Website:
_______________________________________________________
The 9th Biennial Leon H. Sullivan Summit is the premiere event on the continent of Africa bringing together government and corporate communities for the benefit of the African people.
The Sullivan Summits are organized by The Leon H. Sullivan Foundation and held biennially in an African nation to highlight key issues and best practices, stimulate discussion, define opportunities, promote private enterprise and foster high-level strategic partnerships.
The Biennial Leon H. Sullivan Summit is the embodiment of Leon Howard Sullivan’s dream to re-connect the nations and people of Africa with a displaced Diaspora spread out across the world.
Summit IX will continue past traditions and create an atmosphere of open dialogue about the state of human rights and the interconnected issues of modern Africa. The Summit, by creating unprecedented & open dialogue and building upon the Global Sullivan Principles, seeks to define the opportunities for both growth and continuous improvement in the quality of life for all Africans. While the economies of Africa grow and evolve, the corporations and government institutions involved must develop responsible strategies to involve the citizenry in its benefits, increase the quality of life and guarantee access to human rights that foster self-empowerment.
The Leon H. Sullivan Summit is the first internationally recognized Summit of world leaders, convened on African soil, by a non-governmental private foundation.
________________________________________________________
Video: 2010 Leon H. Sullivan Summit in Africa
_________________________________________________________
Video: 2009 Leon H. Sullivan Summit in Africa
____________________________________________________________________________
Video: Leon H. Sullivan
_________________________________________________________
Video: Hope Masters is President and CEO of the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation
__________________________________________
________________________________________________
Equatorial Guinea is the third-largest producer of crude oil in Sub-Saharan Africa, after Nigeria and Angola.
The country’s oil reserves are located mainly in the hydrocarbon-rich Gulf of Guinea. Equatorial Guinea’s total proven oil reserves are estimated at 1.1 billion barrels.
Administrative divisions: 7 provinces (provincias, singular – provincia); Annobon, Bioko Norte, Bioko Sur, Centro Sur, Kie-Ntem, Litoral, Wele-Nzas
______________________________________________
_________________________________________________
______________________________________
____________________________________________
The first inhabitants of the region that is now Equatorial Guinea are believed to have been Pygmies, of whom only isolated pockets remain in northern Rio Muni. Bantu migrations between the 17th and 19th centuries brought the coastal tribes and later the Fang. Elements of the latter may have generated the Bubi, who immigrated to Bioko from Cameroon and Rio Muni in several waves and succeeded former Neolithic populations.
On August 3, 1979 Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo led a successful coup d’etat; Macias was arrested, tried, and executed. Obiang assumed the presidency in October 1979. Obiang initially ruled Equatorial Guinea with the assistance of a Supreme Military Council. A new constitution, drafted in 1982 with the help of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, came into effect after a popular vote on August 15, 1982; the Council was abolished, and Obiang remained in the presidency for a 7-year term. He was reelected in 1989.
A new constitution was approved in 1991 and amended in 1995. One-party rule formally ended in 1991 and political activities in Equatorial Guinea were legalized, but the opposition had few electoral successes in the 1990s. In September 1995, the country had its first freely contested municipal elections. Most observers agree that the elections themselves were relatively free and transparent and that the opposition parties garnered between two-thirds and three-quarters of the total vote. The government, however, delayed announcement of the results and then claimed a highly dubious 52% victory overall and the capture of 19 of 27 municipal councils.
In early January 1996 Obiang called for presidential elections. International observers agreed that the campaign was marred by fraud, and most of the opposition candidates withdrew in the final week. Obiang claimed re-election with 98% of the vote. In an attempt to mollify his critics, Obiang gave minor portfolios in his cabinet to people identified as opposition figures. In the legislative election in March 1999, the party increased its majority in the 80-seat parliament from 68 to 75. The main opposition parties refused the seats they had allegedly won. By early 2000, the President’s Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) party fully dominated government at all levels. In May 2000, the ruling PDGE overwhelmed its rivals in local elections.
Opposition parties rejected as invalid the December 2002 presidential election, which they boycotted. President Obiang was re-elected with 97% of the vote. Reportedly, 95% of eligible voters voted in this election, although many observers noted numerous irregularities. Following his re-election Obiang formed a government based on national unity encompassing all opposition parties, except for the Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS), which declined to join after Obiang refused to release one of their jailed leaders. In the April 2004 parliamentary and municipal elections President Obiang’s Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea and allied parties won 98 of 100 seats in parliament and all but seven of 244 municipal posts. International observers criticized both the election and its results.
The May 4, 2008 legislative elections resulted in an overwhelming victory for the PDGE. Ninety-nine of the 100 seats in the assembly went to the PDGE while the Convergence for Social Democracy only received one. Results were similar in the municipal elections held the same day, granting PDGE 319 councilor seats while CPDS only gained 13. Some international election observers reported that the elections were generally conducted in a free and fair manner. Nevertheless, irregularities were reported, which included the barring of certain members of the international press. In November 2009, President Obiang won a new 7-year mandate with 95.4% of the vote in an election that was not boycotted by the opposition. The main opposition leader won 3.6% of the vote. He stated that he viewed the elections as neither fair nor free, but with the approval of the executive committee of his party, did not formally object to the election results.
Source: U.S. State Department
Dilemma X 
July 13, 2012
Africa, International, World culture/events