Figure 1.-- This boy lives in the Gabonese province of Haut-Ogooué. He wears an example of the children’s clothing you see in the villages of equatorial African forest. They children often wear used old western-style clothing importd from America and Europe.

Gabon is a former French colony in west equitorial Africa. The country since independence (1960) has been dominated by two autocratic leaders. The current president is El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba. He as a result of autocrartic policies is one of the longest-serving heads of state in the world. He has dominated Gabon since the 1970s. Gabon has a nominally democratic multiparty system and a constitution introduced in the 1990s. The elections, however, are really competive. Gabon has done better economically than many other African countries. Factors here are a relatively small population, abundant natural resources, and foreign assistance. As a result Gabon in African terms is relatively prosperous and stable. As in much of the rest of Africa, children no longer wear traditional or destinctive clothes. Rather the coutries imports large quantities of used clothing from America and Europe. This has ruined local textile and clothing manufacturing countries. And it means that children now commonly wear Western-styled clothing. We do not have a Gabon page yet, we do have one image from Gabon on the flip-flop page.

Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing national pages:
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[Algeria] [Australia] [Belgium] [Gabon]
[England] [France] [Germany] [Ireland] [Italy] [Japan] [Korea] [Lessothor]
[Madagascar] [Mali] [Mexico] [New Zealand] [Scotland] [Uganda] [United States]

Created: 6:48 AM 11/23/2007
Last updated: 6:48 AM 11/23/2007