Vibrant music from Equatorial Guinea. 12 tracks, 54:47mins, SPAIN.

Investigates the paradox at the heart of present-day Gulf of Guinea politics. The governance crisis festering throughout every one of the region's states ought to discourage outsiders from capital-intensive, long-term commercial involvement and cast doubts over the political survival of ruling cliques. However, the presence of large petroleum deposits radically changes this equation: the negative dynamics of state failure affect the general population but spare the oil nexus. The material and political resources made available by oil allow states to survive regardless of bad policies, facilitate their governing elites' material success regardless of reckless management, earn international allies regardless of erratic domestic conduct, and make companies want to invest regardless of risk. The recent oil boom only strengthens this paradoxical viability. Index, bib, 379pp, UK. HURST & CO.

A thorough survey of all aspects of Equatorial Guinea. Bibliography, index. Maps, 216pp, USA. 0389208612

Selected as one of the six best non-fiction books of 1990 by the New York Times Book Review, this is a compelling and entertasining account of the author's two-and-a-half year adventure in Equatorial Guinea, and his efforts to get this small bankrupt African nation on the path of structural development. xiv, 281pp. index. USA, BASIC BOOKS.

On 7 March 2004, Zimbabwean police impounded a plane which flew in from South Africa with 64 alleged mercenaries on board. The group, led by Nick Du Toit and former SAS member Simon Mann, were planning a coup in Equatorial Guinea. Within a few days of the failed takeover, Du Toit appeared on TV and admitted everything, almost certainly after torture. Investigators soon found that the plot was funded not by oil tycoons but by celebrity investors. Several names were put forward, including Sir Mark Thatcher and Jeffrey Archer. The target of the coup was Obiang Nguema, the president of Equatorial Guinea and one of the last relics of old-fashioned tyranny in Africa. But the plotters were not campaign-ing for democracy. Equatorial Guinea is Africa’s third largest producer of oil, and the coup plotters wanted a share of these oil billions. 256pp, UK. PROFILE BOOKS.