His family ruled Gabon for 56 years: Who is President Ali Bongo?

A group of soldiers entered the national television building in the Central African country of Gabon in the early morning hours of August 29, 2023, and announced that they had taken over the government. The soldiers, who called themselves the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI), announced that the elections held on August 26 were canceled and the country's borders were closed.

Current President Ali Bongo Ondimba won the presidential elections held on August 26 for the third time. Ali Bongo, 64, took over the seat in 2009 from his father, Omar Bongo, who ruled the country for more than 41 years.

A curfew was imposed in the country due to violence in the last hours of the voting process, and the internet was restricted while the vote-counting process was continuing after the election. The opposition reacted to the government's practices, and opposition leader Ondo Ossa claimed that the elections were rigged in his presidential struggle against Ali Bongo.

Ali Bongo Ondimba (born Alain-Bernard Bongo; 9 February 1959), also known as Ali Bongo and Ali Ben Bongo, is a Gabonese former politician who was the third president of Gabon from 2009 to 2023. He is a member of the Gabonese Democratic Party. He is the son of Omar Bongo, who was president of Gabon from 1967 until his death in 2009. During his father's presidency, he was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1989 to 1991, represented Bongoville as a deputy in the National Assembly from 1991 to 1999, and was the Minister of Defense from 1999 to 2009. After his father's death, he won the 2009 Gabonese presidential election. He was reelected in 2016, in elections marred by numerous irregularities, arrests, human rights violations, and post-election protests and violence.

A group of soldiers entered the national television building on August 30 and announced that they had taken over the government. The military administration called CTRI announced that the elections on August 26 were canceled.

It was reported that the Commander of the Republican Guard, General Brice Oligui Nguema, was appointed as the leader of CTRI. General Nguema was sworn in as the "president of the transitional government" in front of the Constitutional Court in a ceremony held on September 4. Father Omar Bongo was first elected president in 1967, and when he died in 2009, his son Ali Bongo took over his seat. The Bongo family ruled Gabon for 56 years.

September 7, 2023

It was announced that President Ali Bongo, who was detained in his residence after the coup, was released.

The military administration, called the "Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions" (CTRI), stated that Bongo, considering his health condition, is now "free to act as he wishes." CTRI noted that Bongo could go abroad to receive treatment if he wanted.

The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) held talks with the military administration for Bongo's release. It is stated that Bongo may go to Morocco, where he received treatment for a long time when he had a stroke in 2018.

On the other hand, according to local media reports, the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Representative for Central Africa, Abdou Abarry, also visited Bongo at his residence. Abarry gave a brief appearance to the press with Bongo. Thus, Bongo was seen for the first time since August 30.

Who is Ali Bongo?

Gabon's deposed President Ali Bongo is a person with many different faces.

Some describe him as a spoiled and flirtatious prince who considered it his birthright to rule the oil-rich country.

Ali Bongo, who also made a funk music album in his youth, later succeeded his father and became the last face of his family's almost 56-year reign.

To his supporters, however, he was a revolutionary, a leader who wanted to shift the economy from being based on underground riches and who sought to increase the international reputation of his country, Gabon, with an ambitious environmental protection program.

Gabonese leader who was not born in Gabon

Ali Bongo was born as Alain Bernard Bongo in February 1959 in Brazzaville, neighboring Congo.

Even his birth was one of the controversial issues in the country. He has always denied the rumor that he was adopted after being orphaned in the southeast of Nigeria during the civil war in Nigeria.

Child Alain Bernard was still in primary school when his father, Omar Bongo, took control of Gabon in 1967.

The criticisms that would disturb him later in his life also included his childhood.

“He practically opened his eyes in the presidential palace,” French historian and expert on Gabonese politics François Gaulme told the BBC. "He was only eight years old when his father became president," he says.

Gaulme recalls that attending the best schools in the capital and not learning the country's local languages were among the issues for which he was later criticized.

At the age of 9, Ali Bongo was sent to a private school in Neuilly, a luxurious suburb of Paris, and later to the famous Sorbonne, where he studied law at university.

His childhood and youth years spent outside Gabon led him to be seen as a "foreigner" in his country.

Alain Bernard became a Muslim with his father when he was only 14 years old, and he took the name Omar from his father Ali. Other members of their family did not choose Islam.

This decision of his father was widely interpreted as a means of attracting investment from Muslim countries.

Bongo, who was not baptized into the Christian faith, argued that he had spiritual reasons for his conversion.

Funk music and freemasonry

There were other things in Ali Bongo's life than politics. He had a passion for music and football, which he inherited from his mother, Gabonese singer Patience Dabany.

The fame he gained as a "playboy" in his youth was reinforced with the release of his 1977 album "A Brand New Man", produced by funk legend James Brown's manager Charles Bobbit.

In the song that gave the album its name, Bongo sang the following words:

"Let me be your lover, let me be your everything until the end of the world."

Four years after the album's release, he turned his attention to politics.

He served as defense minister in his father's government for 10 years.

Before that, he was appointed as Gabon's foreign minister in 1989, but could only sit in this seat for 3 years due to the constitutional amendment requiring ministers to be over 35 years of age. He was 32 years old at the time.

However, in the early years, he was not seen as the natural successor to his father.

Political scientist Gaulme explains that the people of Gabon do not see Ali Bongo as a serious candidate:

"But he turned out to be more calculating than he appeared. The first time people saw that he could be serious about politics was when he restructured the military."

When his father died in 2009, the people of Gabon were still not convinced.

However, while Ali Bongo was visiting the states for the election, he campaigned with a more public image and was elected president with 42 percent of the votes in the election.

"I won my office, this did not fall into my lap," he said of his election victory. However, his legitimacy was questioned by his opponents during his time in office.

The allegations against him came to the top of the agenda once again in the 2016 presidential elections, with the candidacy of his opponent, Jean Ping, who is also the father of his sister's two children.

Ping, a name who chaired the African Union, claimed that there was fraud in a state election in which Bongo received 95 percent of the votes.

He won the 2016 elections by only 6 thousand votes.

Allegations of fraud, rejected by the ruling Democratic Party of Gabon (PDG), were accepted by some of the society.

Corruption allegations

Rights groups claim that the Bongo family has turned Gabon into "a family regime" and plundered its natural resources, oil wealth, and rainforests.

The country's opposition politicians also accuse members of the Bongo family of embezzling public money and running the country as if they were their private property.

Photos of Real Madrid fan Bongo driving Argentinian football player Lionel Messi around the capital in a flashy car made headlines in 2017.

Bongo was one of the few leaders of former French colonies who did not hide that they were Freemasons. According to French writer Vincent Hugeux, Congo, Chad, and the Central African Republic also had similar leaders.