Woleu-Ntem

The Woleu-Ntem is one of the nine provinces of the Gabon. Its chief town is Oyem which gathers, with the towns of Bitam, Minvoul, Mitzic and Médouneu, the large majority of the 125.400 inhabitants of the province (estimate 2002). The Equatorial forest occupies the essence of the territory of this area, which explains its very weak density of population. It is perforated that and there by some roads which connect the principal cities between them and the length which one can cross isolated small villages. Is province is practically uninhabited, except by small groups of seminomad Pygmies, which facilitated the creation of the National park of Minkébé.

It is about a little industrialized area which produces cocoa and rubber. The food crops and hunting in forest still provide a good part of the food of the local populations.

The relations are rather important with the Guinea Equatoriale and the South of the Cameroun, because of the membership common to the ethnos group fang of the majority of the population, on both sides of the border. In the daily life, much about people speak fang, French being the language of the school and the administration. The exchanges with Cameroun are facilitated since the inauguration, in Eboro, in 2005, of a bridge on the Ntem river, natural border between the two countries. Until this date, it was necessary to cross by dugout or by the vat.

Woleu-Ntem is subdivided in five departments.

Haut-Como, chief town Médouneu
Haut-Ntem, chief town Minvoul
Ntem, chief town Bitam
Okano, chief town Mitzic
Woleu, chief town Oyem

Significance of the blazon: The green bottom evokes the Equatorial forest, dent them cocoa represent the culture of the cacao-tree, the two blue corrugated lines symbolize the rivers Ntem and Woleu which cross this province and gives him its name.

History of Woleu-Ntem

Isolated in the Equatorial forest, far from the coasts and of the first colonial establishments, Fangs of Woleu-Ntem had direct contact with tradesmen and exploring European only at the end of the 19th century. If they easily agreed to establish commercial relations, Fangs were shown rather hostile with the European penetration. Their country was cut out arbitrarily between France (Gabon), Germany (Cameroun) and Spain (Guinea Equatoriale) in the years 1900. The Franco-German competition involved several recuttings of border between Gabon and Cameroun.

The area of Woleu-Ntem was officially created in 1907. The first colonial administrator, Weber, created the stations of Oyem, Bitam and Minvoul with an aim of making the presence French effective. A brotherhood fang, known as of Binzima, opposed it. Simple movement of plunderers for the ones, resistance movement with colonization for others, it joins together liking or of force of the thousands of Fangs. The rejoined villages were initiated, while the villages collaborating with the French were plundered. Oyone Mintsa, of the Nkodjé clan, and Ekome Adza, of the Odzip clan, were the Binzima main leaders, according to the files of the historical service of the troops of Navy AEF.

But France had to yield Woleu-Ntem to Germany in 1912, following the Franco-German bargaining on Morocco. The First World War did not save the area. Engagements took place in 1914-1915 and Woleu-Ntem was definitively attached to Gabon. The war, the French occupation, the obligatory tax and the forced labor were the cause of several years of famine which réduirent the population appreciably.

Source

Statoids.com - Gabon

Random links: