Gabon

The West African nation of Gabon is officially known as the Gabonese Republic (République Gabonaise). It is believed the earliest inhabitants were Pygmies, who were later transplanted by Bantu-speaking tribes. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, Gabon was claimed by no particular nation, although French and Portuguese explorers had established settlements in the region. France officially claimed the nation as part of the French Empire in 1885, and by 1910 it would become one of four territories in French Equatorial Africa. All four territories were granted independence in 1960, with Gabon electiing its first president, Léon M’ba, in 1961.

Gabon's first presidential regime was run as a dictatorship, with suppression of the press, political opposition, and freedom of expression. When a military coup sought to remove M'ba in 1964 and restore parliamentary democracy, the French government intervened militarily, imprisoned the opposition, and restored its favored politician to power. Omar Bongo Ondimba replaced M'ba as president when it died in 1967, and declared Gabon a one-party state as an effort to subvert the regional and tribal rivalries that traditionally divided African national politics. Partisan politics would gradually make their way back into Gabon, but despite political opposition and some violent protests, Bongo has been re-elected as president in 1975, 1979, 1986, 1993, 1998, and 2005. He died in 2009 of cardiac arrest, and his son Ali Bongo Ondimba declared winner of the presidential election in October of that year.