The Wonga Coup: A Tale of Guns, Germs and the Steely Determination to Create Mayhem in an Oil-Rich Corner of Africa

by Adam Roberts Narrated by Simon Vance

Overview

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, traveling 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.
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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

The most terrifying thing about this chronicle of a failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea is that it's not a Graham Greene novel but a true story. Roberts, an Economist staffer, chronicles the plot by foreign mercenaries and merchants to topple the country's brutal dictatorship solely for the "wonga" (British slang for "money, usually a lot of it"). An irresistibly lurid tale is peopled with bellicose profiteers, particularly of the neocolonialist sort from Europe and South Africa, with long histories of investment in oil, diamonds and war-for-profit. Among these self-styled gentleman adventurers are Margaret Thatcher's son, Sir Mark Thatcher, and "rag-and-bone intelligence men" who linger in hotel bars, "picking up scraps of information... selling them on to willing buyers, whether corporate or government." The audacity of the coup's planners is almost admirable, though Roberts rightly chastises them for their oil-soaked greed. As he lifts the curtain to the backrooms of power in postcolonial Africa, the reader finds that not much has changed on the continent since 1618, when the "Company of Adventurers of London Trading to the Ports of Africa" became the first private company to colonize Africa for profit. (Aug.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

AUG/SEP 07 - AudioFile

Roberts chronicles a true-life plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea. The story is the stuff of novels—indeed, the plotters' inspiration was THE DOGS OF WAR by Frederick Forsyth. The attempted coup ends up involving the son of a British prime minister and an old-school English mercenary. The motivation for the plot is simple: oil. The story is convoluted, but Roberts and narrator Simon Vance play it out slowly, so it’s fairly easy to follow. Vance is solid as narrator, varying his pace to fit the mood of events in the story. He modulates his voice effectively, adding just the right note of incredulity to some of the outrageous actions by the plotters. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171181437
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	09/15/2006
Edition description:	Unabridged

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