Gabon proved to be one of the most pro-French of the colonies. So much so that the independence leader contrived to stay close even after independence. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Here we have a French colonial issue showing a Fang warrior. The Fang tribe was a favorite of the colonial authorities and they took their place in the colonial administration and even post independence. So showing someone so exotic and by extension claiming he is on your side does a great deal to enhance the legitimacy of the colonial undertaking.
Todays stamp is issue A10, a 5 Centimes stamp issued by the French colony of Gabon in 1910. It was a 23 stamp issue that showed the Fang tribe and views if Libreville, the capital that had been started with French help by slaves freed from a slave ship bound for Brazil. There are versions of this issue labeled Equatorial Africa and French Congo along with Gabon to go with the often changing structure of the colonial administration. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp id worth 90 cents used.
Gabon had several European trading posts along the coast but it was the French that sent explorers into the interior and claimed the land for France. The trading posts were mainly in the slave trade and a French ship working as part of the naval blockade against the slave trade stopped a ship bound for Brazil and set the slaves free to set up the Libreville settlement and future capital. In turn the Fang tribe assisted the French in their exploration of the interior. Among the help was a barber and seamstress for the expedition that parented Leon M’ba the future President for life of independent Gabon.
His road to power was not smooth. He received education in French Catholic schools and received jobs with the tribe, the colonial administration, and the lumber trading houses that were the main industry then. In adulthood, he reverted from Catholic to the Bwiti religion of his tribe. He was known to be quite corrupt but for a while the French turned their heads to that as he was the best of a bad lot. In 1931, however there was a woman’s remains found in the market and her death was blamed on Bwiti religious practices involving ingesting psychedelics from tree bark. M’ba was then scapegoated as a prominent practitioner of Bwiti and sentenced to jail and exile for his corruption. He was successful in exile in Brazzaville and later allowed back into Gabon in 1946.
From their M’ba’s progress was fast. He presented himself to the people as one of them who had faced persecution. In private he was very close to the colonial authorities. It was a conservative place and though there was a desire for independence there was also a desire for keeping close ties with France, M’ba even claimed that Gabonese had two fatherlands Gabon and France. M’ba did not have much luck with the system left by France as there was no one who could achieve a majority under a democracy. Power was consolidated under M’ba and he became a one party President rather than the earlier Prime Minister. The French supported M’ba when there was a coup attempt and at M’ba’s request, a French Ambassador was recalled for not offering M’ba enough advise on policy. By the late 1960s M’ba was an old man who spent the last years of his rule in Paris hospitals. When he died in 1967 he was succeeded by his vice President Albert Bongo. Bongo and now his son rule to this day. In 1973, Bongo converted to Islam and took a new name. No word whether he gave up the psychedelic bark.
Well my drink is empty and there is really no one here worthy of a toast. How depressing, I think I will have another drink. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.