Bongo: "white like a Negro".

For 42 long years, President El Hadji Omar Bongo Ondimba (pictured above), dominated Gabon as he built close links with successive French presidents, from General de Gaulle to Nicolas Sarkozy. On 8 June, he breathed his last in a hospital in Barcelona, Spain. Anthony Ekanga looks at the colourful life and times of the man described as the "dinosaur of Gabon".

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

ALMOST 10 YEARS AGO, OMAR Bongo Ondimba, the most Francophile African president that ever lived, published Blanc comme Negre, a book highly critical of France. "Westerners are deceptive and opportunistic," wrote "the dinosaur of Gabon", who has known every French president since de Gaulle and who has been France's strongest ally in Africa for 42 years. On numerous visits to Paris, he would receive in his hotel room French ministers and businessmen eager to seek his patronage. Throughout the 314 pages of the book, he carefully unveils Francafrique's web of shady dealings. He had strong connections with key players in France, from Presidents de Gaulle to Jacques Chirac, through Georges Pompidou, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, and Francois Mitterand.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Seeing an arrogant France, which learned nothing from shared failures, Omar Bongo harboured a dark anger against his friends in Paris. He denounced the French attitude towards Africa and Africans in these famous words:

"Do you think, seriously, that I am treated the same way as the heads of state of Germany or Italy? We are treated less well than Vietnam or Bolivia. When an African minister, whoever he is, goes to Paris, he cannot have a meeting with his colleague. He is led to a small head of department, and at best, to the permanent secretary of staff of the ministry. If it comes to discussing money, he is sent to the Treasury where the little chief will give him lessons and talk to him as if he were a stupid Negro. It has always been like that."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In his 42 years at the helm of Gabon, President Bongo endured a lot of criticism. To those who attacked him, he would say: "There are people like Francois Mitterrand and I for whom the critics cause no insomnia." Francois-Xavier Verchav, the author of Black Silence, accused Bongo of what he called "democrature" (or "dictatorship legitimised by election fraud").

It is alleged that the French oil giant, Elf Aquitaine, which has made huge profits in Gabon, helped him to plunder the country's oil resources through illegal financial manipulations. It is also alleged that he received huge commissions for introducing Elf to Equatorial Guinea and Chad. He once even claimed ownership of Swiss bank accounts opened on his behalf by top French officials of Elf in Gabon.

Besides being a head of state, Bongo was also a paramount chief and a veritable Santa Claus to the Gabonese political elite who enjoyed all the benefits. He would go on tour in the country laden with bags of cash, giving 20 million CFA francs here, and 30 million there, solving big and small problems affecting neighborhoods, attending weddings, resolving divorce issues, paying teachers, civil servants, farmers, etc. On the political front, a great number of Francophone African leaders owed their successful careers to him. He did not only help them with good advice, but also with a lot of cash. At the presidential palace, there were always a large number of Africans waiting to see him with the aim of profiting from his legendary generosity. You never left empty-handed once you had the privilege of having an audience with him.

Helped by a weak opposition, Bongo held the reins of power for 42 years and became the longest-serving African president. Using corruption, intimidation, sabotage, and nepotism, the powerful elite surrounding him did not even bother to maintain the pretence of dialogue with the opposition, which was sadly condemned to playing second fiddle for more than four decades.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Bongo was not prepared to endanger the permanence of the system which he reluctantly put in place under pressure from the democratic forces in and outside the country, a system continually compromised by the inaction of the atavistic cronies opposed instinctively to anything that remotely threatened them.

Despite all his faults and the French designer suits and shoes, Bongo was an African at heart, who worked for unity wherever there was a conflict on the continent, a man who played father to whoever needed his advice. This aspect of his life will be sorely missed.

RELEATED ARTICLE: Bongo: A chronology of his life and times

1935 - Albert Bernard Bongo is born into a peasant family in the province of Haut-Ogooue. He completes his secondary schooling in Brazzaville, capital of then French Equatorial Africa. After brief military service in Chad, he works as a post office clerk before being noticed by Leon Mba, the first president of Gabon, who makes him his chief of staff.

1964 - Coup attempt against Leon Mba. France flies troops to Mba's rescue and keeps him in power.

1965 - Bongo becomes a Freemason.

1967 - 28 November: Leon Mba dies from cancer, on 2 December Vice-President Bongo takes office, according to the dictates of the constitution.

1968 - The new president creates the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) on 12 March, and establishes one-party rule.

1972 - A border conflict erupts between Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in September over the sovereignty of the Mbanie island in the Gulf of Guinea.

1973 - Albert Bernard Bongo converts to Islam and becomes El Hadj Omar Bongo.

1982 - Pope John Paul II visits Gabon on 18 February.

1982 - Forty opponents from the National Recovery Movement (Morena) are prosecuted for endangering state security. Thirteen are sentenced to 20 years in prison each. They will be pardoned in 1986.

1985 - Attemped coup d'etat against the government fails.

1989 - Another coup attempt on 3 October fails.

1990 - Riots in the capital Libreville lead to the convening, from 23 March to 19 April, of a national conference between the government and the opposition, to "find ways to a multiparty democracy".

1990 - 22 May: Under pressure, Bongo introduces multiparty politics, after constitutional reform.

1990 - 23 May: The suspicious death of the political opponent Joseph Redjembe, triggers riots in Libreville. Ten people, including 8 French nationals, are held hostage by Bongo's opponents. France intervenes militarily to "protect its citizens". The opposition calls for the resignation of Bongo.

1990 - September: Bongo organises the first multiparty parliamentary elections. His party wins an absolute majority in parliament.

1993 - December: Bongo organises the first multiparty presidential elections. He is re-elected in the first round with 51.07% of the votes, though his challenger Father Paul Mba Abessole from the Rassemblement National des Bucherons party proclaims himself winner of the elections and appoints a prime minister. Violence breaks out and a curfew is imposed. On 13 December, the Constitutional Court validates Bongo's victory.

1994 - A devaluation of the CFA franc triggers severe unrest on 21 February in Libreville and Port Gentil. Bongo succeeds in restoring calm. On 7 October, the "Paris Agreement" between his party and the opposition puts an end to political and economic deadlock.

1996 - Gabon leaves the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

1997 - A revision of the constitution establishes the post of vice-president, and extends the presidential term from 5 years to 7 years.

2002 - Father Paul Mba Abessole and three other opponents join the government on 27 January.

2003 - A constitutional reform introduces a one-round presidential election, and authorises the head of state to run for more than two terms.

2004 - Hu Jintao, president of China, visits Gabon for the first time.

2005 - Zacharie Myboto launches an opposition party, the Union Gabonaise for Democracy and Development (UGDD). Bongo is re-elected by an overwhelming majority (79.18%).

2007 - 27 July: Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, visits Gabon for the first time since his election.

2009 - 14 March: Bongo's wife, Edith Lucie Bongo Ondimba, the eldest daughter of President Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo-Brazzaville, dies at the age of 45 after a long illness. Bongo married Edith in 1990. On 7 May 2009, Bongo suspends his presidential activities to mourn his wife. He travels to Spain for medical treatment in Barcelona where he dies on 8 June.