Gabon document photos online

Gabon's capital, Libreville, owes its name to a passport-and-identity story unlike any other. In 1846 the French navy intercepted the Brazilian slave ship L'Elizia off the coast and freed the captives aboard; in 1849 fifty-two of them were resettled on a stretch of the Estuaire shore and named their new home "Free Town" - Libreville. The former slaves even held an election, choosing one of their own, Mountier, as the settlement's first mayor. From a single act of liberation grew a national capital - a reminder that, here, the very idea of who belongs and who is free was written into the map itself.

• Passport The biometric Gabonese passport ranks 77th on the Henley Passport Index, granting visa-free or visa-on-arrival entry to about 55 destinations worldwide.
• Citizenship Gabon does not recognize dual nationality - acquire another citizenship voluntarily and you automatically forfeit your Gabonese one under the 1998 Code de la Nationalite.
• Birthright Being born on Gabonese soil does not make you a citizen: nationality flows by descent, and the only jus soli exception is a child found in Gabon to unknown parents.
• Currency Gabon uses the Central African CFA franc (XAF), pegged to the euro and shared with five neighbours, whose initials once stood for "French Colonies of Africa" before being rebranded "African Financial Community."
• Banknotes Though the CFA franc is officially split into 100 centimes, no centime coin has ever circulated - and a brand-new 2024-2025 banknote and coin series, including a trimetallic 500-franc piece, has replaced the old notes.
• Geography The equator runs straight through Gabon, and roughly 88% of the country is rainforest - the world's second-highest forest cover after Suriname.
• Conservation In 2021 Gabon became the first African nation paid to protect its forests, receiving results-based payments for keeping its vast carbon-storing jungle standing.
• History Independence from France was proclaimed on 17 August 1960, yet a single family - the Bongos - then ruled for 55 years until a 2023 coup ended the dynasty.
• Wildlife Lope National Park, gazetted back in 1946, is considered the best place in Africa to see the mandrill, the giant red-and-blue-faced primate found on Gabon's emblems.