Gabonese culture

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 33. Chapters: Ethnic groups in Gabon, Gabonese films, Gabonese music, Gabonese writers, Languages of Gabon, National symbols of Gabon, Religion in Gabon, Sport in Gabon, French language, Black panther, 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, Beti-Pahuin peoples, Bwiti, Baka people, André Raponda Walker, Aro people, Moambe, Vincent de Paul Nyonda, La Concorde, Music of Gabon, Bessora, Bube language, Patrick N'Guema N'Dong, Flag of Gabon, Fang language, Mpongwe, Kota people, Culture of Gabon, Islam in Gabon, Coat of arms of Gabon, Angèle Rawiri, Baka language, Teke people, Jean-Baptiste Abessolo, Gabon at the Paralympics, Beti language, Myene language, Imunga Ivanga, Ombamba language, Kota language, Bwisi language, Pounou people, Sangu language, Benga language, Duma people, Eshira people, Seki language, Centre International des Civilisations Bantu, List of Gabonese films, Lengue people, Bujeba people, Benga people, Cape Verdean Gabonese, Obamba, Buissi people, Boungome people. Excerpt: French (, IPA: ) is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, French-speaking Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, and the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts of the world, the largest numbers of which reside in Francophone Africa. In Africa, French is most commonly spoken in Gabon (where 80% reports fluency) Mauritius (78%), Algeria (75%) and Côte d'Ivoire (70%). French is estimated as having between 70 million and 110 million native speakers and 190 million second language speakers. French is the second-most studied foreign language in the world, after English. French is a descendant of the spoken Latin language of the Roman Empire, as are languages such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, Sardinian and Catalan. Its closest relatives however are the other langues d'oïl and French-based creole languages. Its development was also influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. It is an official language in 29 countries, most of which form what is called, in French, La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking countries. It is an official language of all United Nations agencies and a large number of international organizations. According to the European Union, 129 million, or twenty-six percent of the Union's total population speak French, of whom 65 million are native speakers and 69 million are second-language or foreign language speakers, thus making French the third language in the European Union that people state they are most able to speak, after English and German. Twenty-percent of non-Francophone Europeans know how to speak French, totaling roughly 145.6 million people in Europe, alone. From the 17th century to the mid-20th century, French served as the pre-eminent international language of diplomacy and international