Kingdoms of Central Africa - Olamba / Glasstown
Olamba / Glasstown (Orungu Clan State) (Gabon)TheBantu-speaking people ofAfricaoriginated in West Africa, before migrating across sub-Saharan Africa and generally helping to spread theAfrican Neolithicas they. . .
Olamba / Glasstown (Orungu Clan State) (Gabon)TheBantu-speaking people ofAfricaoriginated in West Africa, before migrating across sub-Saharan Africa and generally helping to spread theAfrican Neolithicas they went. The Bantu languages come from a proto-Bantu language which was spoken in the area of today's Cameroon. They are part of the Niger-Congo language family which forms the largest branch of the Southern Bantoid group of languages. The tribal state ofOlambaapparently was founded by anOrunguclan, a Myèné-speaking Western Bantu tribe in the area of Cape Lopez and the mouths of the River Ogooué in modernGabonin Central Africa. Today that state's chief settlement is the town of Olamba. It sits just to the south of the River Ogooué and to the south-east of Port Gentil in Gabon. The state of Olamba had a brief and relatively undocumented existence between about 1839-1847. AmericanProtestant missionary activity inspired theFrenchin 1842-1844 to undertake similar missionary engagement, as well as to build fortifications in the area. The town of Casetown, or Tom Case's, was united with 'Glasstown' or Olamba, in 1847. Olamba's rulers had the titleaguekaza, and a few individuals claimed the title after the state had ceased to exist. Their dates are generally unknown. Principal author(s):Page created:Page last updated:(Information by John De Cleene and theJohn De Cleene Archive, with additional information fromEncyclopaedia Britannica(Eleventh Edition, Cambridge (England), 1910), and fromExternal Links:Gabon(ChiefaCoins. com), andGabon(Rulers. org), andGabon(World Statesmen), andHistory of Gabon(Encyclopaedia Britannica), andMpongwe Origins(Cambridge University Press), andThe Settlement of the Mpongwe clans in the Gabon Estuary, Henry H Bucher Jr (Persée), and101 Last Tribes. )c. 1839 - 1848Ravonya / 'Glass Noama'King of the Agekaza-Glass. AcknowledgedFrenchrule. 1842 - 1844AmericanProtestant missionaries arrive in the lands of 'King Glass' (R'Ogouarowe) on the northern bank of the River Ogooué, where American,German, andBritishactivity in the area is most heavily concentrated. A forest village in Gabon in the nineteenth century, drawing of Thérond from a photograph taken by Houzé de l'Aulnoit, with the engraving being published inLe Tour du Monde, 1865This move prompts theFrenchto build a fort in King Louis' territory in 1843 and to sendCatholic Churchmissionaries in 1844 to introduce French culture and religion to theMpongwewho are currently suffering great numbers of casualties to European-introduced smallpox and other diseases. King Glass acknowledges French sovereignty, even though he is not a king as such, more a member of the Agwèsônô clan and the most powerful merchant of the Mpongwe. Certain power comes with such status. 1848 - ?Jim Govern / Rogovéni?Status and relationship unknown. ?Tom Case / Tom GaboonStatus and relationship unknown. Founder of Casetown. ?Will GlassStatus and relationship unknown. Founder of Glasstown. by 1884Smallpox has hit theMpongwepopulation and has ravaged it, destroying its numbers. By this stage in the nineteenth century only about three thousand of them remain alive. By the end of the century the Agekaza clan has absorbed many other Mpongwe clans, especially those which have been drastically weakened by smallpox. Bouit Willaumez arrived in Gabon in 1839, soon being instructed to carry out a punitive action following the looting of two French ships on the northern Gabon coast, which he did at the village of Re-Ntchindo (known as Kringer, now Battery IV), thereby precipitating French occupation