Port-Gentil () or Mandji is the second-largest city of
Gabon
Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...
, and it is a leading
seaport
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Ham ...
. It is the center of Gabon's
petroleum
Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...
and
timber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
industries. The city is located on a
delta island
Delta Island is an island long, lying close southeast of Lambda Island and east of Alpha Island in the Melchior Islands, Palmer Archipelago. The name, derived from the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet, was probably given by Discovery Investig ...
in the
Ogooue delta with no bridges to the mainland. Nearby
Cape Lopez
Cape Lopez () is a headland on the coast of Gabon, west central Africa. The westernmost point of Gabon, it separates the Gulf of Guinea from the South Atlantic Ocean. Cape Lopez is the northernmost point of a low, wooded island between two mouths ...
is Gabon's westernmost point. As of 2013 census, it had a population of 136,462.
History
In 1473, the Portuguese navigator Lopo Gonçalves sailed near Cape Lopez. In 1722, pirates led by
Bartholomew Roberts
)
, type=Pirate
, birth_place = Casnewydd Bach, near Puncheston, Pembrokeshire, Wales, Kingdom of England
, death_place = At sea off of Cape Lopez, Gabon
, allegiance=
, serviceyears=1719–1722
, base of operations= Off the coast of the Americ ...
fought a battle in the Cape Lopez Bay against the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...
. The encounter ended in Roberts' death. The settlement was established on
Mandji Island in the delta of the
Ogooué River
The Ogooué (or Ogowe), also known as the Nazareth river, some long, is the principal river of Gabon in west central Africa and the fifth largest river in Africa by volume of discharge, trailing only the Congo, Kasai, Niger and Zambezi. Its w ...
by the French, who signed a treaty with the
Orungu people in 1873. It was used as a base for the expeditions of
de Brazza into the interior, then in 1894 a
customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...
post was set up, becoming the nucleus of a trading center that included
Hatton & Cookson,
John Holt,
Woermann,
Société du Haut-Ogooué, and
Compagnie d'Exploitations Forestières Africaines. The main products were initially
rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
and
ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...
, gradually supplemented by
wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
s, particularly
okoumé for
plywood
Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...
.
![POG-Street 5](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/POG-Street_5.jpg)
The town was named after the French colonial administrator
Émile Gentil
Émile Gentil (; 4 April 1866 – 30 March 1914) was a French colonial administrator, naval officer, and military leader.
Born at Volmunster in the department of Moselle, he later attended the École Navale, the school that formed French na ...
in 1900. After World War I it became a port for
timber
Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...
, but it grew rapidly only after
Elf
An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...
began oil exploration in the area. It received its first bank branch when
Bank of West Africa
Bank of British West Africa (BBWA) was a British Overseas bank that was important in introducing modern banking into the countries that emerged from the UK's West African colonies. In 1957 it changed its name to Bank of West Africa, and in 1965 wa ...
(BAO) opened a branch there in 1928.
A 1947 population of 4,500 grew to 21,000 by 1960. An
oil refinery
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...
was established by
SOGARA in the 1960s, with
natural gas
Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...
added in 1968.
The town is now known for its
hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
s and its
nightlife
Nightlife is a collective term for entertainment that is available and generally more popular from the late evening into the early hours of the morning. It includes pubs, bars, nightclubs, parties, live music, concerts, cabarets, theatre, c ...
, while attractions include the
St Louis Church (built in 1927), a
zoo
A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes.
The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoo ...
, a
casino
A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...
,
beach
A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...
es and a
golf course
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". Th ...
, as well as the
wildlife
Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animal species (biology), species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous ...
in local
swamp
A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...
s.
City districts
The city centre lies next to the harbour on the Port-Gentil Bay seaside. Hotels, banks, shops, and supermarkets (such as the Casino and Cecado brands) are found within the downtown area between the Avenue Savorgnan de Brazzaville and the seaside. The area also concentrates a residential compound for foreign workforce. In the southern part, the
BEAC building lies next to the port. The western Atlantic seaside is scarcely populated, mainly due to the presence of strong winds and sea currents. As is the case with other cities in Gabon, the authorities have not yet implemented house numbering in Port-Gentil, and the use of postal boxes is common.
Climate
The
Köppen-Geiger climate classification system classifies Port-Gentil's climate as
tropical wet and dry (Aw). Despite the fact that the city lies in close proximity to the equator, Port-Gentil experiences noticeably warmer and cooler periods of the year with average temperatures in July (the city's coolest month) hovering at around and average temperatures in February and March (the city's warmest months) at around . Port-Gentil features a lengthy
wet season
The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...
that runs from October through May and a relatively short
dry season
The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...
that covers the remaining four months. The city receives roughly of precipitation annually.
The highest recorded temperature was on 26 February 2016; the lowest recorded temperature was on 1 August 1953.
[
]
Transportation
Port Gentil is technically on an island, and no bridge connects it to the mainland. The limited number of paved roads within the city are also poorly maintained. The roads are paved in the inner city up to the outskirts of the new residential districts in N'Tchengue, where sandy paths with frequent potholes prevail. Traffic jams are common in road junctions such as the Carrefour Tobia or Léon Mba, close to the downtown area. There are plenty of shared taxi services for which the price of a drive is negotiable, starting usually at 400 CFA Franc
The CFA franc (french: franc CFA, , Franc of the Financial Community of Africa, originally Franc of the French Colonies in Africa, or colloquially ; abbreviation: F.CFA) is the name of two currencies, the West African CFA franc, used in eight We ...
s. The taxi fare usually doubles for night drives. A premium price (doubled fare) is requested for passengers travelling beyond paved roads, given the hardships of the road, lack or non existence of illuminated roads at night, or pedestrians randomly walking on the road. Most of the cars are obsolete given the prohibitively high cost of new imported cars. Furthermore, the lack of local car spareparts manufacturers underscores the need to import such parts from as far as Europe, the increased price as well as the lengthy delivery duration penalize altogether the traffic.
The city has an airport, Port-Gentil International Airport
Port-Gentil International Airport is an airport serving the city of Port-Gentil, in Ogooué-Maritime Province, Gabon.
The Port-Gentil VOR (Ident: PG) and Port-Gentil non-directional beacon (Ident: PG) are located on the field.
Airlines and des ...
, serving as the main channel of transportation with the world. Regular flights connect it with Libreville
Libreville is the capital and largest city of Gabon. Occupying in the northwestern province of Estuaire, Libreville is a port on the Komo River, near the Gulf of Guinea. As of the 2013 census, its population was 703,904.
The area has been inh ...
, capital of Gabon
Gabon (; ; snq, Ngabu), officially the Gabonese Republic (french: République gabonaise), is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. Located on the equator, it is bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north ...
.
Healthcare
Hospitals within Port-Gentil include:
* Clinique Mandji, located in the Littoral district on the Route de la Sobraga,
* Clinique du Littoral, located on the Boulevard du Gouverneur Pélieu,
* Centre du Traitement Ambulatoire on the road to N'Tchengue.
Education
Schools include:
* École Mixte Port-Gentil or École publique conventionnée de Port-Gentil
* École primaire Léopold Sédar Senghor
Léopold Sédar Senghor (; ; 9 October 1906 – 20 December 2001) was a Senegalese poet, politician and cultural theorist who was the first president of Senegal (1960–80).
Ideologically an African socialist, he was the major theoretician o ...
(French primary school)
* Lycée Français Victor Hugo de Port-Gentil (French secondary school)
Places of worship
Among the places of worship
A place of worship is a specially designed structure or space where individuals or a group of people such as a congregation come to perform acts of devotion, veneration, or religious study. A building constructed or used for this purpose is somet ...
, they are predominantly Christian
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
churches and temples : Roman Catholic Diocese of Port-Gentil
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Port-Gentil ( la, Portus Gentil(is), French: ''Diocèse catholique romain de Port-Gentil'') is a diocese located in the city of Port-Gentil in the Ecclesiastical province of Libreville in Gabon.
History
* 19 March 2 ...
(Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
), Assemblies of God
The Assemblies of God (AG), officially the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, is a group of over 144 autonomous self-governing national groupings of churches that together form the world's largest Pentecostal denomination."Assemblies of God". ...
, Evangelical Church of Gabon.[Britannica]
Gabon
britannica.com, USA, accessed on July 7, 2019 There are also Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
mosques.
Notable residents
*Stéphane Lasme
Yann Ulrich Stéphane Lasme (born December 17, 1982) is a Gabonese former professional basketball player. He played college basketball at the University of Massachusetts (UMass), with the UMass Minutemen, and he was selected by the Golden State Wa ...
, professional basketball player
* Alexander N'Doumbou, professional footballer
Gallery
File:POG-Street 1.jpg, Main street
File:POG-Street 3.jpg, Street
File:PORTGENTIL2.JPG, Beach
File:PORTGENTIL1.JPG, Fiftieth anniversary monument
References
Sources
* David E. Gardinier, ''Historical Dictionary of Gabon'', 2nd ed. (The Scarecrow Press, 1994) p. 275–276
Port Gentil - the world's most expensive city, Time Magazine online, Mar 16 2007
{{Authority control
Populated places in Ogooué-Maritime Province
Ogooué River
French Equatorial Africa
Port cities and towns in Gabon
Ports and harbours of Gabon