Gabon officially the Gabonese
Republic (French: République gabonaise), is a
country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, Gabon is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo on
the east and south, and the Gulf of Guinea to the west. It has an area of nearly 270,000
square kilometres (100,000 sq mi) and its population is estimated at
2.1 million people. Its capital and largest city is Libreville.
Since its independence
from France in 1960, the sovereign state of Gabon
has had three presidents. In
the early 1990s, Gabon introduced a multi-party system and a new democratic
constitution that allowed for a more transparent electoral process and reformed
many governmental institutions. Gabon is notable for the Oklo reactor zones,
the only known natural nuclear fission reactor
on Earth which was active two billion years ago. The site was discovered during
uranium mining in the 1970s to supply the French nuclear power industry. French is the country's sole official language. It is estimated that 80% of
Gabon's population can speak French, and that 30% of Libreville residents are
native speakers of the language. Nationally, 32% of the Gabonese people speak
the Fang language as a mother tongue.
The earliest post office was set up at Libreville in 1862; mail from there was routed through the
British post office on Fernando Po (now Bioko).
Mail used the stamps of the French Colonies
general issue, cancelled with a "GAB" inside a lozenge of dots. On 31
July 1886 Gabon issued its first stamps, which were surcharges on the existing stock, to cover shortages of the
most-used values. The overprint consisted of "GAB" in dots, plus the
new value. Additional surcharges in 1888 were just the numeral, while in 1889
the postage due stamps were overprinted "GABON / TIMBRE"
in addition to the new value, to indicate their validity as regular stamps.
Also in 1889 15c and 25c stamps were locally typeset; they were inscribed "Gabon-Congo / POSTES"
in one corner, the value in the opposite corner, and a diagonal
"Republique Française" across the middle. All of these early issues
were produced in small numbers, and not often seen. From 1891 to 1904, Gabon
was administered as part of the French Congo, but in connection with a grant of partial
autonomy, it issued its own stamps in 1904. This was followed in 1910 by a set
using designs specific to Gabon; a Fang warrior, a view of Libreville, and a Fang woman, all
printed in two colors. A first version included "CONGO FRANÇAIS"
along with "GABON" in the inscription, but was soon supplanted by a
redesign saying "AFRIQUE EQUATORIALE" instead. From 1924 on, the
1910-series stamps were overprinted "AFRIQUE EQUATORIALE FRANÇAISE".
Although the Republic was
proclaimed in November 1958, the people continued to use the stamps of French
Equatorial Africa, and the first issue of the Republic came on its 1st
anniversary, 28 November 1959, with two values depicting different views of
Prime Minister Léon M'ba.
During the 1960s, issues
followed a pattern generally common to France and the former French colonies;
multicolored engraved stamps in an oblong format, either horizontal or
vertical. Some were conscious imitations of French designs, such as the
small-format coat of arms stamps that began appearing in 1969 and continuing
into the 1980s (long after France itself had stopped using the design
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.