History of Nyanga

Nyanga has faced a fairly long history, seeing two colonisations, the first from Histalpol and the second from France and facing a mostly peaceful independence from Gabon.

Early History
The earliest inhabitants of the region comprising present-day Nyanga were the Bambuti people. The Bambuti were linked to Pygmy tribes whose Stone Age culture was slowly replaced by Bantu tribes coming from regions north of present-day Republic of Congo about 1,700 years ago, introducing Iron Age culture to the region. The main Bantu tribes living in the Nyanganese Region, established kingdoms along the coast and along the Nyanga River. The capital of these Kingdoms was Tchibanga, which today is the second largest city in Nyanga after Mayumba and is the largest inland settlement in Nyanga.

Colonisation
French, Histalian and Dutch traders were some of the first European colonists’ to arrive in Nyanga. They traded mainly with silver and glass for various types of, plant and animal products that Europeans felt as medicinal or as delicacies. Histapol first colonised Nyanga in 1846, following the French in their colonising of the area. They built up the village, Mayumba, which had been the centre of Nyanganese and Histalian trade. The Histalians’ increased the size of the port and gradually built up a steady ivory, lumber, fur and slave trade. Many Histalians immigrated to Nyanga to start new industries and businesses after the 1885 Berlin Conference which arranged treaties with local tribes in Nyanga and claimed Nyanga for Histapol in Berlin.

Upon their arrival many built homes near the beaches, of which the Histalians became fond of. In 1894 of the 104,000 people living in Nyanga, over 15,000 were Histalian. This brought with it an increase of tourism in the later years and meant that towns and cities received greater amounts of development. After the fall of the Histalian Empire in the 1900s France claimed Nyanga and merged it with Gabon forming one of Gabons’ nine provinces. With the close relations between France and Histapol many of the Histalian population remained. In 1910, Gabon formed one of the four territories of French Equatorial Africa. During World War II Nyanga was part of the French Free Force.

Gabon’s Independence
At the time of Gabon's independence in 1960, two principal political parties existed: the Bloc Democratique Gabonais (BDG), led by Léon M'Ba, and the Union Democratique et Sociale Gabonaise (UDSG), led by Jean-Hilaire Aubame. In the first post-independence election, held under a parliamentary system, neither party was able to win a majority. The BDG obtained support from three of the four independent legislative deputies, and M'Ba was named Prime Minister. Soon after concluding that Gabon had an insufficient number of people for a two-party system, the two party leaders agreed on a single list of candidates. In the February 1961 election, held under the new presidential system, M'Ba became President and Aubame became Foreign Minister.

This one-party system appeared to work until February 1963, when the larger BDG element forced the UDSG members to choose between a merger of the parties or resignation. The UDSG cabinet ministers resigned, and M'Ba called an election for February 1964 and a reduced number of National Assembly deputies (from 67 to 47). The UDSG failed to muster a list of candidates able to meet the requirements of the electoral decrees. When the BDG appeared likely to win the election by default, the Gabonese military toppled M'Ba in a bloodless coup on 18 February 1964. French troops re-established his government the next day. Elections were held in April 1964 with many opposition participants. BDG-supported candidates won 31 seats and the opposition 16. Late in 1966, the constitution was revised to provide for automatic succession of the vice president should the president die in office. In March 1967, Leon M'Ba and Omar Bongo (then known as Albert Bongo) were elected President and Vice President, with the BDG winning all 47 seats in the National Assembly. M'Ba died later that year, and Omar Bongo became President.

In March 1968 Bongo declared Gabon a one-party state by dissolving the BDG and establishing a new party: the Gabonese Democratic Party (Parti Démocratique Gabonais) (PDG). He invited all Gabonese to participate. Bongo was elected President in February 1973; in April 1975, the office of vice president was abolished and replaced by the office of prime minister, who had no right to automatic succession. Bongo was re-elected President in December 1979 and November 1986 to 7-year terms. Using the PDG as a tool to submerge the regional and tribal rivalries that divided Gabonese politics in the past, Bongo sought to forge a single national movement in support of the government's development policies.

Nyanganese Independence
Desire for political liberalization provoked violent demonstrations and strikes by students and workers in early 1990. Bongo negotiated with them and promised to open the PDG and to organise a national political conference in March–April 1990 to discuss Gabon's future political system. Among the 75 political parties attending the conference was the Independence League of Nyanga (ILN) which was part of the United Front of Opposition Associations and Parties. Ultimatly the discussions for Nyanga's independence failed during the conference. A poll was handed out to the political parties attending and 75% were against Nyanga's Independence. In Mayumba tensions were getting worse. Several PDG politcians were murdered and aggressive riots ensued. During the riots ILN leader, Alabode Jonathon, urged his followers to end the violence and continue peacefully. In June 1991 Alabode and his coleagues' housing complex in Mayumba was raided during the night and he was taken to Libreville for questioning. ILN followers demanded answers to his capture. Bongo said that he was taken in for questioning to make sure that his outlooks were, "Good willed and not for terrorism".

He was released a week later but was under surrveillance. Alabode spoke at ILN rally in Tchibanga, continuing to urge a peaceful transition into independence, also requesting a referendum for Nyanga's inpedendence be made following a poll in Nyanga three weeks prior.

Bongo responed to the referendum on a positive note, making it a requirment of a 65% in favour for the bill to pass and for Nyanga to give 8.5% of all profits made from oil to Gabon. Voting began in July through to August, the results were 83% in favour.



Post Independence
After the agreement of independence and global recognition by the end of 1992, the first elections were held as a presidential republic. The main competing parties were as follows:


 * Le Parti Social-Démocrate de Nyanga
 * Democratic Alliance (Nyanga)
 * All-African People's Revolutionary Party
 * Independence League of Nyanga

The Independence League of Nyanga, with Alabode Johnathon as president won with 56% of vote, Le Parti Social-Démocrate de Nyanga came second with 28% of the vote, the Democratic Alliance came third with 14% and the All-African People's Revolutionary Party came forth with 1.3% of the vote with the remaining 0.7% going to other parties and independent candidates. The Independence League’s staggering lead did not bring much surprise or controversy as they are the oldest Nyanganese political party and had gained independence for Nyanga.

President Alabode’s first address was the HIV/AIDS endemic, which had caused large amounts of damage throughout Africa. The new governmental health system added HIV/AIDS treatment to their treatment options and set up a rural prevention and education scheme throughout Nyanga. The new government also founded the state owned mineral reserve corporation, National Resources of Nyanga; it claims ownership of most of the mined resources in Nyanga, leasing them to many multinational corporations. The government invested the most in education, constructing and improving many schools and universities, using money that was previously military spending. This change in budget brought with it opposition with some neighbouring countries of Nyanga experiencing civil and political unrest. In 1995 Nyanga joined the Africa Union.

Democratic Alliance Comes into Government
See Also: Democratic Alliance (Nyanga) During Alabode’s second term as president (1997-2001) Nyanga experienced an economic downturn following the many civil wars taking place on the continent. Many of the policies he had introduced in his first term were cut back, but certain ones were “prioritised”, such as the HIV/AIDS policy. In 2000/2001 Alabode’s popularity dropped in numbers from previously 54% to 43% in favour of Olabode. Government funded Development in tourism halted as funding simply couldn’t supply, as well as the considerably low numbers of tourists in the country due to civil unrest in nearby countries.

In 2001 elections took for the third time during the whole month of March. Alabode retired from politics at the age of 63 and Richard Udu Yejide took his place as president of the ILN. The Democratic Alliance took the lead for the first week of the elections, the ILN coming a close second. By the second week, Le Parti Social-Démocrate de Nyanga was coming second the ILN first and Democratic Alliance third but on the final week, the Democratic Alliance was in the lead by 2% of the vote with 34% and the ILN with 32%. The Democratic Alliance won in 2001 with 37% of the vote, the ILN coming second with 34% of the vote and Le Parti Social-Démocrate coming third with 16% of the vote. Since then the Democratic Alliance has won the 2004, 2008 and 2013 being the current political party in state.