A member of the Fang ethnic tribe,Léon M'ba was born on 9 February 1902 in Libreville, Gabon. His father, a small business manager and village chief, once worked as the hairdresser to Franco-Italian explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. His mother, Louise Bendome, was a seamstress. Both were educated and were among the first "evolved couples" in Libreville. M'ba's brother also played an important role in the colonial hierarchy; he was Gabon's first Roman Catholic priest.
In 1909, M'ba joined a seminary to receive his primary education.
From 1920, he was employed as a store manager, a lumberjack and trader before entering the French colonial administration as a customs agent. Despite his good job performance, M'ba's activism in helping black Gabonians, particularly for the Fangs, worried his superiors. In September 1922, M'ba wrote to Edmond Cadier, Lieutenant-Governor of Gabon:
"If on the one hand, the fundamental duty of educating the Fangs is consistent with Gabon's evident economic, military, and even political interests, on the other side, growing in human dignity and the increase of their material well-being do stay, Mr. Governor, the first legitimization of the French authority on them."
His remarks upset authorities, and he suffered the consequences in December 1922, when he was sentenced to prison after having committed a minor crime of providing a colleague with falsified documents.
Considered a troublemaker by the French colonial administration before World War II and even exiled by it from 1933 to 1946, M’ba entered politics shortly after his return to Gabon. In 1952 he was elected to the Territorial Assembly, and in 1956 he became mayor of the Gabon capital, Libreville. After the victory of his party, the Gabon Democratic Bloc, in the important 1957 elections, M’ba was made vice president of the Gabon Executive Council (the highest post then held by an African). He soon afterward became council president and prime minister of the Republic of Gabon, which had opted to remain within the French community in the referendum of September 1958.
By the time Gabon gained independence two years later, M’ba was already coming under attack from members of his own party as being too conservative and pro-French, and he imprisoned several of them. He was elected president in 1961 and became increasingly paternalistic and authoritarian, stressing both the need for unity and Gabon’s dependence on France. In early 1964, just before an election, he unilaterally decided to establish a one-party regime; in the resulting military uprising he was momentarily captured by the Gabonese army. French troops, however, restored him to power. With more tacit French backing, he remained president until his death in 1967.
Although Léon M’ba was a Christian, there was a period in his lifetime when he distanced himself from Roman Catholicism, but did not break completely with his faith. He instead became a follower of the Bwiti religious sect, which Fangs were particularly receptive to. He believed this would help revitalise a society which he felt had been damaged by the colonial administration. In 1931, the sect was accused of murdering a woman whose remains were discovered outside a market in Libreville.
In 1960, Leon M’ba (who was the president of Gabon), defended the Bwiti religion and the use of Iboga in the French colonial courts. The Ministers of Gabon declared the Tabernanthe Iboga as their national treasure in 2001. It is known that 4% of the population, including Leon M’ba, use Iboga.
He regarded himself as a truly democratic leader; nothing irritated him more than being called a dictator. Still, he wasn't happy until he had the constitution rewritten to give him virtually all power and transforming the parliament into high-priced scenery that could be bypassed as needed.
Quotations:
"If on the one hand, the fundamental duty of educating the Fangs is consistent with Gabon's evident economic, military, and even political interests, on the other side, growing in human dignity and the increase of their material well-being do stay, Mr. Governor, the first legitimization of the French authority on them."
"All Gabonese have two fatherlands: France and Gabon."
He was married, and had eleven children.
