Posted on 08/30/2009 8:52:49 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Voters in the West African state of Gabon went to the polls yesterday to elect a successor to Omar Bongo, who ruled the tiny oil-rich country as a personal fiefdom for more than four decades.
President Bongo, who was Africa’s longest-serving ruler, died in June. He was one of the last of Africa’s so-called “Big Man” rulers, men such as Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko and Kenya’s Daniel arap Moi, whose presence dominated every aspect of life in their countries. Every banknote carried their picture, every building their portrait, streets and airports their names.
Anacle Bissielo, the country’s Development Minister and a professor at the Omar Bongo University, said: “This is a historic moment. It’s the first time since the 1960s that we don’t know what the outcome of this election will be. It’s also the first time since the 1960s that the name ‘Omar Bongo’ doesn’t appear on the ballot.”
Change may not be that dramatic, however. The favourite to win is the former President’s son, Ali Ben Bongo, 50, candidate of the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG). Mr Bongo, who has criss-crossed the jungle-clad country in a private plane, has promised to boost what he says is the prosperity that Gabon enjoyed during his father’s years in power.
Omar Bongo died one of the world’s wealthiest men, but his rule was noted for corruption and grandiose “white elephant” building projects at the expense of basic infrastructure.
Opposition figures have also made accusations of fraud, with at least one candidate saying that Ali Ben Bongo has too close a control over the government machinery. However, diplomats and political analysts say that the outcome, for the first time in memory, really is uncertain.
The late President, a close ally of France, tolerated no criticism but since his
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
A successor to O Bongo..
Daddy Bongo mayhave been the last of Africa’s “Big Man” rulers but we have a wannabee now.
Gabon is actually one of the richest sub-Saharan African countries, with a GDP about five times that of the former French Congo and about ten times that of the former Belgian Congo. So they may want nothing to do with the name Congo, quite apart from the fact that the Congo River doesn't touch their country. (They are neighbors to the former French Congo.)
Naming things after oneself is a quaint custom of dictators: Stalingrad, Titograd, Cuidad Trujillo, etc. Sometimes it lasts, sometimes it doesn't: it worked for Constantine (Constantinople) but not for Nero (who wanted Rome renamed for himself).
Me Bongo, son of Bongo.
God help the weary.
LOL!
Didn’t Bongo star in a couple of movies with Ronald Reagan ...
Wiki:
[Old man] Omar Bongo Ondimba (30 December 1935 – 8 June 2009[3]), born Albert-Bernard Bongo, was a Gabonese politician who was President of Gabon from 1967 to 2009.
Born on 30 December 1935 in Lewai (since renamed Bongoville), French Equatorial Africa, a town of the Haut-Ogooué province in what is now southeastern Gabon near the border with the Republic of the Congo (it was the same country actually).
yitbos
Well, stranger things have happened, I suppose. We elected a ballerina who can't bowl, golf, pitch or any other manly activity. And you can't tell what he looks like, because all you see is the inside of his nostrils.
Bongo, Massachusetts, story’s the same all over the world.
Haha you couldnt make it up....
Bongo bin Bongo?
"Here comes Leonardo,
Leonardo Lion
King of Bongo Congo..."
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