By funny coincidence, for the second February in a row, I’ve pulled a sub-Saharan African country out of my hat – I think I subconsciously need a break from the Canadian winter. This month I’ll be learning more about Gabon!

So, what do I know about Gabon, off the top of my head? Sadly, almost nothing – as I said when I covered Mozambique and Togo, I have some serious blind spots in my education about Africa. I do know that Gabon was a French colony, but even for that region of Africa, my knowledge about Gabon is particularly blank.

I could name you a basic fact about the surrounding countries – Cameroon has strife between its French majority and English minority, Equatorial Guinea is a particularly authoritarian state and one of the rare Spanish-speaking African countries, and that for a short time both Congos were officially called the Republic of Congo (though they’ve never been one country and were under different colonial powers). But Gabon? I could point to it on a map, that’s about it.

That’s why I have this project – this is going to be a great learning opportunity!