Rodrigo Nkumu Saiz
Rodrigo Nkumu Saiz | |
|---|---|
 | |
| President for Life of the Democratic People's Republic of Formosa | |
| In office 1 August 1964 – 23 June 1993 | |
| Succeeded by | Fernan Balboa Awasom |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 4, 1917 Bata, Guinea Formosa |
| Died | 23 June 1993 (age 75) |
| Political party | FRELIFO |
| Spouse | At least four known |
| Children | 20+ |
Rodrigo Nkumu Saiz (4 May 1917 - 23 June 1993), often referred to mononymously as Nkumu, was President for Life of the Democratic People's Republic of Formosa from 1 August 1964 until his death. He is widely remembered as a dictator whose leadership coincided with both rapid economic growth and severe human rights abuses. Nkumu presided over a government considered one of the least free in the world.
A member of the Fang ethnic group, Nkumu held several positions under Iberian colonial rule before joining the military during the Iberian Civil War. He rose through the ranks as a prominent Colonel and aligned with the far-left FRELIFO party, ultimately rising to lead it through the Formosan Civil War. Nkumu's dictatorial rule led to severe persecutions of political opponents, while his economic policies transformed the country from a largely agrarian plantation economy to a petro-state. His policies towards ethnic and religious minorities, particularly Pygmy peoples and inland Muslims, are considered a genocide by the present Formosan government.
Early rule[edit | edit source]
Early in his rule, Nkumu consolidated power by arresting and executing various leadership rivals outside of FRELIFO and marginalizing opponents within the organization. In late 1964 he oversaw the execution of National Assembly Chairman Ahmadu Abubakari and 36 other Formosan Popular Front leaders captured during the Civil War. Abubakari was publicly decapitated and the remaining FPF members executed by firing squad over a brass band rendition of the FRELIFO anthem "Avance, Formosa." Thousands of accused "collaborators with colonial interests" were imprisoned for indefinite terms, many of them later executed in show trials. Numerous FPF officials fled Formosa during this period. When exiled FPF Foreign Minister Felipe Dantes was found in hiding in Gabán in 1966, Nkumu ordered him castrated, blinded and cut into pieces before mounting his head on a stake in front of the Presidio for a three-week period.
Nkumu rapidly centralized control of the Formosan economy by nationalizing foreign-owned assets and forcing foreign corporations to divest their resources and properties. Many of these assets would be farmed out to state enterprises helmed by Nkumu's closest confidants. In parallel, the FRELIFO government aggressively persecuted Fernandinos, whom it viewed as "race traitors" and "collaborators." The regime seized thousands of properties from Fernandino families, focusing in particular on well-to-do families. Most of these properties were distributed to key Nkumu supporters as estates and other high-value real estate holdings. Nkumu himself acquired no less than seven large properties from Fernandino landholders.
Upon nationalizing all of Formosa's port infrastructure, Nkumu diverted substantial funding to building up the oil sector in the Bight of Biafra. Oil resources would steadily increase as a share of the Formosan economy through the 1970s as the country shifted its economy from a plantation and cash-crop base to a petroleum-exporting model.
Conflict with Sanyan[edit | edit source]
Formosan oil interests in the Bight brought Nkumu's regime into conflict with the broader Niger delta region, most notably Sanyan. Nkumu viewed the island country contemptuously and saw it as a potential hotbed of anti-FRELIFO activity. The latter accusation is not entirely meritless, as many FPF members and other Formosan resisters chose Sanyan as a place of exile, and the island would contribute to the education and political consciousness of a number of future Formosan democratic reformers.
Nkumu's antipathy for Sanyan would peak in the Gulf of Guinea Crisis of 1976. The conflict was heavily driven by Nkumu's desire to curtail Sanyanian oil drilling in the Gulf and undercut the island's oil exports in favour of Formosa's own emerging petroleum industry. Despite heavily outnumbering Sanyan on paper, Formosa went into the conflict at a substantial technological and equipment disadvantage and failed to weaken Sanyan's defenses enough to make any sort of amphibious invasion feasible. The Soviet-mediated end to the conflict saw Nkumu spin the events to the public as a Formosan victory by dint of "securing our sea lanes against the Sanyanian menace." Privately, he would blame the Formosan Navy for failing to make any headway against Sanyan on the water. The nine highest-ranking Formosan naval officers were subsequently arrested, taken aboard Nkumu's personal yacht, put in chains affixed to blocks of concrete, then thrown into the Gulf of Guinea "to get more experience at sea." Over the next few years, Nkumu would systematically purge the Armada's officer corps and elevate loyalists to replace them.