New Gabon book casts doubt on Bongo’s reformist image

Veteran French investigative journalist Pierre Péan has returned to Gabon, a country he first worked in from 1962, by following up his famous 1983 Affaires Africaines with a new book that is creating a buzz in Franco-African circles: Nouvelles Affaires Africaines: Mensonges et pillages au Gabon (Fayard, Paris). While Libreville has sought to craft a modern, outward-looking image for President Ali Bongo Ondimba, since his election in 2009 – embodied by the much-hyped Emerging Gabon economic diversification plan – Péan focuses on a culture of enrichment by the elite and its foreign allies, where esoteric beliefs can shape policy even more than internationally recognised investment initiatives.