Gabon

The wealthiest state in Central Africa by income per head and one of the least changed by it. Gabon is mostly rainforest with a small population, which meant colonial France valued it chiefly for timber and later for its coast; Libreville was founded in 1849 to settle Africans freed from a captured slave ship, and its name says so. Independence came in 1960. Leon Mba and then Omar Bongo, who took power in 1967 and held it for forty-one years until his death in 2009, governed a state closely tied to France through the network of personal and commercial relationships known as Francafrique - French troops restored Mba after a coup in 1964, and Elf's Gabonese operations funded French political parties, as a Paris corruption trial later established. Oil found offshore from the 1970s made the country rich on paper while a third of the population remained below the poverty line. Bongo's son succeeded him and was removed by the army in 2023. Around eighty-five per cent of the country is forested and thirteen national parks were created at once in 2002. Albert Schweitzer's hospital at Lambarene operated from 1913. Libreville is the capital. The country has about 2.4 million people. French is the official language. The equator crosses it. Its offshore waters were made a network of marine parks in 2017. Iron ore at Belinga and manganese at Moanda are significant alongside oil, and Gabon is among the largest manganese producers in the world. Loango national park is known for forest elephants and gorillas that come out onto the beach.

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