Gabon and modern Slavery in Africa
Posted: Sunday, October 21, 2001

1470 - Portuguese arrive in what is now Gabon.

1839 - Local Mpongwe ruler signs away sovereignty to the French.

1910 - Gabon becomes part of French Equatorial Africa.


1958 - Gabon votes to become autonomous republic in the French Community.

1960 - Gabon becomes independent.

1961 - Leon Mba elected president.

1964 - French forces restore Mba's presidency after crushing military coup.

1967 - Bongo becomes president after Mba dies.

1973 - Bongo converts to Islam and assumes the first name of Omar.

1990 - Opposition parties legalized, accuse the government of fraud in parliamentary elections held in September and October.

1991 - Parliament adopts a new constitution which formalises the multiparty system.

1993 - Bongo narrowly wins presidential election, the first held under the new multiparty constitution; opposition accuses government of electoral fraud.

1996 - Governing Gabonese Democratic Party wins significant majority in parliamentary elections.

1998 - Bongo re-elected to a seven-year term.

BBC - The slave children 

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