CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (CAR)
Also known as: République Centrafricaine,
Ködörösêse tî Bêafrîka
Quick Facts
| Location | Central Africa , north of Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| Size | total: 622,984 sq km land: 622,984 sq km water: 0 sq km |
| Capitals | Bangui |
| Languages | French (official), Sangho (lingua franca and national language), tribal languages |
| Ethnic groups | Baya 33%, Banda 27%, Mandjia 13%, Sara 10%, Mboum 7%, M'Baka 4%, Yakoma 4%, other 2% |
| Population | 3,799,897 |
| Religion | indigenous beliefs 35%, Protestant 25%, Roman Catholic 25%, Muslim 15% |
| Chief of State | President Francois BOZIZE (since 15 March 2003 coup) |
| Government type | Republic |
| GDP | $4.248 billion (2004 est.) |
| Industries | gold and diamond mining, logging, brewing, textiles, footwear, assembly of bicycles and motorcycles |
| Currency | Communaute Financiere Africaine franc (XAF) |
| Internet country code | .cf |
| Time zone | UTC/GMT +1 |
On this page, you will find:
- Country- Map, Flag & Coat of Arms
- Introduction
- Journey Element 1: Nature & Wildlife (Natural Environment; Plants & Wildlife)
- Journey Element 2: Life & Society (History, Society & Culture, Government & Politics)
- Journey Element 3: Trade, Travel & Economy (Transportation, Communication, Economy, Tourism)
- Journey Element 4: Highlights, Current Events & Helpful Links (Highlights & amazing statistics, Current events, Other Helpful Links)
Country- Map, Flag & Coat of Arms
| Map | Map in context (From Wikipedia) |
| Flag | four equal horizontal bands of blue (top), white, green, and yellow with a vertical red band in center; there is a yellow five-pointed star on the hoist side of the blue band |
The former French colony of Ubangi-Shari became the Central African Republic upon independence in 1960. After three tumultuous decades of misrule - mostly by military governments - civilian rule was established in 1993 and lasted for one decade. President Ange-Felix PATASSE's civilian government was plagued by unrest, and in March 2003 he was deposed in a military coup led by General Francois BOZIZE, who has since established a transitional government. Though the government has the tacit support of civil society groups and the main parties, a wide field of affiliated and independent candidates will contest the municipal, legislative, and presidential elections scheduled for February 2005. The government still does not fully control the countryside, where pockets of lawlessness persist.
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Journey Element 1: Nature & Wildlife
Natural Environment
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Plants & Wildlife
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Journey Element 2: Life & Society
History Overview
Between about 1000 BC and 1000 CE, Adamawa-Eastern-speaking peoples spread eastward from Cameroon to Sudan and settled in most of the territory of the CAR. During the same period, a much smaller number of Bantu-speaking immigrants settled in southwestern CAR and some Central Sudanic-speaking populations settled along the northern borderlands with Chad. The majority of the CAR's inhabitants thus spreak Adamawa-Eastern languages or Bantu languages belonging to the Niger-Congo family. A minority speak Central Sudanic languages of the Nilo-Saharan family. More recent immigrants include many Muslim merchants who most often speak Arabic or Hausa. Until the early 1880s, the peoples of the CAR lived beyond the expanding Islamic frontier in the Sudanic zone of Africa and thus had relatively little contact with world religions or the world economy. During the first decades of the nineteenth century, however, Muslim traders began increasingly to penetrate the region of the CAR and to cultivate special relations with local leaders in order to facilitate their trade and settlement in the region. The initial arrival of Muslim traders in the early 1800s was relatively peaceful and depended upon the support of local peoples, but after about 1850, Muslim slave traders with well-armed soldiers began to penetrate the region. Between circa 1860 and 1910, slave-raiders exported much of the population of northeastern CAR in particular, a region which has very few inhabitants today. Europeans first began to arrive here in 1885, including French and Germans. In 1894 France took possession of the region and it become the colony of Ubangi-Shari. The area was developed into a plantation economy, and suffered periodic but small-scale revolts. On December 1, 1958 the nation became an autonomous republic, known as the Central African Republic, and gained its full independence on August 13, 1960. The new nation quickly descended into dictatorship under the rule of its first president, David Dacko. In 1966 Dacko was overthrown by his cousin Jean-Bédel Bokassa who established a highly eccentric military dictatorship. In 1977 Bokassa proclaimed himself emperor and was crowned in a lavish and expensive ceremony (the shoes he wore set a world record for their costliness) based on that of his hero Napoleon Bonaparte that was ridiculed by much of the world. His human rights violations (which are said to have included cannibalism and the feeding of school children to crocodiles, amongst others) and movements against French interests prompted France to support a coup against him in 1979, restoring Dacko to power. A second coup occurred in 1981, and democracy began in 1993. In 2003 however, there was yet another coup, bringing François Bozizé to power. From Wikipedia. |
Significant dates & events
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| 600s | The C.A.R. appears to have been settled from at least the 7th century on by overlapping empires, including the Kanem-Bornou, Ouaddai, Baguirmi, and Dafour groups based in Lake Chad and the Upper Nile. Later, various sultanates claimed present-day C.A.R, using the entire Oubangui region as a slave reservoir, from which slaves were traded north across the Sahara and to West Africa for export by European traders. |
| 1700s-1800s | Population migration in the 18th and 19th centuries brought new migrants into the area, including the Zande, Banda, and Baya-Mandjia. |
| 1875 | In 1875 the Egyptian sultan Rabah governed Upper-Oubangui, which included present-day C.A.R. |
| 1885 | Europeans, primarily the French, German, and Belgians, arrived in the area. |
| 1887 | The French consolidated their legal claim to the area through a convention with Congo Free State, which granted France possession of the right bank of the Oubangui River. |
| 1889 | The French established an outpost at Bangui. |
| 1894 | Oubangui-Chari became a French territory |
| 1903 | French consolidate their control over the area after having defeated the forces of the Egyptian sultan Rabah and established colonial administration throughout the territory. |
| 1906 | The Oubangui-Chari territory was united with the Chad colony. |
| 1910 | Oubangui-Chari territory becomes one of the four territories of the Federation of French Equatorial Africa (A.E.F.), along with Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), and Gabon. The next 30 years were marked by small-scale revolts against French rule and the development of a plantation-style economy. |
| 1940 | In August, the territory responded, with the rest of the A.E.F., to the call from Gen. Charles de Gaulle to fight for Free France. |
| 1946 | After World War II, the French Constitution of 1946 inaugurated the first of a series of reforms that led eventually to complete independence for all French territories in western and equatorial Africa. All A.E.F. inhabitants were granted French citizenship and allowed to establish local assemblies. The assembly in C.A.R. was led by Barthelemy Boganda, a Catholic priest who also was known for his forthright statements in the French Assembly on the need for African emancipation. |
| 1956 | French legislation eliminated certain voting inequalities and provided for the creation of some organs of self-government in each territory. |
| 1958 | The French constitutional referendum in September dissolved the A.E.F., and on December 1 of the same year the Assembly declared the birth of the Central African Republic with Boganda as head of government. |
| 1959 | Boganda ruled until his death in a March 1959 plane crash. His cousin, David Dacko, replaced him. |
| 1965 | Dacko governs the country until 1965 and overseeing the country's declaration of independence on August 13, 1960. |
| 1966 | Following a swift and almost bloodless coup, Col. Jean-Bedel Bokassa assumed power as President of the Republic. Bokassa abolished the constitution of 1959, dissolved the National Assembly, and issued a decree that placed all legislative and executive powers in the hands of the president. |
| 1976 | On December 4, the republic became a monarchy with the promulgation of the imperial constitution and the proclamation of the president as Emperor Bokassa I. His regime was characterized by numerous human rights atrocities. |
| 1979 | Following riots in Bangui and the murder of between 50 and 200 schoolchildren, former President Dacko led a successful French-backed coup against Bokassa on September 20. |
| 1981 | Dacko's efforts to promote economic and political reforms proved ineffectual, and on September 20, he in turn was overthrown in a bloodless coup by Gen. Andre Kolingba. For 4 years, Kolingba led the country as head of the Military Committee for National Recovery (CRMN). |
| 1985 | The CRMN was dissolved, and Kolingba named a new cabinet with increased civilian participation, signaling the start of a return to civilian rule. |
| 1986 | The process of democratization quickened with the creation of a new political party, the Rassemblement Democratique Centrafricain (RDC), and the drafting of a new constitution that subsequently was ratified in a national referendum. General Kolingba was sworn in as constitutional President on November 29. |
| 1987 | The constitution established a National Assembly made up of 52 elected deputies, elected in July . |
| 1991 | Due to mounting political pressure, President Kolingba announced the creation of a national commission to rewrite the constitution to provide for a multi-party system. |
| 1992 | Multi-party presidential elections were conducted but were later cancelled due to serious logistical and other irregularities. |
| 1993 | Ange Felix Patasse won a second-round victory in rescheduled elections held in October. |
| 1996-98 | Salary arrears, labor unrest, and unequal treatment of military officers from different ethnic groups led to three mutinies against the Patasse government in 1996 and 1997. The French succeeded in quelling the disturbances, and an African peacekeeping force (MISAB) occupied Bangui until 1998 when they were relieved by a UN peacekeeping mission (MINURCA). |
| 1999 | Ange Felix Patasse re-elected for another 6-year term in September 1999. |
| 2000 | In March the last of the MINURCA forces departed Bangui. |
| 2001 | In May rebel forces within the C.A.R. military, led by former President and Army General Andre Kolingba, attempted a military coup. After several days of heavy fighting, forces loyal to the government, aided by a small number of troops from Libya and the Congolese rebel Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC), were able to put down the coup attempt. In November, there were several days of sporadic gunfire between members of the Presidential Security Unit and soldiers defending sacked Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Francois Bozize, who fled to Chad. |
| 2002 | Skirmishes on the C.A.R.-Chad border. In October, former Army Chief of Staff Francois Bozize launched a coup attempt. |
| 2003 | Francois Bozize led coup culminated in the March 15 overthrow of President Patasse and the takeover of the capital. General Bozize declared himself President, suspended the constitution, and dissolved the National Assembly. Since seizing power, President Francois Bozize has made significant progress in restoring order to Bangui and parts of the country, and professed a desire to promote national reconciliation, strengthen the economy, and improve the human rights situation. |
| 2004 | A new constitution was passed by referendum in December. |
| 2005 | In spring, the country held its first elections since the March 2003 coup. The first round of presidential and legislative elections were held in March, and in May, President Bozize defeated former Prime Minister Martin Ziguele in a second-round runoff. On June 13, Bozize named Elie Dote, an agricultural engineer who had worked at the African Development Bank, his new Prime Minister. |
Society & Culture
There are more than 80 ethnic groups in the Central African Republic (C.A.R.), each with its own language. About 75% are Baya-Mandjia and Banda (40% largely located in the northern and central parts of the country), and 4% are M'Baka (southwestern corner of the C.A.R.). Sangho, the language of a small group along the Oubangui River, is the national language spoken by the majority of Central Africans. Only a small part of the population has more than an elementary knowledge of French, the official language.
More than 55% of the population of the C.A.R. lives in rural areas. The chief agricultural areas are around the Bossangoa and Bambari. Bangui, Berberati, Bangassou, and Bossangoa are the most densely populated urban centers.
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Government & Politics
The government is a republic comprised of a strong executive branch (president, vice president, prime minister, and council of ministers), and weak legislative and judicial branches. Government and opposition party members, as well as civil society and the military are represented in the three branches, although the president appoints the vice president, prime minister, members of the cabinet (Council of Ministers), top military officials, and managers of national parastatals.
The National Assembly is made up of 109 members elected by popular vote to serve 5-year terms.
For administration purposes, the country is divided into 16 prefectures that are further divided into over 60 subprefectures; the commune of Bangui is administered separately. The president currently appoints heads of these administrative units, called "prefets" and "sous-prefets". There are 174 communes, each headed by a mayor and council appointed by the president. Suffrage is universal over the age of 21.
The judicial sector encompasses the Constitutional Court, Court of Cassation, Court of Appeals, criminal and civil courts, Labor Court, and Juvenile Court, although several of these courts have insufficient resources and trained personnel to operate on a regular basis. The Criminal Court of Bangui sits once or twice a year, usually for 1 or 2 months each session. Judges are appointed by the president; executive influence often impedes transparent handling of judicial affairs. Military courts exist but are currently only used to try military personnel for crimes committed in the course of duty. There are a limited number of formal courts currently functioning outside Bangui; traditional arbitration and negotiation play a major role in administering domestic, property, and probate law.
The Central African Republic has a vibrant civil society, with numerous professional, labor, and local development associations actively carrying out campaigns and gaining greater local and international credibility.
The C.A.R. Government's human rights record remains flawed. There are continued reports of arbitrary detainment, torture and, to a lesser degree, extra judicial killings. Journalists have occasionally been threatened, and prison conditions remain harsh.
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Journey Element 3: Trade, Travel & Economy
The Central African Republic is classified as one of the world's least developed countries, with an annual per capita income of $260 (2002). Sparsely populated and landlocked, the nation is overwhelmingly agrarian, with the vast bulk of the population engaged in subsistence farming and 55% of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) arising from agriculture. Principal crops include cotton, food crops (cassava, yams, bananas, maize), coffee, and tobacco. In 2002, timber accounted for about 30% of export earnings. The country also has rich but largely unexploited natural resources in the form of diamonds, gold, uranium, and other minerals. There may be oil deposits along the country's northern border with Chad. Diamonds are the only of these mineral resources currently being developed; in 2002, diamond exports made up close to 50% of the C.A.R.'s export earnings. Industry contributes only about 20% of the country's GDP, with artesian diamond mining, breweries, and sawmills making up the bulk of the sector. Services currently account for about 25% of GDP, largely because of the oversized government bureaucracy and high transportation costs arising from the country's landlocked position.
Hydroelectric plants based in Boali provide much of the country's limited electrical supply. Fuel supplies must be barged in via the Ubangui River or trucked overland through Cameroon, resulting in frequent shortages of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. The C.A.R.'s transportation and communication network is limited. Commercial traffic on the Ubangui River is impossible from December to May or June, and conflict in the region has sometimes prevented shipments from moving between Kinshasa and Bangui. The telephone system functions, albeit imperfectly. Four radio stations currently operate in the C.A.R., as well as one television station. Numerous newspapers and pamphlets are published on a regular basis, and at least one company has begun providing Internet service.
In the more than 40 years since independence, the C.A.R. has made slow progress toward economic development. Economic mismanagement, poor infrastructure, a limited tax base, scarce private investment, and adverse external conditions have led to deficits in both its budget and external trade. Its debt burden is considerable, and the country has seen a decline in per capita gross national product (GNP) over the last 30 years. Structural adjustment programs with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) and interest-free credits to support investments in the agriculture, livestock, and transportation sectors have had limited impact. The World Bank and IMF are now encouraging the government to concentrate exclusively on implementing much-needed economic reforms to jumpstart the economy and defining its fundamental priorities with the aim of alleviating poverty. As a result, many of the state-owned business entities have been privatized and limited efforts have been made to standardize and simplify labor and investment codes and to address problems of corruption. The C.A.R. Government has adopted the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) Charter of Investment, and is in the process of adopting a new labor code.
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Journey Element 4: Highlights, Current Events & Helpful Links
Highlights & amazing statistics
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Other Helpful Links
| Coming from the road! |
