History

• Pre History

  The oldest prehistoric artifacts discovered in Gabon are Stone Age tools, such as rock spearheads. This suggests the presence of life from as early as the 7000 BC. However, very little is known about the country’s ancient inhabitants. 

  The earliest inhabitants of the area were Pygmy peoples. They were largely replaced and absorbed by Bantu tribes as they migrated. Bantu peoples began to migrate to what is now Gabon from Cameroon and eastern Nigeria at least 2,000 years ago. The Myene people arrived in Gabon in the 13th century, mainly establishing a fishing community near the coast. They were followed by the Bantu, which is one of the three main ethnic groups in Gabon today. The prevalent Fangs did not arrive until the 16th century (Loango Empire). The groups were separated from each other by dense forests.

  European Contacts

  Gabon’s first confirmed European visitors were Portuguese explorers and traders who arrived in the late 15th century. The Portuguese settled on the offshore islands of São Tomé, Príncipe, and Fernando Pó, but were regular visitors to the coast. The Portuguese sighted the coast as early as 1470 and gave Gabon its name because the shape of the Rio de Como estuary reminded them of a “gabao,” a Portuguese hooded cloak. They named the Gabon region after the Portuguese word gabão — a coat with sleeve and hood resembling the shape of the Komo River estuary. The coast became a center of the slave trade.

  The Portuguese founded permanent outposts, notably at the mouth of the Ogooué River, and their missionaries followed shortly. After the Portuguese, the region was visited by the English, Dutch, and French. During the 17th century, the great French trading companies entered the slave trade. French Jesuit missionaries were active along the coast during this period, and their influence eventually extended to the powerful native kingdoms inland. Some Portuguese adventurers established themselves as rulers of areas in Gabon. One such was Ogandaga é Butu, son of a Portuguese father and a Gabonese mother. He ruled some islands along the coast, which are still controlled by his descendant Mbourou Eranga Yanelle Prunella.

• The Kingdom Orungu

  By the 18th century, a Myeni speaking kingdom known as Orungu formed in Gabon. The Kingdom of Orungu (c. 1700–1927)  was a small, pre-colonial state of what is now Gabon in Central Africa. Through its control of the slave trade in the 18th and 19th centuries, it was able to become the most powerful of the trading centers that developed in Gabon during that period.

  The Kingdom of Orungu is named for its founders, the Orungu, a Myènè speaking people of unknown origin. Most scholars believe they migrated into the Ogooué River delta in the early 17th century from the south. This is further backed up by the fact that the Orungu seemed to have been heavily influenced by the Kingdom of Loango or at very least its BaVili traders. During this period of migration, the Orungu drove another Myènè speaking people, the Mpongwe, toward the Gabon Estuary in an effort to dominate trade with Europeans. The scheme was successful, and a prosperous kingdom emerged at Cape Lopez.

  The Orungu Kingdom was made up of some 20 clans. One of these clans held the line to succession as king, while the others exercised control over maritime commerce coming from the interior. The kingdom was unique in an area where the basic political unit was a clan ruling a village via a kind of collective leadership. The Orungu cast this aside for a single monarch, which their tradition maintains was descended from a legendary figure called the Mani Pongo The titles of the kingdom’s political offices were adopted from the kingdom of Loango as well as a sense of clan hierarchy. These institutions likely moved with the Orungu from the Chilongo district in Loango. The king’s title, Agamwinboni, seems to have its origin among the Orungu themselves and does not borrow from the “mani” prefix attached to kingdoms like Loango and Kongo.

  The Orungu people held strongly to their traditional beliefs and were hostile to European missionaries. As a result, few gained western educations thus limiting their influence in colonial administration or post-colonial politics of Gabon. Today the Orungu is one of Gabon’s smaller ethnic groups numbering around 10,000 people. The fall of the Orungu Kingdom was directly tied to the fall of the slave trade. The king had become dependent on it and was unable to maintain the custom of royal patronage without it. This caused the kingdom to disintegrate and in 1873, King Ntchengué signed a treaty granting the French a post on Orungu territory. In 1927, the French had colonized the remnants of the kingdom.

• Colonial France

  It was not until 1839 that the French established the first long-term European settlement in the territory and Gabon became part of French Equatorial Africa, together with Cameroon, DRC, Central African Republic, and Chad. Gabon remained a French Overseas Territory until it declared independence in 1960.

  The abolition of the slave trade by France in 1815 ruined many merchants but did not end French interest in the Gabon coast. French vessels were entrusted to prevent the illegal slave trade, and the search for new products for trade led to French occupation of the coastal ports. In 1839, the French concluded a treaty with Denis, the African king whose authority extended over the northern Gabon coast, by which the kingdom was ceded to France in return for French protection. A similar treaty gained France much of the southern coast below the Ogooué, and gradually other coastal chiefs accepted French control. The present capital, Libreville (“place of freedom”), was founded in 1849 by slaves who had been freed from a contraband slave runner.

  French explorers gradually penetrated the interior after 1847. During 1855–59, Paul du Chaillu went up the Ogooué River, where he became the first European to see a live gorilla. He was followed by the Marquis de Compiègne, Alfred Marche, and other explorers, who mapped out its tributaries. Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza explored almost the entire course of the river during 1876–78. In 1880, he founded Franceville. In 1885, the Congress of Berlin recognized French rights over the right bank of the Congo, an area that Brazza had explored extensively. In 1890, Gabon formally became a part of French Congo. It was separated into a district administrative region in 1903 and in 1910 was organized as a separate colony, part of French Equatorial Africa. In 1940, Free French forces ousted the Vichy government from Gabon.

  Léon Mba and Jean-Hilaire Aubame were the early leaders of the independence movement in Gabon, but their political inclinations were different. Mba led the Gabon Democratic Bloc; Aubame led the Gabonese branch of the Party of African Reunion. The latter actively sought the formation of federal, supranational groupings in Africa, whereas the former was strongly opposed to such associations. Underlying the attitude of Mba was the belief that Gabon, having the richest economic potential in the region, would end up supporting its poorer neighbors in any federal system.

• Independent Gabon

  In the period between the two world wars, a pro-French but anticolonialist elite was created, mainly from the graduates of the boys’ schools of the Brothers of Saint-Gabriel at Libreville and Lambaréné. From their ranks came most of the politicians who held office during the Fourth French Republic (1946–58), when Gabon became an overseas territory with its own assembly and representation in the French Parliament. During this era, France considerably expanded public investment in the economy, healthcare, and education.

  In a referendum on 28 September 1958, the territory of Gabon voted to become an autonomous republic within the French Community. On 19 February 1959, a constitution was adopted, and a provisional government headed by Mba became the first official government of Gabon. Independence was formally proclaimed on 17 August 1960.

  At the time of Gabon’s independence in 1960, two principal political parties existed: the Gabonese Democratic Bloc (BDG), led by Léon M’Ba, and the Gabonese Democratic and Social Union (UDSG), led by Jean-Hilaire Aubame. In the first post-independence election, held under a parliamentary system, neither party was able to win a majority. The BDG obtained support from three of the four independent legislative deputies, and M’Ba was named Prime Minister. Soon after concluding that Gabon had an insufficient number of people for a two-party system, the two party leaders agreed on a single list of candidates. In the February 1961 election, held under the new presidential system, M’Ba became President and Aubame became foreign minister.

  This one-party system appeared to work until February 1963, when the larger BDG element forced the UDSG members to choose between a merger of the parties or resignation. The UDSG cabinet ministers resigned, and M’Ba called an election for February 1964 and a reduced number of National Assembly deputies. The UDSG failed to muster a list of candidates able to meet the requirements of the electoral decrees. When the BDG appeared likely to win the election by default, the Gabonese military toppled M’Ba in a bloodless coup on 18 February 1964. 

  French troops re-established his government the next day. Elections were held in April 1964 with many opposition participants. BDG-supported candidates won 31 seats and the opposition 16. Late in 1966, the constitution was revised to provide for automatic succession of the vice president should the president die in office. In March 1967, Leon M’Ba and Omar Bongo (then known as Albert Bongo) were elected President and Vice President, with the BDG winning all 47 seats in the National Assembly. M’Ba died later that year, and Omar Bongo became president.

• Modern-day Gabon

  In March 1968, Bongo declared Gabon a one-party state by dissolving the BDG and establishing a new party: the Gabonese Democratic Party (Parti Démocratique Gabonais) (PDG). He invited all Gabonese, regardless of previous political affiliation, to participate. Bongo was elected president in February 1975; in April 1975, the office of vice president was abolished and replaced by the office of prime minister, who had no right to automatic succession. Bongo was re-elected president in December 1979 and November 1986 to seven-year terms. Using the PDG as a tool to submerge the regional and tribal rivalries that divided Gabonese politics in the past, Bongo sought to forge a single national movement in support of the government’s development policies.

  After the restoration of a multiparty democracy, Bongo was reelected in 1993 and 1998, although both elections were clouded with allegations of fraud. A constitutional amendment passed in 2003 removed presidential term limits and allowed Bongo to stand in the 2005 election, which he also won. In general, the PDG was equally successful during the 1990s and 2000s in legislative and most local elections. However, the PDG’s overall grip on power was briefly threatened by popular dissatisfaction following the December 1993 presidential election and a subsequent 50 percent devaluation of the currency in January 1994, which sparked protests in several cities, during which three dozen people were killed and scores injured. After the demonstrations were suppressed, the government granted modest salary increases and placed controls on soaring prices of largely imported basic commodities.

  On June 8, 2009, President Omar Bongo died of cardiac arrest at a Spanish hospital in Barcelona, ushering in a new era in Gabonese politics. In accordance with the amended constitution, Rose Francine Rogombé, the President of the Senate, became Interim President on June 10, 2009. The first contested elections in Gabon’s history that did not include Omar Bongo as a candidate were held on August 30, 2009, with 18 candidates for president. The lead-up to the elections saw some isolated protests, but no significant disturbances. Omar Bongo’s son, ruling party leader Ali Bongo Ondimba, was formally declared the winner after a 3-week review by the Constitutional Court; his inauguration took place on October 16, 2009.

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