Obi's Nightmare

Obi is the world’s longest serving dictator, Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. Obi’s Nightmare is just that, a comic about Obi’s worst day ever.

What would be the worst possible thing that could happen to Obi? Would it be for his heir apparent son’s $50 million collection of supercars to be seized by French authorities? What if the country’s vast oil reserves were to dry up, or what if he was forced to share power? Would it be the results of a truly democratic election, or the worsening of his already fragile health?

No, answer the pseudonymous authors of the first ever Equatoguinean graphic novel. The worst possible thing that could happen to President Obiang would be to endure the life of an average Guinean citizen. Welcome to Obi’s Nightmare, the riches-to-rags tale of Obiang’s living out a single ordinary day as an ordinary Guinean, in a country ravaged by poverty and squalid living conditions for all but a very select few of Obi’s former associates, despite boasting the continent’s highest GDP.

This no-hold-barred comic dares its readers to laugh at the man who has declared himself above both international law and common decency, by taking a comical but critical look at the everyday life of the average Guinean. Working together with EG Justice, Phoneme produced the Spanish-language original version of La Pesadilla de Obi, which has been smuggled into Equatorial Guinea to challenge the dictatorship and promote democracy.