The Gabonese Republic is located on the west coast of Africa.
It is bounded by Cameroon,
Republic
of Congo, the Atlantic
Ocean and Equatorial
Guinea. Gabon achieved its independence from France on
August 17, 1960.
The Constitution of March 1991 provided for a multi-party system. The head of state is elected by universal suffrage for a period of seven years. The current President is El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba. The Prime Minister is Jean Eyeghé Ndong. The country is divided into 9 provinces: Estuaire, Haut-Ogooue, Moyen-Ogooue, Ngounie, Nyanga, Ogooue-Ivindo, Ogooue-Lolo, Ogooue-Maritime and Woleu-Ntem. The capital of Gabon is Libreville.
This tropical country about the size of Colorado consists of 103,319 square miles. It is hot and humid all year with two rainy and two dry seasons. The terrain consists of a narrow coastal plain, hilly forested interior, and savanna in the south and east. The chief agricultural products are cocoa, coffee, sugar, palm oil and rubber. The chief industries are petroleum extraction and refining, and manganese and gold mining. The oil and mineral reserves have allowed Gabon to become one of Africa’s wealthier countries although poor fiscal management hobbles the economy and high income inequality keeps a large portion of the population poor.
The earliest inhabitants of the area were Pygmy peoples. The 1.5 million people in Gabon are divided into 40 ethnic groups of which the Fang comprise 36 percent. The official language is French, but Fang in the north and Bantu dialects in the south are also spoken. 60 percent of the population is Christian, mainly Roman Catholics. Many of the rest follow animist beliefs. The currency is the CFA (African Financial Community) franc.
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