History of Gabon

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Today's Republic of Gabon

The history of Gabon encompasses the history of the pre-colonial peoples, cultures and empires on the territory of the present state of Gabon , first contacts with non-African powers, the Europeans from 1472, the history of French colonial rule from 1839 to 1960 and the history of the independent state of Gabon since 1960 .

Early history

Stone engravings from the parc national de la Lopé , the Lopé National Park

The first prehistoric artifacts were discovered in Gabon in 1886. Numerous finds have been made in Nyanga Province , in the extreme south of the country. The first finds, such as Maboué 5, extended the prehistory of the country over 40,000 years around 2000. Remains also belong to the so-called Tshitolien culture , which after the Lupemban expanded westwards towards the Atlantic. According to the literature, the oldest evidence of human presence in Gabon was around 70,000 years ago. The excavations of Lopé-Okanda have been particularly productive in the last few decades , since they have unearthed numerous prehistoric artefacts that go back up to 400,000 years. Most of all, artifacts were found along the middle Ogooué , which is considered the main migration route of the country well into historical times. These sites are part of the world cultural heritage.

The periodization of prehistory, as it was known from Europe, did not fit in with African history, so that in the 1920s John Goodwin and Clarence Van Riet Lowe, as a more appropriate periodization, divided into Early (Oldowan and Acheuléen), Middle (always belong to it Cores and prepared blades or projectile points) and Late Stone Age (microliths). This division was widely recognized in 1955. Late Stone Age tools were found at Lopé , as well as tools from the transition phase between the Stone and Metal Ages (Stone to Metal Period). Archaeological excavations have revealed traces of Neolithic settlements from the 5th century BC. To the fore.

According to the results of radiocarbon dating, iron was first processed between the 4th and 1st centuries BC. Instead of.

As in the rest of the region, early residents were probably pygmies who lived here as hunters and gatherers. About 1000 years ago, Bantu groups began to immigrate and displace the pygmies, who today only make up a very small part of the Gabonese population. These immigrants were the ancestors of today's Mpongwe and some other nations, as the last in this series of immigrants who arrived in the 19th century finally catch from the north.

More than 80% of the country was then covered by dense rainforest. It did not come to the establishment of larger state structures, apart from the fact that the northernmost part of the Kingdom of Loango still extended to what is now Gabon's territory.

Pre-colonial phase of contact with Europeans 1472–1839

African ivory carving

The Portuguese navigator Lopes Gonçalves was the first European to reach the coast of Gabon in 1472. Gonçalves was on the road on behalf of the merchant Fernão Gomes , who had been given the trade monopoly on this coast by the Portuguese king for the obligation to explore 600 km of the African coast every year. It was probably he who gave the country its name. Due to the idiosyncratic shape of the mouth of the Komo River , he named the country after the Portuguese word for a certain seafarer's coat, "Gabão".

In the centuries that followed, the coast was visited not only by Portuguese but also by Dutch , English and French traders. They traded in slaves , ivory and ebony . The European traders bought the slaves from the coastal peoples, who acquired them from the inland peoples through trade or slave hunts. In the area north of the Ogooué River in the center of what is now Gabon, the Portuguese had certain commercial rights recognized by other Europeans, but they did not exercise colonial rule. In the Treaties of Ildefonso and Pardo (1777 and 1778) Portugal renounced these rights in favor of Spain, but the Spanish were hardly active in this region until 1850. At the end of the 19th century, Spanish influence was officially reduced to Spanish Guinea (now Equatorial Guinea ), which adjoins Gabon to the north .

Colonization by the French 1839–1914

King Denis Rapontchombo and wife, contemporary engraving

The first European power to permanently establish itself on the coast was the French. On February 9, 1839, the French admiral Louis Edouard Bouet-Willaumez signed a treaty with an Mpongwe ruler named Denis Rapontchombo . Contracts with other heads on the coast followed. From these treaties, France derived the status of a protectorate power for the coast of Gabon and began to systematically increase its influence in the region. The future colonial rulers justified their status as a protecting power with the fight against the slave trade. Barnes describes the content of such a treaty, signed in 1846, as follows: “France secured all the land that seemed suitable for the establishment of military and agricultural settlements ... in return they promised the local ruler ('King François') what the Government of France would always consider a reasonable annual amount ” . In 1843 the French built Fort Aumale as a naval base at the mouth of the Komo. In 1849 the future capital of Gabon was officially founded as a settlement for released slaves. It was named Libreville, based on the model of the city of Freetown in what is now Sierra Leone .

French Equatorial Africa, 1910-1958

However, the French did not rate their emerging colony too highly: as recently as 1866 they were ready to swap their holdings in Equatorial Africa for the tiny British Gambia . Between 1886 and 1887 the French explored the interior of the country, which was covered by rainforest. When Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza had reached the upper reaches of the Ogooué and built a station (Franceville), the area of ​​what is now Gabon was explored and, from a European point of view, "taken over". At the green table by a ruler, in the Treaty of Paris in 1900, the boundaries between the Spanish ( Spanish Guinea ) and German ( Cameroon ) territory in the north were drawn. In 1886 Gabon was officially declared a French colony by decree.

Until 1903 Libreville was the capital of the "French Congo", which, apart from Gabon, included the present Republic of the Congo , in 1903 Brazzaville was declared the capital. From 1910 Gabon was part of " French Equatorial Africa ". In 1911 France ceded some parts of northern Gabon to German Cameroon (the so-called New Cameroon ) as part of a compensation deal in the wake of the Agadir crisis . With the exception of an area on the upper reaches of the Ogooué, which was not finally added to Gabon until 1946, Gabon had achieved its present form.

Internal conditions in the colony and aspirations for independence 1914–1960

Extraction of milk sap from rubber trees for rubber production

The colony's value for France lay primarily in the natural deposits of rubber , which was important for the rubber and war industries. Where the indirect pressure to collect rubber through taxes was insufficient, the French resorted to forced labor. During the First World War in Gabon - as in the other French colonies - soldiers and porters were recruited, forced labor intensified and the pressure to collect rubber increased. As a result, various parts of Gabon suffered from famine. In the decade that followed, coercive measures by the colonial administration led to various famines with thousands of deaths in a country that had been able to feed its population until then. Until the 1920s, there were repeated uprisings of different peoples of Gabon against colonial rule. These uprisings, limited regionally and not coordinated nationwide, were easily put down by the colonial army.

After the First World War and the end of the rubber boom (which had not brought any benefits to the local population), rubber was increasingly replaced by wood, especially okoumé wood, as an export product. Within French Equatorial Africa, the autonomous Gabon was considered a "rich colony". This relative prosperity and the early start of proselytizing led to the fact that a Europeanized, African middle class already existed in Gabon in the 1920s and approaches for a national movement emerged. The organ of this movement was the magazine L'Echo gabonais . There were also some “support associations”, some of which were structured along ethnic lines and supported by Mpongwe or Fang, for example.

During the Second World War , the colonial administration of Gabon was initially on the side of Vichy France and joined the Free France General Charles de Gaulle as the last colony of French Equatorial Africa in November 1940 under pressure from the British fleet . In 1944, under the direction of de Gaulle, the well-known " Conference of Brazzaville " took place in Brazzaville, in the neighboring French Congo , at which a complete reorganization of the relationship between France and its colonies was decided. As a result, the “mother country” also declared Gabon a French overseas territory and abolished forced labor. Gabon was now also allowed to send representatives to the French National Assembly.

In the 1940s and 1950s, the later leaders of independent Gabon emerged. Jean-Hilaire Aubame was a colonial administrator and member of parliament in Paris. In 1947 he founded the Union Démocratique et Sociale du Gabon (UDSG, Democratic and Social Union of Gabon). His opponent was Léon M'ba , a member of the Territorial Assembly of Gabon and also a Fang who had only been imprisoned for involvement in a ritual murder in the 1930s and later lived in exile until 1946. In October 1946 he founded the Gabonese branch of the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA), which is represented throughout French Africa, under the name Mouvement Mixte Gabonais (MMG). Another colonial official, Paul Gondjout , founded the Bloc Démocratique Gabonais (BDG, Democratic Bloc of Gabon) in 1952 , which Paul Mba later joined. In the late 1950s, the UDSG and BDG worked together on a constitution for Gabon, but did not advocate independence for the country, but rather that it remained in the "French Community" founded by de Gaulle, which the French colonies were given a certain degree of autonomy Dependence on France should leave.

The loi-cadre Defferre was introduced in 1956 under French administration and with it the general active and passive right to vote for women .

In 1958 French Equatorial Africa dissolved, in 1959 Gabon became an “autonomous republic” in France, with M'ba as head of government and Gondjout as president of parliament. Although M'ba expressly warned against premature independence, which, due to the underdevelopment of Gabon, seemed to inevitably lead to "a kind of neo-colonialism", the move towards decolonization could no longer be stopped. Gabon declared its independence on August 17, 1960. the women's suffrage was confirmed.

The independent Republic of Gabon from 1960 to the present day

Democracy with flaws under M'Ba: 1960–1967

In the first free elections in independent Gabon, neither of the two major political parties, neither the BDG under the leadership of Leon M'Bas nor the UDSG under the leadership of Aubame, was able to achieve a clear majority. Prime Minister M'Ba called for cooperation between the individual parties, which was followed by the leadership of the UDSG and other opposition politicians. M'Ba's attempt to change the constitution in the direction of a presidential democracy based on the Franco-Gaullist model met with resistance in parliament. M'Ba then declared a state of emergency and dissolved parliament. He had his greatest intra-party competitor and leader of the parliamentary resistance, Paul Gondjout , sentenced to two years in prison. With UDSG leader Aubaume he agreed on new elections in 1961, which confirmed his idea of ​​a presidential constitution. Aubame became his government's foreign minister.

At the beginning of 1964 M'Ba tried again in a less democratic way to consolidate his power by trying to carry out a compulsory merger of the BDG with the UDSG in order to establish a de facto one-party state. The weakened UDSG did not succeed in submitting a list of candidates for the upcoming elections that met the requirements of the electoral law. On the night of February 17-18, 1964, soldiers from Gabon's 400-man army rebelled. M'Ba was deposed and several politicians were arrested. The coup officers set up a civilian government with JH Aubame and M'Ba's old rival Paul Gondjout. Just one day later, following an appeal by the Vice President of Gabon, French parachutists from the Senegalese Dakar landed in the capital of Gabon and reinstated President M'Ba. 150 opponents of M'Bas were arrested and Aubame was sentenced to 20 years in prison. In this action, the French government relied on a protection treaty concluded with Gabon on August 17, 1960 after independence. Nevertheless, the use of French parachutists made the continued dependence of the independent Republic of Gabon on France evident.

M'Ba also won the following elections. Two opposition parties received a third of the seats in parliament, but even this modest parliamentary opposition shrank when a few months later some of the opposition MPs moved to the government camp.

A constitutional amendment in 1966 stipulated that if the president died, his deputy would automatically take over the office. When M'Ba died of a serious illness in Paris in 1967, its Vice President Albert Bernard Bongo (later known as Omar Bongo ) became President of Gabon.

Gabon under Albert (Omar) Bongo: 1967 to 2009

The new man consolidated his power through the exchange of leading figures in the party, but also through understanding with the opposition in exile and the release of political prisoners. In early 1968 he declared political parties to be a "legacy of colonialism" that promoted the country's ethnic rivalries. He ordered the dissolution of all existing parties and founded a unity party under the name " Parti Démocratique Gabonais " (PDG, Democratic Party of Gabon). He invited all Gabonese, regardless of old rivalries and previous political ties, to join the Unity Party. From 1972 a personality cult developed around Albert Bongo, who called himself “great Makaya” (“father”) and proclaimed his own political ideology under the name “renovation”. He described this ideology as “neither left nor right” and its own Gabonese path independent of “rampant capitalism ” and “bureaucratic socialism ”. Bongo was confirmed several times in the next three decades with results over 99 percent of the votes in office. A meeting with Libya's head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi in 1973 led to his conversion to Islam and his renaming to Omar Bongo or after his pilgrimage ( Hajj ) to Mecca El Hadj Omar Bongo . In 2003 he changed his name to Omar Bongo Ondimba .

At the beginning of the 1990s, increasing economic difficulties and the noticeable desire for democratization in Gabon led to violent demonstrations. Bongo had to admit wage increases and promise to set up a national assembly in March / April 1990 that would determine Gabon's political future. The PDG and 150 other political organizations took part in this three-week conference. The participants were split into two blocs, the ruling PDG and its allies and the “United Front of Oppositional Associations and Parties”, made up of the Morena faction ( Mouvement de Redressement National ) and the “ Parti gabonais du progrès ” (Progressive Party Gabons) existed.

The conference led to political reforms such as the formation of a national senate and the decentralization of the distribution of state revenue, freedom of assembly and freedom of the press and the abolition of visa requirements when leaving the country. In an attempt to maintain control over this process in the direction of a multi-party system, Bongo abdicated as PDG chairman and created a transitional government under the new Prime Minister Casimir Oyé-Mba .

The new government called itself the “Gabonese Social Democratic Grouping” (RSDG) and had representatives from various former opposition parties in its cabinet. The RSDG drafted a provisional constitution, which provided for basic civil rights and an independent judiciary, but also strong executive rights of the president. After this constitution had been discussed in the National Assembly and within a constitutional committee, it came into force in March 1991. In the event of the president's death, this constitution provided for a division of power between the prime minister, the presidents of the National Assembly and the defense ministers until new elections were held.

Nevertheless, there were two coup attempts in September 1990 that were prevented. After the unexplained death of an opposition politician, there were demonstrations against the government and attacks on foreigners. Again, the French military intervened to restore order. In the first multi-party elections to the National Assembly after almost 30 years, the PDG then won a narrow majority in September 1990.

In December 1993, Bongo was re-elected president with 51 percent of the vote. Quite a few opposition candidates did not recognize this result. Unrest finally led to the so-called “Paris Accords” between the government and opposition representatives in November 1994, which contained some concessions by the government and led to opposition politicians being taken over into government. However, Bongo never really implemented these agreements, and European critics accused him of serious human rights violations. In the years that followed, the PDG won nationwide, but in 1997 had an opposition majority in some of the major cities, including Libreville.

In 1998 and 2005, Bongo easily won electoral victories against a divided opposition. Although Bongo's main political opponents questioned the results, international observers viewed the result as overall representative, despite some irregularities. The 2001/2002 parliamentary elections were boycotted by some smaller opposition parties and criticized for their organizational weaknesses. They led to a national assembly that was almost completely dominated by the PDG and its allies.

Gabon under Ali-Ben Bongo Ondimba: since 2009

On June 8, 2009, Bongo died unexpectedly. Senate President Rose Francine Rogombé was sworn in as interim president until a new president was elected. A total of 17 candidates ran for the presidential election on August 30, 2009. The favorites were Bongo's son, Defense Minister Ali-Ben Bongo Ondimba , former Interior Minister André Mba Obame and long-time opposition leader Pierre Mamboundou .

As expected, Bongo Ondimba was declared the election winner on September 3rd. The announcement of the election results sparked unrest in Gabon. Protesters accused the former colonial power France of supporting Bongo and set fire to the country's consulate.

On August 27, 2016, Ali-Ben Bongo Ondimba was re-elected with 49.8% of the vote, just ahead of Jean Ping , who ran for the UFC opposition alliance. After the election, Bongo Ondimba was accused of election fraud; for example, his alleged share of the vote of over 95% with a voter turnout of 99.93% in his home province of Haut-Ogooué is said to be falsified. The riot broke out again, killing several people and storming the UFC party office by soldiers. Falling oil prices led to an economic crisis.

Bongo Ondimba has been receiving inpatient treatment in Morocco since October 2018 . According to the government's reading, he continues his official business from there. On January 7, 2019, a coup attempt "to restore democracy" by some young officers of the Gabonese armed forces took place in Libreville . The attempt failed after a few hours. The African Union condemned the coup attempt after it became known.

See also

literature

  • Walter Schicho: Handbook Africa. In three volumes . Volume 1: Central Africa, Southern Africa and the States in the Indian Ocean. Brandes & Appel, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-86099-120-5 .
  • James Barnes: Gabon. Beyond the colonial legacy. Westview, Boulder 1992.

Web links

Commons : History of Gabon  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martial Matoumba: paleolithique au Gabon. Les technologies lithiques dans la region de la Nyanga (sud-ouest) , L'Harmattan, Paris 2013, passim.
  2. ↑ Nicolas Metegue N'Nah: Histoire du Gabon: Des origines à l'aube du XXIème siècle , Editions L'Harmattan, Paris 2006, p. 20.
  3. ↑ Sites historiques de la Lopé , UNESCO map in connection with the application for world heritage.
  4. ↑ Bernard Clist: Early Bantu Settlements in West Central Africa: A Review of Recent Research. In: Current Anthropology 28 (3), Chicago 1987, pp. 380–382 (PDF; 127 kB)
  5. ↑ June Hannam, Mitzi Auchterlonie, Katherine Holden: International Encyclopedia of Women's Suffrage. ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford 2000, ISBN 1-57607-064-6 , p. 9.
  6. ^ Mart Martin: The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics. Westview Press Boulder, Colorado, 2000, p. 140.
  7. ↑ - New Parline: the IPU's Open Data Platform (beta). In: data.ipu.org. June 23, 1956, accessed January 5, 2019 .
  8. ↑ BBC News : Gabon appoints interim president of June 9, 2009 (accessed September 4, 2009).
  9. ↑ Der Standard : Successor to deceased President elected on August 30, 2009 (accessed September 4, 2009).
  10. ↑ Focus : Protesters set fire to French consulate on September 3, 2009 (accessed on September 4, 2009).
  11. ↑ Article at heise.de , accessed on September 3, 2016
  12. ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung, Stuttgart Germany: Attempted coup in Gabon: military wants to take power. Retrieved January 12, 2019 .
  13. ↑ We've seized control of govt 'to restore democracy', says Gabon army. AP, On: News24.com, January 7, 2019.
  14. ↑ dpa: Those responsible for the coup in Gabon allegedly arrested. January 7, 2019, accessed on January 12, 2019 (German).