Gabon is not a common representative of Sub-Saharan Africa. The country has
been called the ‘African Emirates’—the ultimate rentier state depending heavily
on a single wealth-generating export commodity: oil. Where most of Sub-Saharan
Africa over the last two decades has suffered from low and stagnating incomes,
chronic balance of payment problems and foreign exchange shortages, high per
capita oil revenues have been the key to make Gabon a rich country. At more than
US$6000, per capita income was in 1998 more than four times that of neighbouring
Cameroon. Petroleum exports have totally dominated and transformed Gabon’s
economy over the last three decades. Throughout the history of Gabon, other rentgenerating
extractive sectors have also been important, such as manganese,
uranium and, notably, the export of timber, mainly okoumé (Aucoumea klaineana),
a valuable timber species. Yet, none of these commodities has generated rents
that are comparable to oil. This richness in extractive resources, distributed among
the small population of around 1 million, has implied that agriculture has remained
underdeveloped. A traditional hunting-gathering culture of a forest-dwelling people
has transformed into a society harvesting natural resource rents, where agriculture
(as other types of commodity production) has remained underdeveloped.