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GABON BACKGROUND NOTES, AUGUST 1991
PUBLISHED BY THE BUREAU OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS
DEPARTMENT OF STATE

August 1991

Official Name:   Gabonese Republic

PROFILE
Geography
Area:  266,024 sq. km. (102,317 sq. mi.); about the size of Colorado.
Cities:  Capital--Libreville (pop. 275,000).  Other cities--Port-Gentil,
Franceville.
Terrain:  Narrow coastal plain; hilly, heavily forested interior; some
savanna regions in east and south.  Climate:  Hot and humid all year
with two rainy and two dry seasons.

People
Nationality:  Noun and adjective--Gabonese (sing. and pl.).  Population
(1990 est.):  1.2 million.  Annual growth rate:  2.2%.  Ethnic groups:
Fang (largest), Myene, Bapounou, Eschira, Bandjabi, Bateke/Obamba.
Religions:  Christian, Muslim, indigenous.  Languages:  French
(official), Fang, Myene, Bateke, Bapounou/Eschira, Bandjabi.  Education:
Years compulsory--to age 16.  Attendance--100% primary, 14%
secondary/technical, 2% higher education.  Literacy--70%.  Health:
Infant mortality rate--103/1,000.  Life expectancy--52 yrs.  Work force
(120,000 salaried):  Agriculture--65%.  Industry and commerce--30%.
Services and Government--5%.

Government
Type:  Republic.  Independence:  August 17, 1960.  Constitution:
February 21, 1961 (revised April 15, 1975; rewritten March 26, 1991).

Branches:  Executive--president (head of state).
Legislative--unicameral National Assembly (including prime minister,
head of government.  Judicial--Supreme Court.

Administrative subdivisions:  9 provinces, 37 prefectures, and 9
sub-prefectures.

Political parties (including number of seats in 120-member Assembly:
Parti Democratique Gabonais (PDG-66), Parti Gabonais Du Progres
(PGP-19), Rassemblement National Des Bucherons (RNB-17), Morena Originel
(MOR-7), Parti Socialist Gabonaise (PSG-4), Union Socialiste Gabonais
(USG-3), Association Pour Le Socialism Au Gabon (APSG-2), Parti Social
Democrat (PSD-1), and Union Pour La Democratie Et Le Developpement
(UDD-1).

Suffrage: universal, direct.

Central government budget (1991 est.)--$1.8 billion.

Defense (1991 est.):  2.6% of government budget.

Flag:  From top, blue, yellow, and green horizontal bands.

Economy
GDP (1991 est.):  $5.3 billion.  Annual growth rate (in current dollars,
1991 est.):  13%.  Per capita income (1991 est):  $4,400.  Avg.
inflation rate (1990):  7%.

Natural resources:  Petroleum (31% of GDP), manganese, uranium, wood,
iron ore.

Agriculture (8% of GDP):  Products--cocoa, coffee, pineapples.
Cultivated land--1%.

Industry (4.5% of GDP):  Types--petroleum related, wood processing, food
and beverage processing.

Trade (1989 est.):  Exports--$1.8 billion:  petroleum, wood, uranium,
manganese.  Major markets--France, US.  Imports--$889 million:
construction equipment, machinery, food, automobiles, manufactured
goods.  Major suppliers--France, Germany, Japan, US.

Official exchange rate:  50 CFA (Communaute Financiere Africaine)
francs=1 French franc, fixed.

Fiscal year:  Calendar year.

Membership in International Organizations
UN and some of its specialized and related agencies, including the World
Bank; Organization of African Unity (OAU); Central African Customs
Union; EC association under Lome Convention; Communaute Financiere
Africaine (CFA); Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC);
Nonaligned Movement; Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
(OPEC).

PEOPLE
Almost all Gabonese are of Bantu origin. Gabon has at least 40 tribal
groups, with separate languages and cultures.  The largest is the Fang.
Other tribes include the Myene, Bandjabi, Eshira, Bapounou,
Bateke/Obamba, and Okande.  Tribal boundaries are less sharply drawn in
Gabon than elsewhere in Africa. French, the official language, is a
unifying force. More French people live in Gabon today than in colonial
times.

Historical and environmental factors caused Gabon's population to
decline between 1900 and 1940.  It is one of the less densely inhabited
countries in Africa, and a labor shortage is a major obstacle to
development.  A government census in 1980-81 reported the population at
1.2 million, a substantial increase over previous estimates.

HISTORY
During the last 7 centuries, Bantu ethnic groups arrived in the area
from several directions to escape enemies or find new land.  Little is
known of tribal life before European contact, but tribal art suggests
rich cultural heritages.

Gabon's first European visitors were Portuguese traders who arrived in
the 15th century and named the country after the Portuguese word gabao,
a coat with sleeve and hood resembling the shape of the Como River
estuary.  The coast became a center of the slave trade.  Dutch, British,
and French traders came in the 16th century.  France assumed the status
of protector by signing treaties with Gabonese coastal chiefs in 1839
and 1841.  American missionaries from New England established a mission
at Baraka (now Libreville) in 1842.  In 1849, the French captured a
slave ship and released the passengers at the mouth of the Como River.
The slaves named their settlement Libreville--"free town."  French
explorers penetrated Gabon's dense jungles between 1862-87.  The most
famous, Savorgnan de Brazza, used Gabonese bearers and guides in his
search for the headwaters of the Congo River.

France occupied Gabon in 1885 but did not administer it until 1903.  In
1910, Gabon became one of the four territories of French Equatorial
Africa, a federation that survived until 1959.  The territories became
independent in 1960 as the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo
(Brazzaville), and Gabon.

GOVERNMENT
Under the 1961 constitution (revised in 1975 and rewritten in 1991),
Gabon became a republic with a presidential form of government.  The
unicameral National Assembly has 120 deputies elected for a 5-year term.
The president is elected by universal suffrage, also for a 5-year term.
The president appoints the prime minister, the cabinet, and judges of
the independent Supreme Court.

The government in 1990 made major changes in the political system.  A
transi-
tional constitution was drafted in May as an outgrowth of a national
political conference in March-April and later revised by a
constitutional committee.  Among its provisions are a Western-style bill
of rights; creation of a National Council of Democracy, which oversees
the guarantee of those rights; a governmental advisory board on economic
and social issues; and an independent judiciary.  After approval by the
National Assembly, the PDG central committee, and the president, the
assembly unani-mously adopted the constitution in March 1991.

Multi-party legislative elections were held in September-October 1990 (a
few by-elections were held the following spring), despite the fact that
opposition parties had not been declared formally legal.  After a
peaceful transition, the elections produced the current representative,
multi-party, National Assembly.  In January 1991, the Assembly passed by
unanimous vote a law governing the legalization of opposition parties.

The president retains strong powers, such as authority to dissolve the
national assembly, declare a state of siege, delay legislation, conduct
referenda, and appoint and dismiss the prime minister and cabinet
members.

For administrative purposes, Gabon is divided into 9 provinces, which
are further divided into 36 pre-fectures and 8 separate subprefectures.
The president appoints the provincial governors, the prefects, and the
subprefects.

Principal Government Officials
President of the Republic, Founder of the Gabonese Democratic Party--El
Hadj Omar Bongo
Prime Minister, Head of Government--Casimir Oye-Mba
Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation--Pascaline Bongo
Ambassador to the United States--Alexandre Sambat
Ambassador to the United Nations--Laurent Biffot

Gabon maintains an embassy in the United States at 2034 20th Street NW,
Washington, DC 20009 (tel. [phone]).

POLITICAL CONDITIONS
At the time of Gabon's independence in 1960, two principal political
parties existed:  the Bloc Democratique Gabonais (BDG), led by Leon
M'Ba, and the Union Democratique et Sociale Gabonaise (UDSG), led by
J.H. Aubame.  In the first post-independence election, held under a
parliamentary system, neither party was able to win a majority.  The BDG
obtained support from three of the four independent legislative
deputies, and M'Ba was named prime minister.

Soon after concluding  that Gabon had an insufficient number of people
for a two-party system, the two party leaders agreed on a single list of
candidates.  In the February 1961 election, held under the new
presidential system, M'Ba became president and Aubame foreign minister.

 This one-party system appeared to work until February 1963, when the
larger BDG element forced the UDSG members to choose between a merger of
the parties or resignation.  The UDSG cabinet ministers resigned, and
M'Ba called for new elections for February 1964 and a reduced number of
National Assembly deputies (from 67 to 47).

The UDSG failed to muster a list of candidates able to meet the
requirements of the electoral decrees.  When the BDG appeared likely to
win the elections by default, the Gabonese military toppled M'Ba in a
bloodless coup on February 18, 1964.  French troops re-established his
government the next day.  Elections were held in April with many
opposition participants.  BDG-supported candidates won 31 seats and the
opposition 16.

Late in 1966, the constitution was revised to provide for automatic
succession of the vice president should the president die in office.  In
March 1967, Leon M'Ba and Omar Bongo (then Albert Bongo) were elected
president and vice president.  M'Ba died later that year, and Omar Bongo
became president.  In March 1968, he declared Gabon a one-party state by
dissolving the BDG and establishing a new party, the Parti Democratique
Gabonais (PDG).  He invited all Gabonese, regardless of previous
political affiliation, to participate.

Bongo was elected president in February 1975 and re-elected in Decem-ber
1979 and November 1986 to 7-year terms.  In April 1975, the office of
vice president was abolished and replaced by the office of prime
minister, who has no right to automatic succession. Under the 1991
constitution, in the event of the president's death, the prime minister,
the national assembly president, and the defense minister share power
until new elections are held.

Using the PDG as a tool to submerge the regional and tribal rivalries
that have divided Gabonese politics in the past, Bongo sought to forge a
single national movement in support of the government's development
policies.  Opposition to the PDG continued, however, and in September
1990, two coup attempts were uncovered and aborted.

Economic discontent and a desire for political liberalization provoked
violent demonstrations and strikes by students and workers in early
1990.  In response to grievances by workers, Bongo negotiated with them
on a sector-by-sector basis, making significant wage concessions.

In addition, he promised to open up the PDG and to organize a national
political conference in March-April 1990 to discuss Gabon's future
political system.  The PDG and 74 political organizations attended the
conference.  Participants essentially divided into two loose coalitions,
the ruling PDG and its allies, and the United Front of Opposition
Associations and Parties,  consisting of the breakaway Morena
Fundamental and the Gabonese Progress Party.

The April conference approved sweeping political reforms, including:
creation of a national senate, decentralization of the budgetary
process, freedom of assembly and press, and cancellation of the exit
visa requirement.

In an attempt to guide the political system's transformation to
multi-party democracy, Bongo resigned as PDG chairman and created 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
includes representatives from several opposition parties on its cabinet.
The RSDG drafted a provisional constitution that provides a basic bill
of rights and an independent judiciary but retains the strength of the
president.  After further review by a constitutional committee and the
National Assembly, this document came into force in March 1991.

Despite further anti-government demonstrations after the untimely death
of an opposition leader, the first multi-party National Assembly
elections in almost 30 years took place in September-October 1990.

ECONOMY
Gabon has bountiful natural resources, including petroleum, manganese,
uranium, iron, and wood.  Because of income from exports of those
products and its small population, Gabon's per capita GNP is the highest
in sub-Saharan Africa.  The economy also has benefited from government
support of private enterprise and foreign investment.

Petroleum production, estimated to be 14 million tons for 1990, is the
heart of the Gabonese economy.  The plunge in oil prices in 1986 hit
Gabon hard:  exports dropped 44%, and the economy in real terms
contracted 10%.  In the late 1980s, Gabon's external account
deteriorated because of the fall in oil prices, a decline in crude oil
exports, and the appreciation of the CFA franc against the US dollar.
Gabon implemented an International Monetary Fund (IMF) structural
adjustment program  and rescheduled its public and private debt.
Spending cuts stipulated under the 1989 IMF agreement sparked sometimes
violent discontent in early 1990.  In response to strikes by students
and workers, Bongo rescinded 1989 special salary taxes and promised
multi-party democracy.

Despite damage to the economy by the 1990 strikes, Gabon's economic
future is potentially bright.  It is one of the few sub-Saharan African
countries to have a trade surplus in recent years.  Recent discoveries
of new oil fields will increase oil production in the 1990s.  Further,
Gabon is trying to diversify its exports.  Already a substantial
exporter of manganese and uranium, Gabon is working to exploit its
considerable iron and barite deposits and to enhance the value of timber
exports from its large forests.

Although Gabon exports small amounts of coffee and cocoa, it imports
about 90% of its food.  The country is turning increasingly to import
substitution, such as a salt mining and operation and food-processing
projects.

The government has used oil revenue chiefly to develop transportation.
The centerpiece of this program is the $3 billion TransGabon Railway,
which has opened the interior rain forests to the sea,  made the Port of
Owendo a major export center for manganese and timber, and provided
greater access to resource-rich areas in the southeast and the west once
inaccessible because of poor roads.

Since many Gabonese are traditional or subsistence farmers, the
government's investment program is trying to encour-age market-oriented
agriculture.  Direct assistance to agricultural projects, complemented
by creation of a transport system to the interior, has aided the shift.

Although Gabon enjoys a high per- capita income compared to that of most
developing countries, it depends on external sources for investment
capital and trained labor.  Despite constraints, Gabon's natural
resources promise great potential for continued growth.  Gabon welcomes
private foreign investors, and its investment law provides substantial
concessions and guarantees.

FOREIGN RELATIONS
Gabon has followed a non-aligned policy, advocating dialogue in
international affairs and recognizing both parts of divided countries.
Since 1973, the number of countries establishing diplomatic relations
with Gabon have doubled.

In inter-African affairs, Gabon espouses development by evolution rather
than revolution and favors regulated free enterprise as the system most
likely to promote rapid economic growth.  Concerned about stability in
central Africa and the potential for intervention, Gabon has helped
mediate conflicts in countries such as Chad and Angola.

DEFENSE
Gabon has a small, professional military of about 5,000 personnel,
divided into army, navy, air force, gendarmerie, and national police.
Gabonese forces are oriented to the defense of the country and have not
been trained for an offensive role.

A well-trained, well-equipped 1,800-member guard provides security to
the president.

US-GABONESE RELATIONS
Relations between the United States and Gabon are excellent.  In 1987,
President Bongo made an official visit to Washington, DC.  The United
States imports a considerable percentage of Gabonese crude oil and
manganese and exports heavy construction equipment, aircraft, and
machinery to Gabon.

The major US assistance program in Gabon is of a Peace Corps contingent
of about 100 volunteers who teach English, math, and science, and build
rural schools.  Through a modest International Military Education and
Training program, the United States provides military training to
members of the Gabonese armed forces each year.  Foreign military sales
credits have been extended to Gabon since 1981.

US private capital has been attracted to Gabon since before its
independence.  Investment exceeds $600 million.

Principal US Officials
Ambassador--Keith L. Wauchope
Deputy Chief of Mission--Stephen G. Brundage
Public Affairs Officer (USIS)--Jan Hartman
Political Officer--Alexander Andrews
Peace Corps Director--Francis T. Hammond

The US Embassy is located on the Blvd. de la Mer, B.P. 4000, Libreville,
Gabon (tel: [phone]; fax: [phone]).

Customs:  Visas are required and can be obtained from the Gabonese
Embassy in Washington, DC.  Yellow fever inoculations are required.
Health requirements change; check latest information.

Climate and clothing:  Libreville is hot and humid most of the year.
Wear lightweight summer clothes.  Bring light sweaters for cool evenings
during the June-August dry season.

Health:  Hospitals and private clinics are available throughout most of
the country for common problems.  Major cities have private doctors;
several are US-trained.  Residents and visitors are advised to take
regular preventative medication against malaria.  Avoid raw fruits and
vegetables and undercooked meats.  Tapwater is not always potable.

Telecommunications:  Local and long-distance telephone service is
available 24 hours.  International telephone rates are about 10 times
higher than in the US. Libreville is six time zones ahead of eastern
standard time.

Transportation:  Libreville has no public bus service.  Taxis are
plentiful along the major routes.  Rides may be shared at a substantial
saving.  Air Gabon and several charters operate one of the densest
domestic air networks in Africa.  Most major population centers are
linked by jet aircraft.  An international airport at Libreville provides
service to regional African points, particularly in Francophone Africa.
Air Gabon and several European carriers provide frequent wide-body
flights to Europe from Libreville.

National Holidays:  August 17, Independence Day; major Islamic and
Chrisitan holidays.