Albert Bernard Bongo, France and the Biafra War

Excerpted from the Book, Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria 

by Godfrey Mwakikagile

Led by the 32-year-old President Albert Bernard Bongo who had been in effective control since November 1966 during President Leon M'ba's long illness and took over when the President died on November 27, 1967, Gabon became the second country after Tanzania to recognize Biafra. Throughout her history since independence, Gabon has been subservient to France like most of the Francophone countries on the continent. And her recognition of Biafra was attributed in some quarters to the French government's influence on her. However, the official position of the Gabonese Government was that it could not maintain "unpardonable indifference towards the pogrom organized against 14 million Africans."¹¹⁶

Gabon recognized Biafra on May 8, 1968, about a month after Tanzania did on April 13, the first country to do so. Although President Bongo cited moral reasons for recognizing Biafra because of what he described as organized massacres directed against an entire people, he gave other reasons as well for taking such action. The Gabonese took an anti-federalist stand to further explain its policy towards Biafra:

"Defending its action, the Government also pointed out that none of the Federations in Africa, inherited from colonialism or imposed by force, had been viable; and recalled that the Gabonese people had chosen national independence in 1959 when faced with the attempt to impose on them the Union of Central African Republics. President Bongo said that he held the same views as President Houphouet-Boigny of the Ivory Coast."¹¹⁷

That is almost identical language President De Gaulle used when he recognized Biafra; which lends credibility to the argument that President Bongo was influenced by the French Government in making his decision to take the same position the French did on the Nigerian Federation. De Gaulle was vehemently opposed to the Nigerian federation and wanted it destroyed for imperial purposes in the interest of France, although he was not that blunt in his official statement. But there are unmistakeable parallels between what he said and what Bongo said with regard to Nigeria and other federations in general. And De Caulle took concrete steps to achieve his goal, of breaking up Nigeria, by arming Biafra:

"The physical extent of this support is enigmatic, but it is widely believed that France had a hand in the sudden influx of arms into Biafra in September and October (1968) which changed the military balance in the Nigerian war. This 'intervention' it is claimed, was either directly, or through Gabon and the Ivory Coast. All have officially denied Arms traffic. What is certain is that French public opinion and newspapers are strongly pro-Biafran on humanitarian grounds, and De Gaulle at his September press conference, said French recognition of Biafra 'cannot be excluded in the future.'

He based his argument on self-determination, and on hostility to federations in general. All those he mentioned were British creations...the French have been emphasizing that their decolonization did at least avoid a Nigerian war. It is significant that wealth Ivory Coast and Gabon were the 'Biafras' of the failed (French) federations...the two federations the French had created in West and Central AFrica, which were systematically dismantled in the late 1950s as independence approached."¹¹⁸

¹¹⁶ Albert Bernard Bongo, later Omar Bongo, quoted in Africa Contemporary Record, op. cit., p. 462; The Nationalis, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Times of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia, and The Nigerian Times, Lagos, Nigeria, May 9, 1968

¹¹⁷ Bongo, in Africa Contemporary Record, ibid., pp.462-3

¹¹⁸ Kaye Whiteman, "France's Year in Africa," in Africa Contemporary Record, op. ci., pp. 29-30. See also De Gaull, press conference on Biafra, in Le Monde, Paris, September 1968

Comments

[TAGRO]

The francophonic mindset is incompatible with the concept of Federalism and the devolution of power and authority.

[facter]

Bongo was a big player in African intrigues and not to the advantage of Africans at all. So much comes to light as we read modern African history. Following very powerful French logic, Southern Cameroons issue should not be an issue at all. They should just let go. In the days of West Cameroon, French planes full of arms used to fly over the Buea mountain at night, from Gabon.

Thank you for dying Bongo. It is helping us to learn and to remember a lot of things.

[Bwemakai]

Given the Frenchs phobia to federalism it is then obvious that it could not survive in Cameroon. First they cowed Southern Cameroons into joining la republique du Cameroun in the guise of a federation then after achieving this scraped the nonsense called federation afterall at this point they won't have any more options.
How myopic and thoughtless our leaders were back then!