mariano Ebana Edu, a rapper whose
2013 hit, A Letter to the President, called for equal
rights and potable water. On a recent evening,
with the music in his jeep blaring, Edu drives
through the streets of a slum called Santa Maria.
He passes women with buckets on their head lin-
ing up to get water from communal taps. Moments
later, he’s in the upscale Paraiso neighborhood,
where high white walls topped by barbed wire▼ A ferry leaving the
capital of Malabo● Equatorial Guinea