When I think of “Africa,” I’m met with a hazy collage of photographs, sounds, and films absorbed over years, mostly by osmosis. I’ve seen David Attenborough-narrated clips of Serengeti wildlife and Senegalese director Djibril Diop Mambéty’s 1969 “Contras’ City,” an incisive portrait of post-colonial Dakar. I’ve been serenaded by the recordings of Ethio-jazz pioneer Mulatu Astatke and the sentimental, dreamlike strings of Malian kora instrumentalist Toumani Diabaté. Perhaps my earlier attempt to “think of ‘Africa,'” misses the point altogether. Under French rule from 1885 until the country gained its independence Nov. 28, 1958, the French-speaking citizens of Gabon still call it “République Gabonaise” today.