Trying to make a far off colony break even economically was always a challenge. Slash and burn pillaging winds down quickly and there is always more that needs doing for your new subjects. Luckily sustainable operations are sometimes put in place by Frenchmen with enough of an adventurous spirit to see the possibilities. 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.
I mentioned the challenge of making a colony work economically. This can be seen in the overprints on this stamp. France was again trying to combine Congo, Gabon, Chad, and the Central African Republics area into one colony out of Brazzaville to save money. It didn’t work and the areas were separated again pre independence. It is worth noting that there has not been a coming together afterwards either. Tribes do not always get along and it was not always the fault of the French.
Todays stamp is issue A16, a 1936 overprint for French Equatorial Africa on a Gabon 1 Centime issue from 1932. The stamp shows a raft hauling lumber to market on the Ogowe, now Ogboue, River. The overprint was a 10 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents unused.
The first forestry was set up by the French in 1892. Over 70% of Gabon’s land is covered with forests. Operations got a lot more serious in 1913 when the Gabon wood Okounne was introduced by the French on to the world market. Luckily for Gabon the operations were set up to be sustainable. Okounne is a soft wood that is much prone to decay but its weakness makes it suitable as a component of plywood, another innovation that made forestry more sustainable. These days it is often sprayed with plastic to hold off rotting.
Since independence Gabon has struck oil and that has been the main economic driver. That was not the end of forestry. Gabon has stayed uniquely close to France see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/04/11/gabon-1910-the-french-like-the-fang-but-wish-they-would-lay-off-the-psychedelic-bark/ . Over 50 firms, most foreign have been granted concessions to keep forestry going in Gabon. The wood provides over 300 million dollars a year in export revenue. I am not sure you would still see a lumber raft as on the stamp. The river flows parallel to a newer Trans-Gabon railway built post independence with oil and forestry! money.
Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the early foresters of French Equatorial Africa. It would have been so much easier to just denude Gabon of it’s forest. Instead the hard work of sustainability has kept the dividends coming for over a century. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.