1968 — Equatorial Guinea Gains Independence

On October 12, 1968, after nearly two centuries of Spanish rule, the colony of Spanish Guinea became a free nation. In Malabo, Francisco Macias Nguema was sworn in as the first president of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa. The celebration, however, was short-lived, and that freedom would not last in the form its people had hoped for.

Within months, Macias turned on his own people, building one of the most brutal dictatorships the continent has known. A third of the population would die or flee into exile. Yet October 12 remains the day a small nation of islands and rainforest first tasted independence, however briefly.