Gabon

Overview

Gabon is an equatorial republic on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, about 268,000 km² of mostly rainforest (nearly 90% forest cover) with a small population of roughly 2.5 million, over 40 ethnic groups (Fang the largest), French as the official language, and Christianity practised by about 80% of the population. The name comes from the Portuguese "gabão" (hooded cloak), applied to the Komo River estuary.

History

Its earliest inhabitants were rainforest hunter-gatherers (Bambenga); Bantu migrants settled from the 13th century BCE, and by the 18th century the Myènè-speaking Kingdom of Orungu had become a maritime trading power dealing in ivory and, increasingly, slaves. Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza led France's first mission in 1875; France occupied the territory in 1885, and Gabon became part of French Equatorial Africa in 1910, ruled under the indigénat system with heavy taxation and forced labour (corvée). In 1940 Free French forces seized the colony from the Vichy administration. Gabon became an autonomous republic in November 1958 and independent on 17 August 1960.

Léon M'ba, elected president in 1961, moved toward one-party rule; a 1964 army coup was reversed within 24 hours by French paratroopers. When M'ba died in 1967, Omar Bongo succeeded him, declared a one-party state under the PDG in 1968, and ruled for 42 years through the clientelist Françafrique network, navigating limited multiparty reforms after 1990. His son Ali Bongo won disputed elections in 2009 and 2016. On 30 August 2023, minutes after Ali Bongo was declared winner of a third term, officers led by General Brice Oligui Nguema staged a coup, ending the Bongo family's 55-year hold on power. A new constitution passed by referendum in November 2024, and Nguema won the April 2025 presidential election with over 90% of the vote.

Later history and present status

Oil and manganese make Gabon one of Africa's wealthiest countries per capita, yet wealth is skewed — about a third of the population lives in poverty. Gabon joined the Commonwealth in 2022 and is a leader in forest conservation, having received the first African payments for reducing deforestation in 2021.