Ogoowe Coast

The Ogooué reaches the Atlantic through a broad delta south of Cape Lopez, where channels and lagoons break up the low Gabonese coast. The river gathers water from a vast forested interior before spreading into its many mouths. Around the cape, Orungu merchants built a coastal kingdom whose trade joined the river country to visiting ships. From the later eighteenth century, captives, ivory, wax and dyewoods were exchanged for imported goods. Even as patrols began to suppress the slave trade elsewhere, ships continued to seek captives at Cape Lopez.