The oldest human artefacts to have been discovered in Gabon are stone spearheads, which date back to 7000BC, but little more is known about Gabonese prehistory. The earliest of the present inhabitants are the Pygmies; from AD1100 onwards various Bantu tribes began migrating into the area. It was during this period of migration, which continued for several centuries, that the Portuguese discovered Gabon in 1472. |
Thereafter, Gabon was primarily of interest to the Dutch, French and British, who negotiated with the coastal tribes for slaves and ivory from the interior. The slave trade ceased in the middle of the 19th century, but not before it had destroyed the social inter-relationships of the tribes it affected. The French annexed land on either side of the Gabon River peacefully during the mid-19th century as a province of French Equatorial Africa. |
The Republic of Gabon moved peacefully into independence in 1960 after a 3-year period of internal self-government. A French-style constitution was adopted the following year and Léon M'Ba became Gabon's first President. After seven years of stormy pluralism, the ruling Parti Démocratique Gabonais (PDG) declared Gabon a one-party state, but retained broadly pro-Western policies.
President Omar Bongo, who succeeded M'Ba on the latter's death in 1967 and is now Africa's second longest standing head of state (after Eyadéma of Togo), has maintained them ever since. At their heart are exceptionally close relations with the French. Gabon remains France's principal supplier of uranium and a number of other strategic minerals. |
From 1990, the Bongo government pursued the transformation, in common with much of the rest of Africa, from a one-party state to a pluralistic political system. The 120-seat elected National Assembly has acquired genuine political power although it remains dominated by the PDG, which at the last poll in February 1997 captured 85 seats. Half of the remainder were won by what is now the principal opposition party, the Rassemblement National des Bûcherons. A close ally of Bongo's, Paulin Obame Nguéma resumed as premier after first taking over the post in October 1994. However, in the spring of 1999, he was replaced by another prominent PDG figure, Jean-Francois Ntoutoume. |
