Gabon
| Gabonese Republic République Gabonaise
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| Motto: "Union, Travail, Justice" (French for "Union, Work, Justice") |
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| Anthem: La Concorde The Concord |
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| Capital and largest city |
Libreville 0°23′N 9°27′E / 0.383°N 9.45°E |
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| Official languages | French | |||||
| Vernacular languages | Fang, Myene | |||||
| Demonym | Gabonese, Gabonaise | |||||
| Government | Presidential republic | |||||
| - | President | Ali Bongo Ondimba | ||||
| - | Prime Minister | Daniel Ona Ondo | ||||
| Independence | ||||||
| - | from France | August 17, 1960 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 267,667 km2 (76th) 103,347 sq mi |
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| - | Water (%) | 3.76% | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | 2009 estimate | 1,475,000[1] (150th) | ||||
| - | Density | 5.5/km2 (216th) 14.3/sq mi |
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| GDP (PPP) | 2010 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $22.478 billion[2] | ||||
| - | Per capita | $15,020[2] | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2010 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $13.056 billion[2] | ||||
| - | Per capita | $8,724[2] | ||||
| HDI (2010) |  0.648[3]medium · 93rd |
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| Currency | Central African CFA franc (XAF) | |||||
| Time zone | WAT (UTC+1) | |||||
| - | Summer (DST) | not observed (UTC+1) | ||||
| Drives on the | right | |||||
| Calling code | 241 | |||||
| Internet TLD | .ga | |||||
The Gabonese Republic or Gabon is a country in Africa. Its capital is Libreville.
It became a new country on August 17, 1960. Before that, Gabon was a colony of France.
Gabon is a small country led by the President Ali Bongo Ondimba. This country was conquered by France. It is a rich country, culturally, economically, and geographically. Gabon is in central Africa.
Contents
Politics[change | change source]
The first Gabonese president was Leon Mba. His successor was Omar Bongo, from 1967 until his death in 2009. Under his governance Gabon had just one political party between 1968 and 1990. It was called PDG.
Provinces and departments[change | change source]
Gabon is divided into nine provinces. The provinces are divided into 37 departments.
The provinces are:
- Estuaire
- Haut-Ogooué
- Moyen-Ogooué
- Ngounié
- Nyanga
- Ogooué-Ivindo
- Ogooué-Lolo
- Ogooué-Maritime
- Woleu-Ntem
Ecomonics[change | change source]
Gabon has nine states. The soil of Gabon is rich in the metals uranium, manganese, and petrolium. Therefore, these three elements, such as metal exploited in Port-Gentil, Iranium in Munana, and the manganese in Franceville.
Geography[change | change source]
Gabon is on the Atlantic coast of central Africa. It is on the equator. Gabon generally has an equatorial climate. Rainforests cover 85% of the country. There are three distinct regions: the coastal plains (ranging between 20 to 300 km from the ocean's shore), the mountains (the Cristal Mountains to the northeast of Libreville, the Chaillu Massif in the centre, culminating at 1575 m with Mont Iboundji), and the savanna in the east. The coastal plains form a large section of the World Wildlife Fund's Atlantic Equatorial coastal forests ecoregion and contain patches of Central African mangroves especially on the Muni River estuary on the border with Equatorial Guinea.
Gabon's largest river is the Ogooué which is 1200 km long. Gabon has three karst areas where there are hundreds of caves in the dolomite and limestone rocks. Some of the caves include Grotte du Lastoursville, Grotte du Lebamba, Grotte du Bongolo, and Grotte du Kessipougou. Many caves have not been explored yet. A National Geographic Expedition visited the caves in the summer of 2008 to document them (Expedition Website).
Culture[change | change source]
Gabon has a wide culture. Before colonialism, Gabon's people believed their ancestral spirit as religion, like bwiti, mvett, djobi.
After colonialism, others religions such as Christianity and Islam came to be added to the first animists believers.
Books about Gabon[change | change source]
- Maria Petringa, Brazza, A Life for Africa (2006) ISBN 978-1-4259-1198-0
Related pages[change | change source]
References[change | change source]
- ↑ Department of Economic and Social Affairs Population Division (2009) (PDF). World Population Prospects, Table A.1. 2008 revision. United Nations. http://www.un.org/esa/population/publications/wpp2008/wpp2008_text_tables.pdf. Retrieved 2009-03-12.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Gabon". International Monetary Fund. http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2011/01/weodata/weorept.aspx?sy=2008&ey=2011&scsm=1&ssd=1&sort=country&ds=.&br=1&c=646&s=NGDPD%2CNGDPDPC%2CPPPGDP%2CPPPPC%2CLP&grp=0&a=&pr.x=28&pr.y=1. Retrieved 2011-04-21.
- ↑ "Human Development Report 2010". United Nations. 2010. http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2010_EN_Table1.pdf. Retrieved 5 November 2010.
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