Archival Resources in Gabon

The researcher interested in archival and bibliographical information on Gabon will already have consulted Hubert Deschamps' Traditions orales et archives du Gabon (Paris, 1962), and Brian Weinstein's “Gabon: A Bibliographical Essay,” Africana Newsletter [Stanford], 1 (Winter 1963), pp. 4-9. It is not my intention to supersede these two documents but rather to provide a more recent survey of what is presently available to the researcher in Libreville.The local administrative archives, like those of most of the former French colonies in Africa, were removed to France on independence. This means that the investigator may spend less archival time in Gabon than he might have anticipated; nevertheless, there are several valuable archival resources available in Libreville. The most voluminous archives in Libreville have now been centralized by the government into the National Archives and Library under the direction of M. Gaston Rapontchombo. Much of the material was personally collected by him during twenty years' residence in France. The card catalogue (chronologically organized) begins with 1856 and is kept as current as is possible with a limited staff and budget. It is in the process of being cross-referenced by author and subject. The index cards (totaling some thirty to fifty linear feet) represent every book and article concerning Gabon (history, natural sciences, religion, politics, art, education, anthropology, and numerous other subject areas) that M. Rapontchombo could locate in his extensive investigations into European repositories. In some cases these include material about Gabon's neighbors. There are entries from about 1000 journals (French, English, Swiss, German, Scandinavian, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Belgian, Portuguese, South African, and other areas, including many other countries in tropical Africa). In many cases M. Rapontchombo has photocopied articles, and even complete books, but these had not been catalogued as of February 1974. There are also many photocopies of manuscripts from various archival collections in France.