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85-886: It flows in Gabon , and passes through Franceville . Its main tributary is the Ndjoumou River . The Mpassa River rises in the Bateke Plateau near the border with the Republic of the Congo . 1°36′52″S 13°33′11″E  /  1.61444°S 13.55306°E  / -1.61444; 13.55306 This article related to a river in Gabon is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Gabon Gabon ( / ɡ ə ˈ b ɒ n / gə- BON ; French pronunciation: [ɡabɔ̃] ), officially

170-543: A coup d'état and cancelled the election results. They also dissolved state institutions including the Judiciary, Parliament and the constitutional assembly. On 31 August 2023, army officers who seized power, ending the Bongo family's 55-year hold on power, named Gen Brice Oligui Nguema as the country's transitional leader. On 4 September 2023, General Nguema was sworn in as interim president of Gabon. In November 2024,

255-405: A referendum on a new constitution was approved, reforming the country's government. The presidential republic form of government is stated under the 1961 constitution (revised in 1975, rewritten in 1991, and revised in 2003). The president is elected by universal suffrage for a seven-year term; a 2003 constitutional amendment removed presidential term limits. The president can appoint and dismiss

340-494: A 1-party state by dissolving BDG and establishing a new party – the Parti Démocratique Gabonais (PDG). He invited all Gabonese, regardless of previous political affiliation, to participate. Bongo sought to forge a single national movement in support of the government's development policies, using PDG as a tool to submerge the regional and tribal rivalries that had divided Gabonese politics in the past. Bongo

425-650: A 15-month Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF. A three-year Stand-By Arrangement with IMF was approved in May 2007. Because of the financial crisis and social developments surrounding the death of President Omar Bongo and the elections, Gabon was unable to meet its economic goals under the Stand-By Arrangement in 2009. Gabon's oil revenues have given it a per capita GDP of $ 8,600. A "skewed income distribution" and "poor social indicators" are "evident". The richest 20% of

510-432: A 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 9.07/10, ranking it 9th globally out of 172 countries. Gabon has a large number of protected animal and plant species. The country's biodiversity is one of the most varied on the planet. Gabon is home of 604 species of birds, 98 species of amphibians, between 95 and 160 species of reptiles and 198 different species of mammals. In Gabon there are rare species, such as

595-579: A PDG-controlled National Assembly. Following the death of President Omar Bongo on 8 June 2009 due to cardiac arrest at a Spanish hospital in Barcelona, Gabon entered a period of political transition. Per the amended constitution, Rose Francine Rogombé , the President of the Senate, assumed the role of Interim President on 10 June 2009. The subsequent presidential elections, held on 30 August 2009, marked

680-527: A curfew remained in effect for over three months. In June 2010, a partial legislative by-election was held, marking the emergence of the Union Nationale (UN) coalition, primarily comprising defectors from the ruling PDG party following Omar Bongo's death. The contest for the five available seats saw both the PDG and UN claiming victory, underscoring the political tensions that persisted in the aftermath of

765-499: A government of national unity. This arrangement broke down and the 1996 and 1997 legislative and municipal elections provided the background for renewed partisan politics. PDG won in the legislative election, and some cities, including Libreville , elected opposition mayors during the 1997 local election. Facing a divided opposition, President Omar Bongo coasted to re-election in December 1998. While some of Bongo's opponents rejected

850-521: A historic moment as they were the first in Gabon's history not to feature Omar Bongo as a candidate. With a crowded field of 18 contenders, including Omar Bongo's son and ruling party leader, Ali Bongo , the elections were closely watched both domestically and internationally. After a rigorous three-week review by the Constitutional Court, Ali Bongo was officially declared the winner, leading to his inauguration on 16 October 2009. However,

935-539: A majority. Following President Omar Bongo 's re-election in December 1993 with 51% of the vote, opposition candidates refused to validate the election results. Civil disturbances and violent repression led to an agreement between the government and opposition factions to work toward a political settlement. These talks led to the Paris Accords in November 1994, under which some opposition figures were included in

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1020-592: A result of these interactions. The Bantu migrations, and centuries later the Indian Ocean slave trade, brought Bantu influence to Madagascar , the Malagasy people showing Bantu admixture, and their Malagasy language Bantu loans. Toward the 18th and 19th centuries, the flow of Zanj slaves from Southeast Africa increased with the rise of the Sultanate of Zanzibar . With the arrival of European colonialists,

1105-527: A sector-by-sector basis, making wage concessions. He promised to open up PDG and to organize a national political conference in March–April 1990 to discuss Gabon's future political system. PDG and 74 political organizations attended the conference. Participants essentially divided into 2 "loose" coalitions, ruling PDG and its allies, and the United Front of Opposition Associations and Parties, consisting of

1190-859: A significant clustered variation of genetic traits among Bantu language speakers by region, suggesting admixture from prior local populations. Bantu speakers of South Africa (Xhosa, Venda) showed substantial levels of the SAK and Western African Bantu AACs and low levels of the East African Bantu AAC (the latter is also present in Bantu speakers from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda). The results indicate distinct East African Bantu migration into southern Africa and are consistent with linguistic and archeological evidence of East African Bantu migration from an area west of Lake Victoria and

1275-695: A system of rainforests , with 89.3% of its land area forested. There are coastal plains (ranging between 20 and 300 km [10 and 190 mi] from the ocean's shore), the mountains (the Cristal Mountains to the northeast of Libreville, the Chaillu Massif in the centre), and the savanna in the east. The coastal plains form a section of the World Wildlife Fund 's Atlantic Equatorial coastal forests ecoregion and contain patches of Central African mangroves including on

1360-442: A transitional government headed by a new Prime Minister, Casimir Oye-Mba . The Gabonese Social Democratic Grouping (RSDG), as the resulting government was called, was smaller than the previous government and included representatives from some opposition parties in its cabinet. RSDG drafted a provisional constitution in May 1990 that provided a basic bill of rights and an independent judiciary and retained "strong" executive powers for

1445-436: A vast area from West Africa, to Central Africa, Southeast Africa and into Southern Africa. Bantu people also inhabit southern areas of Northeast African states. There are several hundred Bantu languages. Depending on the definition of "language" or "dialect" , it is estimated that there are between 440 and 680 distinct languages. The total number of speakers is in the hundreds of millions, ranging at roughly 350 million in

1530-484: A vast genomic analysis of more than 2,000 samples taken from individuals in 57 populations throughout Sub-Saharan Africa to trace the Bantu expansion. During a wave of expansion that began 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, Bantu-speaking populations – some 310 million people as of 2023 – gradually left their original homeland West-Central Africa and travelled to the eastern and southern regions of the African continent. During

1615-531: Is beginning for an after-oil scenario. The rich Grondin Oil Field was discovered in 1971 in 50 m (160 ft) water depths 40 km (25 mi) offshore in an anticline salt structural trap in Batanga sandstones of Maastrichtian age, but about 60% of its estimated reserves had been extracted by 1978. As of 2023, Gabon produced about 200,000 barrels a day (bpd) of crude oil. "Overspending" on

1700-440: Is causing heavy deforestation that threatens this valuable ecosystem. Likewise, poaching endangers wildlife. Gabon's national flower is Delonix Regia . Oil revenues constitute roughly 46% of the government's budget, 43% of the gross domestic product (GDP), and 81% of exports. Oil production declined from its higher point of 370,000 barrels per day in 1997. Some estimates suggest that Gabonese oil will be expended by 2025. Planning

1785-412: Is composed of 102 members who are elected by municipal councils and regional assemblies and serve for six years. The Senate was created in the 1990–1991 constitutional revision, and was not brought into being until after the 1997 local elections. The President of the Senate is next in succession to the President. In 1990, the government made changes to Gabon's political system. A transitional constitution

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1870-533: Is dedicated to their study. It is also home to more than half the population of African forest elephants , mostly in Minkébé National Park . Gabon's national symbol is the black panther . More than 10,000 species of plants, and 400 species of trees form the flora of Gabon. Gabon's rainforest is considered the densest and most virgin in Africa. However, the country's enormous population growth

1955-471: Is no native term for the people who speak Bantu languages because they are not an ethnic group . People speaking Bantu languages refer to their languages by ethnic endonyms, which did not have an indigenous concept prior to European contact for the larger ethnolinguistic phylum named by 19th-century European linguists. Bleek's coinage was inspired by the anthropological observation of groups self-identifying as "people" or "the true people". That is, idiomatically

2040-408: Is one of the wealthiest countries in Africa in terms of per capita income ; however, large parts of the population are very poor. Omar Bongo came to office in 1967 and created a dynasty , which stabilized its power through a clientist network, Françafrique . The official language of Gabon is French , and Bantu ethnic groups constitute around 95% of the country's population. Christianity

2125-552: Is the Ogooué which is 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) long. It has 3 karst areas where there are hundreds of caves located in the dolomite and limestone rocks. A National Geographic Expedition visited some caves in the summer of 2008 to document them. In 2002, President Omar Bongo Ondimba designated roughly 10% of the nation's territory to be part of its national park system (with 13 parks in total). The National Agency for National Parks manages Gabon's national park system. Gabon had

2210-441: Is the nation's predominant religion, practised by about 80% of the population. With petroleum and foreign private investment, it has the fourth highest HDI (after Mauritius , Seychelles , and South Africa ) and the fifth highest GDP per capita (PPP) (after Seychelles, Mauritius, Equatorial Guinea , and Botswana ) of any African nation. Gabon's nominal GDP per capita is $ 10,149 in 2023 according to OPEC. Pygmy peoples in

2295-835: The Baganda people of Uganda (5.5 million as of 2014), the Shona of Zimbabwe (17.6 million as of 2020), the Zulu of South Africa (14.2 million as of 2016 ), the Luba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (28.8 million as of 2010 ), the Sukuma of Tanzania (10.2 million as of 2016 ), the Kikuyu of Kenya (8.1 million as of 2019 ), the Xhosa people of Southern Africa (9.6 million as of 2011), batswana of Southern Africa (8.2 Million as of 2020) and

2380-520: The Chaillu Massif in the centre), and a savanna in the east. Libreville is the country's capital and largest city. Gabon's original inhabitants were the pygmy peoples . Beginning in the 14th century, Bantu migrants began settling in the area as well. The Kingdom of Orungu was established around 1700. The region was colonised by France in the late 19th century. Since its independence from France in 1960, Gabon has had three presidents . In

2465-959: The Communaute Financiere Africaine (CFA); the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC); the Nonaligned Movement ; and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS/CEEAC). In 1995, Gabon withdrew from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), rejoining in 2016. Gabon was elected to a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for January 2010 through December 2011 and held

2550-910: The Congo rainforest by about 1500 BC and the southern savannas by 500 BC, while the eastward dispersal reached the Great Lakes by 1000 BC, expanding further from there as the rich environment supported dense populations. Possible movements by small groups to the southeast from the Great Lakes region could have been more rapid, with initial settlements widely dispersed near the coast and near rivers, because of comparatively harsh farming conditions in areas farther from water. Recent archeological and linguistic evidence about population movements suggests that pioneering groups would have had reached parts of modern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa sometime prior to

2635-569: The French Community , and on 17 August 1960, it became fully independent. The first president of Gabon, elected in 1961, was Léon M'ba , with Omar Bongo Ondimba as his vice president. After M'ba's accession to power, the press was suppressed, political demonstrations suppressed, freedom of expression curtailed, other political parties gradually excluded from power, and the Constitution changed along French lines to vest power in

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2720-714: The Gabonese Republic ( French : République gabonaise ), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa , on the equator , bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo on the east and south, and the Gulf of Guinea to the west. It has an area of 270,000 square kilometres (100,000 sq mi) and a population of 2.3 million people. There are coastal plains, mountains (the Cristal Mountains and

2805-694: The Indian Ocean slave trade . The Swahili culture that emerged from these exchanges evinces many Arab and Islamic influences not seen in traditional Bantu culture, as do the many Afro-Arab members of the Bantu Swahili people . With its original speech community centered on the coastal parts of Zanzibar, Kenya, and Tanzania – a seaboard referred to as the Swahili Coast – the Bantu Swahili language contains many Arabic loanwords as

2890-706: The Kingdom of Matamba the Kuba Kingdom , the Lunda Empire , the Luba Empire , Barotse Empire , Kazembe Kingdom , Mbunda Kingdom , Yeke Kingdom , Kasanje Kingdom , Empire of Kitara, Butooro , Bunyoro , Buganda , Busoga , Rwanda , Burundi , Ankole , the Kingdom of Mpororo , the Kingdom of Igara , the Kingdom of Kooki , the Kingdom of Karagwe , Swahili city states , the Mutapa Empire ,

2975-562: The Muni River estuary on the border with Equatorial Guinea . Geologically, Gabon is primarily Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic igneous and metamorphic basement rock , belonging to the stable continental crust of the Congo Craton . Some formations are more than 2 billion years old. Some rock units are overlain by marine carbonate , lacustrine and continental sedimentary rocks, and unconsolidated sediments and soils that formed in

3060-528: The National Party governments adopted that usage officially, while the growing African nationalist movement and its liberal allies turned to the term "African" instead, so that "Bantu" became identified with the policies of apartheid . By the 1970s this so discredited "Bantu" as an ethnic-racial designation that the apartheid government switched to the term "Black" in its official racial categorizations, restricting it to Bantu-speaking Africans , at about

3145-502: The Pedi of South Africa (7 million as of 2018). Abantu is the Xhosa and Zulu word for people. It is the plural of the word 'umuntu', meaning 'person', and is based on the stem '--ntu', plus the plural prefix 'aba'. In linguistics, the word Bantu , for the language families and its speakers, is an artificial term based on the reconstructed Proto-Bantu term for "people" or "humans" . It

3230-616: The Trans-Gabon Railway , the CFA franc devaluation of 1994, and periods of lower oil prices caused debt problems. Successive International Monetary Fund (IMF) missions have criticized the Gabonaise government for overspending on off-budget items (in good years and bad), over-borrowing from the central bank , and slipping on the schedule for privatization and administrative reform. In September 2005 Gabon successfully concluded

3315-589: The Zulu Kingdom , the Ndebele Kingdom , Mthethwa Empire , Tswana city states , Mapungubwe , Kingdom of Eswatini , the Kingdom of Butua , Maravi , Danamombe , Khami , Naletale , Kingdom of Zimbabwe and the Rozwi Empire . On the coastal section of East Africa, a mixed Bantu community developed through contact with Muslim Arab and Persian traders, Zanzibar being an important part of

3400-561: The 1990s, it introduced a multi-party system and a democratic constitution that aimed for a more transparent electoral process and reformed some governmental institutions. Despite this, the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) remained the dominant party until its removal from power during the 2023 Gabonese coup d'état . Gabon is a developing country , ranking 123rd in the Human Development Index . It

3485-413: The 1994 Paris Conference and Accords. These provided a framework for the next elections. Local and legislative elections were delayed until 1996–1997. In 1997, constitutional amendments put forward years earlier were adopted to create the Senate and the position of Vice President , and to extend the President's term to seven years. In October 2009, President Ali Bongo Ondimba began efforts to streamline

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3570-412: The 3rd century AD along the coast and the modern Northern Cape by AD 500. Cattle terminology in use amongst the relatively few modern Bantu pastoralist groups suggests that the acquisition of cattle may have been from Central Sudanic , Kuliak and Cushitic -speaking neighbors. Linguistic evidence also indicates that the customs of milking cattle were also directly modeled from Cushitic cultures in

3655-831: The 9th and 15th centuries, Bantu-speaking states began to emerge in the Great Lakes region and in the savanna south of the Central African rainforests. The Monomotapa kings built the Great Zimbabwe complex, a civilisation ancestral to the Shona people. Comparable sites in Southern Africa include Bumbusi in Zimbabwe and Manyikeni in Mozambique. From the 12th century onward, the processes of state formation amongst Bantu peoples increased in frequency. This

3740-573: The Bantu expansion, Bantu-speaking peoples extirpated and displaced many earlier inhabitants, with only a few modern peoples such as Pygmy groups in Central Africa, the Hadza people in northern Tanzania, and various Khoisan populations across southern Africa remaining in existence into the era of European contact. Archaeological evidence attests to their presence in areas subsequently occupied by Bantu speakers. Researchers have demonstrated that

3825-530: The Gabon pangolin and the grey-necked rockfowl , or endemics, such as the Gabon guenon . The country is one of the most varied and important fauna reserves in Africa: it is an important refuge for chimpanzees (whose number, in 2003, was estimated between 27,000 and 64,000) and gorillas (28,000-42,000 estimated in 1983). The "Gorilla and Chimpanzee Study Station" inside the Lopé National Park

3910-629: The Khoisan of the Kalahari are remnants of a huge ancestral population that may have been the most populous group on the planet prior to the Bantu expansion. Biochemist Stephan Schuster of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and colleagues found that the Khoisan population began a drastic decline when the Bantu farmers spread through Africa 4,000 years ago. Before the Bantu expansion had been definitively traced starting from their origins in

3995-665: The Presidency, a post that M'ba assumed himself. When M'ba dissolved the National Assembly in January 1964 to institute one-party rule, an army coup sought to oust him from power and restore parliamentary democracy. French paratroopers flew in within 24 hours to restore M'ba to power. After days of fighting, the coup ended and the opposition was imprisoned, with protests and riots. When M'Ba died in 1967, Bongo replaced him as president. In March 1968, Bongo declared Gabon

4080-463: The President, the Assembly unanimously adopted the constitution in March 1991. Multiparty legislative elections were held in 1990–1991 when opposition parties had not been declared formally legal. In January 1991, the Assembly passed by unanimous vote a law governing the legalization of opposition parties. After President Omar Bongo was re-elected in 1993, in a disputed election where only 51% of votes were cast, social and political disturbances led to

4165-436: The Zanzibar Sultanate came into direct trade conflict and competition with Portuguese and other Europeans along the Swahili Coast, leading eventually to the fall of the Sultanate and the end of slave trading on the Swahili Coast in the mid-20th century. In the 1920s, relatively liberal South Africans, missionaries, and the native African intelligentsia began to use the term "Bantu" in preference to "Native". After World War II ,

4250-412: The alleged bombing of opposition party headquarters by the presidential guard. Between 50 and 100 citizens were killed by security forces and 1,000 arrested. International observers criticized irregularities, including unnaturally high turnout reported for some districts. The country's supreme court threw out some suspect precincts, and the ballots have been destroyed. The election was declared in favour of

4335-454: The announcement of his victory was met with skepticism by some opposition candidates, sparking sporadic protests across the country. Nowhere was this discontent more pronounced than in Port-Gentil , where allegations of electoral fraud resulted in violent demonstrations. The unrest claimed four lives and led to significant property damage, including attacks on the French Consulate and a local prison. Subsequently, security forces were deployed, and

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4420-399: The area were largely replaced and absorbed by Bantu tribes as they migrated. By the 18th century, a Myeni -speaking kingdom known as the Kingdom of Orungu formed as a trading centre with the ability to purchase and sell slaves, and fell with the demise of the slave trade in the 1870s. Explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza led his first mission to the Gabon-Congo area in 1875. He founded

4505-555: The area. Cattle terminology in southern African Bantu languages differs from that found among more northerly Bantu-speaking peoples. One recent suggestion is that Cushitic speakers had moved south earlier and interacted with the most northerly of Khoisan speakers who acquired cattle from them and that the earliest arriving Bantu speakers, in turn, got their initial cattle from Cushitic-influenced Khwe-speaking people. Under this hypothesis, larger later Bantu-speaking immigration subsequently displaced or assimilated that southernmost extension of

4590-418: The breakaway Morena Fundamental and the Gabonese Progress Party . The April 1990 conference approved political reforms, including creation of a national Senate , decentralization of the budgetary process, freedom of assembly and press, and cancellation of an exit visa requirement. In an attempt to guide the political system's transformation to multiparty democracy, Bongo resigned as PDG chairman and created

4675-404: The country should be run by someone the people really wanted. He selected 19 ministers for his government, and the entire group, along with hundreds of others, spent the night at the United Nations headquarters. On January 26, the government dissolved Mba Obame's party. AU chairman Jean Ping said that Mba Obame's action "hurts the integrity of legitimate institutions and also endangers the peace,

4760-401: The economy so that Gabon becomes less reliant on petroleum, to eliminate corruption, and to modernize the workforce. Under this program, exports of raw timber have been banned, a government-wide census was held, the work day was changed to eliminate a long midday break, and a national oil company was created. On 25 January 2011, opposition leader André Mba Obame claimed the presidency, saying

4845-588: The fierce debate among linguists about the word "Bantu", Seidensticker (2024) indicates that there has been a "profound conceptual trend in which a "purely technical [term] without any non-linguistic connotations was transformed into a designation referring indiscriminately to language, culture, society, and race"." Bantu languages derive from the Proto-Bantu reconstructed language, estimated to have been spoken about 4,000 to 3,000 years ago in West / Central Africa (the area of modern-day Cameroon). They were supposedly spread across Central, East and Southern Africa in

4930-441: The first country to receive payments for reducing emissions resulting from deforestation and forest degradation. Additionally, in June 2022, Gabon, along with Togo , joined the Commonwealth of Nations , signalling its commitment to multilateral engagement and cooperation. In August 2023, following the announcement that Ali Bongo had won a third term in the general election , military officers announced that they had taken power in

5015-475: The government. In an effort to reduce corruption and government bloat, he eliminated 17 minister-level positions, abolished the Vice Presidency and reorganized the portfolios of some ministries, bureaus and directorates. In November 2009, President Bongo Ondimba announced a new vision for the modernization of Gabon, called "Gabon Emergent". This program contains three pillars: Green Gabon, Service Gabon, and Industrial Gabon. The goals of Gabon Emergent are to diversify

5100-411: The incorporation of Khoekhoe ancestry into several of the Southeast Bantu populations ~1500 to 1000 years ago. Bantu-speaking migrants would have also interacted with some Afro-Asiatic outlier groups in the southeast (mainly Cushitic ), as well as Nilotic and Central Sudanic speaking groups. According to the early-split scenario as hypothesized in the 1990s, the southward dispersal had reached

5185-436: The incumbent Ondimba. The European Parliament issued two resolutions denouncing the unclear results of the election and calling for an investigation on the human rights violations. A few days after the controversial presidential election in August 2023, a group of military officials declared a military coup and that they had overthrown the government and deposed Ali Bongo Ondimba. The announcement came hours after Ali Bongo

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5270-413: The last 2.5 million years of the Quaternary . The rifting apart of the supercontinent Pangaea created rift basins that filled with sediments and formed the hydrocarbons. There are Oklo reactor zones, a natural nuclear fission reactor on Earth which was active 2 billion years ago. The site was discovered during uranium mining in the 1970s to supply the French nuclear power industry. Its largest river

5355-483: The mid-2010s (roughly 30% of the population of Africa , or roughly 5% of the total world population ). About 60 million speakers (2015), divided into some 200 ethnic or tribal groups, are found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone. The larger of the individual Bantu groups have populations of several million, e.g.the large majority of West Africa, notably the most populous African nation Nigeria , Rwanda , Tanzania , Uganda , Kenya , Burundi (25 million),

5440-403: The outcome as fraudulent, some international observers characterized the results as representative "despite many perceived irregularities". Legislative elections held in 2001–2002 were boycotted by a number of smaller opposition parties and were criticized for their administrative weaknesses, produced a National Assembly dominated by PDG and allied independents. In November 2005 President Omar Bongo

5525-832: The population earn over 90% of the income while about a third of the Gabonese population lives in poverty. The economy is dependent on extraction. Before the discovery of oil, logging was the "pillar" of the Gabonese economy. Then, logging and manganese mining are the "next-most-important" income generators. Some explorations suggest the presence of the world's largest unexploited iron ore deposit. For some who live in rural areas without access to employment opportunity in extractive industries, remittances from family members in urban areas or subsistence activities provide income. Bantu peoples The Bantu peoples are an indigenous ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct native African ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages . The languages are native to countries spread over

5610-409: The president. It is divided into 9 provinces which are subdivided into 50 departments . The president appoints the provincial governors, the prefects, and the subprefects. The provinces are (capitals in parentheses): Gabon is located on the Atlantic coast of central Africa on the equator , between latitudes 3°N and 4°S , and longitudes 8° and 15°E . Gabon has an equatorial climate with

5695-465: The president. After further review by a constitutional committee and the National Assembly, this document came into force in March 1991. Opposition to PDG continued after the April 1990 conference, and in September 1990, two coup d'état attempts were uncovered and aborted. With demonstrations after the death of an opposition leader, the first multiparty National Assembly elections in almost 30 years took place in September–October 1990, with PDG garnering

5780-434: The presidential transition. The political landscape was further disrupted in January 2019 when a group of soldiers attempted a coup against President Ali Bongo. Despite initial unrest, the coup ultimately failed, but it highlighted the ongoing challenges facing Gabon's political stability. Against this backdrop of political volatility, Gabon achieved significant milestones on the international stage. In June 2021, it became

5865-403: The prime minister, the cabinet, and judges of the independent Supreme Court. The president has other powers such as authority to dissolve the National Assembly, declare a state of siege, delay legislation, and conduct referendums. Gabon has a bicameral legislature with a National Assembly and Senate. The National Assembly has 120 deputies who are popularly elected for a five-year term. The Senate

5950-782: The range of Cushitic speakers. Based on dental evidence, Irish (2016) concluded: Proto-Bantu peoples may have originated in the western region of the Sahara , amid the Kiffian period at Gobero , and may have migrated southward, from the Sahara into various parts of West Africa (e.g., Benin , Cameroon , Ghana , Nigeria , Togo ), as a result of desertification of the Green Sahara in 7000 BCE. From Nigeria and Cameroon, agricultural Proto-Bantu peoples began to migrate , and amid migration, diverged into East Bantu peoples (e.g., Democratic Republic of Congo ) and West Bantu peoples (e.g., Congo, Gabon ) between 2500 BCE and 1200 BCE. Irish (2016) also views Igbo people and Yoruba people as being possibly back-migrated Bantu peoples. Between

6035-1117: The reflexes of * bantʊ in the numerous languages often have connotations of personal character traits as encompassed under the values system of ubuntu , also known as hunhu in Chishona or botho in Sesotho , rather than just referring to all human beings. The root in Proto-Bantu is reconstructed as *-ntʊ́ . Versions of the word Bantu (that is, the root plus the class 2 noun class prefix *ba- ) occur in all Bantu languages: for example, as bantu in Kikongo , Kituba , Tshiluba and Kiluba ; watu in Swahili ; ŵanthu in Tumbuka ; anthu in Chichewa ; batu in Lingala ; bato in Duala ; abanto in Gusii ; andũ in Kamba and Kikuyu ; abantu in Kirundi , Lusoga , Zulu , Xhosa , Runyoro and Luganda ; wandru in Shingazidja ; abantru in Mpondo and Ndebele ; bãthfu in Phuthi ; bantfu in Swati and Bhaca ; banhu in kisukuma ; banu in Lala ; vanhu in Shona and Tsonga ; batho in Sesotho , Tswana and Sepedi ; antu in Meru ; andu in Embu ; vandu in some Luhya dialects; vhathu in Venda and bhandu in Nyakyusa . Within

6120-578: The region between Cameroon and Nigeria, two main scenarios of the Bantu expansion were hypothesized: an early expansion to Central Africa and a single origin of the dispersal radiating from there, or an early separation into an eastward and a southward wave of dispersal, with one wave moving across the Congo Basin toward East Africa, and another moving south along the African coast and the Congo River system toward Angola. Genetic analysis shows

6205-645: The rotating presidency in March 2010. In 2022, Gabon joined the Commonwealth of Nations . In 2024, ruling junta leader Brice Oligui Nguema assured American and French leaders that Gabon would be an ally of the West moving forward, as a part of his broader plan to solve the ongoing debt crisis. It has a professional military of about 5,000 personnel, divided into army , navy , air force , gendarmerie , and police force. A 1,800-member guard provides security for

6290-532: The same time that the Black Consciousness Movement led by Steve Biko and others were defining "Black" to mean all non-European South Africans (Bantus, Khoisan, Coloureds and Indians ). In modern South Africa, the word's connection to apartheid has become so discredited that it is only used in its original linguistic meaning. Examples of South African usages of "Bantu" include: [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from

6375-421: The security and the stability of Gabon." Interior Minister Jean-François Ndongou accused Mba Obame and his supporters of treason . The UN Secretary-General , Ban Ki-moon , said that he recognized Ondimba as the only official Gabonese president. The 2016 presidential election was disputed, with "very close" official results reported. Protests broke out in the capital and met a repression which culminated in

6460-531: The so-called Bantu expansion , comparatively rapid dissemination taking roughly two millennia and dozens of human generations during the 1st millennium BC and the 1st millennium AD. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur and the CNRS, together with a broad international consortium, retraced the migratory routes of the Bantu populations, which were previously a source of debate. The scientists used data from

6545-710: The system most likely to promote rapid economic growth. It involved itself in mediation efforts in Chad , the Central African Republic , Angola , the Republic of the Congo , the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.), and Burundi . In December 1999, through the mediation efforts of President Bongo, a peace accord was signed in the Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville) between the government and most leaders of an armed rebellion. President Bongo

6630-478: The town of Franceville and was later colonial governor. Some Bantu groups lived in the area when France officially occupied it in 1885. In 1910, Gabon became a territory of French Equatorial Africa , a federation that survived until 1958. In World War II , the Allies invaded Gabon in order to overthrow the pro- Vichy France colonial administration. On 28 November 1958, Gabon became an autonomous republic within

6715-513: Was drafted in May 1990 as an outgrowth of the national political conference in March–April and later revised by a constitutional committee. Among its provisions were a Western-style bill of rights , creation of a National Council of Democracy to oversee the guarantee of those rights, a governmental advisory board on economic and social issues, and an independent judiciary. After approval by the National Assembly, PDG Central Committee, and

6800-487: Was elected for his sixth term. He won re-election, and opponents claim that the balloting process was marred by irregularities. There were some instances of violence following the announcement of his win. National Assembly elections were held in December 2006. Some seats contested because of voting irregularities were overturned by the Constitutional Court , and the subsequent run-off elections in 2007 yielded

6885-583: Was elected president in February 1975; in April 1975, the position of vice president was abolished and replaced by the position of prime minister, who had no right to automatic succession. Bongo was re-elected President in December 1979 and November 1986 to 7-year terms. In 1990, economic discontent and a desire for political liberalization provoked demonstrations and strikes by students and workers. In response to grievances by workers, Bongo negotiated with them on

6970-465: Was first introduced into modern academia (as Bâ-ntu ) by Wilhelm Bleek in 1857 or 1858 and popularised in his Comparative Grammar of 1862. The name was said to be coined to represent the word for "people" in loosely reconstructed Proto-Bantu, from the plural noun class prefix *ba- categorizing "people", and the root *ntʊ̀ - "some (entity), any" (e.g. Xhosa umntu "person" abantu "people", Zulu umuntu "person", abantu "people"). There

7055-889: Was involved in the continuing D.R.C. peace process, and played a role in mediating the crisis in Ivory Coast . Gabon is a member of the United Nations (UN) and some of its specialized and related agencies, and of the World Bank ; the IMF ; the African Union (AU); the Central African Customs Union/Central African Economic and Monetary Community (UDEAC/CEMAC); EU/ACP association under the Lomé Convention ;

7140-536: Was officially re-elected for a third term. General Brice Oligui Nguema was appointed as the transitional leader. This event marked the eighth instance of military intervention in the region since 2020, raising concerns about democratic stability. Since independence, Gabon has followed a nonaligned policy, advocating dialogue in international affairs and recognizing each side of divided countries. In intra-African affairs, it espouses development by evolution rather than revolution and favours regulated private enterprise as

7225-449: Was the result of several factors such as a denser population (which led to more specialized divisions of labor, including military power while making emigration more difficult); technological developments in economic activity; and new techniques in the political-spiritual ritualisation of royalty as the source of national strength and health. Examples of such Bantu states include: the Kingdom of Kongo , Anziku Kingdom , Kingdom of Ndongo ,

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