Bongo - like father, like son

2009-10-14 08:15

Libreville - In some African countries they like to keep power in the family and Ali Bongo, whose controversial victory in the August elections has been confirmed by the Constitutional Court, is just the latest example.

Some people in Gabon call him Ali B but he also has the unflattering nickname of "Monsieur Fils" (Mr Son), in honour of his father, Omar Bongo Odimba, who ruled the oil rich country for 41 years until his death in June.

The 50-year-old has recently had to deny rumours that he was really a Nigerian orphan.

Army support

A minister in his father's government for 20 years, Ali Bongo has for the past decade been defence minister, which has assured him of the support of the army after the controversial election.

After his victory was declared, Bongo stiffly vowed to be the president of "all Gabonese".

For many of the 1.5 million people of the West African nation, however, the aloof son of Gabon's longtime ruler showed a new more relaxed face during the campaign, trying at least to crack jokes and using rappers during his campaign meetings.

He was born Alain Bernard Bongo on February 9 1959 in the Congolese city of Brazzaville, which at the time was still part of France's colonial empire.

His father, who was to come to power in 1967 on the death of Gabon's first post-independence leader, was serving at the time in the French armed forces, and his mother, Patience Dabany, was a singer.

A brand new man

In his teens, Ali Bongo also dabbled in music, even making an album entitled A Brand New Man produced in 1977 by a former manager of the American soul singer James Brown.

His mother, who had been first lady of Gabon for almost 20 years, was by then divorced from Omar Bongo, and leading a musical career in the United States.

The young Bongo went on to study law in France and to start working in his father's administration.

Thanks to its oil and manganese wealth, Gabon had remained a key ally of France.

Like his father, Bongo junior converted to Islam and took an Arab first name in the 1970s, at a time when Arab oil-producing nations were asserting their economic muscle.

In August 1989, Ali Bongo was appointed foreign minister at the tender age of 30, but was obliged to step down two years later when a new constitution stipulated that cabinet members had to be at least 35.

He was back in government by 1999, at the defence ministry, where he remained until shortly before the start of the election campaign caused by the death of his father.

Sister was chief of staff

Stocky and curly-haired, Ali Bongo is one of two of the late president's children who have occupied key posts; his elder sister Pascaline served as her father's chief of staff from 1994 until his death.

Omar Bongo liked to claim that the two children who worked for him were only there because of their talent, and not due to nepotism.

Well before Omar Bongo's drawn out illness and death, it became clear that his son had his eye on the presidency, despite some opposition in the ruling Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) and the shadow of corruption left by his father who was under investigation in France over the ownership of luxury properties.

- SAPA