It is the final of the Africa Cup of Nations soccer tournament.

The finalists are Zambia and pre-tournament favorites Ivory Coast.

The fact that Sunday’s match is taking place in Libreville, the capital of Gabon is particularly poignant for the Zambian squad.

It was there, in 1993, that a plane carrying the Zambian national soccer team crashed, killing all on board.

Anchor Marco Werman speaks with the BBC’s Farayi Mungazi about how the current team is dealing with the memory of the tragedy.

Atlantic coast, Gabon Republic. Hippopotamuses peering out of the surf. (Photo: Michael Nichols/National Geographic)

“It even looks weirder if you see the elephants,” says my guide, Wynand Viljoen.

Viljoen works for an eco-tourism company called Africa’s Eden, and he’s brought me to this rare strip of uninhabited coast, where the rainforest meets the sea, in the nation of Gabon.

This is Loango National Park, one of 13 Gabonese national parks established by presidential decree in 2002.

Just inland, Viljoen shows me forest elephants, western lowland gorillas, red river hogs, and the fresh tracks of chimpanzees and leopards.

With an abundance of wildlife and unspoiled habitat, Gabon’s parks – which cover more than ten percent of the country’s land area – made big news when they were created a decade ago.

Conservationists hailed the move as a way to protect Equatorial Africa’s endangered animals and dwindling forests.

Gabonese authorities saw the parks as a way to boost to their country’s economy, long dependent on oil. The idea was to turn Gabon into the African equivalent of Costa Rica – a country that has profited off its rainforests and wildlife through eco-tourism.

Of all the new parks, Loango held perhaps the greatest potential to lure international tourists, given its rare wildlife and unique setting.

National Geographic Magazine called Loango “the land of the surfing hippos” in a 2004 article on the park. As Viljoen says, you can occasionally see hippos here doing just that.

“They’re body surfing in the waves,” he says. “It’s quite amazing to see.”

An Investor Steps In

From the start, though, it was clear that bringing tourists to an out-of-the-way corner of this underdeveloped country would take serious investment.

That’s where Rombout Swanborn comes in.

Swanborn is Dutch, but he grew up in Gabon, where his father worked for the Shell Oil Company. As an adult, Swanborn himself made millions in the oil industry, and at the time Loango Park was being created, he used part of his fortune to open a tourist operation here.

“It was actually meant to function as a demonstration project,” he says. “I’d hoped that in our wake more people would see that Gabon would be a viable area to invest in.”

(Graphic: BBC)

Perched on a lagoon across from the park, Loango Lodge boasts a restaurant, conference center, curio shop, swimming pool, and ten bamboo-sided bungalows complete with air conditioning, hot water, and other amenities international tourists expect.

Inside the park, Swanborn’s company maintains rustic camps where visitors can spend the night in tents on wooden platforms and experience close encounters with wildlife.

“Sometimes at night you even get elephants crossing the platforms,” says guide Wynand Viljoen.

Swanborn’s investment seemed to pay off. Within a few years, Loango Lodge was drawing several thousand visitors a year, many from the U.S. and Europe. It was the busiest tourist operation in Gabon.

The tourist dollars provided local employment and supported conservation work on gorillas and elephants and sea turtles. Some of the money went to build a school in a local village. In 2008, the British Guild of Travel Writers named Loango the top new tourist destination in the world.

But then, in 2010, Loango Lodge shut down.

What Went Wrong

“As a pioneer, they became victim to the fact that Gabon wasn’t really ready,” says Lee White, director of Gabon’s national park service.

White, a British-born biologist who formerly worked for the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society, pushed for the creation of Gabon’s parks and helped launch the tourist and conservation effort at Loango.

“When you’re trying to move a country that has no experience with tourism to become a tourist friendly country, there are huge challenges,” he says.

Transportation in Gabon is unreliable. Hassles with police and immigration officials are common.

Rombout Swanborn says he was able to circumvent these problems for some time. He purchased his own planes and flew tourists directly to Loango from throughout the region.

But Swanborn faced problems with Gabon’s civil aviation authority, an agency considered so ineffectual by the European Union that the EU put Gabon on an air safety blacklist.

“These guys, before they do anything at all, they ask you for a lot of money,” he says.

Swanborn says he refused to give money when officials asked for “an extravagant additional tax of which we knew that it wouldn’t benefit the country.” (He declined to call it a bribe.) The government grounded his planes.

Swanborn tried to bring tourists to Loango by other means, involving a four-hour boat ride down the coast followed by a car ride on potholed roads. But that proved too inconvenient and time-consuming for many tourists. Reservations dried up, and the lodge shut down.

It may seem a straightforward tale of a well-meaning businessman stymied by African corruption and inefficiency, but others who were involved say it’s not that simple. They say Swanborn didn’t do enough to build trust with the Gabonese, and that undermined his efforts.

René Hilaire Adiaheno, a former head of Gabon’s national park service, says Swanborn should have done more to train and employ villagers who live near Loango.

“The definition of eco-tourism is this,” he says. “You have to help local people. You have to share the benefits.”

Romain Calaque, an early employee at Loango who now works for the Wildlife Conservation Society, says Swanborn tended to play loose with contracts and rules, including government regulations.

“The government became very upset,” he says, “and it was almost impossible to find a way to get all the partners back around the table.”

For his part, the current head of Gabon’s park service, Lee White, chalks up the trouble to a clash of cultures – an aggressive European businessman operating in a country where people prefer to avoid conflict.

“Everybody made mistakes,” he says. “The truth is there are both good and bad on both sides.”

A New Start for Eco-Tourism

Whatever went wrong at Loango, White remains optimistic about the eco-tourism potential of Gabon, and he says things are looking up.

Gabon has a new President – Ali Bongo Ondimba, elected in 2009 – and by all accounts he is serious about rooting out the corruption that plagued this country under the former president, his father, who held office for 42 years.

The new government is negotiating with tourism companies to build as many as nine new national park lodges in the next few years.

Loango Lodge, meanwhile, may still have a future.

Rombout Swanborn recently announced that he was reopening the lodge. He hired workmen to repair and upgrade the facilities, and he is trying to resolve his dispute with the Gabonese government so he can resume flights.

For now, though, his planes remain grounded, and visitors are scarce.

Everyone involved hopes things will go better this time because what’s at stake isn’t just money. If tourist dollars don’t start flowing into the economy here, pressure could mount to open the parks to other forms of revenue.

The land that had been set aside for the buffalo on the beach and the hippos in the surf could be handed over to people who value this place for other reasons – to extract its timber and minerals and oil.

The two Central African countries are co-hosting the Africa Cup of Nations.

It is Africa’s biggest and most important sports competition.

The tournament kicks off Saturday in Bata, Equitorial Guinea.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to the BBC’s Matthew Kenyon, who is in Bata and anxiously counting down the minutes.

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Marco Werman: Tourists interested in the region’s wildlife may be scarce, but those interested in soccer are flooding to Gabon and its tiny neighbor, Equatorial Guinea. The two Central African countries are co-hosting the Africa Cup of Nations. It’s Africa’s biggest and most important sports competition. The tournament kicks off tomorrow in Bata, Equatorial Guinea. The BBC’s Matthew Kenyon is in Bata and anxiously counting down the minutes. How excited are the locals on the eve of the Africa Cup of Nations there in Equatorial Guinea, Matthew?

Matthew Kenyon: Well Marco, they are pretty excited but it’s not the kind of fan fervor that you’ve seen at World Cups and other Africa Cup of Nations. Equatorial Guinea is, it seems, at any rate, to be quite a subdued kind of a place. I mean, there are flags, there are posters. But certainly, people are really excited to see their football team competing on the continental stage for the very first time.

Werman: Now, we’ll see how subdued the fans are tomorrow when Equatorial Guinea takes on Libya.

Kenyon: [Laughs].

Werman: Now, it’s 16 national teams from across Africa are competing, Libya among them. Given the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi and the turmoil that Libya experienced, how did Libya make it to the Africa Cup of Nations when traditional powerhouses like Egypt and Nigeria didn’t?

Kenyon: It was a fabulous qualifying performance, as you say, played out over the turmoil that was going on in their country back home. They started the competition playing under the flag of Colonel Gaddafi’s government and, midway through, the national team switched allegiance and at least one squad member left the camp and went to fight on the frontline. Many others, of course, had family and friends caught up in everything that was going on. But, they did it partly because of their skill as footballers and partly because, I think, they really, really wanted to achieve this goal because of what it would mean to, what is in some ways now, a new country. Egypt obviously were affected by what was going on in their country at the same time, but there were sound footballing reasons why they didn’t make it here as well, and likewise for Nigeria and Cameroon.

Werman: That’s an extraordinary story about Libya. It sounds like they are kind of a symbol of home almost for Africa and maybe for the Africa Cup of Nations.

Kenyon: Yes. If people are looking for great stories here, then Libya’s qualification and their possible progress out of a group which also includes Senegal, who are incredibly strong…if they make it out of that group, then they will have done very well.

Werman: Now, the last edition of the Africa Cup of Nations was in Angola and, frankly, it was a mess. Some listeners will recall that the Togolese team was violently ambushed on a highway there. Is Equatorial Guinea along with co-host Gabon prepared to make this one right?

Kenyon: I think they are. I mean, the security is very strong. All the teams are surrounded by security when they travel around the country and they are cloistered away in hotels which are very carefully watched over because memories of what happened to Togo two years ago are still very strong amongst everyone involved. In terms of the organization, this area where I’m sitting now, only a few months ago was a literal building site. They’re still doing a few fine touches, but the infrastructure appears to work.

Werman: The BBC’s Matthew Kenyon in Equatorial Guinea. Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are co-hosting the 28th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations which runs through February 12. Great to speak with you, Matthew. Thanks.

Kenyon: That’s my pleasure.

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Gabon is located on the equator and nearly 85 percent is covered by rainforests.

Its capital is Libreville, but we are looking way outside the city – for a pristine freshwater lake.

It is famous for its clear blue water and for the dwarves that, according to the local legend, protect the lake.

Lac Bleu or Lake Blue is the answer to the Geo Quiz.

It is located 300 miles inland from Gabon’s capital, Libreville.

Producer Daniel Glick tells about a local legend about the spirits that abound in the natural world in Lac Bleu as well as in the gorillas, elephants and hippopotamuses that inhabit the forests.

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This week’s podcast is a compilation of items from the radio show. First, the 70th anniversary of the start of WWII: Marco Werman interviews Svetlana Savranskaya of The National Security Archive at The George Washington University about Russian memories of WW2. You may remember Savranskaya; she helped us consider the parallels between the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1979 and the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 in HWGH#10. In another story pegged to the 70th anniversary of the start of WW2, The World’s Laura Lynch reports on a reunion of Holocaust survivors in London. And finally, in a footnote to HWGH #19 (about Gabon’s President Omar Bongo), The World’s Marco Werman tells us about the musical career of Bongo’s son and successor, Ali Ben Bongo. >>> Click here to join the “How We Got Here” Facebook Group Page.

The last one died in June after 42 years in power. Now the country is waiting to find out who won the right to replace him. Three candidates have claimed victory.

Election officials in the capital Libreville are urging people to remain calm. One of the top candidates is the son of the late president. He’s got a musical career under his belt — supporters say he would be the first rapping president.

We’ll tell you more about him in our Global Hit segment. First you need to name the country in west-central Africa where they’re still waiting for election results…

That’s the answer to our Geo Quiz — Gabon.

A presidential vote was held there on Sunday. The winner gets to fill the shoes of the late Omar Bongo Ondimba. He was in power for 42 years — until his death in June.

One of the candidates now vying for the job is the late president’s son — Ali Ben Bongo. He — and two other candidates — have all claimed victory. Opposition leaders have accused the younger Bongo of trying to steal the vote.

Meanwhile, election officials in Libreville are urging calm — as they continue to count ballots. Ali Ben Bongo may be a politician now — but he’s got a past as a musician. He got his start in 1977.

He was 18 years old at the time — and went by the name Alain Bongo. His first album was called “A Brand New Man.” After releasing the record — Alain Bongo toured West Africa. He was backed up by a 30-piece American band.

Cost was no object for the president’s son. Through the years, Ali Ben Bongo also indulged his musical passion by inviting American artists to Gabon. Michael Jackson made the trip. So did Jay-Z.

And even after making the transition to politics, Ali Ben Bongo just can’t leave music behind. In fact, candidate Bongo rapped at a hip-hop festival — in front of 10,000 people. The rapping candidate may yet be proclaimed Gabon’s president.

He and the rest of the country will have to wait for the official results. But there’s no question that Sunday’s vote was historic — after four decades of rule by the elder Mr. Bongo.

Gabonese musician Lord Ekomy Ndong marked the occasion with a rap of his own — called “30-08-09.”

The sounds of Gabonese rapper Lord Ekomy Ndong close our program today.

To find out more I turned to the political scientist James F. Barnes. He’s the author of Gabon: Beyond the Colonial Legacy and co-editor of Culture, Politics and Ecology in the Gabonese Rainforest. Jim is a a professor at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.  He says Gabon’s people respected Bongo but that his legacy is a country with a weak civil society and a big divide between rich and poor.  What strikes Barnes most is what a skilled politician Bongo was, how well he navigated a variety of friendships and alliances with powerful people, especially in France.  Barnes says the influence of the French in Gabon is extraordinary.

“It’s the thing that stands out in the minds of people who spend any time there–the extent to which Gabon and France are historically inseparable. The interactions that create the situation that we’re now dealing with, post-Bongo, those situations are due largely to a structure of power and influence involving many Gabonese but also involving key French historical personalities in the 19th and 20th centuries. The Gabonese in many occasions almost identify themselves as French.”