Travel Guide Lambaréné

Full of history, born from the exploration of the river and trade in the middle of the 19th century, the city of Lambaréné quickly established itself as a key crossroads in the heart of the Ogooué. The scene of many ethnic wars, it is a region whose control of trade routes, in this case the Ogooué River and its various ramifications, rivers, streams or lakes, represents a major economic challenge. The slave trade will be the cause of war expeditions against neighbouring ethnic groups, easily accessible by river, and will cause particularly serious damage in this part of Gabon.At the end of the 19th century, at the dawn of colonization, Nkomb'Ademba, or King Nkombé, still called "Sun King", chief of the Galoa and Enenga, established his village of Adolinanongo on the site of the current Schweitzer Hospital. This strategic position on the banks of the Ogooué River gives it absolute control over all river traffic and the region's economy. As early as 1866, he shared the power and profit of the chatterboxes installed in this area with King Renoke, nicknamed "the king of the blind" on the opposite bank.At the death of the "Sun King", France, already present in the region, obtained a treaty of allegiance, and Savorgnan de Brazza founded an administrative post on Île Fétiche. The village of Nkombé was abandoned until Schweitzer built his new hospital there in 1927.Capital of the province of Moyen-Ogooué and capital of the department of Ogooué, Lambaréné is located 237 km from the capital Libreville. A former major economic centre, it declined following the economic crisis of the 1930s, which led to a drop in demand for tropical timber from which the city derived its income.It is a welcoming city with a population of about 40,000. Focal point of an inland river and lake delta, it is at the heart of the Ramsar Bas-Ogooué protected site, which was declared a World Heritage Site for Wetlands in 2009.It is also the first major city on the National Road 1 that connects it to the capital Libreville and the entire south of the country, Lambaréné has a crucial role in the country's economic development, although it is difficult to access.