Gabon Travel Guide - Expert information and travel advice including Libreville, national parks, wildlife, gorilla tracking in Loango National Park and mandrill tracking in Lopé National Park. Also covers traditional culture, Bwiti ceremonies, Lake Oguemoué, Abanda caves and crocodiles, rainforest pirogue trips, birdwatching and Koungou Falls.

Gabon is a small country located in Central Africa, bordered by Cameroon to the north, Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, and the Republic of Congo to the east and south. The country has a land area of 267,667 square kilometers, with a population of approximately 2.2 million people. The capital city, Libreville, is situated on the coast and is the largest city in the country. Gabon's economy is heavily dependent on oil production, which accounts for approximately 80% of the country's export revenue. However, the government has made efforts in recent years to diversify the economy by encouraging investment in other sectors such as transportation, telecommunications, and tourism. Additionally, Gabon is home to a significant portion of the Congo Basin rainforest and has been recognized for its efforts to conserve and protect its natural resources. Despite challenges such as poverty and political instability, Gabon remains an important player in the region and has significant potential for economic growth and development in the future.

The "Modern Sovereign," a notion indebted both to Hobbes's Leviathan and Marx's conception of capital, refers to the power that governed the African multitudes from the earliest colonial days to the post-colonial era. It is an internalized power, responsible for the multiform violence exerted on bodies and imaginations. Joseph Tonda contends that in Central Africa--and particularly in Gabon and the Congo--the body is at the heart of political, religious, sexual, economic, and ritual power. This, he argues, is confirmed by the strong link between corporeal and political matters, and by the ostentatious display of bodies in African life. The body of power asserts itself as both matter and spirit, and it incorporates the seductive force of money, commodities, sex, and knowledge. Tonda's incisive analysis reveals how this sovereign power is a social relation, historically constituted by the violence of the African cultural Imaginary and the realities of State, Market, and Church. It is to be understood, he asserts, through a generalized theory economic, political, and religious fetishism. By introducing this crucial critical voice from contemporary Africa into the English language, The Modern Sovereign makes a significant contribution to field of anthropology, political science, and African studies.

2011 Updated Reprint. Updated Annually. Gabon Foreign Policy and Government Guide

Wisdom and Initiation in Gabon: A Philosophical Analysis of Fang Tales, Myths, and Legends is a study of the philosophical significance of Fang mythology and the rituals of Initiation that lead to Wisdom. Bonaventure Mvé Ondo argues that Fang tales, myths, and legends are components of the foundation of a worldview that sustains and protects a unique, historical Fang identity. For Mvé Ondo, the contemporary challenges to the existence and identity of the Fang require, perhaps more than ever, recognition of the central role of mythology. At an historical moment when Africans are faced with the challenges of westernization, the metaphysics of the Fang, illustrated and preserved by tales, myths, and legends, is a critical element of Fang survival. Mythology is far more than a collection of amusing or awe inspiring stories, they are profoundly important moral lessons for the Fang in their continuing encounters with such contemporary challenges as materialism and, as the “stories” in this book illustrate, the constant struggle to live lives of purpose and meaning. For Mvé Ondo, the critical, central issue for the Fang is to focus on the distinction at the heart of his analysis, i.e., the crucial distinction between “to have” and to “to be.” The lessons transmitted from generation to generation by these marvelous stories are, Mvé Ondo argues, central to living lives that reflect and perpetuate the eternal truths of the Fang experience.

Gabon Investment and Business Guide - Strategic and Practical Information