Central African Republic
Article by Nicholas Kristof from 26 September 2006
Article by Nicholas Kristof from 1 October 2006
FoCAR general survey report and reunion survey results, compiled by Lisa Boyd
SangoNet Great web pages set up by Victor Bissengue
University
of Pennsylvania's CAR page
I lived in Ndélé, Central African Republic, in 1976-78. Ndélé
is a town of about 5000 people (at that time) in the prefecture of Bamingui-Bangoran
in the northern part of the country. The area has a rich history, documented
by Dennis Cordell (in his PhD thesis at the University of Wisconsin, under
Jan Vansina) in the mid-70s after he interviewed everybody within hundreds of
miles who could shed light on the events that occurred there near the turn
of the century.
The town was founded as the center of Dar al-Kuti by Mohammed as-Sanusi
(var. Senoussi), the last great slave-raider to fight the Europeans. Sanusi
moved to the region from up north, acquired arms, and proceeded to decimate
the northeastern part of what is now CAR. He settled many people in the
strategically located town that eventually was named for a rock that overlooked
the valley below. Sanusi was assassinated by the French lieutenant resident
in the camp below town in 1913, and the French eventually settled everybody
in the valley. The ruins of the original city can still be toured, as I
enjoyed doing many times, including going there with Sanusi's grandson Babikir
and a cousin.
There continues to be a sultan resident in Ndélé, which stimulated
some cultural activity. For instance, I became friends with a master musician
named Amara who could make a living by playing for the sultan and around
town. At the time I lived there, Ndélé was somewhat puritanical
because of the strong Islamic influence: there were no bars and people were
fairly discrete in many ways. That seems to have changed in more recent
times.
I was there as a Peace Corps volunteer. My main job was teaching at the
local secondary school. I also wound up in charge of a construction project
at the school, and for a time the construction of a catch-basin at the spring
above town.
Although daily life was often extremely frustrating because I was so far
from home and so many things didn't behave the way I would have liked, there
were numerous pleasures that I recall more often. I had great friends, like
Yaya the tailor who was from Sudan and didn't share much common language
with me; Jacques, Ali, and Malik, 3 brothers who were commercants, neighbors,
and tremendous supports to me; my students, especially those from the villages
of Kottisako and Digba to the south like Lopère Jean-Nestor; the
chef du génie rural, Thaddéus Ozzenguet, who saved me several
times during the construction projects and was always genuinely nice; my
colleagues like the brilliant Eléguendo Joel; Americans like Mark
and Tony and Pete and Barbara; and many others. The land was almost as important
to me, with the vast skies, the birds, places like Koumbala and the rocks
above town. This is one of the most beautiful places on earth, the people
are wonderful for the largest part, and it remains obscure. I wish I could
visit.
Various files - send me more!
Tingbingo Tere: Sango dialogs used to train Peace Corps volunteers
Modeles Finis: an article I wrote for the CAR math teachers bulletin about using finite models of the plane and groups, with examples produced by some students
Jimmy Carter in Bangui, March 2002
From the 70s reunion in Bethesda
Old folks at Phil and Sandy Coyne's, September 22 2001
Click to see many more photos.
Tales from the Heart, a comic book by Cindy Goff.
A story by Rick Bradshaw about making lots and lots of money in CAR.
A document sent by Jean-Pierre Mara detailing the founding of Bangui in 1889.
Picture of houses, people, and flame trees
by my house
Some flattened Quicktime movie clips
These are huge files but very brief, poor quality movies. The originals
are in color, these are little samples that are in black and white. They
are not recommended unless you have a Quicktime player, a fast connection,
patience, and a whole lot of interest in seeing and hearing things from
CAR.
Dinny Rasmussen and Ted Killham working
on finishing school building, with Musiki on soundtrack (7.7M)
Mixing concrete at school construction
site, with Musiki on soundtrack (7.4M)
Lopere Jean-Nestor, a student, working
at the board solving a quadratic equation - more Musiki (2.9M)
Proclamation, where the students are
given their grades in front of everybody - yet more Musiki (9.8M)
Tearing down the roof of the old school,
with koundé playing on soundtrack (7.5M)
Students goofing around just before
I left Ndélé in 1978, with Musiki singing about Sala Ngia
("having fun" is one translation) (9.5M)
Tony Nathe pushing a wheelbarrow filling
up the floor with rocks, Musiki one more time (9.8M)
Some better quality, color clips as of August 2001:
Red Patas monkey, with kundé accompaniment,
Part of a hippo pool with kundé accompaniment,
Giraffes with kundé accompaniment, (i na mo i gwé na da i lango cherie means roughly, let's go to my place, baby)
Baboons with kundé accompaniment,
Dancing with kundé accompaniment, (Penderé wali so, dalanda manqué mo o pagaille means roughly, pretty woman, aiiie! you don't have dancing shoes; Kouadjé Antoine's masterpiece. This clip shows the classic dance of the Rounga people who moved to the area with the first sultan, Senoussi)
Folkloric dancing and a couple people playing kundés
Amara and Ali in the front yard
Children dancing at my house
Folkloric dancing in another version
Amara, a Tchadian keita player who lived in Ndélé for awhile
Playing for money, is a nice example of Amara's playing, with film shot before I knew Amara of several keita players and drummers earning their nguinza
Amara and Ali, has amusingly distorted audio that should be ignored, but shows Amara and his horn
Le Roi Pélé, is Makombo Antoine playing a little balophone behind Amara's audio.
Moussa the Hausa is more of Amara, but shows a cattle herder who would come through town and scare and entertain the children.
kodro ti Senoussi, has audio by Musiki, the top band in Bangui in the 70s and 80s. The film shows some of the ruins of the original city of Ndélé, capital of Dar al-kuti, founded by Senoussi in the 1890s, and the people are grandchildren of Senoussi.
Some finish work on the school, has audio by Musiki as well. Peace Corps volunteers shown include Mark Rand, Dinny Rasmussen, Ted Killham, Tony Nathe, and me.
What's happening now (or at least 1996)
Letter about current CAR situation
suggested letter to editor
Long letter about CAR, with some history
Here is an excerpt of a message from Neil Kromash, who sent the above letters:
Things in CAR seem to have calmed down, although the city, according
to my contact sources, remains somewhat dead. Small-scale local activity
seems to be reemerging slowly, but the expatriate institutions which bring
in the jobs/money are mostly still gone. In this time of downsizing, CAR's
brief moment of chaos seems to have been enough of a convienient excuse
for NGOs and government agencies to abandon the country for more high-profile
or up-and-coming development prospects, like South Africa or Benin. It's
sad that a country that has so much to offer has been relegated to the backwaters.
This is especially so when considering the fact that we (the West) forced
elections and democracy down CAR's throat, and then we did nothing to support
it. One ounce of prevention....
The evacuated PCVs have all gone their separate ways -- some will be reassigned
to other countries, some will COS, and some are traveling. Peace Corps has
officially "suspended", not closed, its program in CAR, but future
prospects don't look good at all. Peace Corps has a finite, increasingly
shrinking budget, and CAR is a low priority compared to other new Peace
Corps entry programs such as Haiti, Jordan, and S. Africa. I hear the money
for CAR, in fact, has already been reallocated around the agency. One bright
note -- Pauline Voga, APCD/Health, has found a temporary stint working as
PC/Niger's APCD/Health.
By the way, Michael Shereikis, a CAR RPCV from my group, is responsible
for the 2 editorial letters.
Neil Kromash wrote an article that provides an overview of CAR's history, especially politically. Neil will probably send you a copy of this paper, titled "Swimming upstream: external dependence and political change in the Central African Republic", if you write him.
Friends of CAR
This organization is now long defunct. However, perhaps it will get resurrected.
I set up a mailing list on CAR. Here is the welcome message:
Welcome to the Pendere mailing list!
Please save this message for future reference. Thank you.
Here's the general information for the list you've subscribed to,
in case you don't already have it:
Welcome to a new listserv called Pendere which will put us all who have email addresses in contact. We have set it up so that no one *controls* the list. It runs pretty much on its own so that even when I am not around everyone is free to communicate with everyone else on the list by simply typing a message. This list can be used in any way that we want. I will be trying to link us to a Central African newspaper so that we can get daily news sent to us as a group. I may put some rough drafts of chapters of a life-history I am writing on the list for people to ignore or react to. It will be useful in helping those of us who are interested in creating a Sango glossary and eventually a Sango dictionary. It can be a forum for an exchange of opinions, for updates on projects we want to undertake as a group, or anything else we want.
As a member of this list you are authorized to send and receive messages from any other member of this group. This list has been established to expedite email communications between the members of FoCAR.
To initiate a message to the entire group address your e-mail to
Pendere@adale.org
Any message addressed to this list will be distributed to every member of the list.
Any reply will be automatically addressed to the list and will be distributed to every member of the list. Therefore, if you wish to reply only to the original sender, you must address your response to that individual.
To subscribe, send a message to subscribe-Pendere@adale.org and to unsubscribe, send a message to unsubscribe-Pendere@adale.org and to get help write to alan@adale.org (Alan Saul).
Rick Bradshaw is planning to develop a Sango-English dictionary. Suggestions for this and other projects are welcome.
Date created: 17 July 1996
Last modified: 24 October 2006
Maintained by: Alan Saul
alan@adale.org
My home page
Pendere Wali So