Gabon

Formerly one of the four territories that made up French Equatorial Africa, Gabon maintains close ties with its former colonizer. Since independence in 1960, this republic has undergone political and economic turmoil--disorders often reflecting the national interests of the French and the limits of Gabonese autonomy. These upheavals have included attempts by its first president, Leon Mba, to establish a centralized one-party regime, a coup d'etat led by young army. Officers, a highly controversial French military intervention that returned Mba to power, and the restored appearance of economic and political stability in the 1980s under President Omar Bongo. French interests--and those of a number of other countries--are based on Gabon's extensive natural wealth. Significant deposits of petroleum, iron ore, manganese, and uranium provide a powerful incentive for external economic involvement. At the same time, fluctuations in the. International market, declining petroleum production, and questionable government spending policies have prompted economic crises and internal political disturbances. A captive of its natural riches, Gabon also struggles with a lack of identity, its future dependent on forces substantially beyond its control. In exploring the development of Gabon, Dr. Barnes also examines the nature of the country's political and economic systems and their colonial antecedents. Dependence on France and the multinational corporate restraints on national aspirations are examined in order to assess the prospects for a viable, independent state.