Pope Leo XIV heads Tuesday to Equatorial Guinea for the final leg of his four-nation African journey, arriving in a country where Africa’s longest-serving president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, has held power since 1979. The former Spanish colony on Africa’s western coast is accused of widespread corruption and authoritarianism, while more than half of its nearly 2 million people live in poverty even as oil revenues have enriched the ruling Obiang family.
Who Holds the Levers
Equatorial Guinea’s political order is built around one man and one family. Obiang, 83, has been in power for 47 years, and the country is described as presenting perhaps the most diplomatically delicate challenge of Leo’s trip and his young papacy. The discovery of offshore oil in the mid-1990s transformed the economy virtually overnight, with oil now accounting for almost half of GDP and more than 90% of exports, according to the African Development Bank. Yet the wealth has not flowed downward. Rights groups including Human Rights Watch, as well as court cases in France and Spain, have documented how revenues have enriched the ruling Obiang family rather than the broader population.
The hierarchy is plain in the numbers: a country sitting on oil wealth, with more than half of its nearly 2 million people in poverty, and a ruling circle accused of capturing the gains. That is the backdrop for Leo’s visit, which comes as the church’s teaching on social inequity and corruption is being pushed into a setting where power and money are tightly fused.
What People Live With
The government faces rampant accusations of harassment, arrest and intimidation of political opponents, critics and journalists. Equatorial Guinea has consistently ranked among the bottom 10 countries in Transparency International’s annual corruption perception index. The state has taken some steps to improve the situation, said Transparency International’s regional advisor for Africa, Samuel Kaninda, including passing an anti-corruption law and working to fund an anti-corruption commission. But Kaninda said the commission must be truly independent to investigate and the judiciary must be independent as well.
That is the familiar reform trap: laws and commissions on paper, while the machinery that is supposed to enforce them remains inside the same power structure. Kaninda said he hoped the pope’s visit would draw attention to such shortcomings and give the people of Equatorial Guinea hope. He said, “The risk is there, but at the same time, we see more of the opportunity to shed more light on a lot more that is happening there.”
Church, State, and the Managed Order
Equatorial Guinea is officially a secular country, but the Catholic Church is at the center of its political and social systems. Tutu Alicante, a U.S.-based activist who runs the EG Justice rights group, said church leaders “are very much interconnected intrinsically with the government.” He said, “Part of it is the fear the government has instilled in everyone, including the church, and part of it is the monetary gains that the church derives from this government.”
The Rev. Fortunatus Nwachukwu, No. 2 in the Vatican’s missionary evangelization office, said the Catholic Church is present in difficult civil spaces and knows how to operate in them to carry out its mission. “Should the church go to war against the government? Surely no,” Nwatchukwu said. “Should the church swallow everything as if it were normal? No. The church has to continue preaching justice, always in defense of life, human dignity and the common good.”
Leo has already shown he won’t mince words on this maiden African journey as pope. In Cameroon last week, he met with President Paul Biya, at 93 the world’s oldest leader. Biya has been in power since 1982 and, like Obiang, is accused of presiding over an authoritarian government. In his arrival speech in the presidential palace, Leo said: “In order for peace and justice to prevail, the chains of corruption — which disfigure authority and strip it of its credibility — must be broken,” and “Hearts must be set free from an idolatrous thirst for profit.”
A Visit Staged Above the Ground
Leo’s schedule in Equatorial Guinea is packed with the rituals of high office. He arrives and meets with Obiang, then delivers two sets of remarks: a speech to government authorities and diplomats, and another speech at the national university. In addition to celebrating Masses, he will visit a psychiatric hospital and a prison and will meet with young people and their families. Before leaving Thursday, he will pray at a memorial to victims of a 2021 blast at a military barracks in Bata that killed more than 100 people. The explosions were blamed on the negligent handling of dynamite in a barracks close to residential areas.
At the very least, the first papal visit since St. John Paul II came in 1982 is also bringing a small burst of business for seamstress Tumi Carine, who makes dresses with fabric stamped with Leo’s image. Carine said, “The coming of the pope brought us many customers,” and “We are really grateful for the coming of the pope, so, we are really happy.”