History of Gabon
Present-day Gabon was first inhabited by rainforest hunter-gatherers, attested as early as c. 43,000 BC; archaeology confirms occupations from the Late Pleistocene to the Neolithic along the coast and in the Ogooué. By c. 400–300 BC, Bantu-speaking farming and ironworking communities settled in the middle Ogooué, initiating an expansion that subsequently structured settlement across the region.
From 1472, Atlantic contact reshaped coastal exchange. Myene-speaking polities on the Gabon littoral, including the Mpongwe in the Estuary and the Orungu and Nkomi farther south, acted as brokers linking river routes to European shipping. Trade focused on ivory, copper, salt, raffia cloth, and, by the late 1700s, captives; in 1788 about 500 people were embarked annually at " Gabon and Cape Lopez ", far fewer than the major outlets farther south. Domestic slavery predated overseas commerce and expanded with it, concentrating wealth and authority in lineages and chiefly houses. Coastal lifeways combined salt making, oyster harvesting at Mayumba, and diversified agriculture, while political organization ranged from clan-based councils among the Mpongwe to royal offices among the Orungu and Nkomi.
In 1862–1887, France expanded its control including the interior of the state, and took full sovereignty. In 1910 Gabon became part of French Equatorial Africa and in 1960, Gabon became independent.
At the time of Gabon's independence, two principal political parties existed: the Gabonese Democratic Bloc, led by Léon M'Ba, and the Gabonese Democratic and Social Union, led by Jean-Hilaire Aubame. In the first post-independence election, held under a parliamentary system, neither party was able to win a majority; the leaders subsequently agreed against a two-party system and ran with a single list of candidates. In the February 1961 election, held under the new presidential system, M'Ba became president and Aubame became foreign minister. The single-party solution disintegrated in 1963, and there was a single-day bloodless coup in 1964. In March 1967, Leon M'Ba and Omar Bongo were elected president and vice president. M'Ba died later that year. Bongo declared Gabon a one-party state, dissolved the BDG and established the Gabonese Democratic Party. Sweeping political reforms in 1990 led to a new constitution, and the PDG garnered a large majority in the country's first multi-party elections in 30 years. Despite discontent from opposition parties, Bongo remained president until his death in 2009.
Early history
Archaeology
Late Stone Age, Neolithic, and Early/Late Iron Age sequences are documented in the Lope–Okanda–Ogooue region and on the coast.- Coastal Neolithic at Owendo : lithics, pottery, shells, hearths dated to 5040 ± 130 BP.
- Lopé II : charcoal from Late Stone Age layers dates to 10320 ± 110 BP, 9170 ± 100 BP, and 6760 ± 120 BP; a much later pit with ceramics dates to 2370 ± 35 BP and 2210 ± 45 BP, indicating reoccupation by pottery-using groups long after the earlier occupations.
- Ceramic traditions and early ironworking:
- * Yindo pottery attested at Okanda I, Lope II, Toube I, Maboue I, Okanda V; highest date at Okanda I 3560 ± 75 BP.
- * After about AD 650, the earlier pit features disappear. Later radiocarbon dates indicate renewed occupations at several sites: Lope XV, Lope V, Otoumbi III, and Lope X.
- Ritual evidence : the Iroungou burial cave near Mouila yielded at least 28 individuals and 512 grave goods, with radiocarbon placing use in the 14th-15th centuries AD.
Precontact period
The Bantu expansion is found in the middle Ogooue valley, where Late Stone Age occupations were replaced by Early Iron Age communities around 2400–2300 BP, notably at Lalara and Otoumbi. Paleoenvironmental studies identify a late Holocene episode of rainforest fragmentation around 2500–2000 BP across Central Africa, including Gabon, which created savanna–forest mosaics conducive to such settlements. This timing and geography are consistent with broader models of Bantu expansion that emphasize movement along habitat corridors and slower spread through dense rainforest.
Early Iron Age metallurgy in Gabon is documented by smelting furnaces and slag at sites such as Oveng, confirming local iron production and its role in the west-Central African spread of Bantu speakers. Prior to coastal contact, lineage-based communities and flexible chiefly authority embedded in riverine exchange networks structured social and political life in equatorial Africa, a framework widely applied to precolonial Gabon, especially along the Ogooue corridor.
Precolonial period
Portuguese navigators reached the Gabon estuary in 1472 and applied the name "Gabon" from the Portuguese gabão, a hooded cloak likened to the shape of the Komo River estuary. The Portuguese settled on São Tomé, Príncipe and Fernando Pó, and were regular visitors to the coast.Along the southern littoral, exchange fell within the orbit of the Kingdom of Loango, whose Vili merchants controlled access to ports and markets and set tolls and prices; raffia cloth functioned as currency and a source of power. Trade moved through African brokers and canoe routes linking lagoons, estuaries and inland paths; ivory, copper, salt, and raffia cloth circulated long before the Atlantic slave trade, which was later integrated into these circuits.
During the 17th and 18th centuries, Dutch, English and French competition eroded any early Portuguese advantage; Loango, the Kakongo and Ngoyo remained autonomous polities, and Europeans depended on African middlemen for supplies and captives drawn from interior zones such as the Mayombe. Farther north toward the estuary, with the Myene-speaking groups, intermediaries linked the Ogooué river routes and the lagoon chain to European shipping without sustained European territorial control.
Tribes and societies in the precolonial period
Coastal Myene-speaking groups—Mpongwe in the Gabon Estuary, Orungu around Cape Lopez, and Nkomi at Fernan Vaz—developed as middleman polities tied to Atlantic trade from the 16th to the mid-19th century, with the slave trade peaking c. late 18th–early 19th century and declining after French settlement in 1843; Orungu and Nkomi retained more centralized structures, while the Mpongwe shifted toward dispersed clan-based authority. The later 19th-century arrival of Fang groups on the coast further disrupted this balance.These coastal brokers organized a commercial "domain" extending inland through allied or subordinate peoples: Adyumba, Galoa, Enenga, Eshira, and Okande, with nearer neighbors such as Seke and Akele supplying forest products and more distant communities supplying captives. Profits concentrated on ivory and high-prestige imports, while firearms, powder, and ironware were routed inland.
Social classification combined status by birth with wealth from commerce. Among the Mpongwe, categories distinguished free-born lineages, foreigners admitted to reside, and slaves, with marriage rules channeling women upward socially but restricting movement downward. In economic terms, the key index of rank was control of dependants—slaves and wives—who provided plantation labor, portage, and domestic production. Female status varied by age, order of marriage, and husband’s wealth; a women’s society provided solidarity and protection and is associated with Eshira influence.
Politically, the Mpongwe of the Estuary evolved from an 18th-century kingdom into a multipolar system of clans. Each clan was led by an aga with senior notables, and councils of elders exercised collective decision-making with religious and judicial roles. By contrast, the Orungu and the Nkomi maintained royal offices chosen by councils of elders, within a hierarchical structure from families to lineages to clans to the tribe. A coastal vs. interior division mapped onto "sea" clans controlling maritime trade and "land" clans managing hinterland affairs; at Cape Lopez the Abulia/Alombe were sea clans and the Apandji a land clan, while at Fernan Vaz an interior abunjé group is noted. Notable Orungu rulers in the late 18th to mid-19th century concentrated power at Sangatanga and pursued warfare to secure commercial advantages, notably under Renwombi-Mpolo and then Rogombé-Mpolo/Pass-all, with an apogee around 1810–1850. Contemporary Nkomi rulers fought the Orungu and developed Anyambie as a parallel coastal hub.
Slavery and domestic servitude
Domestic slavery predated the Atlantic trade among coastal groups and eased its implantation; the export trade in turn broadened and intensified the reasons for enslavement, including warfare, debts and judicial sanctions. Observers in the early 19th century reported a very large extension of domestic slavery in the Estuary.Household slaves generally lived and worked permanently on agricultural "habitations" located away from villages, produced staple foods, transported provisions to the coast, and carried merchandise toward the interior. Along the coast, slaves also functioned as a recognized unit of account: fines and bridewealth were stipulated in slaves, even when payment was made in equivalent commodities such as ivory, ebony or redwood. A spatial gradient is noted for the region: the farther from the coast, the fewer domestic slaves were found and the more frequent were convoys of slaves destined for export.
Social rank correlated with control over dependants—slaves and wives—which indexed wealth and political standing among coastal brokers. Funerary practices could include the sacrifice of slaves to accompany notable men in death, a custom attested by contemporary testimonies. Social order was also maintained through ritualized fear and coercion, including exemplary executions.
Overall, preexisting domestic slavery facilitated the Atlantic trade, and the trade fed back by multiplying motives for enslavement and tightening dependence in the coastal economy.
Overall, coastal acculturation to Atlantic trade was deepest among the Mpongwe and more limited among Orungu and Nkomi, shaping divergent capacities to absorb the post-1830 transition from slave exports to other commodities.