Gabon, the back story

A few of you may be wondering, as I did when researching the Lambarene fellowship, where is Gabon? And what is the story there? I'll give you a few lines of background so that the rest of my time here will make more sense to you. Thus, as a point of departure, my current location: Gabon is an equitorial country on the West coast of Africa, bordering the Atlantic, often referred to as the Last Eden as over 85% of the countryside is still covered with rainforest. The town of Lambarene is located 200km inland on the Ogooue River, Gabon's largest and longest river. Schweitzer chose this location because the river afforded him the ability to float all of the construction and building supplies to the site. Amusingly enough, Lambarene is south of the equator while Libreville, the capital city, is north of the equator so when we drove in from the capital, I passed from "summer" to "winter" in a few short hours. The notion of seasons doesn't quite work out near the equator, apparently here there is a hot wet season and a hot dry season. We are in the hot dry combination right now, which the locals call the "bon temps". It is surprisingly nice. Cloudy, but high 70s to mid 80s both days that I have been here.

Ok, we've gone through geography and climate, now a tiny bit on history and culture. The area that comprises Gabon has been inhabited for thousands of years, unsurprisingly, since it is Africa. The pygmy tribes were the most numerous for much of that time, only to be pushed out by the Bantu, who remained the dominant tribe until the French arrived. The French officially entered Gabon in 1885, though Europeans such as the Portuguese and Dutch had been there in various capacities since the 1500s. In 1910 Gabon became one of four "French Equitorial Colonies" and remained a territory until 1960. On August 17, 1960 (50 year anniversary this year- it's going to be a big celebration!) Gabon gained independence from France. The first president of Gabon, elected in 1961, was Léon M’ba, with Omar Bongo Ondimba as his vice president. Omar Bongo became president in 1967 and remained so until his death in 2009. His son, Ali, succeeded him with a landslide victory in the polls. Gabon is often touted as one of the richest Africa nations, with a per capita income of $5000 annually, but I think the figure is skewed by the petrol companies operating off shore here. Fundamentally, the country remains an impoverished tropical nation, straddling modernity (cell phones and satellite TV) and poverty (living in huts without electricity or running water and turning to a traditional voodoo sorcery belief system in times of need). It will be interesting to start my time here on Monday and start interacting with locals on more than a bonjour basis. A toute a l'heure mes amis.

PS I wanted to post pictures today of the landscape, but that would have required a functional converter to charge my rechargable batteries. I know where to buy a good converter and I will do so soon so that I can start showing, as well as telling you about the land.