GABON

GABON.

Admission to the United Nations.
Map and flag.
Last stamp in a set of 3, issued on 09.02.1961.
Face value: 85 Central African CFA francs.
Design and engraving: Jacques Combet (1920-1993).
Printing: Recess.

Catalogs
- Michel No. 159.
- Scott No. 153.
- StampWorld No. 172.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 169.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 152.

Gabon, officially the Gabonese Republic (French: République gabonaise), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa. It is located on the equator. It has an area of 267,667 km2 (103,347 sq mi) and in 2021 its population was 2,284,912 people. Its territory, inhabited for about 650,000 years, was colonized by the Mpongwe people from the 11th century. The first Europeans to arrive on its shores were the Portuguese in the 15th century, who called the country Gabão, a name taken from the indigenous denomination of the area of the Gabon River estuary, where the country's capital, Libreville, is currently located. Both the Portuguese and the Dutch engaged in the slave trade. In 1886, Gabon became a French colony which, from 1888, merged with the Congo under the name of Gabon-Congo and then, in 1898, in the French Congo. In 1904, Gabon became a separate colony again, and in 1910, the colonies of Gabon and Congo became part of French Equatorial Africa. The country gained independence from France on August 17, 1960 and was admitted to the UN in 1961.