History Gabon

7000 BC - mid 1900s

The oldest human artefacts discovered in Gabon are stone spearheads dating back to 7000 BC, but little more is known about Gabonese prehistory. The earliest of the present inhabitants are the Pygmies; from 1100 AD 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.

1960 - 1967

In 1960, after a 3-year period of internal self-government, the Republic of Gabon moved smoothly into independence. A French-style constitution was adopted the following year and Léon M'Ba became the country’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.

Omar Bongo Ondimba, who succeeded as president on the death of M'Ba in 1967 and who is now Africa's second-longest-standing head of state (after Eyadéma of Togo), has maintained these pro-Western policies 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.

1990 - 2007

From 1990, in common with much of the rest of Africa, the Bongo government pursued transformation 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 election in February 1997 captured 85 seats. Half of the remaining seats 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.

On September 14, 2007 René Ndémezo'o Obiang, the government's spokesman, announced that Gabon's cabinet council has decided to formally abolish the death penalty, which hasn't been applied in the country for about two decades.