Eternal Black
Mother
The lion is back. The king of the forest has been filmed in southeastern Gabon, where it had been missing for years. Over a two-week period, the hidden cameras of the American NGO ‘Panthera’ filmed an adult male travelling along a pathway used by elephants inside the vast savannah of the Batéké plateau that stretches from Gabon to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Untitled (2014)
by Cedric Allogo Ndong
It is a piece of good news, a symbol of strength, optimism and hope for the country, over 80% of which is covered by forest: a vast virgin expanse, a wealth of flora and fauna, which contrasts with the modern architecture, the movement, lights, casinos and nightlife of the capital Libreville, one of the most expensive cities in the world.
Initiation (2014)
by Christopher Bidzame Waga
Today, however, Gabon is still a country of marked contrasts. With less than two million inhabitants in an area almost equal to that of Italy, and a GDP per capita of more than twenty thousand dollars, its economy is one of the most prosperous of the entire African continent. But the goal still to be reached is that of a widespread prosperity and a better balance between the different social classes.
A mixture of feelings and expressions (2014)
by Emmenuelle Sybile Ntsame Otogo
A French colony since 1839, used for the resettlement of freed slaves (hence the name of the capital), Gabon maintains a strong link with France, whose cultural and political influence have continued to be felt even after the proclamation of the Republic on 17th August 1960. Today people still say “the country without France is a car without a driver; France without Gabon is a car without fuel.”
Mask (2014)
by Georges Mbourou
Although production has been declining for more than a decade, hydrocarbon resources contribute more than 50% to national GDP. And although the government is taking steps to reduce oil dependence, growth still largely lies in extraction and refining in the vicinity of Port-Gentil, where the only domestic refinery was built in 1967. But today, it is mainly thanks to a Chinese investment plan that the infrastructure of the system is being renewed and expanded.
The initiate (2014)
by Hermann Mayala
Gabon also has large reserves of manganese – of which it is the world’s third biggest producer – in addition to diamonds, gold, phosphate and iron. And the Italian company Eni recently discovered major offshore gas fields, about 13 kilometres from the coast and 50 kilometres from the capital Libreville.
The new birth (2014)
by Jean Eric Nzengue Lemboma
“I want to say to the citizens of the world that Gabon is a country of great changes and considerable opportunities”, said the President of the Republic of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, during the African nation’s National Day celebrations at the 2015 Milan Expo, dedicated to feeding the planet.
The clothes horse (2014)
by Jordan Nzengue Mikolo
The challenge of food security, in particular, is a priority for the country, which imports almost 80% of its consumption even though it has great potential in agriculture and the fishing industry: nearly 2 million hectares are available for the cultivation of cocoa, palm oil, Hevea (the rubber tree) and coffee, in addition to its 800 kilometres of maritime coastline.
The city (2014)
by Kailie Cornellia Massounga
The production of cocoa, for example, which began under the French colonists, is not yet on an industrial scale. However, there are now small producers who, in addition to cultivating cocoa, produce an excellent chocolate and who, in fact, brought their sweet creations to the Expo with the aim of finding potential distributors in Europe and the rest of the world.
Kota Mask (2014)
by Marcelin Mbelakama Kemane
In general, Gabon is now targeting an alternative and sustainable development, based on the pillars of eco- tourism, the timber industry, thanks to an abundance of valuable woods (pink okoume, mahogany, ebony), and the natural environment, enhanced by the presence
of national parks that can be reached by new roads, such as Lopé-Okanda, which in 2007 joined the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Ancestral transmission (2014) by Marie Jeanne Sanga
Culturally, the goal is to go beyond French influence and recover the authentic values of Gabonese tradition, following the example of the writer, man of the church and of science, André Raponda Walker, who was born in 1871 near Libreville. The son of an Englishman, Robert Bruce Walker, representative of the famous trading company Hatton & Cookson of Liverpool, and Princess Agnorogoulè Ikoutou, niece of the king of the Mpongwe people, Raponda collected the rich folklore of his country, translating the mvett that form the basis of oral literature (the word describes the narrator, the musical instrument that accompanies the story, a kind of harp, and the story itself). Written in parables, they depict man and the fantastical, in stories where animals talk, the dead are raised, magicians and spirits succour or attack the heroes.
Providence (2014) by Mirena Farelle Moutongo Nzebi
This deeply African soul – “Mounombi ha pinde moumoukate néssi ô mourime” (Black is black from skin to heart), in the words of the Gabonese singer Mackjoss – is also the protagonist of this Imago Mundi collection that brings together, as the curator Liliana Malta recalls in her introduction, many themes and subjects of the Gabonese tradition. Like the fang masks, tribal and mystical, closely related to funeral rites, that influenced an avant-garde artist like Picasso. Mesmerized by their strength, he said: “The masks weren’t just like any other pieces of sculpture. Not at all. They were magic things. They were against everything – against unknown threatening spirits”.
Rebirth (2014)
by Mirena Farelle Moutongo Nzebi
And it is interesting to see how our modern art, which without Africa would probably not have been the same (just think of the Demoiselles d’Avignon), in turn influences the Gabonese artists of today, leading to a sort of cultural short circuit, whose common thread is the search for new keys to decipher the mystery of man.
Woman of Africa (2014)
by Sandry Iwangou
Another common theme emerges from the collection, as Liliana Malta one again highlights: “la terre mère”, the harmony of nature and the cosmos, often expressed through the female figure, bearer of fertility and life. An eternal Black Mother who becomes the symbol of a country, and of a continent, able to feed our imagination, mixing the old with the allure, no less wild and fiery, of the new times.
Luciano Benetton
