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Central African Republic
Autonomous transition from French Community.
- Independence
- August 13, 1960
- Before
- Ubangi-Shari
- Metropole
- France
- Leader
- David Dacko
- Transition
- Negotiated
- Movement
- Mouvement pour l'Évolution Sociale de l'Afrique Noire (MESAN)
“Zo kwe zo. (Every human being is a person.)”
— Barthélemy Boganda (political motto of Boganda and MESAN), c. 1949–1959
The Concession Regime
The French post at Bangui was founded in 1889, and the colony of Ubangi-Shari was created in 1903. France leased much of the territory to concession companies, which used forced labour and violence to extract rubber and ivory. André Gide exposed these abuses in his Voyage au Congo (1927). Labour recruitment for rubber tapping and for the Congo-Ocean railway provoked the Kongo-Wara rebellion of 1928–1931. It began under the prophet Karnou, whom French troops killed in December 1928.
Boganda and MESAN
Barthélemy Boganda was ordained a Catholic priest in 1938 and elected Ubangi-Shari's deputy to the French National Assembly in 1946. He was the first Ubangian to sit there. On 28 September 1949 he founded MESAN in Bangui, and he later left the priesthood. His Sango slogan 'zo kwe zo' ('every human being is a person') challenged a colonial order that treated Africans as labour rather than people. He campaigned for a 'United States of Latin Africa' uniting the Central African territories.
A Republic Without Its Founder
The other territories of French Equatorial Africa rejected federation, so Boganda proclaimed the Central African Republic for Ubangi-Shari alone on 1 December 1958. A constitution followed on 16 February 1959. On 29 March 1959 he died in a plane crash near Boda. Traces of explosive were reported in the wreckage, but no official report was ever published. Abel Goumba served briefly as interim leader. Boganda's nephew David Dacko, backed by French officials who distrusted Goumba, then took office and led the country to independence on 13 August 1960.
Chronology
- June 26, 1889 — French post founded at Bangui
- 1928–1931 — Kongo-Wara rebellion against forced labour
- September 28, 1949 — Boganda founds MESAN
- December 1, 1958 — Central African Republic proclaimed
- March 29, 1959 — Boganda killed in a plane crash
- August 13, 1960 — Independence under David Dacko
- January 1, 1966 — Jean-Bédel Bokassa seizes power in the Saint-Sylvestre coup
Aftermath
Dacko made MESAN the only legal party in 1962 before Bokassa overthrew him on the night of 31 December 1965. Bokassa proclaimed the Central African Empire on 4 December 1976 and crowned himself emperor exactly a year later. In September 1979 French troops deposed him and restored Dacko. The country has suffered chronic instability ever since.
Legacy
Decades of concession-company exploitation left Ubangi-Shari with minimal schooling and infrastructure. The unexplained death of Boganda, its most popular leader, months before independence removed the figure most able to unite the new state. The country's politics have been marked by coups and fragility ever since.