Omar Bongo
El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba was a Gabonese politician who was President of Gabon for 42 years from 1967 until his death in 2009.
The youngest of twelve siblings, AlbertBernard Bongo was born onDecember 1935 in Lewai , French Equatorial Africa, a town of the HautOgoou province in what is now southeastern Gabon near the border with the Republic of the Congo. He was a member of the small Bateke ethnic group. He changed his name to El Hadj Omar Bongo when he converted to Islam in 1973. After completing his primary and secondary education in Brazzaville , Bongo held a job at the Post and Telecommunications Public Services, before joining the French military where he served as a second lieutenant and then as a first lieutenant in the Air Force, in Brazzaville, Bangui and Fort Lamy successively, before being honorably discharged as captain.
Source: Wikipedia