a history lesson

Today we have a public holiday – Barthélemy Boganda Day - honouring the nation's first prime minister on the anniversary of his death.  So, a good reason to share a little bit of the history of this crazy country. 

Oubangui-Chari was a French colony, established in 1903 by their merging two of their colonies, with borders close to those of the present-day Central African Republic.  Although rather than developing the colony themselves, the French leased most of it in concessions to companies who wished to exploit its resources. In November 1946, Barthélemy Boganda was elected as the first national leader. His strong anti-colonial views led to him becoming disillusioned with the French political system and leaving the priesthood in 1949, and forming his own political party, the Social Evolution Movement of Black Africa.  Hugely popular, he became the president of the Grand Council of French Equatorial Africa (which also included Chad, Gabon, and the French Congo) in 1957.  His rule was short, however, as he died in a plane crash on 29 March 1959 (under suspicious circumstances) and did not live to see his country gain full independence from France in August 1960.  Apparently the French admitted at this time that of all their colonies, this was the least prepared to stand on its own.  It had only one hospital, for example (even today it apparently has only one x-ray machine in the whole country – and only two sets of traffic lights, neither of which work…)

Boganda’s cousin David Dacko became the independent country’s first president, but was arrested in 1965, when Jean-Bédel Bokassa took control, proclaiming himself President for Life in 1972 and then as Emperor in 1977.  I won’t list the coups and counter-coups that followed, but the country has never known stability.  When I visited in 2012, it was under President Bozizé, but the opposition had disputed his election and later that year there was a rebellion by the Seleka.  The word ‘Seleka’ means alliance in the local Sango language, and it brought together various rebel groups from the north of the country with fighters from Chad, Darfur and various heavily-armed poachers.  A period of some confusion included a UN peace-keeping mission as well as a local self-defence militia known as the Anti-Balaka.  The fact that ‘Balaka’ means machete in Sango says a lot about the state of affairs in the country at the time!  Strangely, the country also had only the third female head of state in Africa after this (Catherine Samba-Panza), but she was also ousted, and the extent of her power might have been shown during a ceremony she presided over, for new recruits to the national Armed Forces, when soldiers identified someone they thought was a Seleka fighter and brutally killed him, in front of Samba-Panza and the professional photographers there for the ceremony!

Still nowhere near stable, currently the Russian Wagner Group are probably the strongest presence, their unmarked vehicles and balaclava-clad ex-convict mercenaries a common sight in the capital, although thankfully not in this part of the country.