In 1844 Gabon became the center of the Apostolic Prefecture of the Two Guineas and
Senegambia, a Roman Catholic jurisdiction established in 1842 and encompassing the
whole West African coast between the Senegal and Orange rivers, except Portuguese
Guinea, the Lower Congo area and part of Angola.
The Prefecture Apostolic became a Vicariate Apostolic in 1846 and in 1864 -after
some of its western territories had become separate jurisdictions - it was renamed
Gabon.
In the course of the following years still more territories were detached and by
1890 only the French colony of Gabon itself remained part of the Vicariate.
Chronology of the separation of the territories
PA = Prefecture Apostolic
VA = Vicariate Apostolic
1858 : VA Sierra Leone (present-day Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia)
1860 : VA Dahomey (present-day Benin and Togo)
1863 : VA Senegambia (present-day Senegal, Gambia and Guinea)
1879 : PA Gold Coast (present-day Ghana and Ivory Coast)
: PA Cimbebasia (present-day Angola and Namibia)
1884 : PA Upper Niger (present-day Nigeria)
1886 : AV French Congo (present-day Congo-Brazzaville) (1)
1889 : PA Lower Niger (present-day Nigeria)
1890 : PA Cameroon (present-day Cameroon)
(1) Only partly created out of the Apostolic Vicariate of the Two Guinees.
See here for the strife with Spain until 1903.
Vicars Apostolic
1848 - 1876 Jean René Bessieux, Titular Bishop
of Callipolis in Europa 1803 - 1876
1877 - 1891 Pierre Marie Le Berre, Titular
Bishop of Arca in Phoenicia 1819 - 1891
1892 - 1896 Alexandre Louis Victor Aimé Le Roy,
Titular Bishop of Alinda in Caria 1854 - 1928
1897 - 1914 Jean Martin Adam, Titular Bishop
of Thmuis in Augustamnica I 1846 - 1929
1914 - 1925 Louis Jean Martrou, Titular Bishop
of Coricus in Caria I 1876 - 1925
1925 - 1947 Louis Michel François Tardy, Titular
Bishop of Acalissus in Licia 1882 - 1947
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