Contenu du sommaire : Villes du Gabon

The author provides an accurate and convincing testimonial of the convergences between action and research and of the benefit expected from multidisciplinary and comparatist approaches : the lack of efficient democratic management at Libreville led to a detour via a university route and much can be learned from the foreign experiences.

Apart from the regional interest of the contributions included here, attention is drawn to the universal meaning of the examples analyzed : valorization of town centers compared with outskirts as under-equipped as they are overestimated in the urban theories, reciprocal speeds of demographic growth and urbanistic prescription, relations between ethnicity and social differentiation, redefinition of urban public services, vital role of the town's original «matrix», permanent distinction between governance and government of the town.

Founded for purely commercial purposes in the middle of the 19th century on the right bank of the Gabon estuary, over the last few decades Libreville has witnessed exponential growth making it difficult to manage. Deprived of an urban development master plan, the town spreads under the massive influx of populations coming from the rural exodus. Only rational intervention by the State can reverse this trend. To reach this objective, it is essential to define a global and coherent urban development project based on the Dakar example and to dedicate the necessary financial resources.

Libreville and Lomé are respectively the capital towns of Gabon and Togo, two African countries south of the Sahara Desert. The purpose of this article is to identify, using a comparative approach, the social and political implications of the ethnic fact in these two metropolises. The aim is firstly to examine the territorial practices of the ethnic communities living in these two towns and secondly to analyze their roles in the strategies and political representation modes at the scale of these urban spaces.

Designed during the colonial period as hubs for the storage and distribution of domestic as well as imported products, the cities of Douala and Port-Gentil underwent a rapid expansion from the 1950s onward. Advantages inherent in their location-both at the junction of inland waterways and sea routes and in natural-resource-rich regions were significant contributing factors in their ultimate development into industrial cities. As they were increasingly lured by prospects of job opportunities in the cities, populations settled there without regard for planning requirements, thus creating areas in which the living conditions have become precarious as a consequence of economic crises. So, the public authorities are now setting about initiating «rescue plans».

Most of under-developed countries suffer from problems of poverty and precariousness. Considering this sad reality, at least for some decades, the central powers as well as the decentralised administrations attempt to lessen the extent of the phenomenon. A series of initiatives seeking, among other things, the promotion of the well-being of residential populations, the improvement of the links between the latter and those established in the municipalities bordering the common frontier illustrates that will. Thus, appeared since the colonial era, situated in a forest zone and respectively belonging to the department of the Ntem Valley (Cameroon) and that of Ntem (Gabon), Ambam and Bitam offer sometimes similarities. Under the double effect of the administrative police typical to each State of the standard of life the populations partly linked to that of their purchasing power and that of their dynamism, this yields economic flows unequal importance. According to the fields, the periods, the degree of intensity as well as the contribution from the various actors, these movements higher the mitigated character of the role of the two municipalities in the process of regional integration.

Numerous African capitals are developed with no clear plan. We observe a lack of urban planning and development tools ; those which exist are applied to minimum effect. Under these conditions, the highways play a central role in the way urban entities are created. Libreville, for example, the capital of Gabon is highly characteristic of this development model, where the urban activities and the collective equipment depend upon the existing highway network. The urban organization expresses the degree of determination displayed by the political authorities to improve the urban landscape, structured around the main highways. The result is a differentiation of the urban spaces between modern sectors with good road network and precarious sectors with highly insufficient network badly in need of renovation. Despite an effort to create zones since the sixties, the various activities, apart from those concerning industry, seem to be scattered throughout the agglomeration, without any semblance of coherent organization.

Libreville is confronted today with serious difficulties of supply in drinking water, especially in the integrated districts. The main causes are an urbanization badly mastered and a backing of public policies in terms of social equipments. To face it, populations are obliged, as in most of African capitals, to resort to resourcefulness to get a healthy and sufficient water. Such is the object of this work which claims to be a comparison between Libreville and Dakar, two towns subdued, on many aspects, to the same problems.

The principal Gabonese cities knew a remarkable increase in their population. Factor of progress first of all, this dash of accelerated and disordered urbanization dependent on the population increase and a rural migration uncontrolled poses problems in the long term. The demographic explosion, without an effective city planning, makes difficult the management of waste urban. The heteroclite urban landscape present contrasts in the habitat, of the precarious conditions of life, a spontaneous and anarchistic occupation of the ground, floods, difficulties of management of waste, problems of supply drinking water, cleansing and public health. The problems arising compromise progress towards an economic and social development, by worsening the environmental pollution and social fabric, and imbalances socio-economic in the cities. The report of an absence of management of waste liquidate and the lack of control of the cleansing of the urban framework, and the analysis make it, finishes on the proposal for a systemic approach of these questions.

Management of the domestic waste produced by the 700 000 inhabitants of Libreville is faced with the harsh realities of the environment : 80 % of the population live in spontaneous housing estates and 56 % of the dwellings cannot be accessed by roads suitable for wheeled vehicles. Considering the poor logistics means available to the Société de Valorisation des Ordures (waste recycling company) in Gabon and the lack of awareness from the populations, there is little chance of success. Only 38 % of the households have their waste collected on a regular basis and only 30 % of the waste produced is collected, a figure rising to 57 % at Abidjan. Improving the management of domestic waste at Libreville involves restructuring the under-integrated districts with a good road network, real decentralization with transfer of skills and means, permanent information and education of the populations.