Douglas Yates, American Graduate School in Paris (AGS)
Gabon is resource rich, but the Bongo family’s continuous rule has been bad news for the country of 2.3 million people.
Campaign ads for Ali Bongo in his successful 2009 bid to succeed his father as president of Gabon. The Bongo family has lead Gabon uninterrupted for over 50 years.
Reuters/Daniel Magnowski
Gabon’s strongman president, Ali Bongo, is barely clinging to power after contested elections, a stroke and a coup attempt. The Bongo family has run this stable central African nation for 52 years.
Gabonese President, Ali Bongo Ondimba, wants to be president for life.
Thorston Wagner/EPA
Rap has become instrumental in constructing identity and radically reshaping relations to politics in Gabon and other African states.
The remains of a burned car outside Gabon’s National Assembly. It was set alight during unrest after the disputed reelection of President Ali Bongo.
Reuters/Edward McAllister
Ali Bongo seems to have won Gabon’s elections. Yet his contested “victory” has radically changed the political field in this soft democracy, one of Africa’s richest and most stable.