Gabon | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

Formerly part of French Equatorial Africa, the Republic of Gabon gained independence in August 1960. Gabon has an area of 267,669 square kilometers (103,347 square miles), and in 2003 its population was estimated at 1.32 million, which is divided into various small to medium-size ethnic groupings. The three largest constitute only 55 percent of the total. Gabon's export economy initially was based on tropical wood, manganese, and uranium, but oil has provided its linchpin since the early 1970s, and Gabon remains a leading African oil producer.

Leon M'Ba (1902–1967) served as Gabon's first president from 1961 until his death in 1967. His successor, Albert-Bernard (later Omar) Bongo Ondimba (b. 1935), is Africa's second longest-serving head of state. Gabon became a one-party state soon after independence in 1960. After surviving a coup attempt in 1964, the regime enjoyed both political stability and rapid economic growth until the late 1980s, when economic difficulties sparked pressures for political reform that produced a restoration of multiparty politics in 1990.

Gabon's constitutional framework reflects the influence of the French Fifth Republic, with a president joined by a prime minister and council of ministers. The National Assembly has 120 deputies, and the Senate consists of ninety-one members who are elected indirectly. The reintroduction of competitive politics also saw the creation of a separate Constitutional Court alongside the Supreme Court and a National Communications Council to regulate the newly emergent privately owned media; an independent electoral commission was introduced in 1996.

The greater institutional dispersion of authority that followed the democratic opening of 1990 coincided with a continuing centralization of power in the presidency—a tendency accentuated by President Bongo Ondimba's undoubted leadership skills, a fragmented political opposition, and the cohesion of the ruling Parti démocratique gabonais, the only effective national party. In the seven legislative or presidential elections since 1990 the party's power has never been challenged seriously, enabling Bongo Ondimba frequently to include opposition figures in his cabinet. The nearly thirty opposition parties are tied to individual leaders or anchored to narrow ethnic interests. Few have significant representation in the National Assembly.

Gabon's democratic foundations thus appear shallow. Certainly, electoral management has improved greatly since the early 1990s; opposition parties campaign largely without hindrance, and the Constitutional Court has shown independence in adjudicating disputed electoral outcomes. However, question remains over the integrity of the electoral rolls and, more recently, the use of the National Communications Council to harass independent newspapers. Despite high levels of urbanization, civil society remains weakly organized. Voting turnout declined steadily from the early 1990s and stood at only 44 percent in the 2001 National Assembly elections (under 20 percent in the capital of Libreville).

Since the late 1990s oil production has been in decline, and uranium exports ceased in 1999. Gabon still has one of the highest national incomes per capita in Africa, but underlying tensions arising from the marked regional and socioeconomic inequalities have considerable disruptive potential. Bongo Ondimba's skills in balancing competing ethnic and regional interests are likely to be tested increasingly, although as of 2004 the Parti démocratique gabonais regime's dominance appeared secure for the immediate future.

Decalo, Samuel. The Stable Minority: Civilian Rule in Africa, 1960–1990. Gainesville: Florida Academic Press, 1998.

Englebert, Pierre, with Ralph A. Young. "Gabon: Recent History." In Africa South of the Sahara 2004, ed. Katy Murison. London: Europa, 2004.

Gardinier, David. Gabon. Oxford, UK: Clio Press, 1992.

Yates, Douglas A. The Rentier State in Africa: Oil Rent Dependency and Neocolonialism in Gabon. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press 1996.

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