Gabon

• 1. Introduction

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  Gabon owes its name to a hooded cloak. The Portuguese word gabao, also spelled Gabão, means exactly that. In the 1470s, Portuguese navigators reached the estuary of the Komo River, also called the Como. They decided its outline resembled such a garment, and they used the word for it. Over the centuries the name spread to the surrounding coast and finally to a whole nation in Central Africa.

  That nation has a stranger story than its name suggests. Why did a country with so much oil and ore keep so many of its people poor? How did one political party outlast challenge after challenge for decades? And what lies buried in rock that is billions of years old?

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• 2. Cloak and Colony

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  Long before any Portuguese ship appeared, the Bambenga lived in this forested land. From the 14th century, Bantu migrants began settling there. Over time they largely replaced and absorbed the earlier inhabitants.

  Around 1700 the Kingdom of Orungu took shape, a Myeni-speaking kingdom that served as a trading centre. Its merchants could buy and sell slaves, and its fortunes rose with that trade. When the slave trade ended in the 1870s, the kingdom fell with it.

  In 1875 the explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza led his first mission to the Gabon-Congo area. He founded the town of Franceville and later served as colonial governor. France officially occupied the territory in 1885, and some Bantu groups already lived there.

  In 1910 Gabon became a territory of French Equatorial Africa, a federation that lasted until 1958. During the Second World War, Allied forces invaded to overthrow a colonial administration that was loyal to Vichy France. On the 28th of November 1958, Gabon became an autonomous republic within the French Community. Full independence followed on the 17th of August 1960.

  Between 1900 and 1940, historical and environmental factors caused the population to decline. Even today Gabon has one of the lowest population densities in Africa.

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• 3. One Party Rule

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  Léon M'ba, elected the first president in 1961, had Omar Bongo Ondimba as his vice president. Once in power, M'ba suppressed the press and political demonstrations and curtailed freedom of expression. Other parties were gradually shut out. He also had the constitution reshaped along French lines so that power sat in the presidency, which he held himself.

  In January 1964, M'ba dissolved the National Assembly to institute one-party rule. An army coup tried to remove him and restore parliamentary democracy. Within 24 hours, French paratroopers flew in and returned M'ba to power. After days of fighting the coup ended. The opposition was imprisoned, and protests and riots followed.

  When M'ba died in 1967, Bongo took over as president. In March 1968 he dissolved the BDG and founded a new party, the Parti Démocratique Gabonais, known as the PDG. He declared Gabon a one-party state and invited every Gabonese to join, whatever their earlier loyalties. His aim was a single national movement behind the government's development policies. The PDG was meant to submerge the regional and tribal rivalries that had divided Gabonese politics.

  Bongo was elected president in February 1975. In April of that year the vice presidency was abolished and replaced by a prime minister, who had no right to automatic succession. Voters returned Bongo to office for two seven-year terms, in December 1979 and November 1986.

  In 1990, economic discontent and a desire for political liberalization sent students and workers into demonstrations and strikes. Bongo negotiated with workers one sector at a time and made wage concessions. He promised a national political conference, held in March and April 1990. The PDG and 74 political organizations attended. They split into two loose coalitions. One was the ruling PDG and its allies. The other was the United Front of Opposition Associations and Parties, which included the breakaway Morena Fundamental and the Gabonese Progress Party.

  The April 1990 conference approved a national Senate, decentralization of the budget, freedom of assembly and press, and an end to the exit visa requirement. Bongo resigned as PDG chairman. A new prime minister, Casimir Oye-Mba, headed a transitional government called the Gabonese Social Democratic Grouping. It was smaller than the old cabinet and included some opposition figures. In May 1990 it drafted a provisional constitution with a basic bill of rights and an independent judiciary, while keeping strong executive powers for the president. After review, it came into force in March 1991.

  Two coup attempts were uncovered and aborted in September 1990, only months after the conference. Demonstrations followed the death of an opposition leader. Then, in September and October 1990, the first multiparty National Assembly elections in almost 30 years took place. The PDG won a majority.

  The resulting system rests on a constitution dating from 1961, revised in 1975, rewritten in 1991 and revised again in 2003. The president is elected for seven years and can appoint and dismiss the prime minister, the cabinet and the judges of the Supreme Court. A 2003 amendment removed presidential term limits. The National Assembly has 120 deputies serving five-year terms. The Senate has 102 members, chosen by municipal councils and regional assemblies for six years. Although created in the 1990-91 revision, the Senate was not brought into being until after the 1997 local elections.

  Omar Bongo won re-election in December 1993 with 51% of the vote, and opposition candidates refused to validate the result. Civil disturbances and violent repression followed. Talks produced the Paris Accords in November 1994, which brought some opposition figures into a government of national unity. The arrangement broke down. In the 1997 local elections several cities, including Libreville, chose opposition mayors, even as the PDG won the legislative vote.

  Bongo then coasted to re-election in December 1998 against a divided opposition. Some opponents called the result fraudulent. Some international observers called it representative, despite many perceived irregularities. Abroad, he cast himself as a mediator. In December 1999 his efforts helped bring a peace accord in Brazzaville between the government of the Republic of the Congo and most leaders of an armed rebellion. He also took part in the peace process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in the crisis in Ivory Coast.

  Legislative elections in 2001 and 2002 were boycotted by several smaller opposition parties and criticized for administrative weaknesses. In November 2005 Bongo won a sixth term, and opponents said the balloting was marred by irregularities. Some violence followed the announcement. Assembly elections in December 2006 saw the Constitutional Court overturn some contested seats. The run-offs of 2007 still produced a PDG-controlled chamber, two years before Bongo's death.

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• 4. After Bongo

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  Omar Bongo died of cardiac arrest on the 8th of June 2009 at a hospital in Barcelona, Spain. Under the amended constitution, Rose Francine Rogombé, the President of the Senate, became Interim President on the 10th of June. The presidential election of the 30th of August 2009 was the first in Gabon's history without Omar Bongo as a candidate. Eighteen contenders ran, among them his son and ruling party leader, Ali Bongo.

  After a three-week review, the Constitutional Court declared Ali Bongo the winner, and he was inaugurated on the 16th of October 2009. Some opposition candidates doubted the result, and sporadic protests broke out. Anger ran highest in Port-Gentil, where allegations of fraud led to violent demonstrations. Four people died. Protesters attacked the French Consulate and a local prison. Security forces were deployed, and a curfew stayed in effect for more than three months.

  In June 2010, a partial by-election for five seats showed the emergence of the Union Nationale coalition, made up mostly of defectors from the PDG. Both the PDG and the new coalition claimed victory.

  The new president moved quickly on the machinery of government. In October 2009 he eliminated 17 minister-level positions and abolished the vice presidency, citing corruption and bloat. In November 2009 he announced a modernization vision called Gabon Emergent, built on three pillars: Green Gabon, Service Gabon and Industrial Gabon. It aimed to make the economy less reliant on petroleum, end corruption and modernize the workforce. Under it, raw timber exports were banned, a government-wide census was held, the long midday break was dropped, and a national oil company was created.

  On the 25th of January 2011, opposition leader André Mba Obame claimed the presidency, saying the country should be run by someone the people wanted. He named 19 ministers, and the whole group, with hundreds of others, spent the night at the United Nations headquarters. The next day the government dissolved his party. African Union chairman Jean Ping warned that his action endangered the peace and stability of Gabon. Interior Minister Jean-François Ndongou accused Mba Obame and his supporters of treason. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon recognized Ondimba as the only official president.

  The 2016 presidential election was disputed, with official results reported as very close. Protests in the capital met repression, which culminated in the alleged bombing of the opposition party headquarters by the presidential guard. Security forces killed between 50 and 100 citizens, and 1,000 people were arrested. International observers criticized irregularities, including unnaturally high turnout in some districts. The supreme court threw out some suspect precincts, and the ballots were destroyed. The election was declared for the incumbent. The European Parliament issued two resolutions denouncing the unclear results and calling for an investigation into human rights violations.

  In January 2019, a group of soldiers launched an unsuccessful coup against Ali Bongo while he was in Morocco recovering from a stroke. In June 2021, Gabon became the first African country to receive payments for reducing deforestation. In June 2022, it joined the Commonwealth of Nations alongside Togo.

  The announcement that Ali Bongo had won a third term came in August 2023, and military officers declared a coup within hours. They cancelled the election results and dissolved state institutions, including the Judiciary and Parliament. Officers named General Brice Oligui Nguema transitional leader on the 31st of August 2023, ending the Bongo family's 55-year hold on power. He was sworn in as interim president on the 4th of September. The army that did this has about 5,000 personnel, and a separate 1,800-member guard protects the president. Observers counted the coup as the eighth military intervention in the region since 2020.

  The African Union suspended Gabon on the 31st of August 2023. On the 18th of September, the Commonwealth partially suspended it, excluding Gabon from its councils and meetings, with a full suspension possible if acceptable progress was not made within two years. In 2024, Nguema assured American and French leaders that Gabon would be a Western ally as part of a plan to tackle a debt crisis. A referendum in November 2024 approved a new constitution. In April 2025, Nguema won the presidential election with more than 90% of the vote and became the 4th president of Gabon. The African Union reinstated Gabon on the 1st of May 2025. On the 15th of July 2025, the Commonwealth restored full membership, saying the vote of the 12th of April 2025 largely reflected the will of the people who voted and was credible, transparent and inclusive.

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• 5. Forest and Fission

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  Two billion years ago, a natural nuclear fission reactor was running in the rock of what is now Gabon. The site is known as the Oklo reactor zones. It came to light in the 1970s, when miners were digging uranium to supply the French nuclear power industry.

  Much of the ground around it is just as ancient. Gabon sits mainly on Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic basement rock, part of the stable continental crust of the Congo craton. Some formations are more than 2 billion years old. Over them lie marine carbonate rocks, lake and continental sedimentary rocks, and loose sediments and soils from the last 2.5 million years. When the supercontinent Pangaea rifted apart, it left basins that filled with sediment and formed hydrocarbons.

  On the surface, the country lies between latitudes 3°N and 4°S and longitudes 8° and 15°E. Its equatorial climate supports rainforest that covers 89.3% of the land. Coastal plains range from 20 to 300 km from the ocean's shore. The Cristal Mountains rise northeast of Libreville, the Chaillu Massif fills the centre, and savanna spreads across the east.

  The coastal plains belong to the World Wildlife Fund's Atlantic Equatorial coastal forests ecoregion. They hold patches of Central African mangroves, including on the Muni River estuary at the border with Equatorial Guinea.

  The Ogooué, the country's largest river, runs 1,200 km. Three karst areas hold hundreds of caves in dolomite and limestone. In the summer of 2008, a National Geographic expedition visited some of them to document what lies inside.

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• 6. Wildlife and Climate

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  Gabon counts 604 species of birds, 98 of amphibians, between 95 and 160 of reptiles and 198 of mammals. Rare species include the Gabon pangolin and the grey-necked rockfowl, and the Gabon guenon is found nowhere else. More than 6,000 plant species and 400 tree species make up the flora.

  A 2003 estimate put the country's chimpanzees between 27,000 and 64,000. A 1983 estimate put its gorillas at 28,000 to 42,000. The Gorilla and Chimpanzee Study Station inside Lopé National Park is devoted to studying them.

  More than half of all African forest elephants live in Gabon, many of them in Minkébé National Park. Between 2004 and 2014, the park's elephant population fell by 78-81%, a loss of more than 25,000 animals. Poaching was the main cause. The national symbol is the black panther.

  In 2002, President Omar Bongo Ondimba set aside roughly 10% of the national territory for a system of 13 national parks. The National Agency for National Parks manages them. In 2018 Gabon scored 9.07 out of 10 on the Forest Landscape Integrity Index, ranking 9th among 172 countries.

  Gabon's vast forests act as a net carbon sink, and the country is widely considered the most carbon-positive in the world. In 2023 it produced just over 0.04% of global greenhouse gas emissions, or 24.7 million tonnes.

  Yet a dense coastal population, economic hubs along the shore and reliance on rain-fed agriculture leave Gabon highly vulnerable to climate change. Rising seas threaten to erode the coastline and push salt water into freshwater sources. Floods, droughts and storms are already more frequent and severe. The government prioritises protecting coastal areas and the fishing, agriculture and forestry industries.

  Gabon has pledged to stay carbon neutral beyond 2050. With adequate support, it aims to maintain net carbon removals of 100 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year beyond that date.

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• 7. Oil and Ore

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  The Grondin Oil Field, discovered in 1971 in 50 m of water about 40 km offshore, was a rich find. By 1978, about 60% of its estimated reserves had already been extracted.

  Today oil accounts for roughly 46% of the government's budget, 43% of gross domestic product and 81% of exports. Production peaked at 370,000 barrels per day in 1997 and stood near 200,000 in 2023. Some estimates have put the end of Gabonese oil at 2025, and planning for an after-oil scenario has begun. Gabon left OPEC in 1995 and rejoined in 2016.

  Before oil, logging was the pillar of the economy. Logging and manganese mining rank next in importance, and some exploration suggests the world's largest unexploited iron ore deposit. For rural people without access to extractive jobs, remittances from relatives in cities or subsistence activities supply income.

  Overspending on the Trans-Gabon Railway, the CFA franc devaluation of 1994 and stretches of lower oil prices caused debt problems. Successive International Monetary Fund missions criticized off-budget spending, over-borrowing from the central bank and slow privatization. A 15-month Stand-By Arrangement ended successfully in September 2005. A three-year arrangement was approved in May 2007, but the 2008 financial crisis and the upheaval after Omar Bongo's death meant the goals were missed in 2009. At the insistence of the World Bank and IMF, the government began privatizing state-owned companies in the 1990s and cutting public sector hiring and salary growth.

  Gabon's nominal GDP per capita reached $10,149 in 2023, according to OPEC, and the country ranks 108th on the Human Development Index. The wealth is badly shared. The richest 20% of the population earn over 90% of the income, and about a third of Gabonese live in poverty.

  Observers have lamented the narrow economy. They point to a small market of about a million people and dependence on imports from France. Regional markets go unused, and a steady if shrinking stream of oil rent dulls the push to start new businesses. Poor infrastructure complicates investment in agriculture and tourism, and some processing and service sectors are dominated by a few prominent local investors.

  Solid biofuels and waste supply 75% of the energy, with fossil fuels, especially oil, making up the rest of the main sources. Renewables provide 48% of power generation. Nearly two-thirds of the population has electricity, but only 15% of rural areas did in 2014. The goal is 85% of rural areas by 2025 and universal access by 2035. Most rural households still cook and heat with wood and charcoal.

  Manganese, an ore vital for steel and battery production, may point to a different future. Gabon is the world's second-largest producer, and in 2023 manganese ore made up 16% of its exports. Yet the country has no domestic processing capacity. In June 2025 the government announced a ban on raw manganese ore exports, to encourage local plants that would create skilled jobs, raise tax revenue and capture more value. It takes effect on the 1st of January 2029, and a public-private partnership is being set up to prepare the transition.

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• 8. Peoples and Voices

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  At least 40 ethnic groups share Gabon, among them the Fang, Myènè, Punu-Échira, Nzebi-Adouma, Teke-Mbete, Mèmbè, Kota and Akélé. Bantu groups make up around 95% of the population. The indigenous Pygmy peoples include the Bongo and the Baka, and Baka is the only non-Bantu language spoken in the country. Some groups are spread across the territory, which has encouraged contact and intermarriage. More than 10,000 native French live in Gabon, including an estimated 2,000 dual nationals.

  Libreville grew from 538,195 residents in the 2003 census to 703,940 in 2013. Port-Gentil, in Ogooué-Maritime, reached 136,462, and Franceville reached 110,568. The fastest climber was Ntoum, which rose from 12,711 to 51,954. The country is divided into nine provinces and 50 departments, and the president appoints provincial governors, prefects and subprefects.

  French is the sole official language, and an estimated 80% of Gabonese speak it. About 30% of Libreville residents are native speakers. In the 2013 census, 63.7% of the population could speak a Gabonese language, 86.3% in rural areas and 60.5% in urban ones. That share is lower than in most other Sub-Saharan African countries.

  Christianity, in Roman Catholic and Protestant forms, is the dominant faith. About 10% of Gabonese practise Islam, mostly Sunni. Others follow traditional indigenous beliefs, and some people combine elements of both.

  Storytellers known as raconteurs work to keep alive traditions such as the mvett among the Fang and the Ingwala among the Nzebi. Masks and figures are central to Gabonese culture, including the n'goltang masks of the Fang and the reliquary figures of the Kota. They appear in ceremonies for marriage, birth and funerals, and are made from local, often rare materials including wood.

  The Fang mvet is both a stringed harp-zither and an epic genre of sung and spoken narration performed with it. Ritual music of the bwiti and bwete traditions relies on chant, responsorial singing and harp performance. Other traditional instruments include the ngombi harp, the balafon, drums, rattles and horns. Scholars stress that Gabon has no single national folk style, only many local repertoires shaped by language, ceremony and geography. Later musicians absorbed church music, French-language chanson, rumba, makossa, soukous, zouk, rock and hip hop. Pierre Akendengué is noted for poetic, pan-African songwriting, and Oliver N'Goma's 1990 album Bane became a major Afro-zouk success. Since the late 1980s, hip hop has grown into an important urban genre, especially in Libreville.

  Colour television using the SECAM standard arrived in 1975, after French cooperation financed a studio. The state broadcaster is Radio-Diffusion Télévision Gabonaise, which airs regular news bulletins in indigenous languages. The Gabonese Press Agency publishes the daily Gabon-Matin, which had a circulation of 18,000 in 2002. L'Union in Libreville, the government-controlled daily, averaged 40,000 copies that year. The constitution provides for free speech and a free press, and some periodicals actively criticize the government.

  Albert Schweitzer established a private hospital at Lambaréné in 1913. The total fertility rate fell from 5.8 children per mother in 1960 to 4.2 in 2000. Estimates for 2005 put infant mortality at 55.35 per 1,000 live births and life expectancy at 55.02 years. HIV/AIDS affected an estimated 5.2% of adults aged 15-49, with approximately 46,000 people living with it in 2009.

  Education is compulsory from age 6 to 16. Primary school has 6 grades and secondary school has 7, with graduation planned at age 19. The literacy rate for people aged 15 and above stood at 82% in 2012. Oil revenue has paid for school construction and teachers' salaries, though maintenance and pay have been declining. Reported problems include poor management and planning, lack of oversight, poorly qualified teachers and overcrowded classrooms.

  The national football team has played since 1962. The Under-23 side won the 2011 CAF U-23 Championship and qualified for the 2012 London Olympics. Gabon was joint host of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations with Equatorial Guinea and sole host in 2017. The basketball team, nicknamed Les Panthères, finished 8th at AfroBasket 2015. Anthony Obame won a silver medal in taekwondo at the 2012 Olympics. Recreational anglers consider the coast the best place in the world to catch Atlantic tarpon. Since 2006, Gabon has hosted La Tropicale Amissa Bongo, a week-long professional bicycle race with both European and African teams.

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