59 Fun Facts About Central African Republic

What is the capital and largest city of the Central African Republic?

Bangui began as a French outpost in 1889, sited at rapids that stopped river boats from going any farther upstream; the river beside it now marks the country's southern border.

Under what name was the Central African Republic a French colony from 1903 until 1958?

Ubangi-Shari was named for the colony's two main rivers; its founding father dropped the name in 1958 because he hoped neighbouring territories would join one larger central African state.

Which colonial federation, governed from Brazzaville, included the future Central African Republic from 1910?

French Equatorial Africa leased huge tracts to private companies, whose overseers forced villagers to gather wild rubber; with their own fields neglected, famine and disease followed.

The Central African Republic became independent in August 1960, but its national day, 1 December, marks which earlier event?

The republic's proclamation came on 1 December 1958, when the colony became self-governing under its new name; that date, not Independence Day on 13 August, is the national holiday.

Which former priest, the Central African Republic's founding father, led it to self-rule in 1958 and designed its flag?

Barthélemy Boganda became the territory's first African Catholic priest, then denounced the missions that had backed his 1946 election to the French parliament and founded his own party in 1949.

The Central African Republic's founding father died in March 1959 in what kind of incident?

A plane crash killed the founding father on 29 March 1959, and no full report was ever published; suspicion fell on French business interests and secret services, but nothing was proved.

Who became the Central African Republic's first president in 1960 and returned to power when its emperor fell in 1979?

David Dacko was overthrown twice by his own army commander: first by the officer he had asked to head the new army, and in 1981, two years after French troops restored him, by a second general.

Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa seized power in a coup named after which date in the calendar?

New Year's Eve (Saint-Sylvestre): Bokassa struck on the night of 31 December 1965, with the country near bankruptcy and a general strike looming, and had declared himself president by New Year's Day.

To mark 50 years of independence in 2010, the Central African Republic's president did what for the late Bokassa?

Officially rehabilitated him: a presidential decree restored all Bokassa's rights and praised him as a great builder, 23 years after a court had sentenced him to death for murder.

Bokassa's 1977 coronation was modelled almost exactly on the crowning of which earlier emperor?

Napoleon was Bokassa's hero; copying his coronation cost more than $20 million, paid largely by France, in a country his rule had already bankrupted.

Bokassa's gilded coronation throne was shaped like which creature?

An eagle with gilded wings formed the throne, its seat hollowed out of the bird's belly; seated there, Bokassa took the crown and placed it on his own head.

Which French president lost the 1981 election after reports that Bokassa had given him gems?

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing had accepted the stones as finance minister in 1973; Le Canard enchaîné revealed the gifts in October 1979, and the affair shadowed him until Mitterrand beat him in 1981.

Bokassa's 1979 downfall followed the killing of about 100 schoolchildren arrested after protests against what?

Costly compulsory uniforms, which pupils had to buy from a factory said to belong to one of Bokassa's wives, set off the protests; within months French paratroopers had removed him.

Which sensational charge against Bokassa at his 1987 trial ended without a conviction, though he was sentenced to death for murder?

Cannibalism was the one charge that did not stick; found guilty of murdering schoolchildren, he had his death sentence commuted and walked free in 1993.

After his 1979 overthrow, Bokassa spent four years in exile in which West African country before moving to France?

Ivory Coast was only his first refuge: he later settled in a château near Paris, then flew home in 1986, although a court had sentenced him to death in his absence, and was arrested on landing.

Which general took power in a bloodless 1981 coup and ruled until losing the 1993 election?

André Kolingba ruled through a military committee and conceded open elections only after riots over unpaid salaries; when he finally ran, voters rejected him in the first round.

Which rebel general toppled the Central African Republic's president, Ange-Félix Patassé, in March 2003 while he was abroad?

François Bozizé, a former army chief, took the capital while Patassé was flying home from a summit; ten years later a rebel march on the same city drove Bozizé out in turn.

Which mostly Muslim rebel coalition seized the Central African Republic's capital in 2013 and installed Michel Djotodia?

Séléka was formally disbanded by Djotodia within six months, but its fighters kept looting and killing, and rival militias rose against them.

The mainly Christian militias that rose against the Central African Republic's 2013 rebel government were called what?

Anti-balaka is usually translated 'anti-machete'; the militias formed to protect villages from the rebels, then turned on Muslim civilians, setting off a cycle of revenge killings.

Who became the Central African Republic's first female head of state as transitional president in 2014?

Catherine Samba-Panza, a businesswoman then serving as mayor of the capital, was chosen partly because both armed camps saw her as politically neutral.

Which mathematics professor became the Central African Republic's president in 2016 and ended presidential term limits in 2023?

Faustin-Archange Touadéra was an academic with no political background when he was picked to head the government in 2008; the 2023 referendum he called cleared his way to seek a third term.

Which private military company began protecting the Central African Republic's president in 2018 in return for mining concessions?

The Wagner Group's fighters served as the president's bodyguards and fought rebels alongside the army, while a company tied to its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was awarded valuable mining rights.

In 2022 the Central African Republic became only the second country to make what legal tender?

Bitcoin became legal tender in April 2022, after El Salvador in 2021, but the experiment was short: about a year later the government agreed to repeal that status.

Which lingua franca, derived from Ngbandi, is the Central African Republic's national language alongside French?

Sango began as the speech of river traders; missionaries took it up and spread it so widely that about nine in ten Central Africans now speak it.

On the Central African Republic's flag, which colour forms the single vertical band that crosses the four horizontal stripes?

Red stands for blood: the flag's designer made it the one band that crosses all four stripes, a sign of the blood that binds peoples together.

Which world figure visited the war-torn Central African Republic in November 2015 and urged peace between Christians and Muslims?

Pope Francis opened a holy door at the capital's cathedral, starting the Catholic Church's Year of Mercy there before Rome and calling the city 'the spiritual capital of the world' that day.

'La Renaissance' shares its composer, Herbert Pepper, with which other country's anthem?

The founding father wrote the words; the tune was kept throughout the imperial years.

Which currency, pegged to the euro, does the Central African Republic share with five other central African states?

The CFA franc is issued for all six states by one shared central bank; its initials once stood for 'French Colonies of Africa' and now stand for 'Financial Cooperation in Central Africa'.

Which gemstone long earned the Central African Republic about half of its export income?

Diamonds are easy to smuggle, and so many stones slip across the borders each year that the state has never captured the full value of the trade.

Which root crop is the staple food of most people in the Central African Republic?

Cassava is not native to Africa: it was brought from the Americas, and its leaves are eaten too, cooked into the soups and stews of central Africa.

Two-thirds of the Central African Republic drains south into which river, the Congo's largest right-bank tributary?

The Ubangi forms much of the southern border and is the landlocked country's waterway to the outside world: boats can run from the capital down to Brazzaville for most of the year.

The northern third of the Central African Republic drains via the Chari River into which lake?

Lake Chad gets most of its water from the Chari and its tributary the Logone, so rain falling on the country's northern savannas ends up in a shallow lake with no outlet to the sea.

Mont Ngaoui, the Central African Republic's highest point at about 1,400 metres, stands on its border with which country?

Cameroon shares the Karre highlands in the far west; even there the summit is modest, because most of the country is a rolling plateau only about 600 metres above the sea.

Which reserve in the Central African Republic's southwest is famous for forest elephants gathering at clearings called bais?

Dzanga-Sangha is home to Dzanga Bai, a clearing that draws forest elephants back again and again because its water and soil are rich in minerals they need.

Which protected area in the Central African Republic's north-east became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988?

Manovo-Gounda St Floris went onto the World Heritage danger list in 1997, after heavily armed poachers were thought to have killed most of its large animals and four park staff were shot.

Which conservation non-profit took over management of the Central African Republic's vast Chinko wilderness in 2014?

African Parks took Chinko on under a long-term deal with the government, after years of poaching and cattle grazing had wiped out most of its large animals.

Which forest people of the Central African Republic's southwest had their polyphonic singing named a UNESCO masterpiece in 2003?

The Aka sing in four-part polyphony that every member of the community masters and nobody writes down, performing it when they set up a new camp, before hunts and at funerals.

Which two peoples are the Central African Republic's largest ethnic groups, together about half the population?

Gbaya and Banda farmers of the savanna far outnumber the small riverside groups, such as the Mbaka and Yakoma, that supplied most of the country's rulers after independence.

A 2016 world atlas ranked the Central African Republic among the three countries least affected by what?

Light pollution barely reaches the country: the atlas found more than three-quarters of its people living under pristine night skies, in a land where fewer than one in five has electricity.

The Central African Republic's capital gives its name to one of the world's largest what?

Magnetic anomalies do not come much bigger: this one is an ellipse of about 700 by 1,000 km centred on the capital, and what caused it is still unsettled.

Hundreds of ancient granite standing stones surround which town in the Central African Republic's west?

Bouar's megaliths weigh several tons each, and the cooperation needed to raise them suggests they were the work of large, well-organised farming communities.

The 1928 Kongo-Wara uprising against French forced labour is also known as the war of what?

The hoe handle was a small hooked stick the healer-prophet Karnou handed his followers as protection; he preached non-violent resistance, but the rising became three years of fighting.

In August 1940 the colony that became the Central African Republic broke with Vichy France and rallied to which leader?

Charles de Gaulle won the colony days after Félix Éboué, the Black governor of a neighbouring territory, led the way in backing Free France; some 3,000 Central Africans then answered the call to fight.

Which warlord's Lord's Resistance Army began raiding the south-eastern Central African Republic in 2008?

Joseph Kony was never caught: Uganda began pulling its troops out of the country in April 2017 after years of hunting him there, and the United States ended its own mission the same spring.

The Central African Republic's national football team is nicknamed what?

Les Fauves won their first trophy at the 2009 CEMAC Cup and stunned Algeria 2-0 in a 2010 qualifier, months after Algeria had played at the World Cup.

In which sport has the Central African Republic twice won the African title, in 1974 and 1987?

Basketball brought the country its only continental titles: it won the 1974 African championship at home, which sent it to that year's world championship, and beat Egypt in the 1987 final.

Craft workers in the Central African Republic's capital are known for pictures made by gluing what onto paper?

Butterfly wings supply the colour: artisans arrange them on paper to build up designs and pictures, a newer craft sold beside carvings in ebony and other tropical hardwoods.

Hosting about a dozen foreign military missions since 1997 has earned the Central African Republic which ironic title?

World champion of peacekeeping is the bitter joke: African, French, European and UN forces have come and gone since 1997, and the fighting has kept returning.

Which US organisation evacuated all its volunteers from the Central African Republic during the army mutinies of 1996?

The Peace Corps pulled out as unpaid soldiers mutinied three times in 1996 and the capital was repeatedly looted.

Boali, a popular day trip from the Central African Republic's capital, is best known for which natural attraction?

Waterfalls on the Mbali River made Boali the site of the country's main hydroelectric plants, which supply most of the capital's electricity.

The Central African Republic's founding father coined the phrase 'zo kwe zo', which means what?

'Every human being is a person' was his answer to forced labour and colonial contempt, a claim of basic rights; the phrase now appears on the national coat of arms.

In 1975 Bokassa named businesswoman Élisabeth Domitien to which post, a first for a woman in sub-Saharan Africa?

Prime minister: Domitien, a prosperous farmer and trader, became the first woman to head a government in sub-Saharan Africa, under a ruler who had scrapped the constitution and allowed no opposition.

Which pod vegetable, known locally as gombo, turns up in almost every meal in the Central African Republic?

Okra figures in almost every meal, and unlike many of the country's food crops, such as maize and peanuts, it is native to Africa rather than an import from the Americas.

At about 623,000 square kilometres, the Central African Republic is slightly smaller than which US state?

Texas is only a little larger, but the republic holds under 6 million people, because its eastern and north-eastern regions are so thinly settled.

The Central African Republic's founding father hoped to unite French, Belgian and Portuguese central Africa as the 'United States of' what?

Latin Africa was to reach as far as Angola and the Belgian Congo; when even the neighbouring French territories refused to federate, he settled for a republic made of his own colony alone.

Which dry, dusty north-easterly wind brings the dry season to the Central African Republic?

The harmattan is a trade wind that picks up fine dust as it crosses the Sahara, which is why the dry season brings dust storms to the country's far north.

Men from the future Central African Republic were conscripted as forced labour to build which colonial railway?

Congo-Ocean track linked Brazzaville with the Atlantic port of Pointe-Noire, bypassing the rapids on the lower river; the French conscripted Central Africans and sent them south to build it.

In 2015 US envoy Samantha Power said that almost all of the Central African Republic's 436 what had been destroyed?

Mosques were destroyed in the cycle of revenge attacks between Christian and Muslim militias that followed the 2013 coup and drove hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

Which two cash crops, introduced under French rule, are still grown on small farms across the Central African Republic?

Cotton and coffee were pushed by the colonial administration, which used forced labour to expand them; smallholders still grow both, though food crops matter far more to most farmers.