Central African Republic

The area between the Ubangi and Chari rivers was a crossroads for savanna and forest peoples and, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a hunting ground for slave raiders from the north and east that left it depopulated in places. France took control in the 1890s and ran it as the colony of Ubangi-Shari, notorious for the abuses of the rubber and cotton concession companies.

Independence came in 1960. The early leader Barthélemy Boganda died in a plane crash before it, and his successor David Dacko was overthrown by his cousin Jean-Bédel Bokassa, who ruled from 1966, crowned himself "Emperor" in a ruinously expensive 1977 ceremony, and was removed with French help in 1979 after the massacre of schoolchildren. Coups and short-lived governments followed.

In 2013 a mainly Muslim rebel coalition, Séléka, seized Bangui; a mostly Christian militia movement, the anti-balaka, formed in response, and the country collapsed into sectarian civil war. A 2016 election and a 2019 peace deal did not end the fighting. President Faustin-Archange Touadéra has leaned heavily on Russian paramilitary support to hold the capital and key mining areas, while armed groups still contest much of the interior.

The population is a patchwork of peoples — the Gbaya, Banda, Mandjia, Sara, Mbum, Yakoma and Ngbandi along the rivers, and the Baka and Aka "forest people" of the southwestern rainforest, among the shortest-statured peoples in the world and holders of an extraordinary tradition of polyphonic yodelled song, recognised by UNESCO.

Most Central Africans are Christian, with a Muslim minority concentrated in the north and among traders, and traditional beliefs widely held alongside. The 2013–14 conflict deliberately pitted these communities against each other, and rebuilding trust between them is a central challenge.

Music, dance, and oral storytelling are strong, and the sanza thumb piano and water-drumming of the forest peoples are distinctive. Everyday social life, where it can function normally, runs on the extended family, the village, the church or mosque, and the market.

The Central African Republic consistently ranks near the bottom of global measures of income, health, and education. Most people live by subsistence farming — cassava, plantain, groundnuts, maize — supplemented by fishing on the rivers, hunting, and gathering forest products, with cotton, coffee, and above all diamonds and gold as the cash economy.

Years of conflict have displaced a large share of the population, inside the country and into Chad, Cameroon, and the DR Congo, and have left much of the interior without functioning schools, clinics, or administration. Aid agencies provide many basic services. Bangui, on the Ubangi River facing the DR Congo, is the one substantial city and the centre of what economy there is.

Central African cooking is simple and starch-based. The staple is a stiff cassava or sometimes maize porridge — called gozo or foufou — eaten by hand with a sauce of greens, okra, or groundnut, and, when available, fish, bushmeat, or chicken. Cassava leaves pounded and stewed (ngoundja) are a common relish.

Fish from the Ubangi and other rivers, smoked or fresh, is important in the south, and grilled meat and brochettes are sold in Bangui. Palm oil, chilli, and djansang seeds season many dishes.

Palm wine and locally brewed millet or maize beer are the traditional drinks; strong sweet tea and, in Bangui, imported soft drinks and beer are common.

In a country at peace, the Central African Republic's draw would be its wildlife. The Dzanga-Sangha reserve, in the southwestern rainforest where the country meets Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo, protects the Dzanga Bai — a large forest clearing where dozens of forest elephants, plus bongo, buffalo, and sitatunga, gather at the mineral-rich mud in full view of a viewing platform. Habituated western lowland gorillas can be tracked there with Aka guides.

In the north, the Manovo-Gounda St. Floris National Park was once one of the richest savanna reserves in Central Africa, with elephant, lion, and vast antelope herds, but decades of poaching by armed groups have devastated it, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site listed as "in danger."

Elsewhere, the Chutes de Boali, a wide waterfall on the Mbali river a few hours from Bangui, and the Ubangi River itself are the sights closest to the capital. For now, access to nearly all of this is limited by the security situation.