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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Inventing ethnicity and identities in Gabon: the case of the Ongom (Bakele)
Author:Ngolet, FrançoisISNI
Year:1998
Periodical:Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer
Volume:85
Issue:321
Pages:5-26
Language:English
Geographic term:Gabon
Subjects:Kele (Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon)
ethnicity
External link:https://doi.org/10.3406/outre.1998.3686
Abstract:This article deals with the 'fabrication' and fluidity of identities and ethnicity in Gabon since the precolonial period. It shows how a precolonial ethnic group called 'Ongom', whose consciousness was kept alive by a series of symbols, was progressively replaced by the 'Bakele' ethnic group. This new ethnic group was a 'creation' of European travellers and explorers who extended the name 'Bakele' to all the Ongom subgroups across Gabon in the 19th century. This new ethnicity was reinforced by territorial divisions and the appointment of chiefs during the colonial period. Bakele ethnic feeling declined after Gaston Lengangouet, a Bakele, was ousted from the Territorial Assembly in 1958. It was replaced by a 'Gabonese national consciousness', forged by the involvement of the Bakele in the nationalist struggle, and by the economic and social dynamics of Gabonese society in the postcolonial period. Since the 1980s, however, Bakele ethnicity is being 'refabricated' to perpetuate the political power of Omar Bongo's regime. Notes, ref., sum. in English and French.
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