The Republic of Gabon

Podcast Transcript

When you think of countries in Africa, it is unlikely that Gabon will be one of the first to cross your mind.

It is entirely possible that some of you might never ever heard of Gabon.

Considered “Earth’s last Eden,” Gabon is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, yet very little is known about it because not much has ever happened there to make it into the news.

In fact, one of the biggest things to have ever happened there took place 1.7 billion years ago.

Learn about the history of Gabon on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

When I do episodes on specific countries, I try to focus on small or lesser-known nations. I think Gabon definitely falls into the latter category.

For those of you unfamiliar with Gabon, it is in Central Africa, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Cameroon to the North, Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south and east.

Located directly on the equator, Gabon has an equatorial climate characterized by high temperatures, heavy humidity, and nearly year-round rainfall.

It has a total area of 257,670 km² or 99,487 mi², making it slightly smaller than New Zealand and slightly larger than the United Kingdom in size.

This climate created ideal conditions for rainforests, which cover about 89% of Gabon’s land area. The remaining roughly 11% comprises savannas, mainly in the southeast and west, as well as developed areas and bodies of water. This makes Gabon one of the world’s most heavily forested nations, especially in terms of rainforest.

Gabon has three main regions: coastal lowlands, mountains, and plateaus.

The coastal lowlands extend inland from the Atlantic, featuring beaches, lagoons, mangrove swamps, and slow-moving rivers.

Plateaus in Gabon’s interior contain most of its rainforests.

Another key part of Gabon’s geography is the Ogooué River Basin. This river is one of the largest in Africa, and almost every water source within Gabon drains into its watershed. This river is incredibly biodiverse, hosting hundreds of fish species, and is crucial to the local wildlife. It also provides a pivotal role to Gabon’s development, powering much of its infrastructure via hydropower.

Gabon’s rainforests are considered exceptionally dense and biodiverse, with estimates of approximately 10,000 plant species, 604 bird species, up to 160 reptile species, 98 amphibian species, and 198 mammal species.

Gabon’s rich biodiversity has made it one of the most important wildlife reserves in Africa. The country is a stronghold for many endangered species, including an estimated more than half of the world’s African forest elephants, as well as significant populations of chimpanzees and gorillas.

Gabon’s mountains are not high with the highest point in the country, Mont Bengoué, reaching 1,070 meters or 3,510 feet.

Gabon’s savannahs are found along the edges of the rainforests. Often, these savannahs are “forest mosaics,” meaning that different species, vegetation, and structures live alongside one another.

Gabon is famous for its natural uranium deposits. As a result, Gabon is the only known place on Earth where a natural nuclear chain reaction took place. About 1.7 billion years ago, at the Oklo Mine, there was a concentration of naturally occurring U-235 sufficient to sustain a chain fission reaction.

Because of the half-life of U-235, such a phenomenon couldn’t naturally occur on Earth today.

The name Gabon comes from the Portuguese word “gabao,” which means “hooded cloak.” The Portuguese applied this term to the region in the 1470s after seeing the Komo River estuary, which they thought resembled a cloak.

This term caught on, spreading to the surrounding region and eventually turning into its modern name, Gabon.

Very little is known about Gabon prior to colonization, though prehistoric remains indicate that early humans were present. The most notable evidence of human habitation are the remnants of worked stone, arrowheads, and axes.

The earliest known people in Gabon were the Bambenga, a group of Pygmies. This group settled around 5000 BC and lived as hunter-gatherers.

Approximately 2,000 to 2,500 years ago, the Bantu people migrated and settled in modern-day Gabon. The Bantu people were from different ethnic backgrounds but were all fleeing the Sahel.

The Sahel is the transitional zone between the Sahara Desert and the tropical savannahs. The Bantu were fleeing this area due to the expansion of the Sahara Desert.

In their search for this new land, they displaced the native Pygmies, who moved to the country’s jungles.

As time passed, more and more groups of people began to settle in Gabon, though the process was slow.

One of the most notable periods of early Gabon was the Kingdom of Orungu. This Kingdom was established by members of the Bantu ethnic group in the 18th century.

This kingdom was best known as a slave-trading hub. It consisted of an estimated 20 clans led by a single big chief or king known as the Agamwinboni.

The Kingdom facilitated trade between brokers. Besides slavery, the Kingdom of Orungu engaged in boat building and metalworking, which gave them dominance over the river trade. In addition, the kingdom also participated in the ivory, dyewood, ebony, and beeswax trade.

Though the Kingdom of Orungu was small, it generated considerable wealth, a portion of which was used to fund the slave trade.

It played a significantly minor role in the transatlantic slave trade when compared to Western African counterparts. Early in the Kingdom’s history, they actually purchased slaves from traders rather than sold them, though this changed later.

Around the 1760s, the Kingdom of Orungu exported slaves from the country, taking people from the center of Gabon. Unlike many other slave trading countries, the Kingdom did not raid other states for slaves, but rather used slavery as a punishment, selling adulterers, sorcerers, cheats, and debtors to the Portuguese.

The slave trade technically ended in 1853 after the chief at the time agreed to abolish it. However, this was a ruse, and the slave trade moved upriver and was done in secret until the 1870s.

Outside of Gabon, the European powers had been competing for control and power within Africa. One region that was affected by this was the Gulf of Guinea. Britain, in particular, held most of the control in the region, prompting the French to make inroads and compete commercially.

To do this, the French government established contacts with local leaders in Gabon between 1839 and 1841. During this time, France signed treaties with local chiefs living on Gabon’s coast. These leaders often unknowingly signed away their land, leading them to ultimately sell their sovereignty to the French.

With treaties in hand, France established a protectorate and later took steps to move inward and establish control over the country’s interior.

One of the first cities founded by the French was Libreville, established by French admiral Édouard Bouët-Willaumez in 1842. The city was established on territory negotiated with local tribes in exchange for trade rights and protection.

Libreville didn’t get its name until a few years later. France had been participating in the British Blockade of Africa since 1846. This was a proclamation by the United Kingdom that made it illegal for British ships to transport slaves and was designed to shut down the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

One ship that was captured during this time was the L’Elizia, which was a Brazilian slave ship. The French navy captured the ship and freed the 52 slaves aboard. They settled these slaves in Libreville or Free Town.

The former slaves living in the city organized and began establishing procedures to elect leaders. The town continued to grow following this period, ultimately becoming the administrative capital of the Congo-Gabon colony from 1888 to 1904.

Another major city developed during this time was Franceville in 1875. The city was founded by the explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. He had chosen the village of Masuku to resettle former slaves and renamed the area Francheville, or city of the freed. Later, it was renamed Franceville in honor of France.

France became a full administrator over the territory in 1885 and fully colonized Gabon’s territory in 1886, though power wasn’t administered directly to the country until a decade later.

In 1910, Gabon became part of French Equatorial Africa, which included what is today Gabon, Chad, the French Congo, and the Central African Republic. The federation existed until 1958 and was governed from Brazzaville, French Congo, with deputies placed in each city.

French Equatorial Africa was governed similarly to the Congo Free State, which was part of the Congo under King Leopold II. Unfortunately, like its counterpart, many of the same atrocities occurred in the territory, including burning children alive, mutilation, executions, and more.

During World War II, Gabon was unique among French colonies. Unlike its counterparts, Gabon declared its loyalty to Vichy France rather than the Free French Forces.

Gabon stayed loyal to Vichy France until November 1940, when the Battle of Gabon took place, in which the Free French forcibly retook the colony.

Gabon remained part of French Equatorial Africa until November 1958, when it became an autonomous republic within the French Community, which meant it had greater self-governance over its territory.

Two years later, in August 1960, Gabon became fully independent from France.

Gabon and France reached an agreement under which Gabon gained independence but remained connected to France through economic and military ties.

As an independent country, Gabon had a rocky start. Its first president, Léon M’ba, suppressed the media, banned political demonstrations, limited freedom of expression, and excluded other political parties from power. His consolodation of power led to an attempted coup against him in 1964, which failed.

M’ba died in 1967, and his Vice President, Omar Bongo Ondimba, known as Bongo, became the president. He officially declared Gabon a one-party state and attempted to form a national movement to support the government and ease tensions between rival tribes. This movement was called the Parti Démocratique Gabonaise or the PDG.

Bongo remained in power for the next 42 years.

During his time in power, there were a few tumultuous periods. In the 1990s, the people of Gabon were frustrated with the economy and sought greater political freedoms and conducted protests and strikes.

To ease tension, Bongo went sector by sector, negotiating with each frustrated group to offer fairer wages and greater political freedom. This was done by organizing a national political conference.

This conference approved political reforms, the most notable of which were the creation of a Senate, decentralizing the budget process, and liberalizing freedoms of the press and assembly.

Another interesting aspect of this meeting was the agreement to transform the political system into a multiparty democracy. Bongo resigned as PDG chairman and appointed a transitional head of government led by the Prime Minister. The resulting government was known as the Gabonese Social Democratic Grouping.

This new government was smaller than the former, and guaranteed an independent judicial branch and a basic bill of rights, but kept many of the president’s authoritative powers.

Despite these new freedoms, the political environment within Gabon remained tense, with accusations of election fraud. This led to some outbreaks of political violence and attempted coups, but Bongo managed to maintain power.

Bongo died in June of 2009. Following his death, the President of the Senate served as interim president until an election could be held. The election resulted in Bongo’s son, Ali Bongo, winning.

This election was also called fraudulent by many in Gabon, and political tension and instability continued to rise. This ultimately culminated in a 2023 military coup after he was elected to a third term.

After the military seized power, they dissolved state institutions, including their state constitutional assembly, the parliament, and the judiciary.

Following the coup, the new leadership went about establishing a new constitution and presidential election, transforming the country’s government.

As of now, the country appears to be stabilizing. A presidential election in April 2025 and parliamentary elections in September 2025 went off peacefully, and by all accounts, the elections were fair and open.

Gabon currently has a population of approximately 2.4 million people, and its per capita GDP of just under $25,000 per year is the highest of any country on the African mainland. Its economy has been growing between 2.5 to 3.0% per year.

The economy of Gabon is dominated by oil production, with major contributions from manganese mining, timber and forestry, small-scale agriculture, and a growing services sector centered on government and urban commerce.

Despite its political problems, Gabon has never experienced a bloody civil war and has done much better than most African countries economically. That alone makes it one of the success stories of post-colonial Africa.