Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Gabon

Starting point is 00:00:00 When you think of countries in Africa, it's unlikely that Gabon would be one of the first to cross your mind. It's entirely possible that some of you may have never even heard of Gabon. Considered Earth's last eaten, Gabon is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, yet very little is known about it because not much as ever happened there to make it into the news. In fact, one of the biggest things to have ever happened there took place 1.7 billion years ago. Learn more about the history of Gabon. on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Fear is the virus is trending on TikTok. Vaccines are poison.

Starting point is 00:00:49 Then your yoga teacher says that sex traffic children are being sacrificed by satanic liberals, but it's all okay. The Great Awakening is coming. What is happening? Every week on Conspirality Podcast, we explore the fever dreams that suck friends, family, and wellness gurus down the right-wing cult spiral in a search for salvation. When I do episodes on specific countries, I try to focus on small or lesser-known nations,

Starting point is 00:01:23 and I think Gabon definitely falls into the latter category. For those of you unfamiliar with Gabon, it's in Central Africa, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Cameroon to the north, Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, and the Democratic Republic of Congo to the south and east. Located directly on the equator, Gabon has an equatorial climate characterized by high temperatures, heavy humidity, and nearly year-round rainfall.

Starting point is 00:01:50 It has a total area of 257,670 square kilometers, or 99,487 square miles, making it slightly smaller than New Zealand and slightly larger than the United Kingdom in size. This climate created ideal conditions for rainforests, which covers about 89% of Gabon's land area. The remaining roughly 11% comprises savannas, mainly in the southeast, and west, as well as developed areas and bodies of water. This makes Gabon one of the world's most heavily forested nations, especially in terms of rainforests. Gabon has three main regions, a coastal lowlands, mountains, and plateaus. The coastal lowlands extend inland from the Atlantic featuring beaches, lagoons, mangrove, swamps, and slow-moving rivers. Platoes and Gabon's

Starting point is 00:02:39 interior consist mostly of rainforests. Another key part of Gabon's geography is the Ogawa-Way River Basin. This river is one of the largest in Africa, and almost every water source in the country drains into its watershed. This river is incredibly biodiverse, hosting hundreds of fish species, and is crucial to local wildlife. It also provides a pivotal role in Gabon's development, powering much of its infrastructure via hydropower. Gabon's rainforests are considered exceptionally dense and biodiverse, with estimates of approximately 10,000 plant species, 6404 bird species, up to 160,000,000. reptile species, 98 amphibian species, and 198 mammal species. Gabon's rich biodiversity has made it one of the most important wildlife reserves in all of Africa. The country is a stronghold for many endangered species, including an estimated half the world's

Starting point is 00:03:33 African forest elephants, as well as significant populations of chimpanzees and gorillas. Gabon's mountains are not high, with the highest point in the country, Mont Ben-Gouet, reaching only 1,070 meters or 3,510 feet. Gabon savannas are found along the edges of the rainforest. Often these savannas are called forest mosaics, meaning that different species, vegetation, and structures all live alongside one another. Gabon is also famous for its natural uranium deposits. As a result, Gabon is the only known place on Earth where a natural nuclear chain reaction took

Starting point is 00:04:10 place. About 1.7 billion years ago, at the Oklo mine, there was a concentration of naturally occurring uranium 235 sufficient to sustain a chain fission reaction. Because of the half-life of uranium 235, such a phenomenon couldn't naturally occur on Earth today. The name Gabon comes from the Portuguese word, Gabao, which means hooded cloak. The Portuguese applied this term to the region in the 1470s, after seeing the Como River estuary, which they thought resembled a cloak. This term caught on, spreading to the surrounding region, and eventually turning it into its modern name, Gabon. Very little is known about Gabon prior to colonization,

Starting point is 00:04:53 though prehistoric remains indicate that early humans were present. The most notable evidence of human habitation are the remains of worked stone, arrowheads, and axes. The earliest known people in Gabon were the Bambenga, a group of pygnees. This group settled in the region around 5,000 BC and lived as hunter-gatherers. Approximately 2000 to 2,500 years ago, the Bantu people migrated and settled in modern-day Gabon. The Bantu were people from different ethnic backgrounds, but they were all fleeing the area known as the Sahel. The Sahel is the transitional zone between the Sahara Desert and the tropical savannas.

Starting point is 00:05:31 The Bantu were fleeing this area due to the expansion of the Sahara Desert. In their search for new land, the Bantu's replaced. the native pygmies who moved into the country's jungles. As time passed, more and more groups of people began to settle in Gabon, though the process was slow. One of the most notable periods of early Gabon was the Kingdom of Orungu. This kingdom was established by members of the Bantu ethnic group in the 18th century. The kingdom was best known as a slave trading hub.

Starting point is 00:05:58 It consisted of an estimated 20 clans led by a single big chief or king known as the Angamwin Boney. The kingdom facilitated trade between brokers. Besides slavery, the Kingdom of Orungu engaged in boat building and metalworking, which gave them dominance over the river trade. In addition, the kingdom also participated in the ivory, dyewood, ebony, and beeswax trade. Though the Kingdom of Orangu was small, it generated considerable wealth, a portion of which was used to fund the slave trade. It played a significantly minor role in the transatlantic slave trade when compared to Western African countries.

Starting point is 00:06:34 But early in the Kingdom's history, they actually purchased slaves from traders rather than sold them, though this later changed. Around the 1760s, the Kingdom of Orangu exported slaves from the country, taking people from the center of Gabon. Unlike many other slave trading countries, the kingdom did not raid other states for slaves, but rather used slavery as a type of punishment, selling adulterers, saucerers, cheats, and debtors to the Portuguese.

Starting point is 00:07:00 The slave trade technically ended in 1853 after the chief at the time agreed to abolish it. However, this was a bit of a rude, and the slave trade just moved up river and was done in secret until the 1870s. Outside of Gabon, the European powers had been competing for control and power within Africa in the 19th century. One region that was affected by this was the Gulf of Guinea. Britain in particular held most of the control in the region, prompting the French to make inroads to try to compete commercially. To do this, the French government established contacts with local leaders in Gabon between 1839 and 1841.

Starting point is 00:07:37 During this time, France signed treaties with local chiefs living on the coast. These leaders often unknowingly signed away their land, leading them to ultimately sell their sovereignty to the French. With treaties in hand, the French established a protectorate and later took moves inward to establish control over the entire country's interior. One of the first cities founded by the French was Libreville, established by French Admiral Edouard Bouette-Williamese in 1842. The city was established on territory negotiated with. local tribes in exchange for trade rights and protection. Lieberville didn't get its name, however, until a few years later. France had been participating in the British blockade of Africa since 1846.

Starting point is 00:08:19 This was a proclamation by the United Kingdom that made it illegal for British ships to transport slaves and was designed to shut down the transatlantic slave trade. One of the ships that was captured during this time was called the Lelizia, which was a Brazilian slave ship. The French Navy captured the ship and freed the 52 slaves on board. They then settled these people in Libreville or Freetown. The former slaves living in the city organized and began establishing procedures to elect leaders. The town continued to grow following this period, ultimately becoming the administrative capital of the Congo-Gabon colony from 1888 to 1904.

Starting point is 00:08:57 Another major city developed during this period was Franceville in 1857. The city was founded by the explorer Pierre Sauvignon de Braza. He had chosen the village of Masses. Succo to resettle former slaves and rename the area Fronchaville or city of the freed. And later it was just renamed Franceville in the honor of France. France became a full administrator over the territory in 1885 and fully colonized Gabon in 1886, though the power wasn't administered directly in the country until a decade later. In 1910, Gabon became part of French Equatorial Africa, which included what is today,

Starting point is 00:09:34 Gabon, Chad, the French Congo, and the Central African Republic. The Federation existed until 1958 and was governed from Brazzaville, French Congo, with deputies placed in each major city. French Equatorial Africa was governed similarly to the Congo free state, which was part of the Congo under King Leopold II, which I covered in a previous episode. Unfortunately, like its counterpart, many of the same atrocities occurred in the territory, including burning children alive, mutilations, executions, and much more. During World War II, Gabon was unique among French colonies.

Starting point is 00:10:09 Unlike its counterparts, Gabon declared its loyalty to Vichy France rather than the free French forces. Gabon stayed loyal to Vichy France until November 1940, when the Battle of Gabon took place, in which free French forces forcibly retook the colony. Gabon remained a part of French Equatorial Africa until November 1958 when it became an autonomous Republic within the French community, which meant it had greater self-governance over its own territory. Two years later in August of 1960, Gabon became fully independent from France. Gabon and France reached an agreement under which Gabon gained independence but remained connected to France through economic and military ties.

Starting point is 00:10:50 As an independent country, Gabon had a rocky start. Its first president, Leon Umba, suppressed the media, banned political demonstrations, limited freedom of expression and excluded other political parties from power. His consolidation of power led to an attempted coup attempt against him in 1964, which failed. Umba died in 1967, and his vice president, Omar Bongo Andimba, known as Bongo, became the president. He officially declared Gabon a one-party state and attempted to form a national movement to support the government and ease tensions between tribes. This movement was called the Party Democratic Gambonais, or P.D.

Starting point is 00:11:28 Bongo remained in power for the next 42 years. During his time in power, there were a few tumultuous periods. In the 1990s, the people of Gabon were frustrated with the economy and sought greater political freedoms and conducted protests and strikes. To ease tensions, Bongo went sector by sector, negotiating with each frustrated group to offer fair wages and greater political freedoms. This was done by organizing a national political conference. This conference approved political reforms,

Starting point is 00:11:58 the most notable of which were the creation of a Senate, decentralizing the budget process and liberalizing freedoms of the press and assembly. Another interesting aspect of the meeting was the agreement to transform the political system into a multi-party democracy. Bongo resigned as PDG chairman and appointed a transitional head of government led by the prime minister. The resulting government was known as the Gabonese Social Democratic grouping. This new government was smaller than the former, and it guaranteed an independent judicial branch and a basic bill of rights,

Starting point is 00:12:30 but it kept many of the president's authoritative powers. Despite these new freedoms, the political environment within Gabon remained tense with accusations of election fraud. This led to some outbreaks of political violence and attempted coups, but Bongo managed to maintain power. Bongo died in June of 2009. Following his death, the president of the Senate served as interim president until an election could be held.

Starting point is 00:12:53 The election resulted in Bongo's son, Ali Bongo, going to winning. This election was also called fraudulent by many in Gabon, and political tensions and instabilities continued to rise. This ultimately culminated in a 2023 military coup after he was elected to a third term. After the military seized power, they dissolved state institutions, including the state constitutional assembly, the parliament, and the judiciary. Following the coup, the new leadership went about establishing a new constitution and presidential elections, transforming the country's government. As of the recording of this podcast, the country appears to be stabilizing. A presidential

Starting point is 00:13:31 election in April of 2025 and parliamentary elections in September of 2025 went off peacefully and by all accounts the elections were fair and open. Gabon currently has a population of approximately 2.4 million people, and its per capita GDP of just under $25,000 per year is the highest of any country on the African mainland. Its economy has been growing at a rate between 2.5% and 3% per year. The economy of Gabon is dominated by oil production with major contributions from manganese mining, timber, and forestry, as well as small Segal agriculture and a growing services sector centered on government and urban commerce. Despite its many political problems, Gabon has never experienced a bloody civil war and has done much better than most African countries economically. And that alone

Starting point is 00:14:21 makes it one of the success stories of post-colonial Africa. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research and writing for this episode was provided by Olivia Ash. My big thanks go to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord. This is where everything happens that's outside of the show.

Starting point is 00:14:52 As always, if you leave a review on any major podcast app or in the above community groups, you two can have it read on the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Gabon

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