Gabon - (Africa)

Information about Gabon

Capital
Libreville
Area
267667 square kilometres
Population
1153000
Religions
Christian 55%-75%, Muslim less than 1%, animist
Christian (%)
75.00
Protestant (%)
20.00
Reformed (%)

Formerly part of French Equatorial Guinea, Gabon is a rich and densely forested territory south of Cameroon. Notwithstanding its serious ongoing economic problems, Gabon enjoys a per capita income more than three times that of most nations of sub-Saharan Africa. Gabon depended on timber and manganese until offshore oil was discovered in the early 1970s. The oil sector now accounts for 50% of its GDP.
The first Prot to arrive in this country were an American missionary and a handful of pastors from Palm Cape (present-day Liberia) who landed in June 1842 at a former Portuguese slave pier. They represented the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission (ABCFM) who later, in 1870, handed over its mission fields to the Presbyterian Church of the USA. In 1892 the “Société des Missions Evangéliques de Paris” (SMEP) took responsibility for this area. Today several other Protestant denominations, including the Christian and Missionary Alliance, are active in Gabon, where the famous Lambaréné Hospital, built by Dr. Albert Schweitzer in 1913, is also located.

Churches

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