Gabon, Equatorial Guineé,¹ and São Tomé and Príncipe

How is the land laid out?

This area is a very irregular square of Africa, bounded west by the Gulf of Guinea, plus some islands. The mainland has a swampy coast, with several lagoons and estuarial river mouths. Beyond the mainland the land rises in steps to forested plateau. Several short rivers flow west off the plateau; the Ogooué system drains much of Gabon. The largest freshwater lake is a spill lake off that river.

Of the islands Bioko is the largest, and sits southwest off Cameroon. It is simlarly mountainous. São Tomé is next largest, and next tallest. Príncipe is the third largest island.

The only UNESCO World Heritage Site honors both nature and culture: Ecosystem and Relic Cultural Landscape of Lopé-Okanda.

Map

Who lives there?

More than three in four of the less than three million people speak Northwest Narrow Bantu languages. More than one in ten speak Western African languages, and about one in ten speak Indo-European languages or creoles. Of individual languages, Fang² leads with more then one in three speakers. Punu is the only other language spoken by more than one in twenty.

Some proportion between six in ten and three in four are Christian, with Roman Catholics three fourths of those. Most of the rest follow local religions.³ Of these, the most important is the Ebonga or Bwiti religion. The exotic attraction of local practice that has drawn European attention is the use of an intoxicating plant, Tabernanthe iboga, source of ibogaine and other akaloids. Other aspects of the religion include: a set of gods and goddeses whose entwined stories center on an act of incest (nsem); a temple hut (mbandja) with macrocosmic/ microcosmic symbolism--common to many religions, which includes a pillar from ground to roof made from a tree.

The only city with as much as half a million people is Gabon's capital, Libreville. Port Gentil is the most important port.

Who was there before?

Bantu speakers arrived starting 4,000 years ago. Two routes were followed: inland and by sea. The sea route went to Bioko and the Gabon estuary. By the 14th or 15th century B.C.E., Fang speakers had arrived in the inland areas. They moved coastward in the 19th century, modifying the local Eboga religion.⁴ Europeans began arriving about the same time as the Fang, reaching the islands first. They overwhelmed São Tomé and Príncipe's culture, where creoles are now spoken, partly by the import of slaves to there up until the early 20th century. The Portuguese, Spanish and French brought Roman Catholic Christianity, and other European and American missionaries brought Protestantism.

Around the Area

around Bioko and Principe, and west of Rio Muni and northern Gabon
north of Rio Muni and northeast Gabon
east and south of Gabon
around Annobon, south of Sao Tome and west of southern Gabon
north of Sao Tome, and northwest of Cap Lopez, Gabon

Footnotes

1. Equatorial Guinea in English.
2. Also called Fangwe, Mpangwe or Pahouin.
3. Many Christians practice the Ebonga religion as well; these numbers may thus be an artificial divide of a belief continuum.
4. P. Burabe, La religion d'Eboga ou le Bwitides Fanges, 1982, translated by William J. Gladstone, 1997, and published on www.ibogaine.org/barabe.html (viewed 3/2006).