Libreville

Libreville, city, capital, and chief port of Gabon, in the western part of the country, on the Gabon River Estuary, on the Gulf of Guinea. With nearby Owendo, the city is the transportation hub of the republic. Rubber, palm products, cocoa, and tropical woods are exported from Libreville; and local industries include palm-oil processing and sawmilling. It is the site of Omar Bongo University (1970). Founded in 1849 by freed slaves at the site of a French mission established a few years earlier, the city was originally called Gabon. It became capital of the Gabon colony in 1886, of French Congo in 1888, and of the Gabon territory of French Equatorial Africa in 1910; it was the chief coastal port of western Africa before the development of Pointe-Noire. In 1960 the city became the capital of Gabon. Population (1993 estimate) 365,650.