"LE GABON ENERVANT" OR "ANNOYING GABON"

English version  A Western country and Gabon are both facing economic and governance problems. Here’s how they go about tackling them: The West: the technocratic instrument • Independent central banks that adjust policy rates according to econometric models • Employment policies driven by indicators such as the unemployment rate, the Phillips curve, etc. • Structural reforms justified by impact studies and international comparisons (OECD, IMF) • Political power is legitimized through technical competence and compliance with international best practices Gabon: recourse to the sacred • Faced with persistent unemployment and embezzlement of public funds, an initiatory oath is invoked, supposedly guaranteeing loyalty and integrity • The idea is that a sacred oath binds more strongly than a republican one • The register mobilized is not economic but moral and communal: fear of the sacred would replace institutional incentive or sanction Dear readers, which of...

 

English version  Guy Bertrand Mapangou, the president of Gabon’s CESEC (Economic, Social, Environmental and Cultural Council), has just put forward a proposal, in early September 2026, drawing on the preamble of the Constitution, which refers to the Gabonese people’s responsibility “before God, the ancestors, and History,” calling for the establishment of a national ancestors’ day. He justifies this initiative by noting that many societies devote official days to religious, historical, or cultural events that contribute to their collective identity. For this blog, the CESEC is in principle an advisory body meant to inform economic and social policy, that is, unemployment, purchasing power, debt, economic diversification, and so on. A symbolic proposal about ancestral memory strikes us as disconnected from these urgent matters, especially in a context where concrete expectations run high among the population. We expect Guy Bertrand Mapangou to talk to us about tax reforms, or a debt...

English version  Here’s the English translation: CBON has just announced that he intends to have his government initiated into Ndjobi, a traditional initiatory society from Haut-Ogooué known for its oath, which binds whoever takes it to mystical sanctions in case of perjury. First, the Fang and their all-powerful patriarchy must surely be wondering why it wasn’t Melane that was chosen to endorse this nonsense of governance by mysticism. Where exactly is CBON going with this? Subjecting ministers to a traditional oath tramples on the Gabonese constitution, insofar as the country is secular. You cannot force people who are not of Ndjobi tradition to adhere to this initiatory practice if they want to be ministers; that’s coercion, and we are no longer in a secular state governed by law. What foolishness, wanting to mix traditional ritual and state power. When it’s the head of state who expresses the wish to commit such a massive blunder, the question of the ministers’ consent inevitab...