Genealogy · House of Rapontchombo
Family tree of the House of Rapontchombo
The House of Rapontchombo belongs to the Assiga clan, one of the Mpongwe clans of the Gabon estuary. Its memory goes back to R'Ombonwa, the earliest ancestor whose name has come down to us, and runs from father to son down to King Denis I, Antchouwé Kowé Rapontchombo, who reigned for nearly sixty-six years over the left bank of the estuary: with him the clan’s traditional chiefdom became a kingship.
The family name comes from his father, Ré-Mboko: Epamie Tchombo, which became Rapontchombo, meaning “power is not lent”.
Before his death in 1876, the king handed his gold ring to his son, King Denis II, Louis Denis Marie Félix Adandé Rapontchombo, naming him his successor. The line has kept Pointe-Denis ever since: in the last generations, the descent also passes through women, as Mpongwe custom allows, down to Princess Marie-Anne II and her son Jacques Makaya Zimamo, who carries on the tradition today.
The keeping of the royal regalia followed the same path. When Prince Denis Marie Félix Adandé Rapuntchombodied in 1971, his eldest son Jean Rémy Onanga “Ajax”, then in detention, was allowed by President Albert-Bernard Bongo to come and bid his father a last farewell; on leaving detention, custom did not allow him to keep the regalia. He handed them to his aunt, Princess Virginie Ambougou, who already lived in the village and shared their keeping with the prince. Before her death she entrusted them to her son, Prince Mankey “Otoki”; when he fell ill, Otoki passed them on to Princess Marie-Anne II, Jacques’s mother.
The tree below draws on the family's archives, the work of Abbé Raponda-Walker and the testimony of the family. Each name refers to its sources, gathered at the foot of the page. Some early dates remain approximate.
Generation 1
Generation 2
Generation 3
Generation 4
Generation 5
Generation 6
Generation 7
Her brothers, sons of King Denis II, and Christine Okaotchandia
Generation 8
Gota Louya(Male)[7]
line of descent given by Jacques Makaya Zimamo
Her elder brother, her cousin and his wives
Prince Denis Marie Félix Adandé Rapuntchombo(Male)[7]
2 June 1899 - 14 June 1971
President of the Supreme Court
son of Prince Onanga Adandé and Christine Okaotchandia, third king
Iwenguesson(Female)[7]
first wife of the prince
Louise Gabrielle Ayenoue(Female)[7]
second wife of the prince
Eyeghe Boumha(Female)[7]
third wife of the prince
Generation 9
among the 10 children of Virginie Ambougou
Children of Prince Denis Marie Félix Adandé Rapuntchombo
Jean Félix Adandé(Male)[7]
known as “Nestor”
Charles Achille Kineni Adandé(Male)[7]
known as “Coco”
Regina Charlotte Antchandje Adandé(Female)[7]
known as “Mounou” · married name Barrault
Denise Marie Félicité Ngwembinda Adandé(Female)[7]
known as “Mbimbi” · married name Avili
Onero Denis Antchouwé Kowé Rapuntchombo(Male)[7]
known as “Wouenchowa”
Roger Adandé Rapuntchombo(Male)[7]
known as “Ndara”
Franck Xavier Azogwa Adandé Rapuntchombo(Male)[7]
known as “Azogwa”
Their brothers and sisters, children of Virginie Ambougou
Gervais Amaka(Male)
Remble Amaka
Madjana Amaka
Konde Amaka
Onanga Amaka
Ongonwou Amaka, known as “Stenga”
Prince Henri Adandé(Male)
Akempo
Generation 10
Her brothers and sisters, children of Princess Elisabeth
Christine Tchetowa Bayonne(Female)
Madeleine Mayonza Bayonne, known as “Ya Mado”(Female)
Serge Boulingui Rapontchombo(Male)
Generation 11
The children of Princess Marie-Anne II, in birth order
- Mavoungou Bayonne dit Roger Félix
- Gabriel Igamba
- Jacques Makaya Zimamo
- Jocelyne Makaya Oliko
- Jean Eric Ndoumbenini
- Adama Alileys
- Alli Leys Assonoue Christale Sonia
- Claire Ambourou Virginie
- Juste Hilarion Loumbangoye Nguimbi
- Lynda Okengue
Sources: family testimony of Jacques Makaya Zimamo; L’Union (2015, 2016). All sources ↓
Sources and references
On each card, a number in square brackets points to the sources behind it.
Public sources
Publications and records online that corroborate the tree.
[1] Denis Rapontchombo (new tab) · Wikipedia (fr)
Born c. 1780; younger son of Re-Mboko, becomes oga c. 1810 on his father’s death; treaty with France on 9 February 1839; Knight of the Legion of Honour on 16 September 1839; died 9 May 1876. The family corrects this: the Legion of Honour belongs to King Denis II, Louis Denis Marie Félix Adandé Rapontchombo, the king’s son.
[2] Denis RAPONTCHOMBO (new tab) · Miboue.com · drawing on the family archives, missionary bulletins and the accounts of Du Chaillu, Compiègne, Burton and Fleuriot de Langle
Ancestry R’Ombonwa → Ré-Ntori → Résakuélé → Ongonwu Ré-Mboko (clan Assiga); mother Ozugayilé (clan Adoni); Félix Adandé named successor by the handing over of the gold ring; burial in the Iwounwé cemetery.
[3] Denis, King of the Mpongwe, approximately 1780-1876 (new tab) · Library of Congress · Name Authority File
Authority record: king of the Mpongwe, c. 1780 - 1876.
[4] Rapontchombo, Félix Adande (new tab) · Oxford Reference · Dictionary of African Biography
Biographical entry on the successor to King Denis (1844 - 1911).
[5] Virginie Ambougou (new tab) · Wikipedia (en)
27 August 1902 - 6 May 1992; Oga of the clan Assiga; daughter of Marie-Anne Rapontchombo, princess of the clan Assiga, and of Tito Ongonwou; mother of nine children; one of the first two women elected to Gabon’s National Assembly (1961).
[6] Rituel pour cérémonie d’offrandes à la Pointe Denis : les directives (new tab) · 7joursinfo.com, 2020
Princess Marie-Anne Ankombie Rapontchombo, keeper of the heritage and the royal regalia of Pointe-Denis.
[9] Notes d’histoire du Gabon · ch. II « Un chef gabonais : Denis Rapontchombo » et ch. III « Félix Adandé » (new tab) · Abbé André Raponda-Walker, Mémoires de l’Institut d’Études Centrafricaines nº 9, Brazzaville · full text on the IRD portal, 1960
The reference genealogical source, based on the archives of the Denis family: ancestry R’Ombonwa → Ré-Ntori → Résakuélé → Ongonwu Ré-Mboko (clan Assiga); mother Ozugayilé (clan Adoni); transmission of power by the gold ring; the king’s death on 9 May 1876 and burial in the Iwounwé cemetery; Félix Adandé, born c. 1847 to Ngwembinda (clan Agulamba), married in church in 1867 to Elisa Antchandié-Babé (Sept. 1850 - 28 March 1883), died 24 September 1911; his children Jean-Félix (21 January 1872 - 1903), Jean Rémi Onanga and Marie-Anne Ankombié (1875-1951), widow of Joseph Ongouwou-Tito, guardian of the ancestral land. The family specifies: the birth c. 1847 given for Félix Adandé is wrong; King Denis II is one of the three signatories of the 1839 convention, with King Denis I and Prince Dolinga, and its drafter.
[10] « Le Gabon (1861-1864) », par le Dr Griffon du Bellay, avec la planche « Le roi Denis et sa grande femme » (new tab) · Le Tour du Monde, vol. XII, pp. 273-320 · engravings by Émile Bayard and Thérond after the photographs of Auguste Houzé de l’Aulnoit (1862); digitised on Gallica/BnF, 1865
Engraved portraits of King Denis and his great wife made in his lifetime, his house, and the map of the estuary; reproduced on the Archives page.
[11] « King or Knave? Félix Adende Rapontchombo and Political Survival in the Gabon Estuary » (new tab) · Jeremy Rich, African Studies Quarterly, vol. 6, no. 3 · open access, 2002
Academic study of the successor: Félix Adandé (1844-1911 according to this source), head of the clan Assiga on his father’s death in 1876, married in a Christian ceremony to a single wife. The family specifies: this son is King Denis II, Louis Denis Marie Félix Adandé Rapontchombo.
[12] Western Africa: its History, Condition, and Prospects, p. 292-296 (new tab) · Rev. John Leighton Wilson, Harper & Brothers, New York · digitised on archive.org, 1856
Eyewitness account by a missionary: “Rapontyambe”, called King William by the English and King Denis by the French, chief of the south bank, decorated with the Legion of Honour, “one of the most kingly men I have met in Africa”. The family corrects this: the Legion of Honour belongs to King Denis II, Louis Denis Marie Félix Adandé Rapontchombo, the king’s son.
[13] Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa, p. 17-18 et 127-128 (new tab) · Paul B. Du Chaillu, John Murray, London · digitised on archive.org, 1861
The explorer names “King Rompochombo, or Roi Dennis” and writes that he “belongs to the Ashiga family”: the earliest printed mention of the clan Assiga.
[14] Convention du 9 février 1839 entre le roi Denis et le lieutenant de vaisseau Édouard Bouët (new tab) · Archives nationales d’outre-mer (ANOM), Aix-en-Provence, reference FR ANOM 40 COL 436 · digitised document, 1839
The original deed signed by King Denis, the foundation of the French presence in Gabon.
[15] La terminologie de parenté mpongwè (new tab) · Michel Jouin, ORSTOM, Libreville centre · full text on the IRD portal, 1973
Mpongwe descent is patrilineal, activated by the bride price; the children of a European father or of a union without bride price belong to their mother’s clan: the customary mechanism that explains transmission through women in the last generations of the tree.
[16] Skizzen aus Westafrika (ch. II, « Die französische Kolonie Gabun ») (new tab) · Oskar Lenz, A. Hofmann & Co., Berlin · digitised on archive.org (in German), 1878
The Austrian geologist confirms: King Denis, “called King William by the English”, died at a great age in 1876, cross of the Legion of Honour, medals from the Pope and the Queen of England, annual pension from the French government. The family corrects this: the Legion of Honour belongs to King Denis II, Louis Denis Marie Félix Adandé Rapontchombo, the king’s son.
[17] « Virginie Ambougou, l’une des deux premières femmes députées du Gabon » (new tab) · Info241, 2021
Born 27 August 1902 at Pointe-Denis, daughter of Princess Marie-Anne Rapontchombo; Oga of the clan Assiga, member of parliament 1961-1964, died 6 May 1992.
[18] Côte occidentale d’Afrique : vues, scènes, croquis (aquarelles de Stanislas Darondeau, p. 368-371) (new tab) · Colonel Frey, Paris · plates digitised by the New York Public Library / Wikimedia Commons, 1890
Reproduces Darondeau’s watercolour « Denys, roi de la rive gauche du Gabon », a portrait from the time of the 1839 treaty, which the family identifies as King Denis II; shown on the Archives page.
[19] « Le Roi Denis Rapontchombo et ses prédécesseurs honorés » (journal télévisé RTG) (new tab) · RTG, rebroadcast by aLibrevilleTV (YouTube), 3 November 2015
National television covers the tribute paid at Pointe-Denis to King Denis and his predecessors by their descendants.
[20] « Fête des défunts : cérémonial sur la tombe du Roi Denis Rapontchombo » (new tab) · Groupe Gabon Télévisions · Gabon 1ère / Canal 1 (YouTube), 4 November 2024
Report showing Jacques Makaya Zimamo, in traditional dress, leading the annual ceremony at the king’s tomb.
[21] List of Gabonese writers (new tab) · Wikipedia (fr)
Jean-Rémy Rapontchombo (1874? - 1940?), “probably the first Gabonese to hold the baccalaureate”. The family corrects this: the first baccalaureate holder of Gabon was Jean-Félix Rapontchombo, brother of Prince Onanga Adandé.
[22] Avis de décès de Denis Marie-Félix Adandé Rapontchombo « New Year » (new tab) · L’Union, no. 12324, 17 January 2017, p. 21
Denis Marie-Félix Adandé Rapontchombo, known as “New Year” (“Nouer” in the family), former mayor of the 4th arrondissement of Libreville, died in Libreville on 10 January 2017.
[23] Le roi Denis, grandeur et déclin d’un souverain gabonais · Elikia M’Bokolo, in “Les Africains”, Éditions Jeune Afrique, pp. 73-95 · the family’s copy, 1977
Antshwe Kowe Rapontshombo, born c. 1780, oga c. 1810, died 1876, fifth known chief of the Asiga clan (from Rombonwa, late 17th century); his mother Ozugayile, of the royal line of the Adoni; his father Re-Mboko gives him the name Rapontshombo, “what you gave me was not lent to me, but given for good”, recalling the throne (eka) entrusted to Re-Mboko; the convention of 9 February 1839 is concluded in Denis’s house with “his son Petit-Denis and Prince Dolinga”; Knight of the Legion of Honour on 16 September 1839; Félix-Adandé, his younger son, succeeds him; buried in the old cemetery of Iwounwé; portrait of “Jean-Félix Ratchompo, grandson of the king and first baccalaureate holder of Gabon (c. 1890)”, in uniform. The family specifies: the Legion of Honour belongs to King Denis II.
Family sources
Handed down by the House of Rapontchombo. People attested only by these references still await a public source.
[7] Témoignage familial de Jacques Makaya Zimamo · Oral source, House of Rapontchombo
Contemporary lines of descent: Gota Louya, the children of Virginie Ambougou, Princess Marie-Anne Ankombie Rapontchombo II and Jacques Makaya Zimamo; review of the tree on 1 October 2026: Mavoungou Bayonne, father of Princess Marie-Anne II; Jacques, the third of her ten children; Jean Rémy Onanga Adandé Rapuntchombo dit « Ajax », the first customs officer of Gabon; King Denis II, Louis Denis Marie Félix Adandé Rapontchombo, son of King Denis I, father of Prince Onanga Adandé Rapontchombo, drafter of the 1839 convention with France, signed by King Denis I; the children of Princess Marie-Anne II in birth order (the written sources, Raponda-Walker and the Oxford Dictionary of African Biography, give Félix Adandé as the son of King Denis).
[8] Articles consacrés à la Maison Rapontchombo · L’Union (Gabonese daily), 2015, 2016
Press sources cited by the family in the original family tree.
A note on descent
Mpongwe kinship is patrilineal, activated by the bride price; but custom attaches to their mother’s clan the children of a European father or of a union without bride price (Jouin, 1973). This custom explains why, in the last generations, the throne and the keeping of the royal regalia pass through women, and why several fathers are absent from the tree.
A correction, a document for the tree? The House welcomes family archives that complete these lines of descent.