Ndjolé is the capital town in the

Abanga-Bigne Department Abanga-Bigne is a department of Moyen-Ogooué Province in west-central Gabon. The capital is Ndjolé. The N2 Road links Bifoun from the west to Ndjolé in the east, crossing the Abanga River not far from Ndjolé. Transportation from Librevil ...

Gabon Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...

, lying northeast of

Lambaréné Lambaréné is a town and the capital of Moyen-Ogooué in Gabon. It has a population of 38,775 as of 2013, and is located 75 kilometres south of the equator. Lambaréné is based in the Central African Rainforest at the river Ogooué. This riv ...

on the

Ogooué River The Ogooué (or Ogowe), also known as the Nazareth River, some long, is the principal river of Gabon in west-central Africa and the fourth largest river in Africa by volume of discharge, trailing only the Congo, Kasai and Niger. Its watershed ...

, the N2 road and the Trans-Gabon Railway. It is known as a base for logging and as a transport hub. Ndjolé is the last city that can be reached by barge, barge traffic traveling up the Ogooué River. Above Ndjolé there are rapids on the river.

History

In 1883, Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza founded the military post of Ndjolé, a strategic point located on the Ogooué River, Ogooué River. The river being difficult to navigate upstream, it is here that foresters loaded their wood to bring it down to Port-Gentil. The N'djolé prison, built in 1898 on an island on the Ogooué, opposite Ndjolé, was part of a French policy to build detention centres in the French overseas departments and territories then in the French colonial empire, colonies. It was here that Samori Ture, Samory Touré, founder and leader of the short-lived Wassoulou Empire, died in captivity. Alongside Samory Touré, Amadou Bamba, Cheikh Amadou Bamba Mbacké also experienced exile and forced labour there.

History

Further reading