Word: bongos
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...situation appeared to be calming on Friday, after unrest had erupted in Gabon's cities the previous afternoon with the announcement that Ali Ben Bongo had won the election to succeed his father Omar Bongo, who died in June after having ruled the nation with an iron fist for 41 years. On Thursday, opposition supporters clashed with security forces in the capital, Libreville, while others in the main economic city of Port-Gentil ransacked shops, set fire to the French consulate and attacked the compound of French oil giant Total. Their grievances were clear: after having helped Omar Bongo squash...
...evident to anyone paying attention that this entire campaign has been marred by manipulation, cheating and now fraud, it's difficult not to interpret the benevolent silence from France as approving that process and outcome," says Marc Ona Essangui, a Libreville-based environmental activist and opponent of the Bongo regime. "France claims it didn't have a candidate in this election. France has always claimed it didn't have a candidate in Gabonese elections. And yet the ideal candidate for France has once again come...
...Tsvangirai believes, but it is ineffective. Criticism has done nothing to dislodge Muammar Gaddafi in Libya (in his 40th year in power) or José Eduardo dos Santos in Angola or Teodoro Obiang in Equatorial Guinea (both in their 30th), while Africa's most enduring autocrat, Gabon's Omar Bongo, died in June in his 42nd year in office. Criticism has actually strengthened Mugabe, allowing him to cast himself as a heroic defender of Africa taking up the cudgel, just as he did when he led the fight for independence against racist Western imperialism...
...Omar Bongo, 73, assumed the presidency of the West African nation of Gabon in 1967 and remained in power until his death on June 8. An authoritarian leader, Bongo--who had been the world's longest-serving President--was criticized for using Gabon's vast oil resources to fund a lavish lifestyle...
...There is hope that Bongo's death may help set a new pattern for Africa, opening the way for a new era of reform and shared prosperity. Across the continent, the old "Big Men" dinosaurs are dying off. Gone are Idi Amin of Uganda, Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaïre, Hastings Banda of Malawi and Charles Taylor of Liberia. Those that remain are precariously long in the tooth: Libya's Muammar Gaddafi has been in power for 39 years, while Dos Santos of Angola and Obiang of Equatorial Guinea have ruled for 29 and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe...