The library of the House

Articles

24 stories drawn from the archives. Every statement points to its source; the memory of the House is presented as such.

The Royal House

King Denis, the treasures received from the crowns of Europe, and the lineage that keeps them, from 1839 to the present day.

Half-length portrait of King Denis crowned, the medal on his chest, the sceptre against his shoulder

History · House of Rapontchombo

Antchouwé Kowé Rapontchombo, King Denis I: a life (c. 1780-1876)

Born under Louis XVI, dead at nearly a hundred: the éka of the Assiga, the treaties, the royal farm of Mbata, the gold ring passed to Félix Adandé and the funeral at Iwounwé.

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Cover of Elikia M'Bokolo's book, Le Roi Denis : la première tentative de modernisation du Gabon: the king crowned, in a gold-embroidered uniform, the medal on his chest

History · after Elikia M'Bokolo (1977)

Rise and decline of a Gabonese sovereign: King Denis according to Elikia M'Bokolo

The chapter the historian devoted to King Denis I in 1977: the name Rapontchombo, the 1839 convention concluded in his house, the honours, the disappointments and the funeral at Iwounwé.

Aerial view of the royal burial ground of Iwounwé: a row of white tombs at the edge of the forest, the tomb of King Denis in the centre

History · House of Rapontchombo

The royal burial ground of Iwounwé: those who rest beside King Denis

The funeral of 1876, then, tomb by tomb and in the order the family gives, those who rest around King Denis I, on an interactive plan.

Engraving: Ongonwu Ré-Mboko, chief of the Assiga clan, wearing a beaded headband and holding the sceptre, surrounded by the men of the clan under the palms

History · The Assiga clan

The Assiga clan, lineage of King Denis

From R’Ombonwa to King Denis, the éka received from the Aguempo, the left bank of the estuary, the gold ring, the bride price that makes descent and the clan today: what the sources say, and what the tradition keeps.

Portrait of King Denis crowned, in a uniform with epaulettes, a calligraphed caption beneath the print

Treasure · House of Rapontchombo

The crown jewels: the gifts of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom to King Denis

1839, on the estuary: King Denis rescues four wounded English sailors. Queen Victoria sends him a gold chain, a gold medal bearing her likeness, the crown and the sceptre; the dedication has come down to us word for word.

1839 watercolour: King Denis II, Louis Denis Marie Félix Adandé Rapontchombo, in uniform, seated beside one of his wives

Treasure · House of Rapontchombo

1839, the cross of France: King Denis II, Knight of the Legion of Honour

By ordinance of 16 September 1839, Louis-Philippe decorates King Denis II, Louis Denis Marie Félix Adandé Rapontchombo, the king’s son: the first man from sub-Saharan Africa to receive the Legion of Honour, together with the Navy’s silver-gilt medal and a gun salute.

Engraving of the “Bene merenti” medal bearing the effigy of Pope Gregory XVI, hanging from its ribbon, before the tiara and the keys of Saint Peter

Treasure · House of Rapontchombo

« Bene merenti »: the medal Rome sent to King Denis

Pope Gregory XVI had the papal distinction for those who have deserved well conveyed to King Denis: the third jewel of the treasure, after those of London and Paris.

Engraving of a dugout canoe on the Gabon estuary

History · 1839-1849

From the lands of King Denis to Libreville

The treaty of 1839, the frigate l’Arèthuse and the village of freed slaves: how the lands granted by the king prepared the birth of the free town.

Engraving of King Denis and his principal wife

Historical press · Gallica

July 1939: Prince Félix Adandé Rapontchombo at the Paris celebrations

A hundred years after the treaty of 1839, the French press hails the heir of King Denis as “the most considerable figure” (« le personnage le plus considérable ») of the delegation of the great chiefs of the Empire.

Prince Félix Adandé Rapontchombo facing a journalist from Le Figaro, the crown on the table between them

Press · 1950

1950, the centenary: King Denis in Le Figaro

August 1950, centenary of French Gabon: Le Figaro pays tribute to King Denis, and in Libreville his great-grandson, Prince Félix Adandé Rapontchombo, is decorated.

Engraving: sovereigns and traditional chiefs gathered beneath ceremonial parasols at Pointe-Denis

Memory · Pointe-Denis

2 August 2015: the kings of Africa at Pointe-Denis

More than fifty sovereigns, princes and traditional chiefs pay tribute to King Denis on his own lands. The account, and the list of delegations with their titles.

Engraving: a wreath being laid before the stele of King Denis Rapontchombo

History · The House and the Republic

The House of Rapontchombo and the heads of state

From the treaty of 1839 to the wreath of 2025: Prince Félix in the independence delegation alongside Léon M’ba, a princess of the clan among the first women deputies, a mayor of Libreville alongside Omar Bongo, and a House of the Bwiti.

The Bwiti

The main guide, then the branches one by one, the temple of Pointe-Denis and the place of the Bwiti in the history of Gabon.

Okuyi mask with a face whitened with kaolin and a tall ridged headdress

The main guide · Initiatory traditions

What is the Bwiti?

The Babongo root, the Disumba trunk, the Missoko way of the healers and its Ngondet branch, the Omengo of Maison Assiga, the sister societies of the coast: the main guide to the branches, in an animated timeline and a tree.

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Round Mpongwe mask with a kaolin face framed by dark hair

The branches of the Bwiti · 1/3

The Bwiti Disumba, the trunk of the tree

The oldest body of rites in the Bwiti, born among the Mitsogo and the Apindji: the ebandza temple, the grades of knowledge and the ngombi harp.

Mpongwe dance mask with a face entirely covered in pale kaolin

The branches of the Bwiti · 2/3

The Bwiti Missoko, the way of the healers

The way of the ngangas: healing, divination, diagnosis. The branch followed by Maison Assiga, and the setting of the initiation at Pointe-Denis.

Mpongwe mask with a whitened face, black ridged crest and red lips

The branches of the Bwiti · 3/3

The Bwiti Ngondet, a branch of the Missoko

A branch the books barely mention and the lineages keep name by name: the complete chain from Pascal Madouma to Jérôme Mouele Niangou.

Eight-stringed Mpongwe harp, its body covered in hide and its pegbox topped by a carved head

Spiritual tradition · Maison Assiga

The Bwiti Omengo of Maison Assiga

The initiatory way handed down at Pointe-Denis since King Denis: the documented framework of the Gabonese Bwiti, and what the House transmits under the name of Omengo.

1862 photograph of the temple of King Denis at Pointe-Denis

Heritage · Pointe-Denis

The Bwiti temple of King Denis at Pointe-Denis

At the musée du quai Branly, an 1862 photograph shows the king’s temple: the building Le Tour du Monde engraved in 1865 as « case du roi Denis » (King Denis’s house).

At the museum of the House, the portrait of Denis Adande Rapontchombo beside President Albert-Bernard Bongo

Portrait · The Bwiti and the State

Omar Bongo, the Bwitist president

President of Gabon from 1967 to 2009, an initiate of the Bwiti who remained faithful to it all his life. His portrait beside Denis Adande Rapontchombo is kept in the museum of the House.

Peoples and guardians

The Mpongwe of the estuary, the Massango of the mountains, and the spiritual fathers who watch over the nights of the House.

1862 photograph: the wives of King Denis gathered together, with tall hairstyles and bead necklaces

People of the estuary · Myene

Who are the Mpongwe?

Masters of the Gabon estuary, the country’s first diplomats, guardians of the rites of the coast: the history of this people, from the accounts of 1819 to the ceremonies of today.

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Map of the Gabon estuary in 1865 showing the villages of the Oga: Denis, George, Louis, Glass, Quaben

People of the estuary · The Mpongwe Oga

The Oga of the estuary: Georges Rassondji and the Mpongwe kings

Denis and Georges Rassondji on the left bank, Louis, Glass and Quaben on the right: who the Oga were, how they were chosen, and how France treated with each of them, from 1839 to 1846.

Carved head brought back from the Mbigou region in 1939

Peoples of Gabon · Massango

Who are the Massango?

The people of the Chaillu mountains, their isangu language, the Mbigou stone and the Djombi Tawo Tawo: the world in which Jérôme Mouele Niangou received his first initiation.

Jérôme Mouele Niangou standing in ceremonial dress, ritual staff in hand

Portrait · Guardians of the tradition

Jérôme Mouele Niangou, spiritual father of the Bwiti Missoko

He watches over the nights of the House: spiritual father of the Missoko, he accompanies Jacques Makaya Zimamo at the vigils of Pointe-Denis.

The nature of the Domain

The estuary, the mangrove and, around Pointe-Denis, Pongara National Park.

A forest elephant facing the camera, ears spread, in the vegetation of the park

Nature · Pongara National Park

Pongara and its wildlife: the kingdom that surrounds the Domain

870 km² of mangroves, savannahs and beaches facing Libreville: forest elephants at the threshold of the houses, leatherback turtles on the sacred beaches, humpback whales off the Domain.

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