Georges Rawiri

Georges Rawiri
President of the Senate of Gabon
In office
February 1997 – 9 April 2006
PresidentOmar Bongo
Succeeded byLéonard Andjembé (interim)
Personal details
Born(1932-03-10)10 March 1932
Lambaréné, Gabon
Died9 April 2006(2006-04-09) (aged 74)
Paris, France
PartyGabonese Democratic Party

Georges Rawiri (10 March 1932 – 9 April 2006) was a Gabonese politician, diplomat and poet.

Early years and entrance to government

Rawiri was born in Lambaréné, in western Gabon. He was the nephew of Paul Gondjout, the first President of the National Assembly of Gabon.

Rawiri moved to France in 1946, where he finished school and studied radio techniques. In 1957, he returned to Africa, helping to establish a radio station in Garoua, in northern Cameroon. He served as the head of the Gabonese national broadcasting network from 1960 to 1963.

Rawiri became involved in government in 1963, when he was elected to the City Council in Lambaréné. In 1964, he entered national government, applying his broadcasting experience as the Gabonese Minister of Information, Tourism, Post, and Telecommunications. By 1965, he was also serving as Gabon's ambassador to France, Israel, Italy, Malta, Spain, and the United Kingdom. In this period, he was working under the government of President Léon M'ba, who died in office and was succeeded by Omar Bongo, the vice-president.

Governmental service under Omar Bongo

Rawiri was close to Bongo and remained in government after Bongo took office in 1967. Rawiri served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1971 to 1974. Some time later, he served as Minister of State for Economic and Financial Coordination. From 1975 to 1989, he was the Minister of Transportation, and oversaw the construction of the Trans-Gabon Railway. He also served as a Deputy Prime Minister throughout the 1980s. He retained close ties to Lambaréné and served as a liaison between Bongo's government and the locals on at least one occasion.: 66 

In the early 1990s, Rawiri left his ministerial roles and became the personal representative of Bongo. In 1997, when the Senate was established, he became its President. He was unanimously re-elected as President of the Senate on 26 February 2003, remaining in that post until his death.

In 2002, the weekly periodical Gabaon was suspended for three months by the Gabonese government after running what the government considered a "violent" critique of Rawiri. Rawiri was rumored to be the second-wealthiest man in Gabon, behind only the president himself.

Rawiri promoted Gabonese poets and novelists during his time in charge of the Ministry of Culture in the 1970s. His daughter, Angèle Rawiri, was a novelist and translator, referred to as the "first female novelist of Gabon".

Death

Rawiri died in April 2006 at a hospital in Paris, France. At the time of his death, he was Co-President of the Africa Caribbean Pacific – European Union (ACP–EU) Joint Parliamentary Assembly. Bongo declared seven days of mourning for Rawiri, calling Rawiri "more than a brother, a parent" to him, describing him as an unprecedented individual in the country's history.

After Rawiri's death, the Georges Rawiri House, intended to serve as the headquarters of the RTG1 television channel, was built with Chinese assistance and inaugurated in 2007, the year after Rawiri's death. A hospital in his hometown of Lambaréné has also been named after him.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Gabonese senate speaker passes away in Paris". Xinhua. People's Daily Online. Archived from the original on 5 June 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Yates, Douglas A. (2017). Historical Dictionary of Gabon (4th ed.). pp. 425–426. doi:10.5771/9781538110126.
  3. 1 2 3 The New Africans; a guide to the contemporary history of emergent Africa and its leaders. Putnam. 1967. pp. 144–145. LCCN 67023596. OCLC 1150836810. Retrieved 20 July 2026.
  4. 1 2 3 "Georges Rawiri, un homme d'influence" [Georges Rawiri, a man of influence]. Jeune Afrique (in French). 19 April 2006. Retrieved 22 July 2026.
  5. ↑ "Assemblée Nationale du Gabon - Les anciens Présidents". Assemblée Nationale du Gabon. 13 January 2014. Archived from the original on 13 January 2014.
  6. ↑ "Foreign ministers E-K". Rulers.org. Retrieved 11 August 2008.
  7. ↑ Paxton, John, ed. (31 December 1988). "Gabon". 1988–1989. Berlin, Boston: de Gruyter. pp. 515–518. doi:10.1515/9783112420621-071.
  8. ↑ Ngolet, Francois (September 2000). "Ideological Manipulations and Political Longevity: The Power of Omar Bongo in Gabon since 1967". African Studies Review. 43 (2). Cambridge University Press. doi:10.2307/524984. JSTOR 524984.
  9. ↑ "Rawiri re-elected president of the Gabonese senate", Panapress, 26 February 2003.
  10. ↑ "Two private newspapers suspended for three months | RSF". Reporters Without Borders. 6 September 2002. Retrieved 23 July 2026.
  11. ↑ Anderson, Kirsten; Witherbee, Amy; Issitt, Micah (2015). "Gabon". Countries, Peoples & Cultures: Vol. 7 West & Central Africa.
  12. ↑ Volet, Jean. "Angèle Rawiri". aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au (in French). University of Western Australia: French. Retrieved 29 May 2026.
  13. ↑ "Interview d'Angèle Rawiri Ntyugwetondo par F. Bikindou et L. Baker publiée dans Amina en 1988". Les Interviews d'Amina (in French). University of Western Australia. 10 June 1999. Retrieved 20 July 2026.
  14. ↑ Minutes of ACP-EU meeting in Vienna, June 2006.
  15. ↑ "Gabon: Jean-Boniface Assélé fier du complexe audiovisuel « Maison Georges Rawiri »", Gabonews (bdpgabon.org), 15 August 2008 (in French).
  16. ↑ "Lambaréné : grève au Centre hospitalier régional Georges Rawiri" [Lambaréné : strike at the Georges Rawiri Regional Hospital Center] (in French). 9 July 2024. Retrieved 23 July 2026.