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  • The Wonga Coup

  • Guns, Thugs, and the Steely Determination to Create Mayhem
  • Written by: Adam Roberts
  • Narrated by: Simon Vance
  • Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (2 ratings)

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The Wonga Coup cover art

The Wonga Coup

Written by: Adam Roberts
Narrated by: Simon Vance
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Publisher's Summary

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.

©2006 Adam Roberts (P)2006 Tantor Media, Inc.

What the critics say

"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." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about The Wonga Coup

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