Gabon

Information about Gabon

République Gabonaise
Gabonese Republic
FlagCoat of arms
Anthem
La Concorde
Enlarge picture
Location of Gabon
Capital
(and largest city) 		Libreville
Official languagesFrench
DemonymGabonese
GovernmentRepublic
 - PresidentEl Hadj Omar Bongo
 - Prime MinisterJean Eyeghe Ndong
Independence
 - from FranceAugust 17 1960 
 - Water (%)3.76%
Population
 - July 2005 estimate1,454,867 (150th)
GDP (PPP)2005 estimate
 - Total$9.621 billion (136th)
 - Per capita$7,055 (89th)
HDI (2004)0.633 (medium) (124rd)
CurrencyCFA franc (XAF)
Time zoneWAT (UTC+1)
 - Summer (DST)not observed (UTC+1)
Internet TLD.ga
Calling code+241
2

History

Main article: History of Gabon
The earliest inhabitants of the area were Pygmy peoples. They were largely replaced and absorbed by Bantu tribes during Bantu migrations.

French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza led his first mission to the Gabon-Congo area in 1875. He founded the town of Franceville, and was later colonial governor.

Several Bantu groups occupied the area that is now Gabon when France occupied it in 1885. In 1910, Gabon became one of the four territories of French Equatorial Africa, a federation that survived until 1959. These territories became independent on August 17, 1960.

The first president of Gabon, elected in 1961, was Léon M’ba, with Omar Bongo Ondimba as his vice president. When M'Ba died in 1967, Bongo replaced him as president, and has been the head of state ever since, winning each contested election with a substantial majority.

On September 14, 2007 René Ndémezo'o Obiang, the government's spokesman, announced that Gabon's cabinet council has decided to formally abolish the death penalty, which hasn't been applied in the country for about two decades.

Government

Enlarge picture
President Omar Bongo Ondimba of Gabon (left) in Washington, USA.
Main article: Politics of Gabon
In March 1991, a new constitution was started. Among its provisions are a bill of rights, the creation of the National Council of Democracy that also oversees the guarantee of those rights and a governmental advisory board which deals with economic and social issues. Multi-party legislative elections were held in 1990-91 even though opposition parties had not been declared formally legal.

President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba, in power since 1967 and the longest-serving African head of state, was re-elected to another seven-year term according to poll results returned from elections held on November 27 2005. According to figures provided by Gabon's Interior Ministry, this was achieved with 79.1% of the votes cast. In 2003 the President amended the Constitution of Gabon to remove any restrictions on the number of terms a president is allowed to serve. The president retains strong powers, such as authority to dissolve the National Assembly, declare a state of siege, delay legislation, conduct referendums, and appoint and dismiss the prime minister and cabinet members.

In provisional results, his ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) won 84 out of 120 parliamentary seats. As with previous Gabonese elections in which the opposition parties have contested, there were several accusations of electoral fraud, bribery, and calls for a boycott. There were also incidences of violence and protest, particularly in the first round of voting held two weeks prior. However, several international observers including the Economic Community of Central African States have reported that the election "met international standards" for democratic voting.
Further information: List of Presidents of Gabon


Gabon has a small, professional military of about 5,000 personnel, divided into army, navy, air force, gendarmerie, and national police. Gabonese forces are oriented to the defense of the country and have not been trained for an offensive role. A 1,800-member guard provides security for the president.

Provinces and departments

Main articles: Provinces of Gabon and Departments of Gabon
Enlarge picture
Provinces of Gabon
Gabon is divided into 9 provinces and further divided into 37 departments.

The provinces are:
  1. Estuaire
  2. Haut-Ogooué
  3. Moyen-Ogooué
  4. Ngounié
  5. Nyanga
  6. Ogooué-Ivindo
  7. Ogooué-Lolo
  8. Ogooué-Maritime
  9. Woleu-Ntem

Geography

Enlarge picture
Map of Gabon
Main article: Geography of Gabon
Gabon is located on the Atlantic coast of central Africa. Clockwise from the northwest, it is bounded by Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, and the Republic of Congo.

Gabon's largest river is the Ogooué. Gabon is also noted for efforts to preserve the natural environment with what may be the largest area of nature parks in the world.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Gabon
Gabon is more prosperous than most nearby countries, with a per capita income of four times the average for Sub-Saharan Africa. This is in large part due to offshore oil production that has produced substantial wealth, although the distribution of income from this industry is extremely unequal. Gabon was a full member of OPEC from 1975 to 1995.

During the 1990s, devaluation of the CFA franc left Gabon struggling to pay its overseas debt; France and the IMF have provided further loans and aid in exchange for the implementation of changes to the economy.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Gabon
Almost all Gabonese are of Bantu origin. Gabon has at least forty ethnic groups with separate languages and cultures. The Fang are generally thought to be the largest, although recent census data seem to favor the Bandjabi (or Nzebi). Others include the Myene, Bakota, Eshira, Bapounou, and Okande. Ethnic group boundaries are less sharply drawn in Gabon than elsewhere in Africa. French, the official language, could be regarded as a unifying force. It's estimated that 80%[1] of the country's population are able to speak the language and one third of the Librevillois are native speakers of French[2]. More than 10,000 French people live in Gabon, and France predominates foreign cultural and commercial influences. Historical and environmental factors caused Gabon's population to decline between 1900 and 1940. It is one of the least-densely inhabited countries in Africa, and a labor shortage is a major obstacle to development and a draw for foreign workers. The population is generally accepted to be just over 1 million, though some dispute this. Most inhabitants are Christians (with estimates of the Christian population ranging from 55 to 77 %), mostly members of the Roman Catholic Church. Other religious groups include animists, Muslims, and practitioners of indigenous African religions.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Gabon
See also: Music of Gabon
Enlarge picture
Chancery building, Libreville.
''and List of writers from Gabon
Gabonese music is little-known in comparison with regional giants like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cameroon. The country boasts an array of folk styles, as well as pop stars like Patience Dabany (who now lives in the US). Dabany's albums, though recorded in Los Angeles, have a distinctively Gabonese element and are popular throughout Francophone Africa. Other major musicians include Pierre-Claver Akendengue (considered a master-poet), "the veteran" Mackjoss, Vickos Ekondo, known as "the king of Tandima". Also known are guitarists like Georges Oyendze, La Rose Mbadou and Sylvain Avara, and the singer Oliver N'Goma. Imported rock and hip hop from the US and UK are popular in Gabon, as are rumba, makossa and soukous.

Gabonese folk instruments include the obala, the ngombi, balafon and traditional drums.

Gabon also features highly appreciated masks, such as the n'goltang (Fang) and the relicary figures of the Kota.

See also

References

  • Maria Petringa, Brazza, A Life for Africa (2006)

External links

Government

News

Overviews

Culture

Ethnic groups

Directories

Tourism

Geographic locale
 •  • [ e]
Countries of West Africa
 •  • [ e]
Countries of Africa


International membership
 •  • [ e]
Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
 •  • [ e]
African Union (AU)
Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of the Congo Republic of the Congo Cte d'Ivoire Djibouti Egypt Eritrea Ethiopia Equatorial Guinea Gabon The Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic So Tom and Prncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe
 •  • [ e]
South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone
Angola Argentina Benin Brazil Cameroon Cape Verde Congo DR Congo Ivory Coast Equatorial Guinea Gabon Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea-Bissau Liberia Namibia Nigeria So Tom and Prncipe Senegal Sierra Leone South Africa Togo Uruguay
 •  • [ e]
Niger-Congo-speaking nations




References

1. ^
2. ^ [2]
For the Radiohead song, see "The National Anthem".
A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a country's government as the official
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La Concorde is the national anthem of Gabon. Written and composed by Georges Aleka Damas, it was adopted upon independence in 1960.

French lyrics

CHORUS:
Uni dans la Concorde et la fraternité

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capital (also called capital city or political capital — although the latter phrase has a second meaning based on an alternative sense of "capital") is the center of government.
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Population: 1,424,906
note: Estimates for this country explicitly take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population and growth rates, and changes in the
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Libreville
Chancery Building, Libreville
Map of the Gabon showing Libreville.
Coordinates:
Capital district Libreville
Government
 - Governor
Population (2005)
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An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in the countries, states, and other territories. It is typically the language used in a nation's legislative bodies, though the law in many nations requires that government documents be produced in other
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French (français, pronounced [fʁɑ̃ˈsɛ]) is a Romance language originally spoken in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Switzerland, and today by about 300 million people around the world as either
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A demonym or gentilic is a word that denotes the members of a people or the inhabitants of a place. In English, the name of a people's language is often the same as this word, e.g., the "French" (language or people).
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government is a body that has the power to make and the authority to enforce rules and laws within a civil, corporate, religious, academic, or other organization or group.[1]
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republic, for all other uses see: republic (disambiguation)

List of forms of government
  • Anarchism
  • Aristocracy
  • Authoritarianism
  • Autocracy
  • Communist state
  • Democracy
Direct democracy

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Gabon

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Gabon

  • President
  • Omar Bongo Ondimba
  • Vice President
  • Didjob Divungi Di Ndinge

..... Click the link for more information.
El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba (born Albert-Bernard Bongo on 30 December 1935) became President of Gabon in 1967. He was just 31 and the world's youngest president at the time.
..... Click the link for more information.
Gabon

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Gabon

  • President
  • Omar Bongo Ondimba
  • Vice President
  • Didjob Divungi Di Ndinge

..... Click the link for more information.
Jean Eyeghe Ndong (born February 12, 1946) has been the Prime Minister of Gabon since 20 January 2006. He is a member of the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG).[1]

Eyeghe is a nephew of former president Léon M'ba.
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Independence is the self-government of a nation, country, or state by its residents and population, or some portion thereof, generally exercising sovereignty.

The term independence is used in contrast to subjugation,
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Motto
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité
"Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
Anthem
"La Marseillaise"


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August 17 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events


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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s  1940s  1950s  - 1960s -  1970s  1980s  1990s
1957 1958 1959 - 1960 - 1961 1962 1963

Year 1960 (MCMLX
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Water is a common chemical substance that is essential to all known forms of life.[1] In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or state, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor.
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In mathematics, a percentage is a way of expressing a number as a fraction of 100 (per cent meaning "per hundred"). It is often denoted using the percent sign, "%". For example, 45 % (read as "forty-five percent") is equal to 45 / 100, or 0.45.
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population is the collection of people or organisms of a particular species living in a given geographic area or mortality, and migration, though the field encompasses many dimensions of population change including the family (marriage and divorce), public health, work and the
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list of countries ordered according to population. The list includes and ranks sovereign states and self-governing dependent territories. Figures are based on the most recent estimate or projection by the national census authority where available and generally rounded off.
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gross domestic product, or GDP, is one of the ways for measuring the size of its economy. The GDP of a country is defined as the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time (usually a calendar year).
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The purchasing power parity (PPP) theory was developed by Gustav Cassel in 1920. It is the method of using the long-run equilibrium exchange rate of two currencies to equalize the currencies' purchasing power.
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There are three lists of countries of the world sorted by their gross domestic product (GDP) (the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year). The GDP dollar estimates given on this page are derived from Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) calculations.
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Per capita is a Latin phrase meaning for each head.

It is usually used in the field of statistics to indicate the average per person for any given concern, e.g. income, crime rate.
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This article includes two lists of countries of the world[1] sorted by their gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita, the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year divided by the average population for
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Human Development Index (HDI) is the measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare.
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list of countries by Human Development Index as included in the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report 2006, compiled on the basis of 2004 data.
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currency is a unit of exchange, facilitating the transfer of goods and/or services. It is one form of money, where money is anything that serves as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a standard of value. A currency is the dominant medium of exchange.
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