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Goodbye Bongo
Jun. 10th, 2009 10:07 amHi,
So this guy here (I hope you can see this photo):
is El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba. Usually known as Omar Bongo or just Bongo. He died a couple days ago.
Why I bring this up is because Bongo was the president of the African country of Gabon and at the time of his death was the longest-serving ruler still in power in the world. He ruled Gabon for 42 years and was pretty much the smoothest dictator you'd ever hope to meet.
Gabon has an interesting story. It was formerly a French colony which gained independence in 1960. However, its first president, Leon M'ba, won an election funded largely by French business concerns. When M'ba faced a coup because he was being a dictatorial jerk, French paratroopers swooped in and kept M'ba in power. Those troopers still maintain a military base outside of the capital. The official language of Gabon is French and it's long been the private playground of the French-owned Total Oil company
So M'ba dies in '67 and Bongo gets sworn in. And he's been at the job ever since. For the first couple of decades it was at the head of a single-party political system. In the early 90's Bongo allowed the formation of opposition parties, but he won handily every time since then.
How does he say in power? Well, obviously those French paratroopers are a big help. Bongo basically held the position of French colonial governor. Gabon and France are closely intertwined and Gabon is very dependent on its former owner. Almost everything you can find in a Gabonese store comes from France (including the food). This imposed French culture may be one of the factors that's helped unite the various tribal groups that found themselves part of Gabon when it was formed. So France has long looked after its former colony.
Bongo also had a lot of cash. Gabon is something like the 6th largest oil exporter in the world (almost all of that oil being pumped/processed by Total) and so they're sitting on just ridiculous amounts of cash (on top of Manganese and other valuable natural resources). In fact, the country is a stellar example of how vast natural resources can impoverish a country -- rather than maintain or develop its own agricultural system, Gabon simply sells more oil and imports food from France. If the oil ever runs out, Gabon will be almost completely devoid of an agricultural or industrial base.
While a lot of people still live in poverty, Bongo was actually been pretty smart about the money and was happy to cut his opponents in on a piece of the action in exchange for their cooperation. He could afford to -- the money Bongo skimmed off the top or got in kickbacks/bribes was so immense that there's really no harm in spreading the wealth around.
Finally, Bongo was actually pretty charming. He was only 4'11", a little dynamo of a man, and was often involved in peace-making efforts around the continent.
In the annals of Great Dictators, Bongo probably doesn't have the body count and he doesn't have the cult of personality or the crazy personal habits, but he's almost certainly the richest and most congenial. Definitely the kind of dictator you'd aspire to be or work for.
later
Tom
So this guy here (I hope you can see this photo):
is El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba. Usually known as Omar Bongo or just Bongo. He died a couple days ago.
Why I bring this up is because Bongo was the president of the African country of Gabon and at the time of his death was the longest-serving ruler still in power in the world. He ruled Gabon for 42 years and was pretty much the smoothest dictator you'd ever hope to meet.
Gabon has an interesting story. It was formerly a French colony which gained independence in 1960. However, its first president, Leon M'ba, won an election funded largely by French business concerns. When M'ba faced a coup because he was being a dictatorial jerk, French paratroopers swooped in and kept M'ba in power. Those troopers still maintain a military base outside of the capital. The official language of Gabon is French and it's long been the private playground of the French-owned Total Oil company
So M'ba dies in '67 and Bongo gets sworn in. And he's been at the job ever since. For the first couple of decades it was at the head of a single-party political system. In the early 90's Bongo allowed the formation of opposition parties, but he won handily every time since then.
How does he say in power? Well, obviously those French paratroopers are a big help. Bongo basically held the position of French colonial governor. Gabon and France are closely intertwined and Gabon is very dependent on its former owner. Almost everything you can find in a Gabonese store comes from France (including the food). This imposed French culture may be one of the factors that's helped unite the various tribal groups that found themselves part of Gabon when it was formed. So France has long looked after its former colony.
Bongo also had a lot of cash. Gabon is something like the 6th largest oil exporter in the world (almost all of that oil being pumped/processed by Total) and so they're sitting on just ridiculous amounts of cash (on top of Manganese and other valuable natural resources). In fact, the country is a stellar example of how vast natural resources can impoverish a country -- rather than maintain or develop its own agricultural system, Gabon simply sells more oil and imports food from France. If the oil ever runs out, Gabon will be almost completely devoid of an agricultural or industrial base.
While a lot of people still live in poverty, Bongo was actually been pretty smart about the money and was happy to cut his opponents in on a piece of the action in exchange for their cooperation. He could afford to -- the money Bongo skimmed off the top or got in kickbacks/bribes was so immense that there's really no harm in spreading the wealth around.
Finally, Bongo was actually pretty charming. He was only 4'11", a little dynamo of a man, and was often involved in peace-making efforts around the continent.
In the annals of Great Dictators, Bongo probably doesn't have the body count and he doesn't have the cult of personality or the crazy personal habits, but he's almost certainly the richest and most congenial. Definitely the kind of dictator you'd aspire to be or work for.
later
Tom
