Libreville

Libreville (Freetown), the capital of Gabon, is named after a village of freed slaves built in the Comptoir du Gabon in 1849. This comptoir (cartel), created by the French in 1843, was established in the Gabon estuary by the French Navy to combat the slave trade in the west coast of Africa. This French establishment had its origin when Bouet-Willaumez obtained a piece of land in the left bank of the estuary from “King” Denis Rapontchombo in 1839. In 1842 the post was moved to the right bank of the estuary with the agreement of the rulers of the villages of Dowe, Glass, Quaben, and Louis. It is from this position that France extended its influence over the Gabon region by signing alliance treaties with local chiefs between 1843 and 1846. In

1849  fifty “receptive” slaves from the ship Elizia or Ilizia were brought to the Gabon estuary after a three-year sojourn in Senegal. They were resettled in the village “Libreville.”

The name was given to this village by Bouet-Willaumez in remembrance of Freetown in Sierra Leone, where liberated blacks were also being settled by the British. The fifty recaptive slaves were given a house and a piece of land, and in 1850 a decision was made by French naval officers to transfer the Fort d’Aumale from its previous position near the seashore to a new site on top of the Okolo plateau near Libreville. Catholic missionaries occupied the old buildings of the French post. The village Glass, which was the main trading center at the time of the French installation, was experiencing competition from French factories, which established themselves near the post between

1850  and 1854. These economic dynamics were accompanied by constructions that were to constitute the future city of Libreville. In 1865 houses in concrete built on the plateau announced the French comptoir with the administrative building, the hospital, a military housing compound, and the Church of the Immaculate Conception. In addition to these constructions, there were the old Mpongwe villages of Glass, Louis, Quaben, Denis, and the American missionaries at Baraka.

At the time of these urban transformations, the French establishment was already the starting point for the exploration of interior regions. These explorations, carried out throughout the second half of the nineteenth century by explorers, made the Gabon comptoir a strategic location. When the French Congo was created in 1888, the name “Libreville” was given to the whole French establishment, including the Mpongwe villages, and Libreville became the capital of this new political entity. De Brazza, the French commissioner, resided in Libreville in 1882 and 1883. The lieutenant governor, who replaced the high commissioner after the creation of the Afrique Equatoriale Frangaise (AEF) in 1910, also resided in Libreville. These political changes were accompanied by the development of new administrative services, a colonial military, and the growing European population.

At the end of the nineteenth century, Libreville was still the only city in the Congo basin. But Brazzaville, created in 1881, was named capital of the AEF in 1910. Despite the loss of that position, Libreville found compensation in its role as capital of the Gabon colony. The real colonization of Gabon began in the twentieth century with the effective occupation of the country. New infrastructures were established which dynamized administrative functions of Libreville. At the beginning of the twentieth century, traditional factories and concessionary companies existed side by side and aggressively exploited local populations. This concessionary regime did not meet the expectations of the French colonial authorities, and the concession system was reorganized in 1910. It is only with the rise of industry centered on Okoume trees that the Gabonese economy experienced a real boom before World War I, leading to a massive increase of the budget of the Gabonese colony. This economic boom went along with the emergence of a consumer market. The economy of Gabon passed therefore from a subsistence economy to an exchange economy, a direct consequence of the Okoume industry.

This sudden development of a local consumer market at the beginning of the twentieth century gave Libreville a territorial radiation, which was lacking in the previous century. Libreville benefited from this, because factories and concession companies had their headquarters in Libreville. These headquarters established themselves near administrative services. The city also experienced an increase in office buildings and a steady flow of employees. Libreville received new equipment and developments, such as ports, and public sanitation. In 1940 modern engines were used

Libya.

To build two roads linking Libreville to Owendo and Libreville to Kango and Lambarene. In 1946 factories for the transformation of timber were also built in Libreville.

After World War II, Libreville was not only the capital of the Gabonese colony but also chef lieu de region, and chef lieu de district, further enhancing Libreville’s stature. Libreville was also the “spiritual center” of the colony. Missionaries opened schools and libraries and other reading rooms. Around that time, between 2,500 and 3,000 individuals, victims of the economic crisis that affected the timber industry in the 1930s, found refuge in Libreville. This floating population came to live side by side or intermingle with other people from central and west Africa and the old Mpongwe stock.

Rural exodus was also another factor explaining the presence of rural populations. Migrants hoped to find abundant and well-paying jobs, and inexpensive merchandise, in Librevile. They usually settled in such quarters as Nombakele, Derriere la prison, or Derriere l’ hopital. The Fang mainly established themselves in Lalala. These new quarters were different from the old Mpongwe villages of Louis, Glass, and others, as their characteristics were established before this demographic overflow. After independence, the rural exodus intensified with the oil boom of the 1970s, and new quarters and neighborhoods, mainly slums, emerged. In preparation for the 1977 Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit, new roads and buildings were constructed, giving Libreville a more modern appearance.

Francois Ngolet

See also: Gabon; Resettlement of Recaptives: Freetown, Libreville, Liberia, Freretown, Zanzibar.

Further Reading

Bucher, H. “Liberty and Labor: The Origins of Libreville Reconsidered.” Bulletins de I’Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire. Series B, 41 (1979): 478-496.

Fyfe, C. “Freed Slave Colonies in West Africa.” In Cambridge History of Africa. Vol. 5, 1790-1870. London. Cambridge University Press, 1976.

Lasserre, G. Libreville: La ville et sa region. Paris: Armand Colin, 1958.

M’bokolo, E. Noirs et Blancs en Afrique Equatoriale. Paris-La-Haye: Mouton, 1981.

Patterson, K. D. The Northern Gabon Coast to 1875. Oxford: Clarendon, 1975.

Schnapper, B. La politique et le commerce frangais dans le Golfe de Guinee de 1838 a 1871. Paris-La Haye: Mouton, 1961.