Gabon languages

Signboard in French at the National Museum in Libreville

The official language of Gabon is French . About 32% of the population speak Fang and consider it their native language.

Before World War II, very few people lived in French. Almost all of them worked in the business or government administration. After the war, French became the language of education in Gabon. According to the census of 1960-61, 47% of Gabonese over the age of 14 could speak French, but only 13% were literate. By 1990, the literacy rate had risen to 60%.

At the same time, a rather small percentage, only a few thousand people, have secondary and higher education and can speak fluent French. It is estimated that about 80% of the population of Gabon can speak French. A third of the inhabitants of Libreville consider French their first language. More than 10,000 French also live in Gabon. French prevails in Gabon’s trade and cultural contacts abroad.

All local languages ​​of Gabon belong to the Bantu language family, in total there are about 40 languages ​​in the country. These are mostly non-written spoken languages. Since 1840, French and American missionaries developed a Latin-based transcription and alphabet for many local languages ​​and even translated the Bible into some of them. However, the policy of the French colonial administration led to the fact that the local African languages ​​could not compete with the French, and he became absolutely dominant in education, business and culture.

Local languages ​​continue to be transmitted within the family, clans and tribes. As a rule, the people of Gabon speak several Bantu languages. Since the 1970s, the Government of Gabon has funded the study of Bantu languages. In 1989, the scientific alphabet was developed for the languages ​​of Gabon .

The three largest languages ​​of Gabon are Fang, Mber and Sira . Each of them owns 25-30% of the population. The remaining languages ​​are spoken by several thousand people, which is a few percent.