Gabon Past
Research carried out during the last 15 years in Gabon has shown hunter-gatherers were living in the country since at least 100,000 years ago. Since then, all the areas of Gabon were settled, though probably in small numbers not exceeding 2,000 people during the Middle Stone Age and 26,000 people during the Late Stone Age. Archaeological research has shown villages to be settled in the forest since at least 800-400 BC.
During the last seven centuries, Bantu ethnic groups arrived in the area from several directions to escape enemies or to find new land. Pygmies preceded the Bantus. Little is known of tribal life before European contact, but tribal art suggests a rich cultural heritage. There are at least 40 tribal groups with separate languages and cultures. The largest is the Fang. Others include the Myene, Bandjabi, Eshira, Bapounou, Bateke/Obamba, Okande and Pygmy.
The Fang were fine warriors and hunters, with a reputation for cannibalism. Under colonial rule they engaged in ivory trading. The Fang kinship system is strongly patrilineal, with large, patriarchal families and exogamic clans traced through the male line. Since 1945 there has been a rapid growth of syncretistic sects combining animistic and Christian beliefs with a cargo-cult element. Most of their wood carving and once-reputed work in iron and steatite have disappeared under Western influence.
Gabon's first European visitors were Portuguese traders who arrived in the 15th century and named the country after the Portuguese word gabao--a coat with sleeve and hood resembling the shape of the Como River estuary. The coast became a center of the slave trade. Dutch, British, and French traders came in the 16th century. France assumed the status of protector by signing treaties with Gabonese coastal chiefs in 1839 and 1841. American missionaries from New England established a mission at Baraka (Libreville) in 1842. In 1849, the French captured a slave ship and released the passengers at the mouth of the Como River. The slaves named their settlement Libreville meaning "free town." French explorers had penetrated Gabon's dense jungles by 1887. The most famous explorer--Savorgnan de Brazza--used Gabonese bearers and guides in his searches for the headwaters of the Congo River.
France occupied Gabon in 1885 but did not administer it until 1903. In 1910, Gabon became one of the four territories of French Equatorial Africa, a federation that survived until 1959.
The territories of French Equatorial Africa became independent in 1960 as the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), and Gabon. French is the official language. More French nationals live in Gabon today than in colonial times.
In 1912, Albert Schweitzer, theologian and physician, set off for Gabon, eventually setting up a hospital in Lambaréné. The original hospital operated out of a converted chicken coop, but over the years grew into a multi-complex health center. Schweitzer was to maintain close ties with the hospital until his death at 90. Some of his more radical moves included the relaxing of hygiene standards so that families of patients could prepare food on site for their relatives. Schweitzer eventually won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in Gabon.
Introduction
In mid-1963, Gabon’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean H. Aubume, sought financial aid from the United States. The US responded by suggesting to build primary schools throughout Gabon using equipment and materials provided by United States Agency for International Development and manpower from the Peace Corps.
Jean Aubume was designated by the French to be the first president of Gabon until he criticized the French in a pre-independence speech. The French, apparently under orders from Jacque Foccart (a close friend of De Gaulle, and leader of a super-secret, private, French-African intelligence network) then selected Leon Mba to be the "Father of Gabon". Both Aubume and Mba were Fang (Gabon's largest tribe) tribal leaders.
In actuality, the true "Father of Gabon" is Jacques Foccart (pictured on far right). It was Foccart who persuaded De Gaulle to break French Equatorial Africa into five smaller states and then offer them "independence". He recommended the same with French West Africa.
Foccart reportedly said to De Gaulle, "It will be much easier for France to control and dominate smaller African states than to maintain the two large states and compete with the Americans and others". Foccart’s most focused objective was to assure that Gabon remained tightly under French control since Gabon was the pearl of French Equatorial Africa.
Gabon would be easy to control. Population of less than one-half million (only a few with more than basic education), strong French presence throughout the country, lack of individual vehicles and poor road structure (help to discourage political debate).
At the time of Gabon's independence in 1960, two principal political parties existed: the Bloc Democratique Gabonais (BDG), led by Leon Mba; and the Union Democratique et Sociale Gabonaise (UDSG), led by J.H. Aubume. In the first post-independence election held under a parliamentary system, neither party won a majority. The BDG obtained support from three of the four independent legislators, and Mba was named Prime Minister. Soon after concluding that Gabon had an insufficient population for a two-party system, the two leaders agreed on a single list of candidates.
In the February 1961 election--held under the new presidential system--Mba became President and Aubume Foreign Minister. This one-party system functioned 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 Mba called for new elections for February 1964 for a reduced number of National Assembly representatives (46 instead of the previous 67). 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 elections by default, the Gabonese military moved against Mba in a bloodless coup on February 18, 1964. French troops reestablished his government the next day. Elections were held in April with many opposition participants. BDG-supported candidates won 31 seats and the opposition took 16.
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 Mba and Omar Bongo (then Albert Bernard Bongo) were elected President and Vice President, respectively. Mba died later that year after a long illness and Omar Bongo succeeded him as President. In March 1968, he declared Gabon a one-party state, dissolving the BDG and establishing a new party--the Parti Democratique Gabonais (PDG). He invited all Gabonese, regardless of previous political affiliation, to participate.
French Influence on Gabon, BBC Audio Report (40 minutes)
From 1968 to 1990 Gabon had a one-party political system, which gave executive power to a president elected on an unopposed ballet. Since 1967, the country's leading political figure has been President Omar Bongo. He ruled a one-party state for more than 26 years and then was elected president in the nation's first multiparty elections in 1993
Gabon depended on timber and manganese until oil was discovered offshore in the early 1970s. (The oil sector now accounts for 50% of GDP.) As much as $3 billion was spent in constructing a trans-Gabonese railway in the early 1970s, a project which the World Bank specifically refused to support. Serving principally for the export of manganese ore and uranium yellowcake, the line is generally underused and poorly maintained. Only in recent years has the government devoted substantial resources from foreign borrowing to improving and paving major highways.
Unrestrained spending, poor financial management, and embezzlement caused the government to run up extensive internal and external arrears during the 1980s. Gabon suspended payments due under an IMF agreement made in 1989. In 1992, the fiscal deficit widened to 2.4% of GDP, and Gabon failed to settle arrears on its bilateral debt, leading to a cancellation of rescheduling agreements with official and private creditors.
After the CFA Franc Zone presidents agreed in January 1994 to devalue their currency against the French franc by 50%, Gabon concluded a one-year standby agreement with the IMF and received a Paris Club rescheduling. Gabon met the primary conditions of restraining rises in public wages and drawing up plans for privatization of leading parastatal corporations.
Using the PDG as a tool to submerge the regional and tribal rivalries that have divided Gabonese politics in the past, Bongo sought to forge a single national movement in support of the government's development politics. Opposition to the PDG continued, however, and in September 1990, two coup attempts were uncovered and aborted.
Economic discontent and the desire for political liberalization resulted in violent demonstrations and strikes by students and workers in early 1990. In the spring of 1990, Bongo convened a national conference attended by the PDG and 74 other political groupings. The conference approved sweeping political reforms to set up multi-party democracy, guaranteed by a redrafted constitution with a basic bill of rights to be enforced by an independent judiciary. The first multi-party National Assembly elections in nearly 30 years took place in September-October 1990.
Among the provisions of the 1990 constitution are a Western-style bill of rights and the creation of a National Council of Democracy to oversee the guarantee of those rights, a council advising on economic and social issues, and an independent judiciary. The new constitution was adopted in March 1991 following multi-party legislative elections.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in April 1993, demanding the installation of running water and electricity and the paving of roads. On Dec. 5, 1993, Gabon finally held its first multiparty elections. Bongo was returned by 51 percent of the vote, but opposition leader Paul Mba Abessole claimed victory, saying the election was disorganized, and he formed a rival government. Civil unrest, demonstrations, and violent repression of dissent followed over a period of several months.
In 1994, the National Assembly amended the constitution to provide for the creation of a Senate upon renewal of the legislature in 1996. The president retains strong powers including authority to dissolve the National Assembly, declare a state of siege, delay legislation, submit proposals for vote by referendum, and appoint and dismiss the prime minister and cabinet members.
Gabon continues to face fluctuating prices for its oil, timber, manganese, and uranium exports despite an abundance of natural wealth, the economy is hobbled by poor fiscal management. Devaluation of its CFA currency by 50% on 12 January 1994 sparked a one-time inflationary surge, to 35%; the rate dropped to 6% in 1996. The IMF provided a one-year standby arrangement in 1994-95 and a three-year Enhanced Financing Facility (EFF) at near commercial rates beginning in late 1995. Those agreements mandate progress in privatization and fiscal discipline. France provided additional financial support in January 1997 after Gabon had met IMF targets for mid-1996.
Majority and opposition representatives eventually negotiated the "Paris Accords" of October 1994 which set guidelines for a more transparent electoral process and for various reforms of government institutions. Elections for local and provincial councils, the National Assembly, and the Senate were to be administered in 1996 by a newly established independent National Election Commission.
The 1996 and 1997 legislative and municipal elections provided the background for renewed partisan politics. The PDG won a landslide victory in the legislative election, but several major cities, including Libreville, elected opposition mayors during the 1997 local election. President Bongo coasted to an easy re-election in December 1998 with 66% of the vote against a divided opposition. While Bongo's major opponents rejected the outcome as fraudulent, international observers characterized the result as representative even if the election suffered from serious administrative problems. There was no serious civil disorder or protests following the election in contrast to the 1993 election.
In 1997, an IMF mission to Gabon criticized the government for overspending on off-budget items, over-borrowing from the central bank, and slipping on its schedule for privatization and administrative reform.
At the request of the Gabonese government, a 3-year International Monetary Fund (IMF) Extended Financing Facility, due to expire in 1998, was extended to March 1999 to allow for revised discussions on the macroeconomic framework with the IMF in early 1999.
The rebound of oil prices in 1999 helped growth, but drops in production hampered Gabon from fully realizing potential gains.
