Memories of Gabon
Mbolo!!!! From Gabon
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| The magazines that were given to me at Gabon embassy at Washington DC |
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Gabon has an oral tradition. Gabon's map
Libreville's coast beach
Gabon is a country situated on the west coast of Africa. It is crossed by the equator line which makes it a country known for its rainforest and the diversities in its fauna and flora. Gabon was first discovered by a group of Portuguese navigators in the 15th century. They called Gabao meaning "Cloak" because of the shape of the Estuary side. It then later after the French arrivals on the territory was named Gabon. Gabon became an independent country in august 17th 1960. The capital and political city is Libreville which means Free town in English because of its slavery history past. Some random slaves went back to Africa on a ship and found themselves at the coast of Gabon that they named Libreville.
 "Survivor" 2008 in Gabon |
Gabon uses a currency named CFA which is obviously not a powerful one but that's the one used in many countries in Africa.
CFA bank notes used in a Gabon. |
| Bank notes and coins from Gabon |
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| bank notes and coins |
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| our beach |
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| Libreville the City |
Gabon is a French speaking country situated in West central Africa. The capital city is Libreville. Gabon shares its borders with Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. Also, the country is located on the Atlantic coast. The Gabonese land is mostly covered with rain forest but also with savana, and mountains such as the Cristal Mountains and the Chaillu Massif. The Ogooue is the largest river (1200km) in the Plateaux Batekes. This river was discovered by famous Europeans explorers such as, Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, Mary Kingsley. . .
Savorgnan de Brazza with
picture of the British explorer woman: Mary Kingsley
A little bit of History event again: A young man named "El Yanga" or simply Nyanga (Like the name of one of the provinces of the country) who was from a Gabonese royal family. An African abolitionist and leader of slave rebellion in Mexico. He was kidnapped from Gabon to Vera Cruz/ Mexico where he later became the head of a group of slaves revolutionist. That event happened around 1570. If you are interested, you can read his story at this link: http://www.aaregistry.org/historic_events/view/yanga-african-abolitionist-and-rebel-mexico
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The Gabonese Gray parrot known for its ability to speak like humans. He is our national symbol  |
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| coins and an image from done by the Gabonese humorist Lybek |
Libreville (road on the coast beach) |
| my postal cards |
Poubara waterfalls
some archives that I keep with me |
| A woman's face in a Mbigou stone A little bit of History again: There is an old St Paul's cathedral named Donguila Mission in the Estuaire province. That cathedral was built in 1878 by European missionaries. Many tourists from other countries like to visit this piece of History and because they like the landscape. The Mission Donguila is built on the coast of the Komo river. Donguila is my village!!  Donguila Mission was involved and still is involved in social activities with the help of missionaries. The Mission has a school that was already active many years ago. The first president of Gabon attended the boy school of Donguila. Also,Mary Kingsley a British explorer during her trip in west Africa went through the Oggoue river, the Komo river and went to Donguila as well.  This is a picture of how it looks inside the church  I was lucky I did the trip on boat few times from Donguila to Libreville. Donguila is on the opposite side of Pointe Denis. Pointe Denis is not far from Libreville the capital city and it was a really good experience!! I hope to do it again.  This is the Komo River. The view from Donguila Mission (Not my picture) The Gabonese flag is green, yellow, blue (Green to represent our rich rainforest, yellow for the sun and blue for the ocean since the country is on the coast of the African continent) Because of its natural resources the country is known for its oil exploitation and its international exportation of the natural resources. Many international oil companies are based in Gabon.  Gabonese engineersGamba is a little town in Gabon and they do oil exploitation. It has very natural landscape. I went there I think four times and I loved the nature!  Also the exploitation and international exportation of its woods (The okoume a gigantic tree)  |
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Une oeuvre d'Art du peintre Gabonais George Mbourou My postal cards! Le Gabon en couleurs! |
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| Une danseuse Gabonaise. (Art work from a Gabonese painter Georges Mbourou. A woman dancing in a traditional clothe and holding a little drum on her hand) ) Oeuvre du peintre Gabonais Georges Mbourou |
 Mes cartes postales que je garde precieusement! A little bit of culture: braiding our hair. It is common.
Also, I wanted to show you some of the traditional masks that we have. They were used for special events and circumstances. They all have different meanings
  What about the traditional dances. There are many of them I can only put a little bit:  
Vickoss Ekondo: "Lost Voices"
Another style that I share it's a traditional dance called DeGaulle. This is funny story. As you can see men and women complain about the same thing it doesn't matter where you are from lol! Enjoy!
I share some of TV series that were recently produced. The actors speak in French unfortunately there is no translation. However I invite you to watch them if you can...You can find some of the episodes in youtube.com. The comedians are good! You will like the suspense, drama etc. Have fun! Another one that I recently found out. I like the theme of this TV serie. The name is "Ndossi" The natural landscape of Gabon is simply beautiful I share some pictures I hope you will like them as well. |
Landscape
I took this picture in a shop they were selling our Gray parrot. I was sad because it is one of our national symbols and the grey parrot of Gabon has something special compared to others it learns to speak like human, they are really smart they record things in their brain and they easily imitate human voices. Many parrots do not have this ability.
I don't really like the fact that they are sold out of the country. It saddens me to see them out because they represent a lot to us. I just hope that our government will do everything to protect our grey parrots and keep them otherwise they will disappear from our land.
We have different breed of elephants but the one that we like the most is the shortest one with big ears because they are foodie and funny. The name of this breed is called "Assala". Unfortunately, we have a lost a lot of elephants recently. Many were killed by illegal hunters ...It is really sad.
   strolling on the Oggoue River Oggoue river Libreville beach coast at Libreville Okoume a giant tree  our soccer team' symbol Gabonese soccer team in national colors.
We also had last year our first world champion in Taekwondo
 Anthony Obame |
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| raphia from Gabon |
Gabon has beautiful women as well. We organize interesting events like election of miss Gabon pageant like any other countries. We recently had a new one for this year.
Our former Miss Gabon (For Miss Universe pageant in this picture).
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| Mbigou stone from Gabon |
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1952/schweitzer-bio.html
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Dr Albert Schweitzer Dr. Albert Schweitzer's hospital on the border of the river named Moyen Oggoue/ Lambarene (view from the top) |
That picture was accidentally taken during the vacations and it ended up be one of my favorites why? Because this is a coconut tree and the sea there it's on the coast of Libreville. I can smell the sea through that picture (smile) the sand...From this picture you can see a portion of earth on the sea: This is Pointe Denis!
You might wonder how Pointe Denis looks like and where is it. Pointe Denis is a nice portion on earth in the sea like I just said and it is not far from the capital city Libreville It is just on the opposite and you can see it from the beach. People just go with little boat and they really like going there. It is a good place to go for weekends. Here are some pictures of la Pointe Denis (They have a Facebook page where they share all the activities happening there, tourism, protection of marine turtles...)
Pointe Denis
Another touristic site such as La Lope (a national park) Cap Esterias (The cap is a little portion of earth on the sea), Cap Santa Clara...If you want to know more about the touristic attractions and Gabon's History, these are the links to go. I would like to share a little bit of the Gabonese music and pictures in another post. Thank You!
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Tourism-g293792-Gabon-Vacations.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107556.html
http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0107556.html
now I want to show you our happy and proud wildlife (fauna)
Hippopotamus swimming in the sea enjoying the water as usual.
Gorillas with silvered back a specie only found in Central Africa especially in Gabon
Elephants
cheetah
rainforest buffalo
It took a plunge! He likes the water too (smile)
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| the sunset at Libreville |
Next, I want to share other types of pictures. Here are some pieces of Art from Gabon. Handcraft work I hope you will like them
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| Some pictures of Gabon laid on a hand made carpet done in vegetal natural raphia |
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| handmade carpet done with vegetal fibers named raphia |
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| An African woman with her baby on her back working |
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| A handmade bag done with natural vegetal fibers called raphia. Some handmade flip flop made in raphia |
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| envelopes and postal card things that I love! |
Now a little bit of fashion:
Traditional dress and necklace
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| hand made slippers |
Well I hope you enjoyed the presentation. Please drop some comments if you have ideas or experiences to share I will be glad to read them I will really appreciate it. Here a website where you can have more idea of tourism to Gabon http://www.bradtguides.com/destinations/africa/gabon/libreville.html
Thank you!!
I made that video with pictures of Gabon (50 facts about Gabon) picked and chosen in google.com. and others from my own files.
Une envie de montrer la beaute de nos pays
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