{"id":2042,"date":"2018-10-29T21:19:17","date_gmt":"2018-10-29T21:19:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/?p=2042"},"modified":"2018-10-29T21:19:17","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T21:19:17","slug":"a-fight-inside-gabons-kleptocratic-dynasty-exposes-the-complicity-of-french-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/?p=2042","title":{"rendered":"A fight inside Gabon\u2019s kleptocratic dynasty exposes the complicity of French business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"_92842 quartz\">One of Africa\u2019s wealthiest ruling dynasties is\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mediapart.fr\/journal\/international\/220415\/au-gabon-l-heritage-d-omar-bongo-fait-exploser-la-famille-presidentielle\">tearing itself<\/a>\u00a0apart over the fortune left by the late dictator Omar Bongo of Gabon.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_92842 quartz\">But as the first family takes its\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/abonnes.lemonde.fr\/societe\/article\/2015\/04\/22\/le-magot-des-bongo_4620518_3224.html\">inheritance battle public<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldpoliticsreview.com\/articles\/15485\/strikes-protests-signal-political-uncertainty-for-gabon-s-bongo\">instability<\/a>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-3037807\/SEBASTIAN-SHAKESPEARE-Wills-African-ally-Ali-Bongo-wages-war-UK-oil-firms.html\">reigns<\/a>\u00a0at the summit of power, the epic scale of the Bongo clan\u2019s institutionalized pillaging of public resources in the former French colony is being revealed in grotesque detail.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_92842 quartz\">At the same time, the shady system of informal political and commercial networks of patronage, graft and corruption privileging French multi-national companies and politicians, a system known as\u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theafricareport.com\/News-Analysis\/france-and-africa-relations-le-grand-divorce.html\">Fran\u00e7afrique<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>has been exposed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_92842 quartz\">The revelations are an indictment of a corrupt regime that reflects shamefully on both the former colonial master France, and the unabashedly high-living governing family that has treated the national treasury like its own private bank account.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_92842 quartz\">Omar Bongo ruled the central African nation, now the continent\u2019s fourth-largest oil producer, for 41 years until his death in 2009.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_92842 quartz\">He fathered 53 children, but designated two leading heirs \u2013 his \u2018treasured daughter\u2019 and former top aide,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/english.lepointsur.com\/2015\/04\/15\/investigation-how-to-spend-86-million-on-airfare-the-recipe-pascaline-bongo\/\">notorious private jet frequent flier<\/a>\u00a0Pascaline Bongo, and son and current President, the luxury-car loving Ali Bongo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"_92842 quartz\">The quarrel among the heirs is in\u00a0a country riven by extreme wealth disparities, with one third of the population of 1.6 million living below the poverty line.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/395572\/a-fight-inside-gabons-kleptocratic-dynasty-reveals-the-complicity-of-french-business\/\">Read more<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Originally published on <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/qz.com\/395572\/a-fight-inside-gabons-kleptocratic-dynasty-reveals-the-complicity-of-french-business\/\">QUARTZ<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of Africa\u2019s wealthiest ruling dynasties is\u00a0tearing itself\u00a0apart over the fortune left by the late dictator Omar Bongo of Gabon. But as the first family takes its\u00a0inheritance battle public, and\u00a0instability\u00a0reigns\u00a0at the summit of power, the epic scale of the Bongo &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/?p=2042\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[511,252,152],"class_list":["post-2042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogs","tag-corruption","tag-france","tag-gabon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2042"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2043,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2042\/revisions\/2043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francophone.port.ac.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}