Documento sin título

C
(UPDATE: April 4, 2010)

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THE BRADSHAW'S ARCHIVES -

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC /

UBANGI-SHARI
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CABAILLE

Cabaille, M. "Le Parc National Saint-Floris."Bois et Forêts des Tropiques, 74 (1960):3-15.

CABINET cf. GOVERNMENT

15 June 1990
A new Cabinet was announced on 15 June 1990 by President André Kolingba. Two ministers left the Government (Michel Salle and Theodore Baga-Yambo), as did the former Secretary of State for Development, Georges Assas Mbilaut. The cashiered Michel Salle, along with retainees Jean-Louis Psimhis, Jacques Kithe, and Timothée Marboua, are considered Kolingba loyalists, having served in various positions since the formation of the first civilian government in 1986 following the coup d'état of 1981. Webb, "Central African Republic," ACR 1989-1990, p. B170).
The new Government [of 15 June 1990] reflects a net increase of three positions for a total of 24 Ministers and Secretaries of State. Entering the Government for the first time were Jean Limbassa, Minister of Public Health and Social Affairs; Dieudonné Padoudji-Yadjoua, the new Minister for Energy, Mines, Geology, and Water Projects; Octave Kossi-Oudegbe, the new Secretary of State for Water Projects; Jean-Marie Bassia, Secretary of State for Higher Education; and Jules Kouale-Yabro, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. (Webb, "Central African Republic," ACR 1989-1990, p. B171).

CABY

Caby, Philippe.

CADE cf. CAISSE D'AMORTISSEMENT DE LA DETTE DE L'ETAT

CADIOU

Cadiou, Yves.

CAFAC cf. COMMISSION AFRICAINE DE L’AVIATION CIVILE

CAISSE CENTRALE DE COOPÉRATION ECONOMIQUE cf. CCCE

1990
the French Assemblée Nationale [passed a] law to cancel debt payments due to the Caisse Centrale de Coopération Economique (CCCE) this year [1990]. This... provides assurance that Paris will adhere to the debt relief initiative announced in Dakar in May 1989. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1990, p. 30)

CAISSE D'AMORTISSEMENT DE LA DETTE DE L'ETAT cf. CADE, IRAQ

...reports come from sources close to the CAR's debt management agency, the Caisse d'Amortissement de la Dette de l'Etat (CADE)... that South Africa [as well as Iraq] is... a creditor [for the CAR], resulting from the 500 room hotel and villa project built in the Bokassa era. South Africa, which subscribed to the last Paris Club rescheduling of central African debt, is apparently willing to forgive obligations in exchange for facilities to help its businessmen. Perhaps South African diamond dealers have hopes of becoming involved in the CAR, where Belgian interests are now dominant. South Africa is, of course, an ally of Israel. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 4th Quarter 1989, p. 23)

CAISSE DE STABILISATION cf. CAISTAB, STABILIZATION FUND, COFFEE

1990
The government has agreed to break the Caisse de Stabilisation (Caistab), the official coffee marketing board, into two quite separate organisations. Already Caistab has been deprived of its investment function and its accounting has been overhauled. The old management has been swept away and replaced by a completely new team. Now the Caistab will be divided into two units. There will be an official regulatory and quality control board. This will also have the job of negotiating the CAR's export quota should the ICA be revived. Secondly there is to be a public marketing agency to compete as a buyer in the field against the existing private sector coffee dealers. There may be some private stockholding in this operation, but the government will certainly retain a significant stock. There had been suggestions that this operation should be transferred entirely to the private sector, but the government wants to ensure that the house remains independent of the two large private coffee houses which dominate the market at present (the other players are called minnows). This reorganisation may help in the long run, but it cannot solve the present problem: how to compete in a market where prices have more than halved in a few months, since the effective collapse of the ICA. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1990, p. 28-29)

1991
Caistab [the Stabilization Board], which is now undergoing a process of restructuration, should have played a stablizing role [for the coffee sector] since 1987, but it could not do so because its lack of funds...in the CAR's system, the exporters purchase the coffee at a guaranteed price given (rendu) at Bangui, for example, in the past, of 483 CFA francs /kg., and Caistab engaged to support the exporters if the CAF rendu Europe was lower than the set price? (barème). The [CAR] state was supposed to take the relay (relais), but the delays in payments and the arrears [unpaid] accumulated. As a result, banks used by the exporters were increasingly reluctant to provide credits de campagne to their clients... the collection of coffee became completely disorganized, even stopped [in some cases], and and the volume of production which could really be determined and commercialized was sometimes lower than 10,000 tons. If the figures of the [ICO] International Coffee Organization (Organisation international du café, OIC) are credible, the results of the 1990/1991 season was based on (se solder) exportable production fallen to 6000 tons. From October 1990 to May 1991, according to ICO, exports totaled 6840 tons. (Gilguy, "Centrafrique," p. 3073).

CALLEDE

Callede, J. and G. Arquisou. "Données climatologiques recueillies à la station bioclimatologique de Bangui pendant la période 1963-1971." Cah. ORSTOM, Série Hydrologie, 9, 4 (1972):1-26.

Gac, J.Y., J. Callede and Y. Rouquerol. "Les transports solides de l'Ouham à Batangafo." Bangui: ORSTOM, date?. 18p.

CALLOC'H
Mgr. Jean-René Calloc'h
Cf. Pierre Kalck, Historical Dictionary of the Central African Republic, “Colloc’h, Monsignor Jean-René”. His last name is usually spelled with an apostrophe between the final c and h (c’h).

Calloc'h, Mgr. Jean-René. Vocabulaire Gmbwaga-Gbanziri-Mondjombo avec grammaire. Paris: Geunthner, 1911.

Calloc'h, Mgr. Jean-René. Vocabulaire Français-Gbéa. Paris: Geuthner, 1911.

Calloc'h, Mgr. Jean-René. 'Mo Ro Gale'. Catéchisme de la foi catholique. Texte gbéa, dialecte mombé. Bangui: 1918.

Calloc'h, Mgr. Jean-René. "Une vue d'ensemble de la Mission Saint-Paul." Annales Apostologique des Pères du Saint-Esprit, (January 1924):10-14.

Calloc'h, Mgr. Jean-René. "Les comptes-rendus de la Préfecture Apostolique." Bulletins Généraux de la Congrégation, s.d.

On 10 December 1920 the mission station at Bétou was closed down and Boganda was taken to St. Paul Mission of the Rapids in Bangui, the capital of the colony of Ubangi-Shari, by Father Herriau. This mission station was founded in 1892, soon after Bangui was established in 1892. In 1920, when Boganda arrived, the priest in charge of St. Paul was Monsignor Jean-René Calloch, a Holy Ghost missionary who became Boganda’s spiritual father. Father Colloch arrived in Bangui in about 1902 and served as the apostolic vicar of Ubangi from 1914 to 1928. He was a devoted student of Central African languages who could not only speak Boganda’s mother tongue, Ngbaka, but also Lingala, Sango, and other related languages (Pénel, Boganda, p. 20; Kalck, Boganda, p. 41, says Bétou was closed down on 10 December 1921; Father J-R Colloch published a Vocabulaire Français-Sango, Sango-Français, a Vocabulaire Gmbwaga-Gbanziri-Mondjombo, a Vocabulaire Français-Gbéa, a two-volume Vocabulaire Français-Ngbaka, and also translated many catechisms into local languages. See Pénel, Boganda, p. 21, fn. 15)

The four years (1921-1924) Boganda spent at this time under the influence of Father Colloch at St. Paul Mission put Boganda on the path to the priesthood. On 24 December 1922 Boganda was baptized and christened Barthélemy, the name of the apostle of Jesus who is believed to have been the first to take the Christian message to Africa. Boganda later explained that, for him, becoming Christian meant “freeing myself of ancestral customs and becoming a brother of humanity”. On Christmas Day, 1922, after his first communion and confirmation, Boganda went to Father Colloch and asked him to subject him to every sort of discipline so that one day he would be able to deliver his country and his brothers from the situation they were in. The best way to do this, he felt, was to become a priest, but he was hesitant to say that he wanted to become a one because he had “never heard that there were priests of my color.” Monsignor Colloch, aware of what young Boganda was trying to tell him, warned him that the road “was hard and long”. (Pénel, Boganda, p. 21; Kalck, Boganda, 43)

Boganda was probably not very familiar with the Sango language before he moved to St. Paul Mission in 1921. In 1921 Sango was not yet used as widely throughout the colony of Ubangi-Shari as it is used in the CAR today. Since Boganda’s hometown in the Lobaye was part of the Moyen-Congo at this time, he studied Lingala before he learned Sango, and so it was probably at St. Paul Mission that he first began to use Sango. Monsignor Colloch appears to have been an early advocate of the use of Sango, having published a French-Sango, Sango-French dictionary in 1911, a full decade before Boganda arrived at St. Paul Mission.
Father Calloch’s ability to speak with Boganda in Ngbaka was probably one of the reasons he gained the trust and respect of the young orphan, but clearly more important was the apostolic vicar’s habit of working in the mission fields alongside the young Ubangians living at St. Paul for several hours a day. According to Boganda, on every day but Sunday, the vicar would work with the youth in the fields from 7 am to 10 am and then again from 3 pm to 5:45 pm. Boganda recalled that Father Calloch lived from the fruits of his labor. Agriculture was his apostolat. He taught us to depend on ourselves and to take our subsistence from the soil. A dozen Father Collochs would have transformed Ubangi in twenty years… Calloch was for us [the embodiment of both] France and the Church, the Spirit and the Body, in a word, a complete human being. (Kalck, Boganda, p. 42; Pénel, Boganda, p. 21)

CALONNE-BEAUFAICT, A. DE

Calonne-Beaufaict, A. de. "Les Azande. Introduction à une ethnographie générale des bassins de l'Ubangi-Uele et de l'Aruwuwi." Bruxelles: Travaux de l'Institu de Sociologie Solvay, Vol. 25, 1921. 280p.

CAMCO cf. CENTRAL AFRICA MINING COMPANY, CADCO

Another major player in the CAR was the Central Africa Mining Company (CAMCO), run by Antonio Teixeira, a South African businessman. CAMCO promoted itself as one of the largest concession holders in the CAR, but there were no reports of diamonds actually exported by the company, or its affiliate, Central Africa Diamond Company (CADCO), unless these were small quantities, or were declared through an unnamed corporate affilate. Three diamond industry sources, two of which previously mined in the CAR and one that operates a comptoir in Bangui, allege that neither CADCO nor CAMCO exported diamonds officially since the two companies were connected to the highest government officials. (Dietrich, "Hard Currency," p. 19 and endnote 42)

According to CAR Ministry of Mine officials, Teixeira refused to pay tax on his operations between 1998 and 2000, citing an alleged partnership with Patassé. Teixeira subsequently left the CAR when the Ministry of Mines insisted on payment. Part of CAMCO's highly lucrative diamond concession is now held by a company that includes the involvement of a US Embassy official and a former CAR Minister of Mines. (Dietrich, "Diamonds in the Central African Republic," p. 2).

CAMEROON cf. FOREIGN RELATIONS

CAMEROON'S RELATIONS WITH THE CAR

2005
"Rebels attack Cameroon-CAR border." PanaPress, 18 July 2005. Yaounde, Cameroon (PANA) - Rebels have attacked Bororos camp, in Djalingo (eastern Cameroon) near the border with the Central African Republic and kidnapped several children after stealing millions of CFA francs from cattle breeders, a local daily reported Monday. (www.panapress.com/paysindexlat.asp)

CAMPAGNOLI (pygmies, music, anthropology, photography, culture, etc.)
Mauro Campagnoli, anthropologist, ethnomusicologist and composer

Campagnoli, Mauro. Baka Pygmies Website. www.pygmies.info/copyright_en.html
Includes photos of Aka pygmies as well.

CANADA cf. PARTNERSHIP AFRICA CANADA, MINURCA, UN SECURITY COUNCIL

Cf. "MINURCA mandate extended." IRIN, 1 March 1999.
NAIROBI, 1 Mar 1999 (IRIN) - The UN Security Council on Friday ...decided to review MINURCA’s mandate every 45 days. Troop-contributing countries to the 1,350-strong force in 1998 included Burkina Faso, Canada, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, France, Gabon, Mali, Senegal and Togo.

Cf. Dietrich, Christian. "Diamonds in the Central African Republic: Trading, Valuing and Laundering." The Diamond and Human Security Project, Occasional Paper No. 8, Partnership Africa Canada, January 2003. (International Peace Information Service, Network Movement for Justice and Development) http://action.web.ca/home/pac/attach/car_e.pdf

Axmin Inc. of Canada explored explored for gold on the Bambari permit. Following the discovery of iron ore at Topa in the northern part of Bambari, Axmin's license was amened to include the right to explore for ferrous and base metals (Harbin, P. W. and J.M. Harris, "Central African Republic." Mining Annual Review 2003, Mining Journal Ltd. CD-ROM, 2003.)

CANADA, BRITISH COLUMBIA cf. COMINCO, SOCIÉTÉ CENTRAFRICAIN D'EXPLOITATION DIAMANTIFÈRE, SCED, DIAMONDS, JOLIS
Note: Cominco Ltd. is a Canadian mining, metal and chemical company with world-wide operations.

Trail's Cominco smelter is the world's largest zinc and lead smelting complex, processing an astonishing 700,000 tonnes of concentrates annually. The Giant on the Hill, Cominco, conduct regular free guided tours of its huge smelting operation, with hands-on exhibits and video presentations. (www.britishcolumbia.com/regions/towns/?townID=3520)

We [Diamond Distributors/?????????] invited a partner to join with us, the Canadian mining company COMINCO, a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific. We contributed the concession and expatriate personnel; they contributed the capital and management. The new company was called Société Centrafricaine d'Exploitation Diamantifère (SCED). A new camp was built at Bouli, near the Mambére River. In addition to repair shops and warehouses, it contained housing for the African workers, expatriate housing for the Europeans, an infirmary, a school, a chapel. Along with its normal mining activity in the deep ground, the company operated a program of technical aid to the individual local artisan miners who worked the shallow ground in the vicinity. In undertaking this program, we took a calculated risk. It was popular with the government and earned us real political brownie points. But it was not popular with the Moslem middlemen - Les Collecteurs - as they were called, since their role risked being eliminated. My two eldest sons, Paul and Jack, both back from Vietnam, played an active role in this venture. Jack ran one of the technical aid centers at a location which became known as Jackville, a name today duly recorded on the maps. (Jolis, Diamonds, p. 291-92)

SCED operated successfully for four and a half years. Diamond production flowed; everyone was happy. The roller coaster was once again cruising along the upper-level straightaway... But... The average length of time Bokassa could be expected to honor his own signature was limited. (Jolis, Diamonds, p. 292)

CANADA'S RELATIONS WITH THE CAR cf. COMINCO, SCED, SOCIÉTÉ CENTRAFRICAINE D'EXPLOITATION DIAMANTIFÈRE,

CANADIAN MENNONITE ENCYCLOPEDIA ONLINE
www.mhsc.ca/encyclopedia/contents/S455ME.html

"Seminaries." www.mhsc.ca/encyclopedia/contents/S455ME.html

...the training of Mennonites for church leadership...much of this is done at a Bible college or Bible institute level, that the development of theological education by extension (TEE) has become a useful design, and that such programs among Mennonites are to be found in Central African Republic... ("Seminaries." www.mhsc.ca/encyclopedia/contents/S455ME.html)

CANADY (anthropology, biography, aka pygmies, photography, vie sociale, etc.)

Canady, Cornelia. Tränen am Oubangui. Augsburg: Weltbild, 2005. 329p.

CANARD ENCHAINÉ, LE cf. NEWS, NEWSPAPERS, FRANCE

On October 10, 1979, Le Canard Enchainé published its first revelation of Giscard's failure to report Bokassa's gifts of diamonds. Who leaked? There are two suppositions. One is that it was Bokassa himself, as an act of revenge for Giscard's betrayal. The other is that the incriminating information was recovered in Bangui by political opponents of Giscard. The Socialists were especially anxious to discredit him and his government. The source has never been established. (Jolis, Diamonds, p. 280)

Overnight, I found myself besieged by the French press, as was also our manager of the Comptoir National in Bangui, Mr. Gevreykian. Le Canard Enchainé, Le Monde, Le Point, were all on the phone. Though my political sympathies lay with Giscard, there is no doubt that he handled the matter most unskillfully. First he denied everything. Then when he could no longer ignore the evidence, he made a financial contribution to the French Red Cross, which gave rise to a controversy as to whether the amount corresponded to the value of the diamonds. (Jolis, Diamonds, p. 280)

CANTOURNET cf. ECONOMY, GEOGRAPHY, CASH CROPS

Cantournet, Jean. Inventaire cartographique de la Rèpublique Centrafricaine [Carteographic inventory of the Central African Republic]. Paris: Société d’Ethnographie, 1985.

Cantournet, Jean. Des affaires et des hommes: noirs et blancs, commerçants et fonctionnaires dans l'Oubangui du début du siècle. Nanterre: Université de Paris X, 1991. Recherches Oubanguiennes no. 10. 233p.

Cantournet, Jean. “Production cotonnière et développement: le cas centrafricain.” (Cotton production and development: the Central African case). Marchés Tropicaux et Méditerranéens, no. 2218 (13 May 1988):1231-36.

Cantournet, Jean. “Réponse à Sanmarco." Marchés Tropicaux et Méditerranéens, no. 2218 (29 May 1992):1388.

Cantournet, Jean. “Points de vue nouveaux. Notes sur les origines et la fondation de Bangui” (New points of view: notes on the origin and the foundation of Bangui). Revue Française d’histoire d’Outre Mer 73.272 ( ???):347-52.

Cantournet, Jean. “Antonin-Marius Vergiat.” Hommes et Destins, Académie des
Sciences d’Outre Mer. Part 9, 1977.

CAPITAINE cf. LIVESTOCK, MBALI RANCH,

Capitaine, Paul and Gouet, G. Relance du ranch de la Mbali (Empire Centrafricain) (The revival of the Mbali ranch [Central African Empire]). France: Maisons-Alfort, IEMVT, 1977. 168p.

CAPUCHIN FRANCISCAN FRIARS cf. RELIGION, CATHOLIC CHURCH
www.capuchin.com and www.capuchin.net

Cf. Anonymous. Central African Empire: the Capuchin Missionaries and agricultural development (L'Empire du Centrafrique: les Missionnaires Capuchins et le développement agricole), Standard, 13 August 1978.

CARBET

Carbet, Marie-Magdeleine. “René Maran.” Hommes et Destins, Académie des Sciences d’Outre Mer. Part 2, volume 2, 1977.

CARE cf. COOPERATIVE FOR AMERICAN RELIEF EVERYWHERE

CARITAS CENTRAFRIQUE cf. NGOs, RELIGION, HEALTH, MISSIONS, JAPAN
Note:

BANGUI, 10 Feb 2003 (IRIN) - The government of Japan and Caritas, a Roman Catholic NGO, signed an 48-million franc CFA (US $73,846) agreement on 7 February for the building and rehabilitation of wells in Ombella Mpoko Province, southern Central African Republic (CAR), state-controlled Radio Centrafrique announced that day.
"The programme Caritas-CAR proposed to us today aims at rehabilitating the disused wells and educating villagers on their servicing and self-management," Nabuyoshi Takabe, the Japanese ambassador to the CAR, said during the signing ceremony.
These funds would "help Ombella Mpoko's population contain waterborne diseases and reduce poverty by creating income-generating activities linked to the modernisation of water wells," Jean-Baptiste Mossoumou, the coordinator for Caritas’s Bangui archdioceses, said.

CARITÉ, DIDIER

Carité, Didier. "Auguste Béchaud. Photographe-soldat en Afrique centrale, 1909-1912.", ISBN : 9782846682404, Montigny-le-Bretonneux, Yvelinédition, 2009. 105 pages, 21 x 26 cm.
Mr Didier Carité a French expert 'iconographe' on Ubangi-Shari which I met a couple years ago published an essay on Auguste Béchaud, a French army soldier who took the pictures in Ubangi-Shari between 1909 and 1912 that were turned into postcards. Mr Carité holds an interesting postcard and pictures 'library' on Ubangi-Shari and is devoted to this kind of research.
http://annonces.ebay.fr/viewad/Auguste-Bechaud-photographe-soldat-en-Afrique-centrale/5003757800

CARLIER cf. ETHNOGRAPHY, ANTHROPOLOGY, COLONIAL PERIOD, EXPLORATION

Carlier, E. "Notes sur les Bondjos." Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de Paris. Paris: 1899. pp. 241-248.

CARMELITES Cf. CATHOLIC ORDERS, INDEPENDENT CATHOLIC NEWS
www.indcatholicnews.com/carspir.html
www.ocarm.org/eng/miseng.htm

CARPENTER cf. REFERENCE WORKS, CHILDREN’S LITERATURE

Carpenter, Allan and Janice E. Baker. Enchantement of Africa: Central African Republic. Chicago: Children's Press, 1977.

CARNEGIE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY cf. BATS, MAMMALS

Cf. Schlitter, Duane A. "Bats of the Central African Republic (Mammalia: Chiroptera)." Annals of Carnegie Museum. Carnegie Museum of Natural History, 1982.

CARRICK cf. TOURISM

Carrick, N. Let's Visit Central African Republic. Chsea House Pub, October 1, 1989.

CARROLL cf. RESERVES, ECOLOGY, TOURISM, GORILLAS, ANIMALS
Richard Carroll, the director of World Wildlife Fund's Africa program.

Richard Carroll, “World Wildlife Fund (WWF-US) Organizational Overview: Dzanga-Sangha Reserve, Central African Republic,” In Resource Use in the Trinational Sangha River Region of Equatorial Africa: Histories, Knowledge Forms, and Institutions Eds. Heather E. Eves, Rebecca Hardin, Stephen Rupp. New Haven: Yale University, 1998.

Carroll, Richard Wallbridge. “Feeding Ecology of the Western Lowland Gorilla (Gorilla Gorilla Gorilla) in the Central African Republic.” Ph.D. diss. Yale University, 1997.

Carroll, Richard W. “Status of the Lowland Gorilla and Other Wildlife in the Dzanga-Sangha Region of Southwestern Central African Republic.” Primate Conservation 7 (1986):38-44.

Carrol, R.W. "The creation, development, protection and management of the Dzanga-Sangha dense forest sanctuary and the Dzanga-Ndoki national park in southwestern Central African Republic." Unpublished report. New Haven: Yale University, 1986.

Carroll, R.W. "Central African Republic background information." Bangui: World Wildlife Fund, n.d.

Roach, John. "African Pygmy Hunt Threatened by Logging, Animal Trade." National Geographic News, 3 June 2005. Richard Carroll is quoted in this article (see below).

The Bayaka are a seminomadic people who traditionally survive by hunting and gathering the animals and plants of the rain forest. Among their more revered traditions are the net hunt and its associated musical ceremony (see sidebar). The net hunt traditionally secured enough meat to feed an entire camp, but decades of logging and a subsequent increase in illegal hunting for the bush-meat trade is emptying the forest of its resources, according to Richard Carroll, the director of World Wildlife Fund's Africa program. (See bush-meat photo galleries and news.) "This is a major issue for people like the Bayaka," Carroll said. "When those resources are depleted, they don't have an alternative source [of food]. They don't have a place to go back to. No Social Security will kick in and give them meals on wheels everyday."
Forest Drain
According to Carroll, the root of the problem is the Central African Republic government's desire to open its forest resources to the international market. Starting in the 1970s, logging has been on a boom-and-bust cycle in the landlocked country. For example, Carroll said, a logging company will come in and make promises to hire hundreds of workers. This spurs immigration from neighboring countries such as Cameroon. After a few years the high costs to export the timber cause the logging companies to go belly up, Carroll said, leaving hundreds of immigrants without jobs. To supplement their income, the immigrants fan out into the forest to hunt wild animals to supply the lucrative bush-meat trade. The Bayaka, Carroll added, are lured to work for the logging companies as guides. This has caused the traditionally seminomadic hunter-gathers to adopt a more settled lifestyle. Among the Bayaka, alcoholism and disease tend to follow this shift. "This is all related to changes in the forest brought on by logging," Carroll said.
Park and Reserve
In an attempt to reverse the trend of increased logging and bush-meat trade in the Central African Republic and its impacts on the Bayaka, Carroll and WWF helped in 1986 to establish the Dzanga-Sangha Dense Forest Special Reserve and the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park. The reserve and park encompass more than 5,500 square miles (14,000 square kilometers). Though hunting and logging are prohibited in the park, "in the reserve, hunting and use of the forest is allowed by traditional means," Carroll said.
According to Carroll, WWF has worked with the Bayaka to establish health-related and educational programs. The conservation organization has also helped them find work as forest guides for tourists who want to learn about net hunts and local medicinal plant uses. "This has been such a huge hit with visitors and the Bayaka people," Carroll said.
However, several challenges remain. Chief among them is how to establish sustainable forestry practices in the reserve. Carroll said corrupt government officials and the boom-bust nature of the logging industry stifle progress toward sustainable forestry practices.
Alternative Management?
Jerome Lewis is an anthropologist at the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom. He has worked with Bayaka communities since 1994. He agrees that the industrial extraction of forest resources and corruption are the root causes of the environmental problems facing central Africa. However, Lewis said that the creation of protected areas is often used by international financial institutions and national governments to justify opening up neighboring areas to unsustainable industrial activity. New roads permit outsiders to flood into areas of abundant resources and low human population densities. Urban centers develop around the industrial activities and forest resources that local people depend upon are rapidly depleted, he said. As an alternative management strategy, Lewis said that the entire region ought to be recognized as an abundant forest where only ecologically and socially sustainable industrial and commercial activities are permitted. For example, Lewis said, only logging companies certified as using sustainable practices by the Forest Stewardship Council should be allowed to operate in the Congo Basin and traditional hunter-gatherer activities should be permitted in all areas. "If these principles were applied rigorously, it would eliminate the need for protected areas because the forest would be managed in a sustainable and equitable manner," he said. "But by having the band-aid solution, we are encouraging devastation in most other areas." In the meantime, he said the Bayaka "feel cheated." They reap no benefits from the logging of their traditional hunting grounds and are denied access to the good areas of forest that remain.
Carroll said decades of logging and subsequent demographic shifts have already made central Africa's resources less abundant, necessitating some level of protection. Open access, he said, would eliminate what remains.
According to Carroll, the Bayaka understand that protected areas allow wildlife to reproduce and maintain its populations in the hunting zones. He added that 90 percent of the revenues from the Dzanga-Sangha protected areas are reinvested locally to pay salaries and fund community development programs such as health care facilities. (John Roach, "African Pygmy Hunt Threatened by Logging, Animal Trade." National Geographic News, 3 June 2005.
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/0603_050603_bayaka_2.html)

CARTER cf. HIV-AIDS, HEALTH, FOREIGN RELATIONS, JAPAN, NGOs, AMIS D’AFRIQUE, FRIENDS OF AFRICA
President Jimmy Carter

CARTER

Carter, Jimmy. First and only US President –though not serving—to visit the Central African Republic. In March 2002 he visited Bangui with William Gates (father of Bill Gates) and toured an AIDS threatment hospital near Bangui. A stop in Bangui was not initially planned as part of their trip, but due to the Central African Republic government’s request, former President Carter agreed to pay a visit to a small hospital run by a Japanese NGO, Amis d’Afrique/ Friends of Africa.

CARTER cf. HISTORY, POLITICS, INDEPENDENCE
b. 1906.

Carter, Gwendolen Margaret, ed. National unity and regionalism in eight African states: Nigeria, Niger, the Congo, Gabon, Central African Republic, Chad, Uganda [and] Ethiopia. Contributors: Richard L. Sklar and others. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1966. 565p. 25 cm.

CASH CROPS cf. AGRICULTURE

The Ngandu [Bantu people who live in the Lobaye region] moved into the area only 120 years ago... the Aka [pygmies] depend heavily on Ngandu for manioc and other village goods... The Ngandu... keep chickens, muskovy ducks, goats, sheep, and dogs. Men hunt occasionally with crossbows, steel-wire snares, and guns for monkeys, a variety of small duikers, wild pigs, bongos and other animals. All Ngandu grow at least some coffee as a cash crop. Ngandu men occasionally hunt, but they receive the majority of their meat through trade with Aka. The Aka provide the Ngandu with game meat, honey, koko [leaves], and other forest products, and the Ngandu provide the Aka with manioc and other village products. There are a government-sponsored school, dispensary, and police station in the village. (Hewlett, Intimate Fathers, p. 43-44).

CASSAGNE cf. ENERGY, AGROFORESTRY, WOOD, BANGUI

Cassagne, Bernard. Le problème du bois de feu dans les villages d’Afrique tropicale. Le cas de Bangui (RCA). Approche d’une solution agro-forestière (The firewood problem in tropical African villages: the case of Bangui [CAR]; steps towards an agro-forestry solution). Montpellier: Université de Montpellier, 1987. 206p.

Cassagne, Bernard. Enquête sur la consumption de combustible ligneux dans l'agglomeration de Bangui. 2 vols. Nogent sur Marne: CTFT, 1981.

CASSAVA cf. FOOD, CASH CROPS, HEALTH,

CASSAVA cf. MANIOC, YUCA, TAPIOCA

O'Hair, Stephen K. "Cassava." Purdue University Center for New Crops and Plant Products, www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/cropfactsheets/cassava.html
Scientific Names
Species: Manihot esculenta Crantz = Syn: M. ultissima Phol = Syn: M. aipi Phol
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Uses: Cassava is grown for its enlarged starch-filled roots, which contains nearly the maximum theoretical concentration of starch on a dry weight basis among food crops. Fresh roots contain about 30% starch and very little protein. Roots are prepared much like potato. They can be peeled and boiled, baked, or fried. It is not recommended to eat cassava uncooked, because of potentially toxic concentrations of cyanogenic glucosides that are reduced to innocuous levels through cooking. In traditional settings of the Americas, roots are grated and the sap is extracted through squeezing or pressing. The cassava is then further dried over a fire to make a meal or fermented and cooked. The meal can then be rehydrated with water or added to soups or stews. In Africa, roots are processed in several different ways. They may be first fermented in water. Then they are either sun-dried for storage or grated and made into a dough that is cooked. Alcoholic beverages can be made from the roots.
Young tender leaves can be used as a potherb, containing high levels of protein (8-10% F.W.). Prepared in a similar manner as spinach, care should be taken to eliminate toxic compounds during the cooking process. One clone with variegated leaves is planted as an ornamental.
Origin: Cassava originated in Brazil and Paraguay. Today it has been given the status of a cultigen with no wild forms of this species being known.
Crops Status: Cassava is a perennial woody shrub, grown as an annual. Cassava is a major source of low cost carbohydrates for populations in the humid tropics. The largest producer of cassava is Brazil, followed by Thailand, Nigeria, Zaire and Indonesia. Production in Africa and Asia continues to increase, while that in Latin America has remained relatively level over the past 30 years. Thailand is the main exporter of cassava with most of it going to Europe. It was carried to Africa by Portuguese traders from the Americas. It is a staple food in many parts for western and central Africa and is found throughout the humid tropics. The world market for cassava starch and meal is limited, due to the abundance of substitutes....
Toxicities: Cassava is famous for the presence of free and bound cyanogenic glucosides, linamarin and lotaustralin. They are converted to HCN in the presence of linamarase, a naturally occurring enzyme in cassava. Linamarase acts on the glucosides when the cells are ruptured. All plant parts contain cyanogenic glucosides with the leaves having the highest concentrations. In the roots, the peel has a higher concentration than the interior. In the past, cassava was categorized as either sweet or bitter, signifying the absence or presence of toxic levels of cyanogenic glucosides. Sweet cultivars can produce as little as 20 mg of HCN per kg of fresh roots, while bitter ones may produce more than 50 times as much. The bitterness is identified through taste and smell. This is not a totally valid system, since sweetness is not absolutely correlated with HCN producing ability. In cases of human malnutrition, where the diet lacks protein and iodine, underprocessed roots of high HCN cultivars may result in serious health problems. (Stephen O'Hair, "Cassava." Purdue University Center for New Crops and Plant Products, www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/cropfactsheets/cassava.html)

www.congocookbook.com/c0165.html
Cassava Tuber
Native to the American tropics, the cassava plant (Manihot esculenta, also called manioc, yuca, and yucca) was introduced to Africa by Europeans in the sixteenth century. It was used as a food source for enslaved Africans awaiting transport to slave markets. Due to its ease of cultivation -- Cassava does well in poor soil, resists drought and insect damage, is easily propagated, and has no specific planting or harvesting season -- it spread throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Today cassava is grown in tropical regions all over the world for its edible tuberous roots which are made into various sorts of Fufu and Fufu-like foods, as well as flour, and bread, and animal feed. It is best known in North America and Europe in the form of tapioca. Most varieties of manioc contain a poisonous cyanide compound. The sweet varieties are thought to contain less of the poison than the bitter. Baton de Manioc is usually made from the tubers of the bitter manioc, but they are carefully soaked and cooked to remove the poison. The sweet manioc tubers are prepared as potatoes are prepared in Europe and America: baked, boiled, dried, fried, roasted, stewed, etc. (www.congocookbook.com/c0165.html)

CASTEL cf. ALCOHOL, MOCAF, BREWERIES, BEER

1991
The drink sector is divided between two breweries, which are in active competition... the oldest, Mocaf, in place since 1951, is a 100% subsidiary (filiale) of Interbrew since 1990. It employs 260 salaried workers, which is 60% less than when it operated alone (without competition) in the Central African market. The second [brewery]...SCB, a subsidiary of the Castel group, entered the market in 1983 after having started in the CAR by selling wine. It employs 100 persons. In a restricted market of... 330,000 to 350,000 hectoliters (hl) a year, when one company does particularly well, the other suffers a bit. At present [1991] they just about divide the market, with a total sales (chiffre d'affaires) of about 9 billion (milliard, a thousand million) CFA a year. (Gilguy, "Centrafrique," p. 3080).

CASTELLI cf. STATISTICS

Castelli, Lucien and Roger Jolivot. Annuaire statistique de la République Centrafricaine.
(Statistical Yearbook of the Central African Republic). Bangui: Ministère de l’Economie Nationale et de l’Action Rurale, direction de la statistique et de la conjoncture. Paris: Ministère de la Coopération, 1963.

Castelli, Louis and Roger Jolivot. République Centrafricaine. Annuaire statistique. Paris: Ministère de la Coopération and Bangui: Direction de la statistique et de la conjoncture, 1965.

CASTELLS

Castells Vilardell, M. Ubangui. Barcelona: Bruguera, Biblioteca Iris, Serie Popular, 1943. 78p.

CATHOLIC ALMANAC cf. RELIGION, STATISTICS, DEMOGRAPHY

Cf. 1998 Catholic Almanac: Our Sunday Visitor: USA, 1997, pg. 333-367. Estimates that c. 622,000 Catholics in 112 'units' constitute c. 18.8 percent of the population of the CAR. This is a relatively low estimate. See Adherents.com for a list of different sources and their estimates.

CATHOLIC MISSIONS cf. RELIGION, EDUCATION, SANGO LANGUAGE
Note:
Cf. Spiritains, Verona Fathers, Comboni missionaries, Franciscans, etc.
Cf. Cucherousset,

CATHOLIC CHURCH cf. RELIGION, NGOs,

Statistics regarding the number of Catholics in the Central African Republic vary from c. 600,000 to 1,200,000. Estimates of the percentage of Catholics in the population varies from c. 18% to c. 35%. See Adherents.com for a list of numerous different sources and their estimates.

CATHOLIC CULTURE
www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=1246 - 50k

Cf. Pope John Paul II, "Church Must Remind Everyone of Human Person's Inalienable
Dignity."
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate,
1. In making your ad limina visit together, you are coming to ask God to increase in you the inner strength and missionary zeal which inspired Peter and Paul when they came to Rome to bear witness to Christ's Gospel. As the Successor of the Apostle Peter, I am pleased to welcome you who have received the mission of leading the Catholic Church in the Central African Republic, in order to encourage you and to confirm you in the common faith we have received from our Fathers. From my assistants in the Roman Curia you will receive the necessary help for fulfilling the charge entrusted to you. I thank Bishop Paulin Pomodimo of Bossangoa, President of your Episcopal Conference. In your name he has clearly expressed the sentiments that motivate you at this special time of reflection on your pastoral ministry. (Catholic Culture, Document Library, www.catholicculture.org/docs/ doc_view.cfm?recnum=1246)

CATHOLIC-HIERARCH.org
http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/country/cf.html
Cf. "Catholic Church in the Central African Republic."

Date Age Event Bishop Title Current Title 25 Nov 2002
53.6 Appointed Pierre Nguyên Van Tot Titular Archbishop of Rusticiana Apostolic Nuncio to Central African Republic
53.6 Appointed Pierre Nguyên Van Tot Apostolic Nuncio to Benin Apostolic Nuncio to Central African Republic
53.6 Appointed Pierre Nguyên Van Tot Apostolic Nuncio to Togo Apostolic Nuncio to Central African Republic 6 Jan 2003
53.7 Ordained Bishop Pierre Nguyên Van Tot Titular Archbishop of Rusticiana Apostolic Nuncio to Central African Republic 26 Jul 2003
68.6 Resigned Joachim N'Dayen Archbishop of Bangui Archbishop Emeritus
49.1 Appointed Paulin Pomodimo Archbishop of Bangui 10 Jan 2004
64.0 Appointed Diego Causero Apostolic Nuncio to Czech Republic3 Apr 2004
47.7 Appointed François-Xavier Yombandje Bishop of Bossangoa 6 Nov 2004
56.4 Appointed Edouard Mathos Bishop of Bambari
49.1 Resigned Jean-Claude Rembanga Bishop of Bambari Bishop Emeritus 18 Dec 2004
65.7 Appointed Peter Marzinkowski, C.S.Sp. Bishop of Alindao 3 Apr 2005
66.0 Ordained Bishop Peter Marzinkowski, C.S.Sp. Bishop of Alindao 15 Jun 2005
61.7 Appointed Joseph Chennoth Apostolic Nuncio to Tanzania 16 Jul 2005
64.6 Appointed Albert Vanbuel, S.D.B. Bishop of Kaga-Bandoro 24 Aug 2005
56.4 Appointed Pierre Nguyên Van Tot Apostolic Nuncio to Central African Republic
56.4 Appointed Pierre Nguyên Van Tot Apostolic Nuncio to Chad Apostolic Nuncio to Central African Republic 28 Sep 2005
64.8 Ordained Bishop Albert Vanbuel, S.D.B. Bishop of Kaga-Bandoro

CATHOLIC MISSIONS

The Italian Capuchins, the first Catholic missionaries implanted in Panaland (the first Christians were American Baptists who preceded them by several years), showed a great interest in the Gangpani. (Nozati, Les Pana, p. 252 [Trans. Bradshaw])

They provided a precious description of him which allows us to note that in this regard little has changed in forty years. They regarded him as a sort of brother (confrère) in the sacred work. For this reason, they showed him great respect... (Nozati, Les Pana, p. 252 [Trans. Bradshaw])

Extract of the Annual Report of the Colony of Ubangi-Shari to the Governor-General, 1932. (Extraits due Rapport Annuel de la Colonie de l'Oubangui-Chari au Gouverneur-Général, 1932).
Appreciating (eu égard) the efforts made and the results obtained by the Catholic missionaries [so] deserving of encouragement (dignes d'encouragement), the Governor General accords them a subsidy every year. One can say that the Catholic missions have obtained very good results in the colony and have contributed greatly to the spread of our civilization. Having shared the perils [of colonization] from the start, they have participated brilliantly to the former efforts at moral and economic advancement (de mise en valeur morale et économique), usefully counterbalancing as well the action of numerous American missions, although these abstain from any political activity. (Quoted in Banville, Raconte-moi la Mission, p. 49 [Trans. Bradshaw])

CAUCHY cf. INDUSTRY, SUGAR

Cauchy, B. “Une réussite d’agro-technique: la mise en route du complexe sucrier de la Ouaka (RCA).” (A success of agro-technology: the establishment of the Ouaka sugar complex [CAR].) Industries Alimentaires et Agricoles, 105, 11 (1988):1149-52.

CAUQUIL cf. CASH CROPS, COTTON, PARASITES, INSECTICIDES

Cauquil, J., Girardot, B., and Vincent, P. “Le parasitisme des cultures cotonnières en République Centrafricaine: définition des moyens de lutte” (Parasitism of cotton crops in the Central African Republic: defining ways to fight [pests]). Coton et Fibres Tropicales, 41, 1(1986):5-19. map.

CBFP cf. CONGO BASIN FOREST PARTNERSHIP

"International partners discuss Congo Basin forest initiative." NAIROBI, 22 Jan 2003 (IRIN) - The first meeting on the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP), an economic development and conservation programme for six Central African countries, is being held at the International Conference Centre in Paris from 21 to 23 January. The US State Department said on Tuesday that the meeting would provide an opportunity for governments, international organisations and NGOs to exchange information on their contributions to the CBFP. US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced the creation of the CBFP on 4 September 2002 at the Sustainable Development Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. It embraces Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo. The US State Department quoted Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Environment Jeffry Burnam as saying that the meeting "is designed to harness the ideas and energy of all the many partners in the Congo Basin Forest Partnership into a long-term plan to conserve the incredible natural resources of the Congo Basin forest area".
Burnam said the CBFP was a "critical response" to the sustainable development needs of the peoples of the Congo Basin. "It has set the standard for sustainable development initiatives by identifying collaborative approaches that concurrently advance economic growth, social development and environmental stewardship," he added. Countries participating in the CBFP are Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Also participating are organisations such as the World Bank and the World Conservation Union, NGOs and private sector groups such as the World Wildlife Fund, the World Resources Institute and the Centre for International Forestry Research. The CBFP was one of more than 20 US-led partnerships announced during the World Summit, designed to attract government funding with financial support from the private sector to help increase the access of poor countries to such things as safe drinking water, clean energy and better sanitation. It seeks to promote economic development and alleviate poverty through conservation programmes to be set up in the six countries. The State Department said the government planned to invest up to US $53 million up to the end of 2005 to help the African countries develop a network of national parks and protected areas, and to help local communities better manage the forest and wildlife resources of the Congo Basin.

CELAIRE cf. CANNIBALISM, ANTHROPHAGY, WORLD WAR II

Celaire, H. Chez les mangeurs de chair humaine. Le Père Allaire. Paris: Bonne Presse, 1946.

CEMAC cf. COMMUNAUTÉ ÉCONOMIQUE ET MONÉTAIRE DE L'AFRIQUE CENTRALE
Note: Leaders of six central African states established the multinational force, CEMAC, in 2000 to replace the UN Mission to the CAR, known as MINURCA, which had been in the country since 1997. The CEMAC troops were deployed to restore peace following military and political unrest at that time. Presently, CEMAC comprises troops from Chad, Gabon and the Congo. The force was to have included members of all CEMAC countries, but Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea declined to participate. CAR is the sixth CEMAC member.

CEMAC, ed. Echos d'aujourd'hui. Bangui, Central African Republic: Communauté économique et monétaire de l'Afrique centrale.

Bozize, who has declared himself president, said insecurity in Bangui had forced him to call on the Chadian troops and the CEMAC force to restore calm. In addition to the disarmament campaign, door-to-door searches were carried out throughout Bangui's suburbs, enabling the Chadian soldiers and the CEMAC peacekeepers to recover looted goods. Bozize has set up a commission, headed by the police director, to take charge of collection and the return of stolen property to the owners. The disarmament has reassured many Bangui residents, who resumed their normal businesses on Monday. Meanwhile, the official status of the 300 Chadian soldiers in the CAR remained unclear, as the CEMAC summit held on Friday in the Republic of Congo capital, Brazzaville, postponed their integration into the force until the next summit. Bozize's spokesman, Parfait Mbaye, told IRIN on Sunday that the Chadian soldiers would join the CEMAC force when its mandate and budget were revised. ("CAR: Chadian troops recover 1,300 firearms in Bangui." IRIN, 25 March 2003)

"CEMAC Troops Deployed to Mining Town of Bria." UN Integrated Regional Information Networks 31 October 2005.
Troops of the Economic Community of Central Africa States (CEMAC) were deployed on Saturday to the Central African Republic's northeastern town of Bria to help combat banditry, which has increased sharply across the country's provinces, according to a CEMAC official. "The CEMAC troops deployed in Bria will be fully operational by Monday," Gen Auguste Bibaye, head of the multinational force, said on national radio in the capital, Bangui. The soldiers, whose exact number could not be immediately established, left Bangui on Friday in a convoy. A senior national army official from the Central African Republic (CAR), who requested not to be named, said that about 100 CEMAC troops had been deployed. Bibaye said Saturday's deployment was in accordance with the force's new mandate decreed by CEMAC leaders in June at a meeting in Malabo, capital of the Spanish-speaking Equatorial Guinea. The force's mandate was extended by six months during this meeting. "Our new mandate covers security in both Bangui and the provinces," Bibaye said. He added that positive results had been achieved since CEMAC forces got involved in efforts to restore peace and security in the country. Bria is located in a mining zone of the province of Haute-Kotto. Several armed groups have emerged in the area, terrorising civilians. In September, bandits attacked several villages in the region and harassed businessmen involved in diamond prospecting. CAR military officials in Bangui say that although these armed groups are well-equipped, they are disorganised. So far no group or individual has claimed responsibility for any of the armed attacks that have occurred, mostly in the north of the country. On Sunday, Benoit Kombo, a diamond prospector in Bria, said, "These armed bandits are equipped with rocket launchers, AK-47s, grenades and other sophisticated weapons that I have never seen before." He claimed the armed groups also have satellite telephone communication. The proliferation of armed groups is linked to the large quantity of weapons in circulation in the country. Following the repeated military uprisings as well as several coup attempts since 1996, different factions distributed a significant amount of guns to civilians. Both the government and mutinying soldiers were accused of distributing weapons during such times; and officials say that more than 100,000 guns are still illegally circulating in the country. Kombo said the government had been slow to take action against the outlaws. As a result of the activities of these armed groups in the north, thousands of civilians have fled their homes and sought refuge in neighbouring Chad. Bibaye said CEMAC troops were first deployed out of Bangui on 19 August, when 80 soldiers were sent to Bozoum, northwest of the capital, to help the national army to restore security. Their mission was "to secure the CAR as highway robbers are fostering insecurity up country." Bozoum businessman Heny Layda said the situation seemed to have improved. "Security is returning," he said. "It is just the beginning of the process but it would be great to have CEMAC troops in the area for four more months to curb armed banditry in the region during the dry season." Leaders of six central African states established the multinational force, CEMAC, in 2000 to replace the UN Mission to the CAR, known as MINURCA, which had been in the country since 1997. The CEMAC troops were deployed to restore peace following military and political unrest at that time. Presently, CEMAC comprises troops from Chad, Gabon and the Congo. The force was to have included members of all CEMAC countries, but Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea declined to participate. CAR is the sixth CEMAC member. ("CEMAC Troops Deployed to Mining Town of Bria." UN Integrated Regional Information Networks 31 October 2005.)

CENT cf. POLITICS, COLONIAL ERA, FRENCH IMPERIALISM

Cent, Pierre. En Afrique française, Blancs et Noirs, bourreaux et victimes (In French Africa, Whites and Blacks, torturers and victims). Paris: Imprimerie Henri Roberge, 1905. 52p.

CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL cf. CDC
www.cdc.gov/tobacco/who/centrala.htm

Tobacco production, trade and industry
Agriculture In 1990, 560 hectares were harvested for tobacco (0.03% of total arable land), down from 800 hectares in 1985.
Production and Trade In 1990, US$ 3 million was spent importing tobacco products (0.7% of all import costs), while US$ 1.1 million was earned from tobacco exports (0.5% of all export earnings).
In 1990, around 570 tonnes of unmanufactured tobacco were produced, (a decrease from 990 tonnes in 1985), of which 370 tonnes were exported. An additional 300 tonnes of unmanufactured tobacco was imported that year. In 1990, around 510 million cigarettes were produced, up from 410 million in 1980.

CENTRAFRICAIN AIRLINES cf. BOUT

Bangui serves as a vital platform for criminal networks arming a variety of rebel groups in Africa and elsewhere. These networks may profit occasionally from diamonds although this is not their primary business. One such network was run by Victor Bout (alias Butt), a renowned arms trafficker who has supplied UNITA and the MLC in central Africa, the Liberian government in violation of UN sanctions, as well as armed groups in Afghanistan. The CAR authorities brought a court case against 'Victor Butt' (sic) in June 2000, charging him with numerous cases of fraudulent aircraft registration, and calling for an international arrest warrant. Additional arrest warrants have been issued, one in Belgium in 2002. Bout is said to have run Centrafricain Airlines with Ronald de Smet, who was also the director and CEO of Trans Aviation Network Group with Bout in Belgium, according to the company's founding documents in 1995. (Dietrich, "Hard Currency," p. 22)

CENTRAFRIQUE cf. CENTROAFRICA

CENTRAFRIQUE SANS FRONTIÈRES
www.ideesplus.com/SPIP/index.php

L'association «Centrafrique Sans Frontières» initie une Quinzaine d'expositions et d'ateliers d'échanges sur la République Centrafricaine: Ce sont les «1ères Rencontres et Initiatives de la Diaspora Centrafricaine». Organisée en étroite collaboration avec plusieurs personnalités et associations de la diaspora centrafricaine... (www.ideesplus.com/SPIP/index.php)

CENTRADIAM OFFICE NATIONAL DU DIAMANT cf. DIAMONDS, JOLIS

We [Diamond Distributors] were the leaders, longest established in the country, and with most at stake. In order to maintain an orderly ad stable environment in this volatile market, I conceived of any idea and proposed it to Bokassa and other firms. The idea was that if the Government would agree to freeze the number of licensed buying officers at its present level - they numbered five at the time - the later would form a Consortium and agree to grant the government a twenty-give percent share in their off-shore marketing profits. To ensure fair and accurate financial reporting, the Consortium would agree to an independent audit by an internationally recognized firm of Auditors. Bokassa agreed. The Office National du Diamant would be created as a government department to oversee the operation. There were five buying offices, including one operated by an Israeli government-owned company, Pituach, and another by Maurice Templesman, Jackie O's future boyfriend. Templesman agreed over lunch in New York. I had to fly to Jerusalem to get Israeli Government agreement. (Jolis, Diamonds, p. 286)
In mid-1966 the Consortium and the Office National du Diamant were launched, and functioned successfully for three years, returning substantial profits to the Central African government. Should all this smack of "restraint of trade" to some purists, let me add that competition between buying offices was at all times fierce and relentless. (Jolis, Diamonds, p. 286-87)
But three years was a long time for Bokassa. In 1969 he decided to go into business for himself. He hooked up with a Lebanese diamond dealer in Antwerp and issued himself a buying office license. He created a new company to operate the license, calling it CENTRADIAM with his Minister of Foreign Affairs as president, and himself as director. This was a clear violation of our Consortium Agreement. We registered our objection and pointed out the violation. We attempted to negotiate a compromise. We invited Bokassa's buying office into the Consortium. All was of no avail. There was no escaping the conclusion that the Consortium Agreement was now null and void, so we discontinued returning 25% of its profits to the government... Bokassa figured everything should continue unchanged, and demanded immediate payment of what he considered his share of Consortium profits. And he did not stop there. He summarily ordered mining taxes increased some 1000% effective retroactively five years, and he demanded immediate payment. Such was the background to the first mines seizure. (Jolis, Diamonds, p. 287)

CENTRAFRICAN ARAB MINING COMPANY cf. DIAMONDS

In 1976 Bokassa suddenly withdrew the license from the Central African Diamond Exploitation Company (SCED) which was a partnership of DDI (20%), Cominco (of Vancouver, 60%) and the State. Cominco had become, by 1975, the most important diamond company next to DDI. Bokassa was again unhappy about his share. It was at this time that Qaddafi's visit brought agreements to set up the first 4 joint CAR-Libyan companies. Among them was the Centrafrican-Arab Mining Company which was set up with 10 million CFA capital to begin operation (ACR 1976: B479).

CENTRAFRICAIN LIBERATION FRONT cf. FROLICA

CENTRAFRICAIN MOVEMENT FOR NATIONAL FREEDOM cf. MCLN, MOUVEMENT CENTRAFRICAIN DE LIBÉRATION NATIONALE

Anti-government leaflets were distributed, signed both by the Movement for the Liberation of the Central African People (MLPC) and the Centrafricain Movement for National Freedom (MCLN). The MCLN is a splinter group from the FPO-PT which had not returned to legality under ex-President Dacko and had carried out a terrorist attack in July 1981. This was worrying for the government since the MLPC leader, Ange Patassé, had considerable popularity in the countryside despite having served as Prime Minister under ex-Emperor Bokassa. (ACR, 1983, B350)

CENTRAFRICAIN PITUACH DIAMOND COMPANY cf. DIAMONDS, ISRAEL'S RELATIONS

1979
In 1979 Bokassa visited the U.A.R. (Egypt) and returned with a more pro-Arab viewpoint. The Israeli Ambassador was withdrawn, but replaced, amidst rumors that Bokassa was protesting against Israeli support of southern Sudanese rebels. In July of 1979 the CAR withdrew from its business arrangement with Centrafrican Pituach Diamond Company, partly Israeli owned, and ordered the latter to pay debts they owed as well as royalty payments to the State. In two months time, however, the company began to operate as before. By December signs of reconciliation were apparent when the President of the Knesset attended a reception given by the CAR envoy in Israel. One explanation given for the temporary rupture of relations was that Bokassa was in Cairo at a time of an Israeli bombing in that city, an incident Bokassa may have taken to have directed at himself (ARC 1980???: B270).

CENTRAFRIC-PRESS
Bulletin quotidien de la République Centrafricaine. Published by the Cetral African Republic Government from 1970 to ?.

CENTRAFRIQUE-PRESSE
http://www.centrafrique-presse.com/ Based in Bangui.
Note: CAR government press communiques, current news, news from Agence France Presse, etc. in French. Founded in March 2002 by the MLPC, Patassé’s political party.

CENTRALAFRICAPHONEBOOK.com
http://www.centralafricaphonebook.com/gouvernement/confessions-religieuses-2.html

CENTRAL AFRICAN DIAMOND COMPANY cf. CADCO, CAMCO, TEIXEIRA

CENTRAL AFRICAN DIAMOND EXPLOITATION COMPANY cf. SCED, SOCIÉTÉ CENTRAFRICAINE D'EXPLOITATION DU DIAMANT, CAMINCO

CENTRAL AFRICAN MINING COMPANY cf. CAMCO, CADCO, TEIXEIRA

CENTRAL AFRICAN REGIONAL PROGRAM FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
http://carpe.umd.edu/overview2004/cbfp_2004.asp
Note: CARPE is an inititive by USAID

Cf. Sangha Tri-national Forest Landscape: Dzanga Sangha, Central African Republic

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC cf. REPUBLIQUE CENTRFRICAINE

Central African Republic, Ministry of Cooperation, Planning, and General Statistics. "Donors' Conference for the Financing of the Economic and Social Reconstruction Plan." Bangui: Central African Republic, Ministry of Cooperation, Planning, and General Statistics, 1980. 7p. 28 cm.

Central African Republic. Ministère de l'économie, des finances et du plan. Economic and social development plan, 1986-1990, Central African Republic. Bangui: Ministry of the Economy, Finance, and Planning, 1986. 291p. 30 cm.

Central African Republic. Code minier de la République centrafricaine et principaux textes de législation minière. Publiée sous la direction de Jean-Eudes Teya avec la collaboration de Jean Yurmani, Barthélémy Molotoula, et Rolf Knieper. 3. éd. Code minier Bremen: Edition Temmen, 1996?. 210p. 21 cm.

Central African Republic. Code des investissements et Code des petites & moyennes entreprises de la République centrafricaine et principaux textes d'application. Publiés sous la direction de Jean-Eudes Teya avec la collaboration de Albert Panda, et Rolf Knieper. Bremen, W-Germany: Edition Temmen, 1990. 194p. 21 cm.

Central African Republic. Memorandum d'entente entre le gouvernement de la République centrafricaine et le Fonds des Nations-Unies pour l'enfance. République centrafricaine et Fonds des Nations-Unies pour l'enfance. Bangui: République Centrafricaine, 1994. 30 cm.

Central African Republic. Ministry of Water and Forests. "Loi Portant Modification de la Loi n. 94003." In MEFCPT, Bangui, Central African Republic, 1994.

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC NEWS cf. NEWS, MEDIA

CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL FORESTRY RESEARCH cf. CBFP

CENTRE FRANCAIS DU COMMERCE EXTERIEUR (CFCE) cf.

Centre Français du Commerce Extérieur. République Centrafricaine. Paris: Les Editions du CFCE, 1995.

CENTRE MILITAIRE D'INFORMATION ET DE DOCUMENTATION SUR L'OUTRE-MER, VERSAILLES, FRANCE

CENTRE PASTORAL cf. CATHOLIC CHURCH

Lexique orthographique sango. Bangui: Centre Pastoral, 1994. 48 p. 20 cm.

CERTODOLA cf. LINGUISTICS

CERTODOLA, e.N.C. Atlas Linguistique de Centrafrique (ALC): Inventaire Preliminaire. Atlas Linguistique de l'Afrique Centrale (ALAC). Bonneuil sur Marne: I.P.C. Bonneuil, 1984.

CFA cf. COMMUNAUTÉ FINANCIÈRE AFRICAINE, COOPÉRATION FINANCIÈRE EN AFRIQUE

The currency of the Central African Republic is the Communauté Financière Africaine (CFA) franc, pegged at the exchange rate of 1 French franc = 50 CFA frances, or $US1 - 290 CFA francs, until January 1994. At that time the CFA franc was devalued to a new pegged exchange rate of 1 French franc = 100 CFA francs, or $US1 = 580 CFA francs. (Noss, "Duikers," p. 7)

Economic dependency on France was underlined by the fact that the Central African Republic remained within the franc monetary zone after 1960. The official currency was the CFA franc, which had been developed by the French government for its African colonies at the end of the Second World War. The CFA franc was (and remained until recently) fully convertible to French francs at a fixed rate of fifty to one, and the African banks issuing this money were French controlled. While there were several clear advantages to this arrangement for the countries in the zone, French domination was the real issue. The treaties of cooperation which France signed with the former colonies at independence - and which allowed for a continuing military presence, the training of officers for new national armies, and so forth - all reinforced this domination. (Titley, Dark Age, 22)

CHABRA cf. CLIMATE, WEATHER

Chabra, A. "Aperçu sur le climat centrafricain." Bangui: ASECNA, 1962. 24p.

CHAD cf. MINURCA, UN SECURITY COUNCIL, REFUGEES

The complex history of France's intervention in Chad has its origins at the turn of the century, when French strategists assessed Chad as being the key hinge-territory linking North, East [sic: Central] and West Africa (a perception whose validity was dramatically proved by General Leclerc in his epic 1941-42 march... summer of 1940... the colony rallied to de Gaulle, the first African colony to do so. The state, however, is an artefact encapsulating a largely Moslem nomad population in the North and Christian or animist negro agriculturalists in the South and West. [(n. 8) Clayton, "Chad??," in Keegan, J., ed. World Armies (London: Macmillan, 1983), pp. 102-103]. These [South/West populations] provided the ruling groups at independence but were faced from 1968 with an insurrectionary movement, FLOLINAT, drawing increasingly on Libyan support, in the North. The distracted and unbalanced President, Tombalbaye, appealed to France for help and a French garrison was despatched, later reinforced substantially and placed under the command of a general, Cortadellas. Considerable fighting took place in the North in 1969, 1970, and 1971; among the 50 or so French soldiers killed were Cortadella's son. (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 209).
From 1973 onwards France began to modify her policy in Chad; de Gaulle was gone and a need for some form of working relationship with Libya in France's wider energy interests was perceived [oil now instead of possible uranium?]. French troops were largely withdrawn from the combat areas, though some teams fought on in Chad uniforms [MERCENARIES]. This withdrawal led to bitter reproaches from Tombalbaye and his successor in 1975, General Malloum, who was installed as a result of a coup in which France was almost certainly involved. Malloum even demanded a French withdrawal, a demand clearly intended to mean the reverse rather than to be taken literally. A new agreement in 1976 provided for a return presence of several hundred French 'advisers', in theory not to be involved in battle. In practice they were so involved on several occasions, and equally important they served to buttress General Malloum's somewhat shaky position. (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 209).
On this basis, and aided by emerging divisions within FROLINAT, only limited French military assistance was necessary until 1978 when one of the FROLINAT grouping occupied Faya-Largeau, the last centre of Chad government authority in the North. A substantial French reinforcement of 1,500 troops together with air-to-ground strike aircraft operations contained the insurgents, but the number of French casualties introduced a new dimension to the Chad question for France, effective political criticism in Paris of the involvement. [(n. 9) Chad focused increasingly unease in France over the nation's African policies, seen by right-wing critics who favoured European and nuclear roles for France as 'Gendarmisme', and by left-wing critics as 'Otanisation'. ????]
The result of this criticism and the overall cost of military action was a new government, led jointly by Malloum as Head of State (and the leader of one of the more moderate FROLINAT groups) and Habre, as Prime Minister, which was formed under French military auspices. The majority of FROLINAT, under Goukani Oueddei, however, rejected compromise and determined to continue fighting to secure removal of the French. The French Army commander, Bredeche, favoured an offensive against FROLINAT but was replaced by another general, Forest, under whom the lines of a more limited French policy commitment began to appear. It was one in which Libya's forcible annexation of the North-western Aouzou area and FROLINAT domination of much of the North was tacitly accepted, but a French military force of some 2,000 supported by Jaguar strike aircraft secured the South under the authority of the capital, N'Djamena. This arrangement's chances of success appeared at the time also to be strengthened by divided counsels in Tripoli. (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 210).
The local political situation, however, worsened, with a rift opening between Habre and Malloum, the latter falling under the influence of a hardline southern officer, Colonel Kamougué. Violent fighting broke out, Habre's forces entering N'Djamena in early 1979 with French troops confined to their barracks. At this point the country was effectively divided into three, a North once again divided into rival factions, the capital and centre under Habré, and the South under Malloum and Kamougué; in the [South] reprisal pogroms of Moslems began. (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 210).

CHADIAN RELATIONS WITH THE CAR

1988
President François Mitterrand and the French prime minister, Jacques Chirac, made a special point of thanking President Kolingba for his support on the Chad issue when the Central African head of state made an official visit to France from February 15 to 18 [1988]. The CAR plays a key role in France's strategy for Africa, particularly through its backing for Chad's President Hissène Habré in his conflict with Libyan backed rebels. More than 1,200 French troops supported by Mirage and Jaguar jets, are based in the country at Bouar and Bangui. French military initiatives supporting President Habré against Libyan offensives in 1983 and 1986 were launched from the CAR (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 2nd Quarter 1988, p. 19)

President Kolingba seems anxious to see and end to the tense position in Chad, saying in a radio interview on February 17 [1988] that he wants "a concerted and peaceful solution" with talks between President Habré and Colonel Qadhafi. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 2nd Quarter 1988, p. 19)

1989 November
A delegation led by the chairman of the [French] Assemblée Nationale defense commission, the Socialist Jean-Michel Boucheron, visited Bangui in November [1989]. Accompanied by five other deputies and a senior army official, the team was reviewing the role of French forces based in the CAR. Their role, particularly that of the forces at Bouar, is principally to act as a rapid strike force and back-up for French forces which helped to keep Hissène Habré in power in Chad. Now that mediators [such as Omar Bongo of Gabon?] are attempting to reach a lasting settlement between Chad and Libya, the French role in the CAR may seem less important (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1990, p. 25)

Cf. "Skirmishes leave several dead in Bangui." IRIN, 25 June 1999.
NAIROBI, 25 Jun 1999 (IRIN) - Several Chadian herdsmen were killed during skirmishes with CAR soldiers in the capital Bangui last weekend, a diplomatic source in the city told IRIN on Friday. The clashes began when a small “misunderstanding” between the herdsmen and a group of Bangui residents attracted soldiers to the scene, the source said. One of the soldiers shot and killed a herdsmen, prompting further confrontation. “About four or five Chadians were killed there,” the diplomat said. Following the incident, President Ange-Felix Patasse apologised “on behalf of the CAR to the sister Republic of Chad,” adding that “relations between the CAR and Chad are indestructible,” Gabonese Africa No 1 Radio reported.

The areas of southern Chad which are disaffected with the government of the president, Idriss Deby, and which have seen large refugee movements, abut directly onto north-western CAR regions such as Ouham and Ouham-Pendé, which are quite densely inhabited. Moreover, these regions are Mr Patassé's personal powerbase. The CAR has played a major role in trying to encourage a compromise peace settlement for southern Chad, in the hope that this would allow more than 30,000 refugees, who are mostly sheltering in a camp at Boubou, to return home. On [17 March 1995] Mr Patassé was visited by one of Mr Deby's emissaries, who briefed him on political progress that might open the way to the refugees' return. In late April [1995] some 7,000 began the journey home from the Bangui area with support from the CAR army and the Office of the UN High Commission for Refugess (UNHCR). And on June 10-11 [1995] the Chadian prime minister, Koibla Djimata, paid a 72-hour working visit to Bangui for talks with Mr Patassé and Mr Koyambounou. He claimed that the major impediments to the return of the remaining refugees were now practical, including the need to supply seeds and cattle so that they could re-establish their farms. But earlier, UNHCR sources had indicated that at least 7,000 other refugees had said that they did not wish to return. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 3rd Quarter 1995, p. 29)

CHADICK cf. PARKS, RESERVES, NDOKI

Chadwick, D. "Ndoki: the Last Place on Earth." National Geographic, 188 (July 1995):2-45.

CHALIAND cf. BOKASSA,

Chaliand, Gérard. The Struggle for Africa: Conflict of the Great Powers. Trans. A.M. Barrett. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982.

The European state model was followed at the level of institutions and, above all, of organization but its spirit, democracy, had not been absorbed. At the risk of upsetting people, it can be said that the main feature almost everywhere was…authoritarianism, even in some cases autocratic dictatorship… Particularly striking cases of megalomania …sadistic mediocrity of some African heads of state has been given free rein:…Bokassa in the Central African Republic, and others… the management of public affairs has meant above all the opportunity for semi-legal corruption. By this is not meant the often petty corruption precipitated by the need to support an extended family (nepotism) or to form a clientele, but ‘modern’ corruption…what Africa lacks…is economic power. Africa depends on the outside world for public aid, for vital infrastructural works and for the overall exploitation of its mineral wealth. (Chaliand, The Struggle for Africa, c. 8) [1982].

CHALLAYE

Challaye, Félicien. "Le Congo français." Cahier de la quinzaine. Série 7, 12 cahier (10 février 1906). 119p.

Challaye, Félicien. Le Congo français, la question internationale du Congo (French Congo: the international question of the Congo). Paris: Alcan, 1909. 311p.

Challaye, Félicien. Souvenirs sur la colonisation. Paris: Picart, 1935.

Challaye, Félicien.

Friday 28 July 1905.
Visit to the Mission catholique de la Sainte-Famille, at Bessou, close to Fort-de-Possel. It is a magnificent model farm: a concession of three hundred hectares [1 hectare = 10,000 square meters or c. 107,639 sq. feet]; more than 100 horned animals, most of which born here; 260 sheep, 60 pigs, etc.
The 189 boys and 161 girls of the school are employed, above all, to maintain the farm and the plantations. One is dumbfounded (stupéfait) to find such a beautiful agricultural establishment in this desolate region. (Banville, Raconte-moi la Mission, p. 46)

CHAMBER OF AGRICULTURE AND INDUSTRY cf.

CHAMBER OF INDUSTRY AND HANDCRAFT OF THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
Created on May 27, 1961. In 1980 was succeeded by the Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Handcraft.
Published: Industries Centrafricaines; Aperçu sur l’Industrie Centrafricaine; Statistiques de Production

CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE DE BANGUI
Note: In 1912, the Gouverneur général of French Equatorial Africa established a Comité consultatif du commerce, de l'agriculture et de l'industrie in Bangui. Then, in 1924, an Association des colons, commercants, industriels et planteurs. In 1935, a Chambre de commerce, d'agriculture et d'industrie de Bangui was established (see below). Its name was changed, in turn, to Chambre de Commerce et d'agriculture de Bangui in 1963 and to Chambre de commerce c. 1965.

Bulletin.

Chambre de Commerce de la R.C.A. Annuaire des Entreprises Industrielles et Commerciales de la République centrafricaine. 2nd ed. Douala: Orec?, 1991.

CHAMBRE DE COMMERCE DE L'AGRICULTURE ET DE L'INDUSTRIE

Gauze, René. Guide touristique et cynégétique de l'Oubangui-Chari. Caen: Impr. Ozanne, 1958. 337p. illus. maps. LC DT546.32.G3. Published with the "patronage" of M. le Chef du territoire de l'Oubangui-Chari and the Bangui Chamber of Commerce for Agriculture and Industry (see note on the Chambre de Commerce de Bangui above).

Bulletin.

CHAPISEAU

Chapiseau, F. Au pays de l'esclavage. Moeurs et coutumes de l'Afrique Centrale d'après les notes recueillies par Ferdinand de Béhagle. Paris: Maisonneuve, 1900.

CHAPKO

Chapko, M.K., P. Somse, A.M. Kimball, R.V. Hawkins, and M. Massanga. “Predictors of Rape in the Central African Republic.” Health Care for Women International 20, no. 1 (1999): 71-79. [online] Academic Search Premier, Centre College, Accessed 28 September 2003.

CHAPUIS

Chapuis, Jean-Louis. "Les mouvements de service civique en Afrique noire francophone: l'exemple centrafricain. Armée, jeunesse et développement. Université de Paris I, UER sciences politiques, 1972. Typescript.

CHARD
521 Lytham Road, Blackpool, Lancashire, FY4 1RJ England, FAX 44-0-1253-408058
www.24carat.co.uk/diamondscentralafricaframe.html

A Curious Comment about Diamonds from the Central African Republic
We were given the following indigenous saying from the République Central D'Afrique, Central African Republic. The source of our information was a former executive with the World Bank. Because the official language of the Central African Republic is French, we will first give the saying in its native language, and provide an English translation below.
Les Diamants sont... Diamonds are... [adiamon
Trouvé par des noirs Found by blacks azo voko agi
Acheté par des musulmans Purchased by Muslims aarabu avo
Vendus par des juifs, et Sold by Yews, and ajuif aka
Portés par des putains. Worn by prostitutes. aputen ayu]
Our informant explained that the Central African Republic is a very poor country, possibly with the lowest per capita income in the world. It is also the source of a small number of high quality alluvial diamonds. The black indigenous population have a cynical view of the diamond trade. Apparently when they discover a diamond the size of a pigeon's egg, they are likely to receive for it a month's pay, perhaps £5 or £10. From the saying, we guess that they know they are being exploited, but have little choice.... (www.24carat.co.uk/diamondscentralafricaframe.html)

CHARMS cf. INCANTATIONS, RITUALS, PRAYERS, SPELLS, MAGIC
A charm is a ??? to produce a magic effect. (www.thefreedictionary.com/incantation)

Charm can have the following meanings:
In paranormal magic: 1) An amulet or talisman. 2) A spell (when a charm is a spell, it is usually traditional in form and often in verse). A charm can be similar to a blessing, the infusion of something with holiness, divine will, or hopes. A charmer is a practitioner of folk magic. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charm)

CHASSE-VISION SAFARI

Chasse-Vision Safari. "Chasse-Vision Safari Central African Republic." Claye-Souilly, France: Chasse-Vision Safari, 1997, p. 6.

CHATEAU

Chateau, Robert and Robert Pastor. Fiches d'Enseignment Agricole Pour Les Ecoles Primaires, Cours moyen 1ère année. RCA: Ministère de l'Education Nationale, Ministère de l'Agriculture and Bureau pour le développement de la Production Agricole, 1966.

CHAVANNES

Chavannes, Charles de. "Un collaborateur de Brazza, Albert Dolisie, sa correspondence." Bulletin du Comité de l'Afrique française. 4 (avril 1932):219-237, and 5 (mai 1932):283-302.

Chavannes, Charles de. Les Origines de l'Afrique équatoriale française. ???

Chavannes, Charles de. Le Congo français. Ma collaboration avec Brazza (1886-1894). Nos relations jusqu'à sa mort. Paris: Plon, 1937. 406p.

CHENEAU

Cheneau, Yves, and R. Brown. Staff appraisal report. Central African Empire. Livestock development project. Washington, DC. Banque Mondiale, 1978. 53p.

CHERMEZON

Chermezon, H. "Addition aux Cypéracées du Haut-Oubangui." Archives de Botaniques, 4 (1936). Mém. no 3, Caen.

CHEVAL

Cheval, M. and M. Mazade. "Observations pédobotaniques en République Centrafricaine: le centre de multiplication cotonnière de Poumbaïdi."Ann. J.B. Bokassa, 1 (1976):78-96.

CHEVALIER

Chevalier, Auguste. "De l'Oubangui au Lac Tchad à travers le bassin du Chari." La géographie, Bull. Soc. Géogr., 9 (1904):343-368.

Chevalier, Auguste. Les végétaux utiles de l'Afrique tropicale française. Vol. I, 2?? 1907. 194p. + 32 fig. + carte.

Chevalier, Auguste. L'Afrique centrale française. Mission Chari-Tchad (1902-1904)." Paris: Challamel, Edit., 1907. 776p., 7 pl. + carte à 1/375 000 (région de Ndélé).

Chevalier, Auguste. Etude sur la flore de l'Afrique française (bassin de l'Oubangui et du Chari). Enumération des plantes récoltées. Paris: Challamel édit., 1913. 451p.

Chevalier, Auguste. "Catalogue des arbres vivant dans la forêt dense et les galeries en Afrique Centrale, Bassin de l'Oubangui, de la Haute-Sangha et du Haut Chari." Revue Bot. Appl. et Agr. Trop., 347-348 (1951):485-504 and 349-350 (1951):605-623.

Chevalier, Auguste. "Euphorbes cactiformes de l'Oubangui-Chari et du Moyen-Congo." Rev. Bot. Appl., 31 (1951):368-378.

Chevalier, Auguste. "Sur l'existence d'une forêt vierge sèche sur de grandes étendues aux confins des bassins de l'Oubangui, du Haut-Chari et du Nil (Bahr el Ghazal)." C.R. Acad. Sci. 5 mars 1951 et Rev. Bot. Appl., 339-340 (1951):135-136.

Chevalier, Auguste. "Les plantes poisons de l'Oubangui et du Moyen-Congo." Rev. Bot. Appl. et Agr. Trop., 343-344 (1951):249-257.

Chevalier, Auguste. "Plantes remarquables observées en Afrique équatoriale à l'état vivant au cours d'un voyage en 1950-1951." Rev. Bot. Appl. et Agr. Trop., 343-344 (1951):265-270.

Chevalier, Auguste. "Les cotonniers de l'Oubangui, du Chari et du Tchad en 1902-1903." Rev. Bot. Appl. et Agr. Trop., 347-348 (1951):535-537.

CHIEFS cf. HAMAN, CHRISTENSON

M. Jacques Serre, administrator of Bocaranga during the 1950s, affirms that the French authorities were never able to impose on the Pana a chief they did not want. And we see how, upon the death of Poun-Ile, the population more or less rejected the mayor chosen by the sub-prefet. (Nozati, Les Pana, p. 249 [Trans. Bradshaw])

Another [French administrator] explained:

I never tried to know who was behind who. I knew that, even if the chief was legitimate, he had behind him another organization which helped him to have a certain consensus, but I never concerned myself with this. I never wanted to know." (Nozati, Les Pana, p. ? [Trans. Bradshaw])

Cf. Matthieu Haman, a Gbaya male interviewed by Thomas G. Christenson in c. 1980?
[Matthieu Haman] describes an incident that occurred in his home village...when the chief became angry with everyone and cursed them, saying, "If I really am chief here, may you no longer succeed in anything you do! If I am not in fact your chief, then may you succeed. But since I am in truth your chief here, may all your success come to me!" (Christenson, An African Tree of Life, p. 103)
The chief taps on the top of his head, naming all the bad things the village has done to him: "I told you to work in my fields, but you refused! I told you to repair the walls of my concession, but you didn't want to help! The authorities came to visit, but you did none of the work to receive them! You killed animals on the hunt and ate all the meat in the bush, not giving me my part! I curse the lot of you! May my curse take you!" (Christenson, An African Tree of Life, p. 103)
In the days that followed, no one in the village succeeded in anything. People died from much sickness, and many quarrels broke out. The manioc fields failed to produce, the corn crop was not enough even for the children. Over and over again bad words among the people destroyed relationships in the village. Even when the people found something to eat, they were still hungry; they became thin. There was no happiness. (Christenson, An African Tree of Life, pp. 103-104)
But finally the chief's anger calmed down because the old men and women of the village told him, "Chief, if you stick to those hard words, everyone here will be destroyed! You'll find no more strong men in the village. Wash your heart so peace can be restored!" Then the chief called everyone together early one morning, including all the old men. He took a new calebash and filled it with water. He also put manioc flour (zeze) into the water to make it white. All the elders gathered together and held the chief's calebash with their right hands while he spoke:
"I'm doing zanga-nu, the real thing, with all my people here today! I was angry with you because you did not work for me, so I cursed you, and you have all been afflicted. But today I'm happy to call you back to me. If it was not really my own father who gave me this village, as I told you before, then my words would have had no effect, because the arms are not stronger than the thigh [the chief is a thigh; the young men of the village, arms]. So I'm gathering you here today in order to put an end to our fighting and quarreling. I tell you, I'm not lying, the bad words I spoke before, I herewith throw them out top!" (Christenson, An African Tree of Life, p. 104)
"My heart is at peace now, and I spit (touffee) into this water! I hereby wash my mouth and head, since I told you that all your wealth and animals should come to me! Now may you all succeed again! Kill many animals! Get rich!" Then he carefully poured the water on the ground and anointed all the young men with fresh mud. He anointed their foreheads and hands, their chests and feet. Then the village was at peace again. (Christenson, An African Tree of Life, p. 103)

CHIERICI

Chierici, Maurizio. L’imperatore (The Emperor). Milan, Italy: Rizzoli Editore, 1980.

CHILD

CHILD MORTALITY cf. HEALTH, ILLNESS

Child mortality may be slightly lower among... Ngandu [farmers in the Lobaye than among their Aka pygmy associates] because the government nurse periodically provides childhood immunizations, antimalarial drugs, aspirin, and oral rehydration mix [to the Ngandu villagers]. (Hewlett, Intimate Fathers, p. 44).

CHILDREN

CHINA cf. PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA, PRC, TAIWAN

The People's Republic of China (PRC): Zhonghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó (Traditional: ??????? Simplified: ???????), commonly referred to as China, is a country in East Asia.
China is the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.3 billion people, most of whom are said to be of Han Chinese ethnicity. Geographically, it is the largest country in area in East Asia and the fourth largest in the world after Russia, Canada and the United States. It borders 14 nations (counted clockwise): Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia and North Korea. Since its founding in 1949, it has been led by the Communist Party of China (CPC). Although it is often termed a communist state in the West, the PRC has considerably privatized its economy in the past three decades but retains significant political control of the economy especially in the remaining state-owned enterprises and the banking sector. Politically, it remains a one-party authoritarian state. In an ongoing dispute, the PRC claims sovereignty over Taiwan and some neighboring islands, whose control were never relinquished by the Republic of China. The PRC asserts the Republic of China to be an illegitimate and supplanted entity and administratively categorizes Taiwan as the 23rd province of PRC. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People%27s_Republic_of_China)

CHINA'S (PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC, PRC) RELATIONS WITH THE CAR Cf. UN SECURITY COUNCIL, HUASUN, TAIWAN

1988
... the day after his return from France [in February 1988, President Kolingba]... appointed Colonel Yambhala the president of the High Court in Bangui. Paris sources suggest that the Colonel [Yambhala] had sought unsuccessfully to persuade General Bozize, the organizer of a coup attempt in 1982 and now exiled leader of the Tripoli based Mouvement Centrafricain pour la Libération Nationale (MCLN), to return to Bangui. Taken in conjunction with President Kolingba's rumoured contacts with another MCLN leader, Idi Lala, this would appear to indicate that French policy is to create a broader ethnic and political base within the ruling circles in the CAR. The French government seemed determined to remind the president [Kolingba] of the value of close ties with Paris. It is significant that the visit was proposed after French officials learnt that the president was planning trips to China and Israel. The proposed China trip was later abandoned. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 2nd Quarter 1988, p. 20)

1999
Cf. "Council urges joint reconciliation efforts." IRIN, 22 March 1999.
NAIROBI, 22 Mar 1999 (IRIN) - The UN Security Council last week called on all political leaders in the CAR to work together towards full implementation of the Bangui Agreements and the National Reconciliation Pact. In a statement, Council President Qin Huasun of China said members also urged the government, in collaboration with all political parties, to take concrete steps to establish a new electoral commission for presidential elections, scheduled for later this year, and to continue efforts to restructure its security forces. The statement was made after the Council received a briefing on the situation in the country by the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Oluyemi Adeniji, who is also head of the UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA).

"China donates US $4 million equipment." IRIN, 7 July 2004.
BANGUI, 7 Jul 2004 (IRIN) - The People's Republic of China has donated equipment worth US $4 million to the Central African Republic (CAR), state-owned Radio Centrafrique reported on Tuesday. Chinese Ambassador El Si Ji made the donation, comprising 20,000 corrugated iron sheets, 110 computers, 3,000 bicycles and 60 mt of office furniture, on behalf of his government during a ceremony on Monday in the capital, Bangui. The iron sheets will be used to rebuild military barracks while the CAR transitional government will use the computers, bicycles and office furniture during general elections planned for early 2005. "China is following closely the development of the transition in CAR and rejoices that encouraging results are being obtained," El Si Ji, was quoted as saying. He added that China would continue to support CAR during its transition. The minister for international cooperation, Daniel Nditifei-Boissembe, received the donation on behalf of the CAR government. "CAR has experienced hardships and it will remain grateful to China for its constant material and financial assistance," he said. China was the first country to assist CAR following a 15 March 2003 coup by former armed forces chief of staff, Francois Bozize, who overthrew President Ange-Felix Patasse after a six-month rebellion. On 11 March 2004, China granted the CAR a $ 2-million interest-free loan to help the government pay salary arrears owed to civil servants.

22 November 2005
"China to Enhance Military Co-op with CAR." China View, 22 November 2005. news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/22/content_3819703.htm
BEIJING, Nov. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- China is ready to enhance military cooperation with the Central African Republic, said Chinese Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan here Tuesday.
In a meeting with Antoine Gambi, chief of the General Staff of Central African Republic, Cao said the people of the two countries have maintained traditional friendship since they forged diplomatic ties in the 1960s, despite some setbacks in the past.
Cao, also vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) and state councilor, said China spoke positively of Central African Republic for its adherence to the one-China policy and support for China's national unity.
China will continue to develop, together with the Central African Republic, the friendly cooperation between the two countries and two armed forces, added Cao, who also briefed the guests on the construction of China's army.
Gambi said Central African Republic and China have witnessed increasing cooperation in various fields in recent years. He expressed the appreciation for China's great help to his country and hoped that the current visit will move forward the existing good relations between the two sides.
Before the meeting, Liang Guanglie, Gambi's Chinese counterpart and also a member of the CMC, held a welcoming ceremony for Gambi and held a talk with him. ("China to Enhance Military Co-op with CAR." China View, 22 November 2005. news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/22/content_3819703.htm)

"China to Study CAR cement factory project." PanaPress, 30 September 2005.
Bangui, Central African Republic (PANA) - A team of Chinese experts is expected in the Central African Republic (CAR) shortly to conduct feasibility studies for a cement factory in the country, People's Republic of China ambassador Esi Ji announced. (http://www.panapress.com/paysindexlat.asp)

CHINA cf. AMITIÉ HOSPITAL IN BANGUI

The first person to pay the price for [President Patassé's] new-found zeal for clean government was André Zanafei Toumbona, health minister in the government of Mr Patassé's first prime minister, Jean-Luc Mandaba. [Toumbona] was arrested in mid-August [2005] on suspicion of having stolen CFAfr26.9m ($55,000) in Chinese aid money intended for the Amitié hospital in Bangui. The hospital director, accused of paying the money into an account in the minister's name at a Bangui bank, was also detained. It is too early to say whether the allegations are true....By late August Mr Tombona was ill in [a] hospital in Bangui himself, and his lawyers requested permission for his transfer for treatment to Paris. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 4th Quarter 1995, p. 21)

CHINA VIEW / VIEW CHINA
www.xinhua.net.com XINHUA Online and www.chinaview.cn

Cf. "Emergency aids go to flood-plagued Central African Republic."

YAOUNDE, Aug. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- International organizations are providing emergency assistance to citizens of Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, where the number of refugees has surged because of incessant heavy rains, a UN official said Sunday. The World Health Organization (WHO) provided refugees there with anti-malaria and other drugs while the UN Children's Fund offered supplies such as kerosene lamp and water purifier, reports from Bangui quoted Joseph Foumbi, UN coordinator in the country, as saying. Meanwhile, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies provided aid worth 21 million African francs (about 39,700 US dollars). Some non-governmental organizations have also given relief supplies and funds to the refugees. According to a Red Cross official, heavy rains beginning early this month in Bangui have killed at least one person, injured morethan 10 others, damaged 3,500 houses and made some 22,500 people homeless. There are fears that the flood water could spread such infectious diseases as cholera in the city of 600,000 people as there are many open latrines and drainage is poor in Bangui, said the official. ("Emergency aids go to flood-plagued Central African Republic." www.chinaview.cn 2005-06-22)

CHIRAC cf. FRANCE, CAR RELATIONS WITH FRANCE
Jacque Chirac, French prime minister under Giscard d'Estaing (1974-1976) and François Mitterrand (1986-1988), French president (1995-2002, 2002-2007)

Cf. Emmanuel Hecht and Thierry Vey, Chirac de A à Z, dictionnaire critique et impertinent. Paris: Albin Michel, ???

Jacques René Chirac (born 29 Nov 1932 in Paris) is a French politician who is currently President of the French Republic. He was elected to this office in 1995 and re-elected in 2002, and his current term expires in 2007.... In 1959, after completing studies at the École Nationale d'Administration, Jacques Chirac began his career as a high-level civil servant, and soon entered politics. He has since occupied various senior positions, such as minister of agriculture, prime minister, Mayor of Paris, and finally president of France. He has stood for lower tax rates, the removal of price controls, strong punishment for crime and terrorism; and business privatization. He has also argued for more socially responsible economic policies, and was elected in 1995 after campaigning on a platform of healing the "social rift" (fracture sociale). His economic policies have at various times included both laissez-faire and dirigiste elements. On European Union issues, he has ranged from adopting eurosceptic stances on some issues to rather more pro-EU positions.
In his early career, Chirac was initially attracted by left-wing politics. He sold the Communist newspaper l'Humanité and signed the Communist-inspired Stockholm Call against nuclear weapons in 1950. These left-wing ties later proved to be a hindrance to him, for instance in his first visit to the United States and in his military career. Although he finished first in his class at the armoured cavalry officer academy of Saumur, the military wanted to de-rank him because they did not want a "Communist" to become an officer. However, Chirac's extensive family acquaintances had him ranked back at his former position. After completing officer's school, Jacques Chirac volunteered to be deployed in Algeria while the Algerian War of Independence was raging, even though his family connections would easily have allowed him to obtain a safe position away from the war. He was wounded during his tour of duty.
Inspired by General Charles de Gaulle to enter public life, Chirac continued pursuing a civil service career in the 1950s. He attended Harvard University's summer school before entering the École Nationale d'Administration (ENA), the elite, competitive-entrance college that trains France's top civil servants, in 1957. After earning a graduate degree from the ENA in 1959, he became a civil servant and rose rapidly through the ranks. As soon as April 1962, Chirac was appointed head of the personal staff of Georges Pompidou, then prime minister under de Gaulle. This appointment launched Chirac's political career.
Pompidou considered Chirac his protégé and referred to him as "my bulldozer" for his skill at getting things done. The nickname "Le Bulldozer" caught on in French political circles. Chirac still maintains this reputation. "Chirac cuts through the crap and comes straight to the point...It's refreshing, although you have to put your seat belt on when you work with him", said an anonymous British diplomat in 1995.
At Pompidou's suggestion, Chirac ran as a Gaullist for a seat in the National Assembly in 1967. Chirac won the election and was given a post in the ministry of social affairs. (Gaullists have historically supported a strong central government and independence in foreign policy.) Although more of a "Pompidolian" than a "Gaullist", Chirac was well situated in de Gaulle's entourage, being related by marriage to the general's sole companion at the time of the Appeal of June 18, 1940.
Chirac rose to become economy minister in the late 1960s, serving as department head and a secretary of state. As state secretary at the Ministry of Economy and Finance (1968-1971), he had worked closely with Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who headed the ministry. In 1968, when student and worker strikes rocked France (see May 1968), Chirac played a central role in negotiating a truce. The young technocrat from ENA then rose to fame; Chirac was caricatured as the archetypal brilliant ENA graduate in an Asterix graphic novel. Chirac's first high-level post came in 1972 when he became minister of agriculture and rural development under his mentor Georges Pompidou, who was elected president in 1969. Chirac quickly earned a reputation as a champion of French farmers' interests. As minister of agriculture, Chirac first attracted international attention when he assailed U.S., West German, and European Commission agricultural policies that conflicted with French interests. In 1974 Chirac was appointed Minister of the Interior. From March 1974 he was entrusted by President Pompidou with preparations for the presidential election then scheduled for 1976. However, these elections were brought forward by Pompidou's sudden death on 2 April. In 1974 former minister of economy and finance Giscard d'Estaing, a non-Gaullist centrist, was elected Pompidou's successor amid France's most competitive election campaign in years.

CHIRAC AS PRIME MINISTER UNDER GISCARD D'ESTAING AND MITTERRAND
When Giscard became president, he nominated Chirac as prime minister on 27 May 1974. At the age of just 41, Chirac stood out as the very model of the jeunes loups ("young wolves") of French political life.
However, the government could not afford to ignore the narrow margin by which Giscard d'Estaing had defeated the United Left candidate, François Mitterrand, in 1974. Giscard, not himself a member of the Gaullist Union des Démocrates pour la République (UDR), saw in the essentially pragmatic Chirac the qualities needed to reconcile the "Giscardian" and "non-Giscardian" factions of the parliamentary majority. As prime minister, Chirac quickly set about persuading the Gaullists that, despite the social reforms proposed by President Giscard, the basic tenets of Gaullism, such as national and European independence, would be retained. Citing Giscard's unwillingness to give him authority, Chirac resigned as Prime Minister in 1976. He proceeded to build up his political base among France's several conservative parties, with a goal of reconstituting the Gaullist UDR into a neo-Gaullist group, the Rally for the Republic.
In December 1974, then vice-president of Iraq Saddam Hussein invited Chirac to Baghdad. Chirac accepted and visited Iraq in 1975. Saddam Hussein approved a deal granting French oil companies a number of privileges plus a 23 per cent share of Iraqi oil. France also sold a nuclear reactor called Osirak to Iraq.

CHIRAC AS PRESIDENT OF FRANCE
His 18 years as mayor of Paris finally proved the launching pad for his first successful bid for the French presidency. To win he had to first fend off a challenge from a fellow Gaullist – prime minister Édouard Balladur (who ran as an independent, though supported by a large share of Chirac's RPR, and finished third in the first round). He then narrowly beat Socialist Party challenger Lionel Jospin in the final runoff election. On his third attempt to win the French presidency, Jacques Chirac finally succeeded in being elected president in May 1995. Shortly after taking office, Chirac – undaunted by international protests by angry environmental groups – insisted upon the resumption of nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia in 1995. Reacting to criticism, Chirac said, "You only have to look back at 1935...There were people then who were against France arming itself, and look what happened."
Chirac announced on 1 February 1996 that France had ended "once and for all" its nuclear testing, intending to accede to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Chirac was elected on a platform of tax cuts and job programs, but his policies did little to ease the labour strikes during his first months in office. On the domestic front, neo-liberal economic austerity measures introduced by Chirac and his conservative prime minister Alain Juppé, including budgetary cutbacks, proved highly unpopular. At about the same time, it became apparent that Juppé and others had obtained preferential conditions for public housing, as well as other perks. At the year's end Chirac faced major workers' strikes. One of his nicknames is Chameleon Bonaparte. Another is La Girouette ("the weathervane"). At one point an anti-European Gaullist, he became a champion of the Euro as president.
Trying to firm up his party's government coalition, in 1997 Chirac dissolved parliament for early legislative elections in a gamble designed to bolster support for his conservative economic programme. But this strategy backfired. Chirac's dismissal of the parliament created an uproar, and his power was weakened by the subsequent backlash. The Socialist Party, joined by other parties on the left, soundly defeated Chirac's conservative allies, forcing Chirac into a new period of cohabitation with Jospin as prime minister. This power-sharing arrangement between Chirac and Jospin lasted five years.
Cohabitation significantly weakened the power of Chirac's presidency. The French president, by a constitutional convention, only controls foreign and military policy— and even then, allocation of funding is under the control of Parliament and under the significant influence of the prime minister. Short of dissolving parliament and calling for new elections, the president was left with little power to influence public policy regarding crime, the economy, and public services. Chirac seized the occasion to periodically criticize Jospin's government.
At age 69, Chirac faced his fourth presidential campaign in 2002. He was the first choice of fewer than one voter in five in the first round of voting of the presidential elections of April 2002. It had been expected that he would face incumbent prime minister Lionel Jospin on the second round of elections; instead, Chirac faced controversial right-wing politician Jean-Marie Le Pen of the law-and-order, anti-immigrant National Front, and won re-election by a landslide; most parties outside the National Front had called for opposing Le Pen, even if it meant voting for Chirac. Slogans such as "vote for the crook, not for the fascist" or "vote with a clothespin on your nose" appeared.
"We must reject extremism in the name of the honour of France, in the name of the unity of our own nation," Chirac said before the presidential election. "I call on all French to massively vote for republican ideals against the extreme right." [1]
The left-wing Socialist Party being in thorough disarray following Jospin's defeat, Chirac reorganized politics on the right, establishing a new party — initially called the Union of the Presidential Majority, then the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). The RPR had broken down - a number of members had formed Eurosceptic breakaways. While the Giscardian liberals of the Union of French Democracy (UDF) had moved sharply to the right. The UMP won the parliamentary elections that followed the presidential poll with ease.
On 14 July 2002, during Bastille Day celebrations, Chirac survived an assassination attempt by a lone gunman with a rifle hidden in a guitar case. The would-be assassin fired a shot toward the presidential motorcade, before being overpowered by bystanders [2].The gunman, Maxime Brunerie, underwent psychiatric testing; the violent far-right group with which he was associated, Unité Radicale was then administratively dissolved. Brunerie had also been a candidate for the Mouvement National Républicain far-right party at a local election. Brunerie's trial for attempted murder begun on December 6, 2004; a crucial question was whether the court found that Brunerie's capacity for rational thought was absent (see insanity defence) or merely altered. On December 10, the court, exceeding the sentence pushed for by the prosecution, sentenced Brunerie to 10 years in prison.
Chirac emerged as a leading voice against US president George W. Bush's administration's conduct in the Middle East. Despite intense U.S. pressure, Chirac threatened to veto any resolution in the U.N. Security Council that would authorize the use of force to disarm Iraq under any circumstances, and tried to rally other governments to his position. (cf. Governments' pre-war positions on invasion of Iraq, Protests against the Iraq war). Chirac was then the target of various American and British commentators supporting the decisions of president Bush and prime minister Tony Blair. See also anti-French sentiment in the United States. Suspected French involvement in "under the table" deals with Saddam Hussein have led many supporters of the war to question Chirac's motives in opposing the invasion of Iraq. However, as of 2005, the French government and Chirac himself have not been shown to have been involved in such hidden deals, while several private individuals are investigated in France for crimes related to the oil for food program.
During a state visit to China on April 21, 2005 Chirac's Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin lent support to new "anti-secession" laws on Taiwan, allowing China invade Taiwan in the event of Taiwanese independence, and continued to push for a lift of the EU arms embargo against China. France's position was seen as attempting to aid China in altering the balance of power against the U. S. in East Asia, in which the control of Taiwan is of utmost importance. This drew widespread condemnation from the U. S. which responded by threatening sanctions against the EU unless the embargo was continued.
Jacques Chirac giving a speech to the French People to vote "Oui" ("Yes") on the European Constitution.
On 29 May 2005 a referendum was held in France to decide whether the country should ratify the proposed Constitution of the European Union. The result was a victory for the No campaign, with 55 per cent of voters rejecting the treaty on a turnout of 69 per cent, dealing a devastating blow to Chirac and the UMP party. Chirac's decision to hold a referendum was thought to have been influenced in part by the surprise announcement that the United Kingdom was to hold a vote of its own. Although the adoption of a Constitution had initially been played down as a 'tidying-up' exercise with no need for a popular vote, as increasing numbers of EU member states announced their intention to hold a referendum, the French government came under increasing pressure to follow suit.
French voters turned down the proposed document by a wide margin, which was interpreted by some as a rebuke to Chirac and his government. Two days later, Jean-Pierre Raffarin resigned and Chirac appointed Dominique de Villepin as Prime Minister of France.
In an address to the nation, Chirac has declared that the new cabinet's top priority would be to curb the unemployment level, which consistently hovers above 10%, calling for a "national mobilization" to that effect. One of the main promises of Jean-Pierre Raffarin when he became Prime Minister had been to spur growth and that "the end of President Chirac's term would be marked by a drop of the unemployment"; however, at the time of his dismissal, no such improved could be seen. Villepin set himself a deadline of a hundred days to restore the French people's trust in their government (note that Villepin's first published book was titled The Hundred Days or the Spirit of Sacrifice).
Chirac became the subject of controversy the day before the International Olympic Committee was due to pick a host city for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Chirac made comments stating that "the only worse food than British food is Finnish" and "the only thing the British have done for Europe's agriculture is mad cow disease". Not only were Chirac's comments considered unsportsmanlike where the normal etiquette is not to criticize rival cities, there was also the presence of two Finnish members on the International Olympic Committee who would vote in the final ballot. Out of the competing candidate cities, the bid was widely acknowledged as the front runner but Paris's narrow loss to archrival London led many to believe that Chirac's comments were at fault. It seems that the French public laid the blame of the failure on president Chirac, and not on mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë, whose popularity had in fact risen according to polls.
Even longtime Chirac supporters have lost their faith. Jean-Louis Debré, president of the National Assembly and a faithful Chirac supporter, declared "I'm not sure that Jacques Chirac succeeded in his presidency. I'd at least like that he succeeds in his exit." (L'Express, 18/7) According to a July 2005 poll, 32% judge Jacques Chirac favorably and 63% unfavorably.
It is unclear whether Jacques Chirac will run for a third mandate in 2007 and, should he not run or should he fail in a re-election bid, whether he risks prosecution and jail time for the various fraudulent schemes he has been named in. While he is currently immune from prosecution as a president, prescription (i.e. the statute of limitations) does not apply.
One issue seen of increasing importance with respect to a possible 2007 re-election bid is Jacques Chirac's age and health. Chirac has often been described to be extremely resilient and hard-working, and to have conserved a legendary appetite; before 2005, he had never had major health problems throughout his long political career. He used to be a heavy smoker but had given up many years ago. Nevertheless, it has become apparent that he is also careful of hiding signs that may betray declining health. As an example, in 2003, then minister of environment Roselyne Bachelot revealed that Chirac was testing some hearing aid, and was reprimanded for this revelation. On September 3, 2005 prime minister Dominique de Villepin announced that Jacques Chirac had been hospitalized the day before in Val-de-Grâce military hospital in Paris for a "small vascular incident" affecting his eyesight. He was released on September 9, 2005 under advice not to fly for six weeks, ruling him out of the United Nations General Assembly. Villepin was appointed to serve in Chirac's place in the United Nation's 2005 World Summit in New York. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Chirac)

CHIRAC AND THE CAR
1988
President François Mitterrand and the French prime minister, Jacques Chirac, made a special point of thanking President Kolingba for his support on the Chad issue when the Central African head of state made an official visit to France from February 15 to 18 [1988]. The CAR plays a key role in France's strategy for Africa, particularly through its backing for Chad's President Hissène Habré in his conflict with Libyan backed rebels. More than 1,200 French troops supported by Mirage and Jaguar jets, are based in the country at Bouar and Bangui. French military initiatives supporting President Habré against Libyan offensives in 1983 and 1986 were launched from the CAR (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 2nd Quarter 1988, p. 19)

1995
[President] Patassé held talks with his French counterpart, Jacques Chirac, in Paris on [15 September 1995] and claimed that the air had been cleared in bilateral relations. France has been wary of Mr Patassé's because of his readiness to indulge domestic public resentment at the French military bases in his country. However, there were good reasons to consider that both sides could overcome this mistrust. Mr Patassé requires the Chirac government to provide economic aid and to indicate that it will, at the very least, remain neutral in the CAR's domestic political affairs. France needs the assurance of knowing that it can retain the military bases and its priviledged trading position. There is a common personal ground since both men are non-ideological populists, nationalistic but also pragmatic. Moreover, Mr Patasse had been a member of the Bokassa regime, which had been a loyal ally of France's conservative governments in the 1960s and 1970s. After his meeting with Chirac, Mr Patassé claimed that France supported his government's view that it had fulfilled the conditions for a new IMF agreement. This was overstating the case: warm words from Mr Chirac do not alte3r the fact that Paris remains firmly committed to the pro-IMF, pro-structural adjustment stance set up by the previous government of Edouard Balladur. However, the warmer atmosphere may now mean that France will come up with the aid needed to ensure that any new IMF programme is properly finances, should the Fund decide that a new accord is merited. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 4th Quarter 1995, p. 23)

CHOCRON cf. LE PEN, FRONT NATIONAL, KOLINGBA, FRANCE

1987-1988
Two French citizens, Stephen Chocron and Philippe Lecomte, were released in September [1987] after almost one year in a prison in the CAR on suspicion of plotting against President Kolingba's government. The two men were closely linked to the Front National, the French right wing party led by Jean-Marie Le Pen (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1988, p. 20)

CHRIESEL

Chriesel, Denis and Goungai, O.N. "Le statut phonologique de la nasalité en Gbeya." Afrique et Langage, 17 (1982):12-22.

CRIME and PUNISHMENT cf. JUSTICE, ORDEALS, HEMP, MARIJUANA, INFORMAL ECONOMY

The Gbaya cultivate, sell, and smoke hemp. This industry was made illegal already by the French [during the colonial era], but it continues in secrecy. The plant in grown in very small lots, scattered here and there in remote manioc plantations, which often are protected by inaccessible terrain, marshes or rivers. Their production and storage can be arranged with relatively little risk. To all appearances, though, hemp-smoking does not occur on a larger scale. Both women and children are excluded from its use, at any rate. In the neighboring Banda tribe the situation seems to be different (Kalck, Réalités, p. 260). (Hilberth, Gbaya, p. 6).

CHRISTENSEN cf. GBAYA, INITIATION RITES, RELIGION, HISTORY

Christensen, Thomas. “LaBi: A Gbaya Initiation Rite” [LaBi: un rite d’initiation gbaya]. pp. 173-196 In Philip A. Noss, ed., Grafting Old Rootstock. Dallas, Texas: International Museum of Culture, 1982.

Christensen, Thomas. “Rites of Reconciliation in Traditional Gbaya Society” [Rites de reconciliation traditionels de la socie’te’ gbaya]. pp. 197-214 In Philip A. Noss, ed., Grafting Old Rootstock. Dallas, Texas: International Museum of Culture, 1982.

Christensen, Thomas. “A Meeting of Biblical Wisdom and Gbaya Wisdom” [Un rencontre de la sagesse biblique et la sagesse des Gbaya]. pp. 221-231 In Philip A. Noss, ed., Grafting Old Rootstock. Dallas, Texas: International Museum of Culture, 1982.

Christensen, Thomas. “Karnu: Witchdoctor or Prophet?” [Karnou: magicien-guérisseur ou prophète (gbaya) ]. pp. 233-246 In Philip A. Noss, ed., Grafting Old Rootstock. Dallas, Texas: International Museum of Culture, 1982.

Christensen, Thomas G. "The Gbaya Naming of Jesus: An Inquiry into the Contextualization of Soteriological Themes Among the Gbaya of Cameroon." Th.D. diss., Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, 1984. 478p.

Christensen, Thomas G. "Gbaya Value Orientations as Opportunities for Dialogue with the Christian Mission." Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, 1971.

Christensen, Thomas. "The Gbaya Naming of Jesus: An Inquiry into the Contextualization of soteriological Themes among the Gbaya of Cameroon." Ph.D. diss., Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Chicago, 1984.

Christensen, Thomas. "Gbaya stories and the Gospel." Journal of the Liturgical Conference (1983):50-53

Christensen, Thomas. "Karnu: Witchdoctor of Prophet?" In Grafting old Rootstock, ed. by Philip Noss. Dallas: 1982, pp. 233-246.

Christensen, Thomas. "Labi: A Gbaya Initiation Rite." In Grafting old Rootstock, ed. by Philip Noss. Dallas: 1982, pp. 173-196-246.

Christensen, Thomas. "A Meeting of Biblical Wisdom with Gbaya Wisdom." In Grafting old Rootstock, ed. by Philip Noss. Dallas: 1982, pp. 197-212.

Christensen, Thomas. "Rites of Reconciliation in Gbaya society." In Grafting old Rootstock, ed. by Philip Noss. Dallas: 1982, pp. 221-232.

Christensen, Thomas G. An African Tree of Life. Illustrations by Richard R. Caemerer, Jr. New York: Orbis Books, 1990.

...my reflections on Gbaya ritual, which I began during my first year as a missionary of the American Lutheran Church in Cameroon and the Central African Republic, and which I have continued to pursue through many hours of conversation with individual Gbaya friends and colleagues... Some of these conversations take place in Gbaya homes, or around a fire, or on a path through the tall grass; many take place in my office or classroom at the Bible schools and seminaries where I teach courses on the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament. As our friendships deepens, so do our efforts to understand how the rites and symbols of Gbaya culture relate to the content of scripture and the new experience of Gbaya Christians. Increasingly our search comes to focus on the soré tree, whose leaves, branches, or roots are highly visible in a surprising variety of ritual contexts. Botanists label this tree the Anona senegalensis, according to its species, and Anonaceae, according to its family; but the Gbaya call it soré-ga-mo, their "soré-calm/pacify/cool-thing," and use it to express a wide range of cultural activities. For example, a soré branch thrown down between two families puts peace in their midst and prevents revenge. (Christensen, An African Tree of Life, p. 10).

My first years of ministry in Cameroon and the Central African Republic extended from 1967 through 1981. In 1985 I was invited by the Lutheran churches in those two countries to conduct five-week-long seminars on contextualizing the gospel. I called the seminars, "The Power of the Gospel in Our Village," and focuses them on the realities of life in the "modern" African village. We considered various ways that life is threatened and how Christians can cope with the threat of death. We worked with local African symbols and resources, seeking to discover what was already present in the village....In the 1985 workshops we explored areas of village life in which traditional African ways still flourish. For example, the ancient purification rites continue to be practices among Gbaya Christians, and the power of witchcraft and sorcery continues to disrupt and threaten the life of the church. These problems will not disappear by simply forbidding people to believe in their traditional practices. As long as our missionary attitude and approach is dominated by the idea that all aspects of indigenous African traditions are pagan and worthless, if not evil, these traditional practices will persist behind the village. (Christensen, An African Tree of Life, p. 13)

A major character in Gbaya tales in Wanto, who is both a trickster and a culture hero. Wanto's three children are named [in Gbaya Yaayuwee] Popolo, manioc stick; Tikin, manioc stirring stick; and Gong (or Gondo), manioc scoop. (Christensen, An African Tree of Life, p. 15)

CHRISTIAN MISSIONS cf. RELIGION

Ubangi-Shari attracted American missionaries. Their history is yet to be written so we do not know what brought them to Ubangi-Shari or what the connections were among the various denominations. A dozen missionary societies sprinkled throughout the colony emanated from Brethren and Baptist missionary societies with headquarters in small American towns (Ubangi-Shari 1927, 1932; Kalck 1973:3:418; cited in (Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 256)

CHRISTIANSON

Christianson, Ruth. For the Heart of Africa [Pour (evangeliser) le coeur d’Afrique]. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1956.

CHRISTIANITY
Note: Some reports suggest that the CAR is the most Christianized nation in Africa (over 85% Christian). But conflicting statistics make definitive statements difficult. Some would argue that much syncretism is involved and the number of true believers is much lower than 85%. Further research is required to substantiate the claims. There are now, however, “evangelical churches in nearly every tribe and district.”

CHRISTOFELL BLINDENMISSION cf. SCHISTOSOMIASIS
www.cbmch.org/
Note: contributes to the fight against onchocerciasis (river blindness) in the C.A.R.
Cf. APOC

CHRISTOPHE

Christophe, R.P. "Réflections et suggestions pour une amélioration de la vie des habitants de la piste de Léré." Manuscript. 1963.

CHURCH

The Role of the Church in the Central African Republic. Bangui: Catholic and Protestant Churches of the CAR, 2005, 36p.
http://www.missioncouncil.se/dokument/the_role_of_the_Church_in_CAR.pdf

CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS

Cf. Deseret News 1997-98 Church Almanac. Deseret News: Salt Lake City, UT, 1996. Reports '1 unit' of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the C.A.R. without estimating the number of members.

Cf. "LDS in Africa: Growing Membership Sees American Church with Unique Vision, "Salt Lake Tribune, 4 April 1998. Reprinted in Sunstone, June 1998, p. 71. Reports 132 members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the C.A.R.

CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN
www.brethren.org

CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN NEWWORK
www.cob-net.org/text/history_detmold.htm

Cf. Willoughby, William G. "Honors to Alexander Mack" [founder of the Brethren Church]. www.cob-net.org/mack/honors.htm

CHURCHES (religion)
Cf. Adherents.com for a list of various estimates of the numbers of members of each reported Christian church denomination and religion in the Central African Republic.

CIRAC cf. COMITÉ INTERNATIONAL POUR LE RESPECT ET L'APPLICATION DES DROITS DE L'HOMME, MASSENGO-TIASSE

1990
...in January [1990]...the CAR hosted a conference of human rights in the rural milieu. The meeting was organised jointly by the government and the Comité International pour le Respect et l'Application des Droits de l'Homme (Cirac). It was also attended by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the African Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and several non-governmental organisations. The Cirac president, the Congolese Maurice Massengo-Tiasse, complemented President Kolingba on his transformation of the country since the Bokassa era. "Yesterday your country was the perfect example of a military dictatorship, or a tyrannical regime; Bangui saw massacres of children, fundamental violations of rights," he said, adding that the CAR had "rapidly found once more the freedom of expression, of association, or meetings, the prelude to pluralist democracy." (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 2nd Quarter 1990, p. 25)

CISSÉ
Gen Lamine Cissé, the representative of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the CAR

"UN plea for support for transitional process." IRIN, 8 July 2004.
NAIROBI, 8 Jul 2004 (IRIN) - The UN Security Council has called on the international community to provide the necessary aid to ensure the success of the transitional process in the Central African Republic (CAR), UN News reported on Wednesday....After the meeting, Council President Ambassador Mihnea Ioan Motoc of Romania read a statement on behalf of the members, commending "the positive evolution of the political situation in the Central African Republic and the progress made in the economic and financial fields". UN News said Motoc also welcomed "the various steps taken in the political field, in particular the establishment of the mixed and independent electoral commission that represents an important step towards the restoration of constitutional legality". The statement was made after Gen Lamine Cissé, the representative of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the CAR, briefed the Council on the situation in the country. A UN peace-building mission, known by its French acronym BONUCA, has been in the CAR since February 2000 when it took over from a UN peacekeeping mission.

CIVPOL cf. MINURCA, UN SECURITY COUNCIL, ANNAN

"CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Annan says reforms must go further." IRIN, 19 April 1999.
NAIROBI, 19 Apr 1999 (IRIN) - The Central African Republic has made some moves towards reform but progress has been slow and further action is urgently required, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported on Monday. On the plus side, a decree by the government on the creation of the Mixed and Independent Electoral Commission (CEMI) has prepared the ground for presidential elections scheduled for August/September, according to the Secretary-General's report on the UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA). He also said that "the imminent adoption of the laws on restructuring the armed forces is a major step in the right direction". However, "further action is urgently required for the Government to fully demonstrate adherence to the commitments made to the Secretary-General by President Patassé", the report noted. For instance, the late start in the inauguration of the electoral commission had delayed decisions regarding funding, revision of the electoral register, practical and logistical preparations and even the date of polling. The Secretary-General said that although the situation remained calm and the country was "an island of relative stability" in the region, intense distrust persisted among the country's political leaders and the economic and social situation remained precarious. The report renewed the Secretary-General's appeal to donors to contribute to the restructuring of the armed forces in the Central African Republic, calling it "an important process" which would help stabilise the security situation in the country and the sub-region as a whole. He also appealed for contributions to support the Central African police force, which is receiving training under the MINURCA civilian police component (CIVPOL). The report on MINURCA is to be addressed by the UN Security Council on Wednesday (21 April).

CLAIR

Audru, J. and M. Clair. Rapport sur le projet: Assainissement d'une zone d'élevage à Bambari et Ranch du métissage. I.E.M.V.T., Maisons Alfort, 1969. 68p. multigr.

CLAPIER

Clapier, P.N. "Index palustre chez les indigènes de la commune de Bangui (Afrique équatoriale française)." Bulletin de la société de la pathologie exotique 12 (1919):538-68.

Clapier, P.N. "L'Endemie pianique sur le Bas-Oubangui: Essai de lutte anti-pianique 1920." Annales de médicine et pharmacie coloniales 19 (July-September 1921):319-34.

Clapier, P.N. "Contribution à l'étude de la repartition des bilharzioses en Afrique équatoriale française." Bulletin de la société de la pathologie exotique 13 (8 December):804-80.

The only major investigation of malaria in this period [post-World War I in Ubangi-Shari]... by Dr. Clapier (1919), attached to the military batallion in Bangui...motive... protecting the white population... Clapier promised a follow-up study showing how Europeans "react to the intense malarial ambiance" kept up by African children... Bangui was... in 1918, with 100 whites.... the known tendency for younger children to be more infected, primarily because of a lack of immunity but also because they were more exposed and the same dosage of infection had a greater impact on their small bodies. (Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 159)

Yaws continued to dovetail with syphilis, with which it had some degree of cross-immunity. Jamot (1920) found that yaws became increasingly rare in Ubangi as one approached Chad, the stronghold of syphilis. In southern Ubangi and northern Moyen-Congo, the average rate for the population was 4.4 percent. A disease of humid regions, yaws occurred more frequently in the forest itself than along the major rivers which cut through it, where syphilis was likely to have made inroads. Thus Clapier (1920c) found the river villages of the lower and middle Ubangi had infection rates of 1 to 2 percent whereas in more isolated villages inside the forest the rate went up to 6 to 8 percent, with a 20 percent rate for children... (Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 162)

Clapier, P.N.

Table 7.2. Malaria
Region         Date      Number      Age      Method      Percent      Source
Bangui         1919        231          0-6        blood         81.40       Clapier (1919:538-48)
                                   119         7-15       blood         48.79        same
                                   387         0-10       spleen         62.00       same
                                    64          adult        blood         23.40       same
(Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 158)
Note: Clapier also demonstrated a 10 to 15 percent rise in malaria during the rainy season. Data from the camp de Kasai were subtracted from Table 1, page 542, because the sharpshooters (tirailleurs') children often took quinine; their infection rate was thus only 48.7 percent for ages 0-6. (Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 158)

CLAYTON

Clayton, Anthony. "Foreign Intervention in Africa." In Baynham, Simon, ed. Military Power and Politics in Black Africa. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986, pp. 203-257.

FRENCH INTERVENTION IN AFRICA
Paradoxically in the context of a world-wide ideological confrontation [Cold War], it is France rather than either of the superpowers that has consistently played the most widespread role . The role has generally (but not always) also served wider Western interests even if pursued for immediate interests entirely French; it has in consequence attracted criticism in France as a departure from la France seule. (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 205).
The reasons for France's proprietorial attitude - at least in the 1960s - in African affairs are complex, but they straddle both the right and the left in France's domestic politics. François Mitterand for example, although a life-long socialist [sic: he was right of center as a young man], was also once a staff sergeant in a Régiment d'Infanterie Coloniale. Origins may be seen deep in French metropolitan history, in Braudelian perceptions of an essential unity of Mediterranean France with North and West Africa, and in the centralist Roman Law style of France's colonial policies. More recently, French towns and cities saw the massive contribution of North and black African military manpower to the armies of Juin and de Lattre de Tassigny in 1944-45, and later to the French cause in Indochina from 1946-1954. These impressions reinforced the belief among many French leaders, political as well as military, that one of the foundations of their country's position in the world was a hegemony role in, at least, Francophone Africa. (Anthony Clayton, "Foreign Intervention in Africa." In Baynham, Simon, ed. Military Power and Politics in Black Africa. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986, p. 205).
While De Gaulle, whose priorities were nuclear, did not fully share these views, they greatly influenced French thinking on the nature of independence in black Africa. Independence, to many British academics more correctly termed 'flag independence', was to be based on treaties of co-operation; these included military agreements of ex-colonies (especially those of strategic or mineral significance) and a monopoly for the provision of military aid and training facilities for the armed forces of the new state. [Coopération as a concept, replaced the earlier 1958 Communauté project. This latter has envisioned France retaining total control of African states' defence policy (n. 1)]. These [armed forces] the French saw as useful for internal order, and perhaps as auxiliaries in wider French designs. [When in October 1916 the elite Régiment d'Infanterie Coloniale de Maroc fought its way to the recapture of the symbolic Fort Douamont at Verdun, it was in fact composed of two battalions of white Frenchmen, one battalion of Tirailleurs Sénégalais and two companies of Somalis. There is a continuity of military thinking to be seen here (n. 2)].... (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," pp. 205-206).
Furthermore, as the 1960s progressed, the hitherto well-balanced French metropolitan economy ran into its first major fundamental weakness, oil. France found a new reason for interest in Africa, in particular territories that were either oil-producing or which were strategically important to a French naval presence, to secure Middle Eastern oil supplies, in the Indian Ocean. (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 206).
In pursuit of these interests, France, alone of the world's great powers, developed substantial forces especially trained and equipped for general Third World intervention but with particular reference to Africa. In 1958, the Régiments d'Infanterie and Artillerie Coloniale, the famous marsouins (dolphins) and bigors (molluscs) were returned to their pre-1900 title as Troupes de Marine; [the Troupes de Marine, with their autonomy preserved by Parliamentary legislation, equate more to the United States Marine Corps than the British Royal Marines, for whom the French equivalent are the Fusillier Marins (n. 3)]; after the end of the Algerian campaign they and the surviving units of the Légion Étrangère [Foreign Legion] were reconstituted as the nucleus of France's Intervention Force. [(n. 4) The original 1963 intervention force had been a brigade, entirely of Troupes de Marine; the 11th Division d'Intervention. This in 1971 became the 11th Parachute Division from which in 1976 the Marine units were excised to form a second intervention formation]... in 1985, this force reflects the 1976 reorganisation and expansion and comprises the 11th Parachute Division, the 9th Marine Infantry Division, and a smaller mechanised 31st Brigade tasked for Mediterranean roles. Under the 1984-85 French Defense Programme, a Rapid Action Force of five divisions (47,000 men), the existing 9th and 11th together with a mountain, an air mobile and a light armoured division, is to be created. The Rapid Action Force is seen as suitable for an intervention in northern Europe, the Mediterranean and Africa. But a major reason for this new expansion is France's - largely bipartisan - resolution neither to allow a Soviet/Cuban monopoloy of military intervention in Africa, nor to allow the United States to be the only counter to the Russians. The programme, when complete will provide France with Europe's finest intervention army, complete with its own air transport and logistical support. (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 206).
The Troupes de Marine have a very high percentage of volunteer regulars, the Légion is entirely volunteer; the regiments are therefore freed from the legislative constraints that exist for traditional metropolitan conscript regiments, although not all the new Divisions will be so unihibited. The Légion was moved to Corsica, later to Aubagne in the south of France;... Marsouin units provide the garrisons in Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Réunion, the Légion in Djibouti and Mayotte...[in 1984] the Troupes de Marine total 33,800, one fifth of France's entire army, and the Légion some 8,500. [(n. 5) The Troupes de Marine comprise four motorised infantry regiments, a mechanised infantry regiment (Leclerc's famous Régiment de Marche de Tchad), an armoured reconnaissance regiment (the RICM, the Régiment Infanterie - Chars de Marine, formerly the Régiment d'Infanterie Coloniale de Maroc, the French Army's most decorated unit), four parachute units, five artillery regiments and a small number of additional batteries; TYPE MORE... ] (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 206).

In post-independence black Africa, France from the onset enjoyed an advantaged position in her former colonies through cadres trained in the last colonial years (mostly at Fréjus or Cherchell in Algeria) and through the French language, French-speaking cadres ... France's policies in the 1960s reflected her own self-confidence and the enormous respect in which de Gaulle, 'the man of Brazzaville', was held in [Francophone] Africa... (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 207).
The record of formal interventions [by the French in Africa] is a remarkable one. French garrisons, before their departure in some cases, maintained stability at the delicate moment of independence and its first months, intervening to restore order in Cameroon in 1960-1961, in Congo-Brazzaville in 1960 and Mauritania in 1961 to end ethnic conflict, in Gabon in 1962 and in Chad in 1960-1963 to maintain order, and in Niger in 1963 to put down a military revolt. [(n. 6) Pierre Lellouche and Dominique Moisi, "French Policy in Africa," International Security 3, 4 (October 1978):108-133]. In 1964 the small French garrison in Libreville, Gabon, supported by reinforcements flown in from Dakar rescued and restored to his authority President M'ba, who had been seized by a group of soldiers and gendarmerie. In the late 1960s units of the French garrison in Cameroon were again used to assist government forces in suppressing an uprising among the Bamileke. In 1968 the prolonged French counter-insurgency involvement in Chad... opened. In 1977 and early 1978 a French Air Force squadron of Jaguar strike aircraft supported Moroccan troops in Maurtiania against vigorous assaults by the POLISARIO insurgent movement which was destabalising the weaker of its two opponents, following the rash Mauritanian-Morocco accord to partition the former Spanish Sahara... In 1979, in 'Operation Barracuda', parachute troops of the [Troupes de] Marine ejected the infamous Emperor Bokassa, restoring Dacko as president of the Central African Republic... in both 1977 and 1978 in Zaire... a largely Lunda insurgency movement supported by the radical Angolan regime, launced an incursion into Zaire's Shaba province, incursions which the Zaire Army was unable to arrest. In 1977 French military aircraft transported a Moroccan military force supported by French logistic staffs to the rescue [MERCENARIES]. The more serious 1978 incursion, during which some 200 Europeans were massacred in the city of Kolwezi, led to a more overtly French intervention, that of Légion Étrangère parachute troops; these were carried (for technical reasons connected with the parachutes) in United States military aircraft. (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 208).
The complex history of France's intervention in Chad has its origins at the turn of the century, when French strategists assessed Chad as being the key hinge-territory linking North, East [sic: Central] and West Africa (a perception whose validity was dramatically proved by General Leclerc in his epic 1941-42 march... summer of 1940... the colony rallied to de Gaulle, the first African colony to do so. The state, however, is an artefact encapsulating a largely Moslem nomad population in the North and Christian or animist negro agriculturalists in the South and West. [(n. 8) Clayton, "Chad??," in Keegan, J., ed. World Armies (London: Macmillan, 1983), pp. 102-103]. These [South/West populations] provided the ruling groups at independence but were faced from 1968 with an insurrectionary movement, FLOLINAT, drawing increasingly on Libyan support, in the North. The distracted and unbalanced President, Tombalbaye, appealed to France for help and a French garrison was despatched, later reinforced substantially and placed under the command of a general, Cortadellas. Considerable fighting took place in the North in 1969, 1970, and 1971; among the 50 or so French soldiers killed were Cortadella's son. (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 209).
From 1973 onwards France began to modify her policy in Chad; de Gaulle was gone and a need for some form of working relationship with Libya in France's wider energy interests was perceived [oil now instead of possible uranium?]. French troops were largely withdrawn from the combat areas, though some teams fought on in Chad uniforms [MERCENARIES]. This withdrawal led to bitter reproaches from Tombalbaye and his successor in 1975, General Malloum, who was installed as a result of a coup in which France was almost certainly involved. Malloum even demanded a French withdrawal, a demand clearly intended to mean the reverse rather than to be taken literally. A new agreement in 1976 provided for a return presence of several hundred French 'advisers', in theory not to be involved in battle. In practice they were so involved on several occasions, and equally important they served to buttress General Malloum's somewhat shaky position. (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 209).
On this basis, and aided by emerging divisions within FROLINAT, only limited French military assistance was necessary until 1978 when one of the FROLINAT grouping occupied Faya-Largeau, the last centre of Chad government authority in the North. A substantial French reinforcement of 1,500 troops together with air-to-ground strike aircraft operations contained the insurgents, but the number of French casualties introduced a new dimension to the Chad question for France, effective political criticism in Paris of the involvement. [(n. 9) Chad focused increasingly unease in France over the nation's African policies, seen by right-wing critics who favoured European and nuclear roles for France as 'Gendarmisme', and by left-wing critics as 'Otanisation'. ????]
The result of this criticism and the overall cost of military action was a new government, led jointly by Malloum as Head of State (and the leader of one of the more moderate FROLINAT groups) and Habre, as Prime Minister, which was formed under French military auspices. The majority of FROLINAT, under Goukani Oueddei, however, rejected compromise and determined to continue fighting to secure removal of the French. The French Army commander, Bredeche, favoured an offensive against FROLINAT but was replaced by another general, Forest, under whom the lines of a more limited French policy commitment began to appear. It was one in which Libya's forcible annexation of the North-western Aouzou area and FROLINAT domination of much of the North was tacitly accepted, but a French military force of some 2,000 supported by Jaguar strike aircraft secured the South under the authority of the capital, N'Djamena. This arrangement's chances of success appeared at the time also to be strengthened by divided counsels in Tripoli. (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 210).
The local political situation, however, worsened, with a rift opening between Habre and Malloum, the latter falling under the influence of a hardline southern officer, Colonel Kamougué. Violent fighting broke out, Habre's forces entering N'Djamena in early 1979 with French troops confined to their barracks. At this point the country was effectively divided into three, a North once again divided into rival factions, the capital and centre under Habré, and the South under Malloum and Kamougué; in the [South] reprisal pogroms of Moslems began. (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 210).
The Service de Documentation Exterieure et de Contre Espionage (SDECE) and its linked Service d'Action Civique, the redoubtable 'Foccart machine' (so named after its director, and using diplomats, business and aid personnel) have kept Paris well-informed of internal, Soviet - and American - activities. In the 1960-62 turmoil in Zaire, at that time Congo-Kinshasa, France appeared to have disintegration of the state, a situation to be turned to the advantate of France and her clients. She hoped to attach the north bank of the Congo (Zaire) River area to Youlou's Congo-Brazzaville, at that time a very subservient client state. She also supported the break-away of Tshombe's Katanga, covert government assistance being given to the recruitment of former French military personnel for the secessionist regime [MERCENARIES]... In 1966-67 France was to play an equally unfortunate, and equally unsuccessful, role Nigerian affairs. To de Gaulle, much influenced by a leading intelligence adviser of marked anti-anglophone views, Nigeria appeared to be an African Canada, a British artefact; futher, Nigeria's size disturbed several of France's West African clients and Nigeria's oil provided a strong economic temptation. The army of Biafra began the war with consignments of rifles supplied by the Ivory Coast and Gabon, at the time France's two most dependable African client states and one example of French military intervention by means of surrogates [MERCENARIES]. The Moroccan force sent to Zaire in 1977 represents a second example. The inter-African force assembled in Zaire after the 1978 incursion, a force composed of units from, again, Morocco, Senegal, the Ivory Coast, the Central African Empire [MERCENARIES] and a small unit from Egypt can also be advanced as a third instance, France being heavily involved in the logistics. A perhaps less obscure example of French covert military intervention in an African state can be seen in the change of regime in Bangui, Central African Republic, in September 1981 when President Dacko was removed by General Kolingba to evident French approval [(n. 18)] (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," pp. 213-214).
One final area of French military assertion must be noted... the Comoro Islands. These islands lie near the northern end of the Mozambique Channel, the major European/Middle East oil route. Of the four main islands Mayotte, the largest, differs from the largely Arab culture of the others by its possession of a culture more Roman Catholic and Malagasy oriented; Mayotte also possesses a deep-water harbour. The other islands opted for full independence in 1974, Mayotte opposing this option, wishing to continue under French control. Murky events followed. The remaining islands, in protest, declared independence under President Ahmad Abdallah whose regime lasted only a few weeks, being overthrown by a force led by a French mercenary soldier, Colonel Denard, who installed a new government headed by a President Ali Soilih. Although France recognized Soilih initially, when he attempted to land on Mayotte he was rebuffed and all French aid withdrawn, so creating acute economic hardship. Soilih in response embarked on radical policies applied with great ferocity, to such an extent that he was overthrown and killed in another Denard-led coup in 1978. This coup, after various manoeuverings, restored Ahmad Abdallah to his original authority over all the islands, except Mayotte. In [Mayotte] France has stationed a detachment of the Légion Étrangère as a permanent garrison with other units, military, air and naval, also frequently in post. A further 2,000 French troops are stationed in Réunion. (Clayton, "Foreign Intervention," p. 215).

CLEVER cf. RAINFOREST

Clever, K.E.A. ed. Conservation of West and Central African Rainforests. Environmental Paper No. 1. Washington, D.C. The World Bank and IUCN, The World Conservation Union, 1992.

CLIMATE

[Climate in the dense forest region of southern CAR]
...[an area] located between 3º and 4º north of the equator in the central part of the African continent. Ecologically this is a region of high temperatures, high humidity, dense forest vegetation, and seasonally variable rainfall. Forest temperatures during the day average around 77º F. (25º C.) throughout the year with very little season variation. The variation between daytime and nighttime temperatures is greater than that between mean monthly temperatures; nighttime temperatures can drop to the low 60s º F. Humidity is high throughout the year, averaging around 70% during the middle of the day and over 90% in the early morning (Deuss, cited in Bahuchet 1985). Cavalli-Sforza (1985) has suggested that the pygmy stature that characterizes the Aka, whose height averages 145 cm for women and 153 cm for men, may represent an evolutionary adaptation to high temperatures and humidity.
Annual rainfall is high, typically exceeding 1600 mm (Bahuchet 1985). During the rainy season, which generally falls between mid-July and mid-October, it rains almost daily, often over 200 mm. a month. December throught February is the driest period, typically receiving less than 50 mm a month... (Hudson, "Advancing methods in zooarchaeology," pp. 42-43)

CLINTON cf. CAR RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED STATES

Clinton, Bill (President of the United States). "Letter to Congressional Leaders on the Central African Republic on 23 May 1996." Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, 27 May 1996.

CLOAREC-HEISS cf. LINGUISTICS

Boyeldieu, Pascal and France Cloarec-Heiss. "Dialectométrie lexicale dans le domaine oubanguien." In G. Guarisma and W. Möhlig, eds. La méthode dialectométrique appliquéé aux languages africaines. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1987, pp. 331-393.

Cloarec-Heiss, France and Jacqueline M.C. Thomas. L'aka, langue bantoue des Pygmées de Mongoumba (Centrafrique): introduction à l'étude linguistique, phonologie. Paris: Société d'études linguistiques et anthropologiques de France, 1978. 204 p. 24 cm.

CLOTEL cf. CATHOLIC CHURCH, RELIGION, HISTORY
Father Clotel, Catholic priest who ran the Catholic Mission of Saint-Famille at Bessou upstream from Fort-de-Possel, c. 1909
Cf. Devaux, Captain. Deux ans dans le Haut-Oubangui. Paris: 1913.

Capitain Devaux, on about 18 August 1909.
At three o'clock, going upstream from Fort-de-Possel, nous stopped at the Catholic Mission of Bessou [Mission catholique de Bessou], directed by R.P. Clotel. Farm (exploitation agricole) very well tended, which possesses an annex 22 kilometers in the interior; goats, cattle, and a whole poultry yard (toute une basse-cour) suggests constant labor, but the practical results of this Mission escape me, at least as far as actual colonization (propre) is concerned. The "children" of the Fathers are hardly anything else but captives, because they do not give to these natives (indigènes), in exchange for their work, anything but good words and the right to cultivate manioc for their food. If some understand a little French, it is hardly any. In contrast, the Missionaries speak the local languages fluently, which is not without great use to us. (cited in Banville, Raconte-moi la Mission, p. 46 [Trans. Bradshaw])
What I had to see at Mobaye was interesting in a different way (autrement intéressant), and it was there that I found the veritable missionary, Captain Jacquier. (Quoted in Banville, Raconte-moi la Mission, p. 47 [Trans. Bradshaw])

Cotel, Father Pierre. "Pierre Kuese à la Saint-Famille" (Pierre Kuese at Saint-Famille [Mission]), included in Banville, Raconte-moi la Mission, pp. 84-93)

Kuese was still young when Monsignor Augouard purchased him (le racheta) and went down to Brazzaville where he stayed until the moment when Father Moreau left this mission [at Brazzaville] to go establish the Mission de la Sainte-Famille. Blessed with natural goodness, intelligent, observant, obedient, he found again in Ubangi his dear language Banda that wasn't spoken at Brazzaville and threw himself with ardor into the study of the catechism he learned, rapidly, from start to finish, with great facility and a surprising assurance (sûreté). He received at Sainte-Famille the regenerative [baptismal] water which made him a new Christian with the name of Pierre, and all of his life, he was faithful to his baptism. Several months later, given his perfect knowledge of the catechism, his great obedience and his good spirit, Father Moreau (7 June, Ascension 1896) admitted him, along with some of his friends, to break Bread...
When I arrived at [Mission] Sainte-Famille on 28 April 1898, Pierre had been married for only several months with a young and intelligent negro woman [sic] named Peke who was baptized, a little later, with the name of Marie. By this time, Pierre had already rendered valuable service to Father Moreau who had trained him. Just a capable at handling the trowel as the plane (rabot), a highly skilled hunter (chasseur émérité), occasionally a good cook, Kuese knew how to do everything, not like some workers who have thirty-six trades but know none in depth. But like a serious and ardent artisan, what he undertook was done with taste, with dexterity (adresse) and also with interest. Father Moreau was proud, and justly so, of his black student. The strongest temptations, the most seducing offers were never able to detach him from the Saint-Famille nor from the ardent missionaries who had made him a precious auxiliary. Always the first to work, he did not leave the workshop until last, and after having collected and locked up the tools which his less conscientious friends threw down at the first sound of the clock. If an elephant was sighted in the area of the Mission, Pierre...
Hunting, dangerous in Africa, (Cotel, Father Pierre. "Pierre Kuese à la Saint-Famille" (Pierre Kuese at Saint-Famille [Mission]), included in Banville, Raconte-moi la Mission, pp. 84-93 [Trans. Bradshaw])

CLOZEL

Clozel, ?. Les Bayas. Notes ethnographiques et linguistiques. Paris: André, 1896.

CLYNES

Clynes, Tom. "Militia OK'd to Shoot Poachers in Africa." National Geographic Adventure magazine, 24 September 2002. news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/09/0924_020924_poaching.html

In an effort to save the last large piece of pristine savanna in Africa, a band of Wyoming conservationists have received permission from the president of the Central African Republic (CAR) to raise an anti-poaching militia to patrol the eastern fourth of the Texas-size country. Led by Bruce Hayse, a family practitioner from Jackson, the group intends to drive out marauding gangs of Sudanese poachers who are rapidly decimating the region's wildlife and terrorizing villagers. The conservationists have been given shoot-on-sight authority. A onetime "wildlife paradise" four times the size of the Serengeti, the eastern CAR is what ecologists call an ecotone—a zone where two major natural habitats (in this case forest and savanna) meet, resulting in exceptional biodiversity. "This is one of the wildest areas left in Africa," said Richard Carroll, the World Wildlife Fund's director of West and Central Africa programs. The CAR itself is a failing, nearly forgotten country still scarred by the ravages of Sudanese slave traders, cannibal dictators, and the French colonial era. Occupied by recurring political unrest around the capital, Bangui, the government has been unable to control its eastern border with Sudan.
Each year, columns of up to 200 well-armed Sudanese poachers cross the border along old slave-raiding routes, in pursuit of game animals long since hunted out in Sudan. After dividing into smaller groups, the poachers set fires to flush out animals, then shoot them and smoke the meat. Populations of elephants, giraffes, crocodiles, and lions have been reduced by more than 95 percent in the area, which was once known as the Serengeti of Central Africa. The situation is a component in Africa's growing bush-meat crisis. Bush meat is a billion-dollar industry that has surpassed deforestation as the most immediate threat to endangered African wildlife. In the Congo Basin alone, more than a million metric tons of bush meat (an amount equal to four million cattle) are harvested from the shrinking forests every year, more than six times the maximum sustainable rate, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society's Elizabeth Bennett. Beyond the threat to wildlife, the bush-meat crisis has the potential to be a human tragedy of immense proportions, since rural Africans get as much as 60 percent of their protein from wild animals. Once overhunting leads to empty forests, the people will have few nutritional alternatives. Poachers had already emptied the forests of much of the wildlife around the village of Rafai when Bruce Hayse rafted in, after an unprecedented descent down the Chinko River in 1999. After hearing villagers' tales of being robbed, raped, murdered, and abducted at the hands of the Sudanese poachers, Hayse made what he calls "a very difficult decision" to help. "It's fine to float down an unexplored river, doing a first descent and having a great time," said Hayse, "but we came to believe we had an obligation at that point to do something more. A whole ecosystem was going to be lost, just so a few hundred outsiders could make money. "Unfortunately, the poachers weren't going to leave just because we told them to. If we were going to save this place, people would have to be killed." Hayse, long active in environmental causes in the western United States, has contributed about U.S. $130,000 and recruited volunteers to his nonprofit group, Africa Rainforest and River Conservation (ARRC). The group has hired a South African former mercenary to recruit and train an anti-poaching force of 400 local men, who will protect the 60,000 square miles (155,000 square kilometers) of wilderness, equivalent to the size of Florida. Also planned are scientific studies, road repair, school and medical dispensary construction, and ecological education. Hayse estimates that the project will need about $600,000 per year to keep it going. (Tom Clynes, "Militia OK'd to Shoot Poachers in Africa." National Geographic Adventure magazine, 24 September 2002.
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/09/0924_020924_poaching.html)

CNN
http://cnn.com/WORLD/africa/
Note: Use Search to retrieve AP and Reuters stories on the Central African Republic.

COBB

Cobb, Charles Jr. "Interview with Richard Reeve, Africa Editor of Jane's Sentinel Security Assessment, a monthly online service posting geopolitical risk analysis." allAfrica, 26 March 2003, Posted to the web 26 March 2003. allafrica.com/stories/200303260649.html
Let's turn to the Central African Republic and the coup d'etat. Would you say that this was fairly predictable given the total lack of money the government has had for almost two years - being unable to pay its military or civil service? Or are we looking at something more political?
I think the coup was always going to be in the cards as long as the government didn't have money to pay the troops. That's not an uncommon problem in a lot of African countries or the developing world more generally. What's interesting about the CAR military is that it was so small in comparison to other militaries. Really funding it need not have been the huge problem that it was in comparison to countries with much larger militaries.
When you say 'small' what do you mean?
Even before the May 2001 coup attempt by [former President] Andre Kolingba, there were less than 3,000 men in the army. Nearly a thousand of those were alienated with Kolingba and another 300-plus went with Francois Bozize to Chad [after his dismissal as army chief of staff]in October 2001, so it became a reduced force of only around 1,500 men. Now in comparison to the militaries of other counties in the region that's really very small. A country like Burundi is extremely poor but has an army more than ten times the size of the CAR.
Why did the CAR have such difficulty getting money? Even the U.S Treasury Department would not sign off on an IMF loan that was really aimed at facilitating African Development Bank funds that would have enabled the government to pay its civil service and military.
I'm not sure exactly why except that there was so little confidence in Patasse from the wider community. He wasn't particularly popular with his neighbors. He wasn't popular with the French. They'd more or less given up on him by the time of this coup. It seemed like things were going to change a bit under Prime Minister Martin Ziguele, but again the government was so erratic, there were so many changes in the administration; it really didn't come across as a particularly responsible government.
It also looked bad with the diamond smuggling issue. It wasn't seen as a responsible player in the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo] either. Bemba's Congo Liberation Movement (MLC) was invited in and more or less incorporated into the military by President Patasse.
Yet it was an elected government and in that sense a legitimate government. Nobody questioned its desperate need for financial assistance and the likelihood that without that assistance, given any number of coup attempts in the past, it would be extremely vulnerable to being overthrown.
Yes, this is interesting, particularly since Patasse's second election was achieved under the administration of the UN mission in the CAR. Their mandate was to oversee the election, and they did that. Then they withdrew. There is an interesting parallel with Congo Brazzaville up to the mid-90s in terms of the [Pascal] Lissouba government being democratically elected and eventually overthrown, with Angola playing a similar role to the one Chad has played in the CAR. And again, France and the international community were not really willing to back Lissouba.
What was Jean Pierre Bemba's interest in the CAR? I understand he pulled his troops out under pressure from the United States.
That's what I'm hearing, too, that the U.S. was instrumental in urging him to remove those troops which was something that I think played a major role in undercutting Patasse's rather tenuous hold on power. But the MLC's interest in the CAR seems based around the use of [the capital city] Bangui and M'poko Airport as a logistics and smuggling center. It's the nearest airport with scheduled international flights. Also, the CAR was issuing diamond export certificates, which are necessary to export diamonds to the international markets of Europe, Israel and so on. They couldn't put their diamonds through Kinshasa as a legitimate, recognized state authority for the DRC so they needed someone to issue it for them. There was a lot of pressure on Congo Brazzaville earlier to stop doing that in relation to Angola and I think also on the DRC, though I am not as sure of that. So, the main direction of [Bemba's] MLC diamonds is going through to Bangui.
Do you think the African Union response to the CAR is a kind of test?
Yes, but there have been several tests to the AU so far, and I think its responded so far in a fairly rigid fashion which hasn't made it look too good. It looks very bad with the exclusion of the [Marc] Ravalomanana government in Madagascar last year.
The CAR is something of a test for African peacekeeping capability as well given that Cemac (Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States) protection force never looked like it was going to be a realistic deterrence force in Bangui or towards the border. Of course the protection force was tasked with protecting the president and the president wasn't in the country [when the coup occurred]. It wasn't specifically tasked to hold Bangui.
So will this government be recognized by the AU?
I don't think that it will be recognized before elections.
Do you take Bozize at his word, although he has suspended the constitution, when he says that he is simply a transition figure pending a new constitutional and democratic dispensation? We have heard this so often.
Yes, I don't see any other way for the CAR; it needs the money too much and is going to have to have legitimacy. But I think there is a willingness of a lot of regional states and international donors to have a kind of constructive engagement with Bozize because Patasse was so unpopular with them by the time he was overthrown. So they will certainly be pushing very hard for elections in the imminent future. Now whether he stands for those [elections] or not is kind of a lesser issue. I think he may well follow [Congo Brazzaville president] Sassou Nguesso towards having himself legitimized.
But then you have what I think the recent events in the CAR are indicative of, which doesn't necessarily have to be seen in a negative context: the process of achieving power through force. That happened in Rwanda and Uganda and in Ethiopia and Eritrea 10 or 15 years ago. And those were seen as being model governments at the time; they were very much encouraged. And to some extent, some of those governments have worked on a stability level.
Perhaps what we're seeing with the Central African Republic is the patience of regional and international communities for peace stalemates wearing thin. You can have a situation like Cote d'Ivoire where the country is divided and you ask: Can we really piece this country together again with a power-sharing government or does somebody have to win and take all? And it seems like there was some kind of decision in the Central African Republic that Bozize had to be allowed to win to be able to come up with a new dispensation rather than stalemate and proxy war with Chad, with no real winner. (Cobb, Charles Jr. "Interview with Richard Reeve, Africa Editor of Jane's Sentinel Security Assessment, a monthly online service posting geopolitical risk analysis." allAfrica, 26 March 2003, Posted to the web 26 March 2003. allafrica.com/stories/200303260649.html)

Cobb, Charles Jr. "Lack of Money Underlies Coup." allAfrica.com 17 March, 2003.
Sounding somewhat puzzled, a U.S. State Department official Monday claimed to be "still looking into" the sudden coup in the Central African Republic this weekend. "There's a lot of sorting out to do. The situation is unclear," said the official.
Nonetheless, there are two key factors underlying the ouster of President Ange-Felix Patasse by his former army chief of staff, Francois Bozize:
- The recent denial of an IMF loan to help with payment of arrears to the African Development Bank that would, in turn, release money to pay civil servants and the military. The United States, while not directly opposing the loan, offered no help with the IMF to secure it.
- Pressure from the United States that led to most of the Mouvement de Liberation du Congo (MLC) rebel forces led by Jean-Pierre Bemba returning to the Democratic Republic of the Congo last year. They had entered the CAR in October 2002, ostensibly to "protect" the Patasse government. The last few remaining in CAR fled back across the Oubangui River into northwestern DRC as Bozize's forces took over the capital city.
In a January report to the Security Council, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned that the suspension of assistance by the World Bank and IMF, aggravated by civil war and work stoppages threatened to cause the country to "spin out of control... It is in fact because the state has received no budgetary assistance for nearly two years and because it lacks the resources to meet its payroll that the country's workers had gone on strike after having courageously and responsibly observing a social truce for 18 months."
Despite recognition of this plight, Annan, on Monday, "forcefully" condemned the coup d'etat. "The Secretary-General calls for the speedy restoration of the constitutional order and for the respect and protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the civilian population," his office said in a statement. Interim Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union Amara Essy also said he "strongly condemns" the takeover. A statement released by the organization said that it "will meet very shortly to consider the situation and the measures to be taken." Speaking on the radio, Bozize, who has suspended the constitution and dissolved government and parliament, said that his takeover was only a temporary break with democracy. (Cobb, Charles Jr. "Lack of Money Underlies Coup." allAfrica.com 17 March, 2003.)

CONCHON

Conchon, Georges. El Estado Salvaje [The Wild State]. Trans. by Alfredo Crespo. Barcelona: Plaza & Janés, 1965, 257p.

COENS

Coens and Joderie. Vocabulaire français-azande et azande-français, 1912. Réédité par le Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren, 19??.

COFACE cf. EXPORT CREDIT INSURANCE
www.coface.com
Coface is a French export credit insurance agency

French businessmen complain that payment delays are making it difficult to continue with certain project contracts. In June [1989] Bouygues Dragages Cameroun, an affiliate of the large French construction group, had still received no payments from the government for work begun on Bangui hospital in September 1998...Another sign of the payment problems is that France's export credit insurance agency Coface disbursed more than three times as much in claims on unpaid sales to the country in 1988 as it earned in premiums on new contracts. As a result, Coface is now refusing to insure any new public sector contracts, except those which are financed internationally. If foreign suppliers are feeling the strain in this way, then the payment pressure on local private sector suppliers, who rely heavily on government business, must be even greater. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 4th Quarter 1989, p. 23)

COFFEE

1987
Coffee production appears to have recovered from 11,400 tons in 1986 to 15,000 tons in 1987. This partly reflects the end of the three year recovery cycle after the serious drought in 1983. With the support of the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the EC and France since 1986, the government is promoting coffee growing among smallholders rather than the traditional plantations (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1988, p. 21)

1989
EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1990, pp. 27-28
In October [1989] President Kolingba finally gave way to the financial strains on the budget and cut coffee producer prices from CFAfr190/kg to CFAfr110/kg for the 1989/ 1990 (October-September) season. Because the CAR was already paying farmers a relatively low price, donors had not pressed too hard for a further reduction. Yet as world prices continued to slump following the effective collapse of the International Coffee Agreement (ICA) in July 1989, the Central African authorities found the burden of paying even CFAfr190/kg of unhulled coffee too great. There is no serious prospect of a major recovery in prices in the short term. The producer price was particularly high for the CAR as its crop has to undertake a costly road trip to Douala which must be paid for out of the fob [freight-on-board] price.
FOB and CIF Transport Costs
Freight-on-Board (FOB) cost structures involve the production cost plus any transport costs to the customers. This implies that customers located nearby will have a lower overall cost than customers that are further away. Under the Cost-Insurance-Freight (CIF) cost structure, every consumer is charged the same price, which commonly reflects the average transport cost. Customers located close to production are "subsidizing" the costs paid by customers located further away. This price structure is common for consuming goods.
In announcing the new prices, President Kolingba said that coffee had come to account for CFAfr7.5 bn of the CFAfr20 bn agricultural subsidy budget which also covers cotton, tobacco, sugar and palm oil. He added that subsidies represented huge sums of money borrowed from donors which could have been invested in productive products to generate growth and prosperity. The new price is still slightly above Ivorian levels: CFAfr110/kg for raw coffee translates into CFAfr220/kg for part processed beans. The Ivorian part processed producer price is CFAfr200/kg. The government and donors are now discussing whether prices should be lowered further, with the former agreeing to the principle of a price floor above which coffee would trade in response to market price movements. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1990, p. 27)

1990
The World Bank is looking at the viability of a price system which would reward quality [of coffee], but there are technical difficulties. Franc Zone data show that total output [of coffee] rose by 12.9 per cent in 1987/88 to 14,000 tons, but the volume of prime grade coffee was 59 per cent down and that of superior grade 34 per cent down. However, in 1988/89 quality seems to have recovered while total output also jumped up sharply, perhaps to as much as 21,600 tons. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1990, p. 28)

Dealers in the CAR have been known to smuggle Zairean [Democratic Republic of the Congo] coffee over the border and then claim it as local production to receive the full subsidy price. They make a much more profitable return than on the fairly expensive Central African coffee and the government end up subsidising exports of [Congolese] coffee. In the 1989/90 season the CAR dealers claimed a total coffee crop of 25,000 tons. Only 18,000 tons is confirmed as of Central African origin and the authorities are fairly certain that 4,000 was [Congolese]. They are still waiting for dealers to prove that the balance of 3,000 tones did come from the CAR before paying out subsidies on it. This season the weather has been less favourable and the government has therefore estimated the genuine CAR crop at 16,000 tons, hence the World Bank's funding limit. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 2nd Quarter 1990, p. 29)

The coffee career [or sector] (filière café) of the CAR is in distress (en perdition). The volume of coffee determined by the Stabilization Fund (Caisse de stabilisation, Caistab) has fallen these two last years [1988-1990], dropping from 19,549 tons during the 1988/ 1989 season, to 10,965 tons for the 1989/1990 season (14,000 tons in 87/88). Forecast (prévision) for the season 1990/1991 are alarming due to bad weather conditions (the continuing dryness, irregularity of rain): 12,700 tons of marketable coffee according to Adecaf, of which only 1635 tons from industrial plantations. The season could be even dramatically worse, however, because of the financial difficulties the [coffee] sector has experienced for three or four years and the hurdles erected by the serious financial crisis which is crossing the country at present. This year [1991] a good part of the crop was not harvested. (Gilguy, "Centrafrique," p. 3073).

...studies have shown that, starting in the early 1970s, the surface [area] of industrial plantations (of more than 20 hectars) has diminished, falling from 15,000 ha to 8,000 ha between 1975/1976 and 1985/86, at the expense of village plantations, cultivated in a traditional manner [sic]. According to the division of statistics and economic studies (DSEE) of the CAR, these surface areas [of plantation coffee] were 6000 ha in 1988 and 4000 ha in 1990. (Gilguy, "Centrafrique," p. 3073).

The yields (rendements), already low, also had a tendency to decline as well, falling from an average of 312 kg/ha to 281 kg/ha during the same period [1970s-1980s]. Industrial plantation were able to maintain average yields of over a ton per hectare, but they had a tendency to get old, as did their owners, and new investments were rare. Other factors, such as a worsening climate, wearing away of vegetable matter [declining fertility or erosion of the soil], and the weakness of agricultural promotion, aggravated this general degredation. Added to these problems, and particularly discouraging for planters, were the theft of harvests and, above all, smuggling [of coffee] from Zaire [DRC]. (Gilguy, "Centrafrique," p. 3073).

COFFEE RESEARCH GROUP???

The 2000 Import and Export Market for Coffee in Central African Republic. January 2001.

COHEN

Cohen, S. "The Collectors." The Washington Post Magazine, 9 January 1994, pp. 8-28.

SAME AUTHOR?

Cohen, Samy and Marie-Claude Smouts, eds. La Politique Extérieure de Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1985. See below.

Bach, Daniel. "La France en Afrique Subsaharienne: Contraintes Historiques et Nouveaux Espaces Économiques." In Samy Cohen and Marie-Claude Smouts, eds. La Politique Extérieure de Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Paris: Presses de la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, 1985, pp. 284-310.

COILLARD
François Coillard, French evangelical missionary in Lesotho and Zambia whose life inspired James Gribble, founder of the Evangelical Brethren Mission in Ubangi-Shari

Coillard, François. On the Threshold of Central Africa. ??? 1971.

[in] Lesotho... [Paris Evangelical Missionary Society] missionaries Eugène Casalis and later Adolphe Mabille became advisers to the Basuto king Moeshoeshoe. Following 20 years service in Basutoland, François Coillard led an expedition north to found a new mission on the Zambezi River in the territory of the Barotse people, serving there until his death in 1904. (Mundus, gateway to missionary collections in the United Kingdom, www.mundus.ac.uk/cats/4/1060.htm)

In 1887 Francois Coillard, of the Paris Evangelical Mission opened a second school at Sefula. (Henry Martyn Centre, www.martynmission.cam.ac.uk/CJoeKapolyo.htm)

Brockman, Norbert C.. "François Coillard," Dictionary of African Christian Biography, www.dacb.org/stories/lesotho/coillard_francois1.htm) Coillard, François
1834 to 1904, Protestant missionary, Lesotho/Zambia

Reverend François Coillard, one of the leading Protestant missionaries in southern Africa, was a supporter of British imperialism. Born of a French Huguenot family, he came under evangelical influence early in life and volunteered for missionary work at age 20. He was trained at the University of Strasbourg and in Paris until 1857, when he was ordained and sent to Basutoland (now Lesotho) by the Paris Evangelical Mission Society.
After being held up for two years in Cape Town by regional warfare, Coillard was finally able to reach Basutoland, where he worked until 1877. He struggled against polygamy and witchcraft, at first without much success due to the king's hostility. He did, however, become an important intermediary and peacemaker between the Sotho and the English, whom he invariably favored over the Afrikaners. In 1866 he was forced out by the Afrikaners but was able to return after the British protectorate was established. He had become influential in the area, especially after the conversion of MOSHWESHWE I in 1870.
In 1877 he and his family crossed the Limpopo River to start a mission among the Shona. The Coillards were arrested by Chief LOBENGULA and expelled. Taking the advice of the Sotho leader KHAMA III, Coillard entered what is now Zambia and was again turned back. Finally, Chief LEWANIKA of the Lozi people of western Zambia (Barotseland) invited him to stay, and he established a flourishing mission.
Coillard found himself in an ambiguous position. He negotiated between Lewanika and Cecil RHODES's British South Africa Company, which was then encroaching on various communities in the area. He complained to Rhodes that while he 'could not serve two masters', he was willing to bring the two together. He helped to establish a treaty in 1890, which he honestly believed was in the best interests of the Lozi. He later discovered, however, that Rhodes expected him to be responsible for Lewanika's observance of the agreement.
In 1889, Coillard published his memoirs, Sur le haut Zambèze, which was translated into English in 1897. In 1895 he became ill and spent several years recuperating in Europe. He returned in 1899 to what had become Northern Rhodesia and to continual struggles within his mission. A quarter of his assistants had died, and half had quit under the difficult conditions. In 1903 an African independent church movement won away many of his converts. His achievements were not in numerous converts but in the trust he engendered among the British authorities and the diligent ways in which he attempted to bring the useful aspects of Western society to Barotseland. He was sincere in his belief that only British colonial government would end civil strife among the Lozi and protect them from their enemies and the exploitation of white gold-seekers. While he refused to become an official imperial agent, he was a decisive figure in the colonization of Zambia. (Norbert C. Brockman, "François Coillard," Dictionary of African Christian Biography, www.dacb.org/stories/lesotho/coillard_francois1.htm)

COLA NUT cf. DRUGS, SEX, INFORMAL ECONOMY, FULANI, HAUSA

The cola nut (Cola nitida (Vent.) Schott o. Endl.) which is called banga, grows wild in the wooded regions of southern Gbaya country. Known as a tonic and sexual stimulant, it is collected for storage and export. The biggest buyers are the Hausa and Fulani. To what extent it is consumed by the Gbaya themselves cannot be determined. It is my impression that since a steady and strong demand keeps the price high, the Gbaya prefer to sell the banga they collect and store, and instead use a cheaper commodity, which is always at hand and serves the same purpose: kefele, koul, mbalanga, mokte, kole, te-wowi (BIRSC 3, p. 29) (Hilberth, Gbaya, p. 7).

November = Dombanga: The cola nuts are harvested. (Hilberth, Gbaya, p. 15).

COLLE cf. REAPAGO, PATASSÉ, TRADE UNIONS
Théophile Sony Colle, head of the Union syndicale des travailleurs de Centrafrique, which represents many public-sector workers, c. 1999.

Goneyo Reapago, editor-in-chief of Le Rassemblement, the newspaper of the Rassemblement démocratique centrafricain (RDC), was arrested because he had published an article about death threats said to have been made against one of the CAR's most prominent trade unionists, Théophile Sony Colle. Mr Cole, who heads the Union syndicale des travailleurs de Centrafrique, represents many public-sector workers; he also played a major role in organising the strikes and demonstrations that helped to bring down the regime of General André Kolingba, leader of the RDC. Arrested on [19 July 2005], Mr Reapago was held for one month and then sentenced to two years' imprisonment and fined CFAfr500,000 ($1,020). The court judged that he had offended the head of state and damanged his dignity and honour. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 4th Quarter 1995, p. 22)

COLLINS
Collins, Professor Grace. Helped with preparation of Rosenau, Eugene V., Clara de Rosset and Loie Knight, eds. 1980 Sango-English Dictionary to be used in conjunction with the Sango Bible. Sibut, RCA: La Presse Biblique Baptiste and Cleveland, OH: Baptist Mid-Missions, 1980.

COLOMBE FORET SOCIÉTÉ NOUVELLE cf. FORESTS, TIMBER, LEBANON'S RELATIONS, CONCESSIONS, INDUSTRIES, PATASSÉ

Table 3: Concession holders in CAR at end of 1999
Company, Size, Date of Concession Source of Finance Area of Operation
Colombe Foret Société Nouvelle Lebanese with CAR president Mambere-Kadei 652,221 hectares 7 July 1998 Sangha-Mambere
Source: (http://www.forestsmonitor.org/reports/solddownriver/car.htm)

COLONIAL AUXILLIARES cf. SENEGALESE, WEST AFRICANS, YAKOMA, ALGERIANS

Note: Clapier also demonstrated a 10 to 15 percent rise in malaria during the rainy season. Data from the camp de Kasai were subtracted from Table 1, page 542, because the sharpshooters (tirailleurs') children often took quinine; their infection rate was thus only 48.7 percent for ages 0-6. (Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 158)

COLONNA

Colonna, J.P. "Recherches sur la fertilisation minérale du riz en culture pluviale en République Centrafricaine. Résultat des premiers essais. Coll. Fertil. sols trop. Tananarive. IRAT. 1 (1967):709-719.

Colonna, J.P. "Le riz et sa culture en République Centrafricaine." Agronomie Tropicale, 1 (1967):11-29.

COLRAT DE MONTROSIER

Colrat de Montrosier R. Deux ans chez les anthropophages et les Sultans du Centre Africain. Paris: Plon: 1902. Discusses oracles and ordeals used by the Nzakara during the time of sultan Bangassu.

COLUMBIA ENCYCLOPEDIA
www.bartleby.com/65/ce/CentrAR.html
Subsistence agriculture, together with forestry, remains the backbone of the economy of the Central African Republic (CAR), with more than 70% of the population living in outlying areas. The agricultural sector generates half of GDP. Timber has accounted for about 16% of export earnings and the diamond industry, for 54%. Important constraints to economic development include the CAR's landlocked position, a poor transportation system, a largely unskilled work force, and a legacy of misdirected macroeconomic policies. Factional fighting between the government and its opponents remains a drag on economic revitalization, with GDP growth at only 0.5% in 2004. Distribution of income is extraordinarily unequal. Grants from France and the international community can only partially meet humanitarian needs."Central African Republic." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Ed. 2001-05.

COMINCO cf. SOCIÉTÉ CENTRAFRICAIN D'EXPLOITATION DIAMTIFÈRE cf. SCED, CENTRAL AFRICAN DIAMOND EXPLOITATION COMPANY, DIAMONDS, DIAMOND DISTRIBUTORS, JOLIS
Note: Cominco Ltd. is a Canadian mining, metal and chemical company with world-wide operations.

Trail's Cominco smelter is the world's largest zinc and lead smelting complex, processing an astonishing 700,000 tonnes of concentrates annually. The Giant on the Hill, Cominco, conduct regular free guided tours of its huge smelting operation, with hands-on exhibits and video presentations.
(www.britishcolumbia.com/regions/towns/?townID=3520)

COMITÉ INTERNATIONAL POUR LE RESPECT ET L'APPLICATION DES DROITS DE L'HOMME cf. CIRAC

COMMERCE cf. INFORMAL ECONOMY

1991
Commerce has experienced profound changes these last ten years [1980-1990], characterized notably by the disengagement of Portuguese and French interests and the disappearance of the complex of trading posts (comptoirs) [or stores] that supplied the most distant rural regions. Since three or four years ago [c. 1986] some have retreated to Bangui (CFAO for example). Others have retreated or closed down: SCKN, a subsidiary of Unilever which was present since 1935, closed in 1987. More recently, at the end of 1990 and early 1991, Socoa, of the group Gonzalves, ceased operations, while Cedimex, of the family Ferreira, sold out to Central Africans. (Gilguy, "Centrafrique," p. 3083).
Experts estimate that the underground economy represents, in the CAR, 80 to 90% of PNB [whatever National Brut?]... The lack of fiscal receipts for the state is estimated by experts to be about 10 billion CFA a year. More serious, the success of this [underground] sector results in the destruction of the economy and, even worse, the failure and cessation of activities or at least great difficulty for "official" enterprises. Among the sectors which suffers most from this, or about which we heard directly from witnesses, is the diamond [business] and general commerce. Cooking oil is one product that [is imported clandestinely] (Centrapalm and Husaca suffer from this). Used clothing is also imported clandestinely, not to mention cement and tires. Clandestine imports come mostly from Cameroun and Zaire [DRC]. (Gilguy, "Centrafrique," p. 3083).

Every evening a group of Bayanga market women, varying in number from 2-30, visits Mossapoula to sell bread, manioc, alcohol, peanut butter, and other goods. In return, they buy meat, "koko" leaves (Gentum buckholzianum), "payo" nuts (Irvingia excelsa), mushrooms, and occasionally manioc. (Noss, "Duikers, Cables and Nets," p. 114).

Over two dozen species [of mushrooms] are edible, but the three species marketed most commonly are called "musele", "banyavya", and "tokomba" in BaAka. (Noss, "Duikers, Cables and Nets," p. 113 and 114).

Dried fish from this portion of the Sangha is transported and sold as far away as Nola, 150 kilometers to the north, and Ouesso, 150 kilometers to the south in Congo [B]. (Noss, "Duikers, Cables and Nets," p. 118).

2004
BANGUI, 18 Jun 2004 (IRIN) - In Bangui, hawkers sell water in plastic sachets; a practice that health authorities have warned is unsafe. Symptoms of the [Hepatitis E] are yellowish eyes, tiredness and stomachaches. The UN World Health Organization (WHO) says Hepatitis E is a waterborne disease transmitted from person-to-person via the faecal-oral route. Contaminated water or food supplies have been implicated in major outbreaks, it says. ("Hepatitis E outbreak in capital." IRIN, 18 June 2004).

COMMISION AFRICAINE DE L’AVIATION CIVILE (CAFAC)
http://www.afcac-cafac.sn/cafac_français.htm

African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) is a specialized agency of the Organization of the African Unity (OAU)—renamed African Union—in the field of civil aviation.

- Réunion Sous-régionale Afrique Centrale sur la Coopération et l'Intégration des Compagnies Aériennes – Bangui, 26-30 janvier 1977 - AFCAC/AIRLINE/COOP/4 –1977 (31 pages)

COMMISSION DU CENTENAIRE DE L'EGLISE DE CENTRAFRIQUE

Album du centenaire de l'Eglise catholique en Centrafrique, 1894-1994. Bangui: Commission du Centenaire de l'Eglise de Centrafrique, Archidiocèse de Bangui, 1994.

COMMISION NATIONALE POUR L’ÉTUDE DE LA LANGUE SANGHO
Created in 1965

COMMITTEE OF FOREIGN PARTNERS

"Annan Calls For Comprehensive Aid To Post-Civil War Central African Republic." United Nation Press Release, 1 November 2005. New York, 31 Oct 2005.
With Central African Republic (CAR) "gradually returning to a path of peace, economic recovery, reconstruction and sustainable development," United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is calling for comprehensive joint assistance from the country's development partners. "The socio-economic and financial situation of the Central African Republic remains difficult," he says in his latest report to the Security Council on the country. He recommends that existing cooperation frameworks and the consolidated appeals process be strengthened "to provide grater support to the country's economic recover efforts and to prevent any deterioration in the socio-economic situation." Since development is inextricably linked to security, an improvement in the interior and in the border areas is needed for stability in the Central African Republic, he says. Development assistance will come from the Committee of Foreign Partners, Mr. Annan says, comprising China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United States, the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), the Multinational Force of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (FOMUC), the International Organization of la Francophonie, the UN Peacebuilding Support Office in CAR (BONUCA), the European Union (EU), the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and the World Bank. The UN Resident Coordinator should coordinate the aid mechanisms, bearing in mind the newly elected Government's priorities, which include immediate streamlining of finances, rehabilitation of the basic infrastructure destroyed during the mutinies and politico-military crises which were the source of instability past, and the modernization of several sectors, he says.

COMMISSARIAT À L'ÉNERGIE ATOMIQUE cf. CEA, URANIUM

A new and important resource that was began to receive attention during Bokassa’s rule was uranium. France needed uranium both for her nuclear power program and the creation and maintenance of her own nuclear weapons program. During the nineteen sixties and seventies, France imported uranium from three African nations and saw the CAR as a possible fourth source and a large source at that. After doing a survey in 1963, the French Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA) reported that the CAR had uranium reserves of fifteen-thousand metric tons. In 1969 a company, the Compagnie d’uranium de Bakouma was formed to begin mining. Bangui contributed twenty-percent of the investment cost while the CEA and a French mining company, the Compagnie française des minerais d’uranium (CFMU), each contributed forty-percent.

COMMUNAUTÉ ISLAMIQUE CENTRAFRICAINE cf. CICA, ISLAM, RELIGION, MOSQUES, LIBYA, JAMAHIRIYA ARABE LIBYENNE, ASSOCIATION MONDIALE POUR L'APPEL ISLAMIQUE, KOBINE

Cf. Momet, Mathurin Nestor Constant. "LA CICA DENONCE LA CONFISCATION DES DONS PAR L'AMBASSADE LIBYENNE." Le Confident, 19 January 2006, www.leconfident.net.

A l'occasion de la fête de Tabaski de cette année 2006, la grande Jamahiriya Arabe Libyenne a fait don de denrées alimentaire à l'Etat Centrafricain dont une partie doit revenir à la Communauté Islamique. Le mardi, 3 janvier nuit, le chargé d ‘Affaires Libyen a informé par téléphone le Président de la Communauté Islamique Centrafricaine (CICA) de la prochaine arrivée à Bangui d'une forte délégation de l'Association Mondiale pour l'appel Islamique (AMAI) sans préciser ni le mobile ni le jour de l'arrivée et prie son interlocuteur d'être présent à l'aéroport. Le lendemain 4 janvier, ce même chargé d'Affaires rappelle le Président de la CICA à 11h 50 mn pour lui annoncer l'arrivée de la délégation et précise que l'avion se pose à 13 heures, heure locales.
A 12 h 50mn lorsque le Président de la CICA accompagné du SG Oumar Kobine Layama, Imam de la Mosquée de Combattant arrivent à l'aéroport, l'avion était déjà là au sol, tous les passagers débarqués et restés en groupe sous l'avion. Le personnel de l'Ambassade était là au grand complet. Peu de temps après, arrive M. Francis Bozizé, Directeur de cabinet du Ministre de la défense suivi de trois gros véhicules militaires et une pick up. Après les présentations d'usage, le chef de la délégation libyenne, M. Khalaf, Directeur de l'AMAI basé à Ndjaména avec juridiction à Bangui et Yaoundé, prend la parole pour nous annoncer que le don alimentaire envoyé par la grande Jamahiriya Arabe Libyenne est destiné à tout le peuple centrafricain, Chrétiens et Musulmans sans distinction. Les 2/3 seront remis au Gouvernement représenté par le Directeur de Cabinet en vue de la distribution aux Chrétiens et le 1/3 restant à la CICA pour les Musulmans. Ce don est composé pour une grande part, des sachet de riz, des cartons d'huile et des cartons de médicaments.
Le chargé d'Affaires prend la parole à son tour pour demander s'il est nécessaire de remettre aussi les médicaments à la CICA. Après échanges, nous avons convenu que les médicaments soient remis directement au ministère de la Santé Publique qui dispose d'infrastructures et de personnel qualifié pour que cela profite à la fois aux Musulmans et aux déshérités. Le Président de la CICA a pris soin de joindre Madame la Ministre de la santé pour lui annoncer personnellement la nouvelle.
Pris au dépourvu et n'ayant pas de véhicule pour enlever la part qui revient à la Communauté musulmane, le Président de la CICA s'est tourné vers le Directeur de Cabinet pour solliciter son concours. Celui-ci n'a pas hésité à affecter un gros véhicule qui a fait un seul voyage pour décharger son contenu à l'Ambassade de la Libye, à charge pour la CICA de trouver d'autre moyen de transport pour l'amener au siège de la CICA.
Le jeudi 5 janvier, une réunion technique a regroupé la délégation de l'AMAI, le Chargé d'Affaires entouré de tout son personnel et les représentants de la CICA à la Chancellerie Libyenne.
Au cours de cette réunion pour la remise officielle de la part revenant aux musulmans, M. Khalaf a déclaré: « Désormais, tout ce qui provient de l'AMAI à la CICA doit être remis directement à la CICA afin qu'elle distribue aux ayants droit ».
La CICA a loué une double cabine qui a fait deux rotations et à la troisième, le Chargé d'Affaires de la Libye s'en est opposé, estimant que la distribution de la partie restante, la plus importante, incombe à l'Ambassade.
Le vendredi 6 janvier, le SG de CICA Oumar Kobine Layama qui avait suivi tout le processus, descend à l'Ambassade pour amples informations. C'est là qu'il abuté au refus catégorique du Chargé d'Affaires et est obligé d'informer le Président de la CICA de ce brusque revirement de la situation.
Le Chargé d'Affaires, mécontent de la réaction du SG qui a tenu informer le Président de la CICA, renchérit que c'est lui-même qui a pris la décision de bloquer cette partie du don alimentaire pour donner à qui il veut. Puis il ajoute : « si cela ne plait pas allez où vous voulez vous plaindre car ce n'est pas aux musulmans que ce don est destiné. »
Devant cette attitude incompréhensible, le président de la CICA a demandé au SG de cesser de discuter pour les sachets de riz et quelques cartons d'huile.
Nous sommes dans un pays arrosé presque toute l'année par la pluie ; un pays gâté par Dieu . C'est la paresse qui fait que nous pleurons la, faim.
Arrêtons de nous faire ridiculiser mais ramenez d'urgence le peu qui est déposé au siège de la CICA à l'Ambassade de la Libye. Tous les membres de la Commission de distribution (parmi lesquels Haja Sara NIMAGA, Présidente des Femmes musulmanes de Centrafrique) ont approuvé à l'unanimité la décision du Président de la CICA.
C'est ainsi que, un véhicule à ramené un voyage et le deuxième voyage est fait par un véhicule de l'Ambassade. C'est dire que l'intégralité du don alimentaire libyen prétendue destiné aux musulmans de Centrafrique a été confisqué par l'Ambassade de la Libye en Centrafrique.
Ce spectacle de don alimentaire entièrement repris par le donateur nous interpelle tous car, nombreux sont ceux qui ne sont pas contents. Avec tout ce que le créateur a légué à notre pays, sommes nous en droit de pleurer pour si peu? Le bois (essences recherchées), le diamant, l'or, le bétail, les grandes pluies, le café, etc. pour ne citer que ceux là. Quel est le pays dans ce monde qui dispose de tout ce trésor que Dieu nous a donné? Ressaisissons-nous. Gloire à Dieu, le Bienfaiteur et Donateur Universel.
Le Président de la CICA M. M. Marboua
(Mathurin Nestor Constant Momet, "LA CICA DENONCE LA CONFISCATION DES DONS PAR L'AMBASSADE LIBYENNE." Le Confident, 19 January 2006, www.leconfident.net) Jeudi 19 Janvier 2006, Mathurin Nestor Constant Momet

COMPAGNIE FORESTIERE SANGHA-OUBANGUI (C.F.A.O.)

Compagnie Forestière Sangha-Oubangui. La C.F.A.O. Ses origines, ses méthodes, ses résultats, ses aspirations. Paris: Imprimerie Chaix, 1911. 138pp. Avant-propos by Roger Noguès, président du Conseil d'Administration et ancien directeur générale des services communs des Sociétés de la Haute-Sangha et du Moyen-Oubangui.

Compagnie Forestière Sangha-Oubangui. La Compagnie Forestière Sangha-Oubangui, travaux d'aménagement forestier, recherches sur les meilleurs procédés de récolte. Apercu d'emsemble au mois de janvier 1912. Paris: Imprimerie Chaix, 1912. 111pp. Préface by Roger Noguès, président du Conseil d'Administration et ancien directeur générale des services communs des Sociétés de la Haute-Sangha et du Moyen-Oubangui.

Compagnie Forestière de la Sangha-Oubangui. "Rapport général, 1912." 1913, CAOM, AEF 8Q1. Indicates that in "1912 the CFSO required a worker to produce about twelve kilos of rubber each month." (Giles-Vernick, Cutting the Vines, p. 92, fn. 23).

COMITÉ FRANÇAIS DE RADIOTÉLÉVISION

Pentecôte sur l'Oubangui. Paris: Comité français de radiotélévision, éd., Paris : Villiers diffusion, 1994. Ed. Comité français de radiotélévision. Distributeur: Villiers diffusion. Producer: Comité français de radiotélévision. Producteur de vidéogrammes France 2. 1 cass vidéo : coul, SECAM ; 1/2 pouce VHS. Collection: Le jour du Seigneur Visages de l'Église. Copyright : France 2, cop. 1993. Tanant, Maurice, Réalisateur; Dramou, Eugène Philippe (aut). Auteur du texte; Marliangeas, Bernard. Auteur du texte.

COMITÉ FRANCO-CENTRAFRICAIN DE COOPÉRATION??? Cf. FRANCO-CENTRAFRICAIN JOINT COOPERATION COMMITTEE

A meeting of the Franco-Centrafricain Joint Cooperation Committee took place in Bangui in July 1982. The French Minister for Cooperation and Development, Jean-Pierre Cot, congratulated the CAR on its efforts at economic recovery, but added that 'bilateral relations are not adequate to solve the CAR's problems'. He said that France wanted others to join in aid giving. Delays in France's payments to CAR civil servants was noted at about this time (ACR, 1983, B353-354)

COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS cf. PRESS, NGOs, ZOSSÉ, L'HIRONDELLE
www.cpj.org

Journalist released from prison." IRIN 18 May 2004.

NAIROBI, 18 May 2004 (IRIN) - A journalist in the Central African Republic (CAR), who had been jailed for libelling CAR leader Francois Bozize, has been released after serving two months of his six-month sentence, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), reported on Monday. The New York-based committee said Judes Zossé, the publication director of the privately owned daily newspaper L'Hirondelle, was released on Friday under a presidential pardon. CPJ reported that Zossé was sentenced to six months in prison on 12 March for "insulting the head of state" after his newspaper reprinted an article from the opposition news Web site Centrafrique-presse.com. The report had alleged that Bozize, who came to power after a March 2003 coup, had personally taken over the collection of taxes in the country, prompting two senior treasury officials to contemplate resignation. "The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of Judes Zossé, but he never should have been jailed in the first place," Ann Cooper, the CPJ executive director, was quoted as saying. "We call on authorities in the Central African Republic to work toward removing criminal penalties for press offenses." CPJ is a an independent, nonprofit organisation that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide.

COMMUNAUTÉ ÉCONOMIQUE ET MONÉTAIRE DE L'AFRIQUE CENTRAL cf. CEMAC, ECONOMIC AND MONETARY COMMUNITY OF CENTRAL AFRICA
Note: Leaders of six central African states established the multinational force, CEMAC, in 2000 to replace the UN Mission to the CAR, known as MINURCA, which had been in the country since 1997. The CEMAC troops were deployed to restore peace following military and political unrest at that time. Presently, CEMAC comprises troops from Chad, Gabon and the Congo. The force was to have included members of all CEMAC countries, but Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea declined to participate. CAR is the sixth CEMAC member.

CEMAC, ed. Echos d'aujourd'hui. Bangui, Central African Republic: Communauté économique et monétaire de l'Afrique centrale, 2000-

COMMUNAUTÉ FINANCIÈRE AFRICAINE Cf. CFA

COMMUNAUTÉ FRANÇAISE?? / FRENCH COMMUNITY

Cf. Bagot, Yves, Michel Maumon and Justin Gutkecht. La valorisation des sous-produits du coton en République (The valorization of cotton by-products in the Central African Republic). Paris: Office of the Secretary of State for the French Community, 1960. 64p.

COMPAGNIE COTONIÈRE DU HAUT OUBANGUI

Compagnie cotonnière du Haut Oubangui. Compagnie contonnière du Haut Oubangui. ??: 1957?. 31p. map. 26 cm.

COMPAGNIE D'URANIUM DE BAKOUMA cf. COMPAGNIE FRANÇAISE DES MINERAIS D'URANIUM Cf. CFMU,

In 1969 a company, the Compagnie d’uranium de Bakouma was formed to begin mining. Bangui contributed twenty-percent of the investment cost while the CEA and a French mining company, the Compagnie française des minerais d’uranium (CFMU), each contributed forty-percent. (SEE BELOW)

In the early 1960's the French atomic energy commission discovered uranium in the CAR. With the coup d'etat which brought Bokassa into power the French position in the CAR became somewhat less stable due to Bokassa's erratic policies. In spite of this, however, the French extended their investments. In April of 1969 the Compagnie des Mines d'uranium de Bakouma (URBA) was set up in Bangui and thousands of millions of CFA francs were planned to be invested for one site alone (Kalck 1971: 171) (ARC 1979: B522). The agreement was for the French to have 80% of the equity in the partnership while the CAR only held 20%. When operations did not begin for several years Bokassa became impatient with the delays and disagreements between France and the CAR resulted. The fact that Bokassa threw out the French and Belgium mining engineers that same year must have put a damper on French enthusiasm for the project.

COMPAGNIE FRANÇAISE DES MINERAIS D'URANIUM cf. CFMU, COMMISSARIAT À L'ÉNERGIE ATOMIQUE, CEA, URANIUM

France [needs] uranium both for her nuclear power program and the creation and maintenance of her own nuclear weapons program. During the nineteen sixties and seventies, France imported uranium from three African nations and saw the CAR as a possible fourth source and a large source at that. After doing a survey in 1963, the French Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA) reported that the CAR had uranium reserves of fifteen-thousand metric tons. In 1969 a company, the Compagnie d’uranium de Bakouma was formed to begin mining. Bangui contributed twenty-percent of the investment cost while the CEA and a French mining company, the Compagnie française des minerais d’uranium (CFMU), each contributed forty-percent.

COMPTE

Comte, Paul. Les Nsakkaras, leur pays, leurs moeurs, leurs Croyances, etc. avec un glossaire, par un membre de la mission française du Haut-Oubangui, Bar-le-Duc, Compte-Jacquet (The Nzakara, their country, their customs, their beliefs). Bar-le-Duc, France: Imprimerie Comte-Jacquet, 1895. 136p. map. downloadable at: http://gallica.bnf.fr/

COMPTOIR NATIONAL DU DIAMANT cf. DIAMOND DISTRIBUTORS, JOLIS,
The Comptoir National du Diamant

The USA does have one economic card: Diamond Distributors of New York is the government's 50:50 joint venture partner in the national diamond buying agency, the Comptoir National du Diamant. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1990, p. 24)

CONCESSIONARY COMPANIES cf. CHARTER COMPANIES
cf.

French Equatorial Africa... was a huge and completely undeveloped territory... The first years after French takeover saw little activity other than episodic and uregulated trading. By the end of the nineteenth century, the government decided that the only way to speed development and avoid anarchy was to parcel out Gabon, the Moyen-Congo and Oubangui-Chari - territories later joined with Chad to form the AEF - to private companies. In 1899, 40 'concessionary companies' won control over 700,000 square kilometers (of the 900,000 represented by the AEF). Concessions ranged from 1200 to 140,000 square kilometers. In return for a bond, nominal annual rent, 15 per cent of profits and supplementary contributions to the cost of setting up customs posts and telegraph lines, the companies obtained a monopoly on ivory and rubber trading and a free hand to exploit their land for 30 years. After the end of the period, the companies would receive legal title to lands which they had effectively developed. Promises of final settlement were particularly generous - a company could hope to get 100 hectares of land, for instance, for having domesticated a single elephant. (Aldrich, Greater France, p. 193).
The policy of issuing patents to concessionary companies signified the government's own inability or unwillingness to create a modern economy for the AEF. The project also harked back to the charter companies which had developed colonies in the 1600s. Furthermore, the strategy paralleled plans by Britain and Germany to use private companies in eastern Africa. Major French firms, however, showed little interest in investing in equatorial Africa and were notably absent among concessionary companies set up for the AEF. Capital came mostly from colonists and medium-sized trading companies already involved in the region; foreign capital, especially from Belgium, was significant. Investors hoped for handsome profits, especially after the much vaunted Congo-Ocean railway opened. High hopes were not realized. A decade after the companies were founded, only seven paid dividends to shareholders. Ten disappeared completely by 1904, and at the end of the 30-year concession period, only eight remained. Delays in building the railway, the costs and distances involved in porterage, unhealthy conditions in tropical forests, difficulties in finding labour, and the international economic climate stifled development. European traders and entrepreneurs were slow in coming to the AEA; the European population grew from 800 in 1900 to just over 2000 a decade later. Production of ivory, previously a profitable export, declined from 210 tons in 1905 to 97 tons 15 years later. Rubber production stagnated from the turn of the twentieth century until the First World War. The only bright spot was the production of tropical hardwoods, particularly mahogany, which rocketed from 2000 tons in 1898 to 150,000 in 1913; commercial forestry was confined largely to Gabon, which consequently became a more valuable possession than the Moyen-Congo and Oubangui-Chari. (Aldrich, Greater France, p. 193).
Scandalous treatment of Africans horrified at least some sectors of French opinion. One of the worst single incidents was the locking up of 45 women in Lobaye [and then Bangui] in 1905 to force them and their menfolk to work for a concessionary company; most of the women died. At M'Poko, the murder of at least a thousand African workers led to indictments of 236 persons; most got off, and the affair was hushed up. Workers were regularly coerced into labour, and beaten with chains and whips to ensure their obedience and productivity. (Aldrich, Greater France, p. 194).
The concessionary regime was manifestly a failure. In the interwar years, journalists and travelers, such as André Gide, revealed mistreatment of indigenes. An official report in 1925 stated that the concessionary companies had left the AEF as poor as they had found it. By the 1930s, ivory reserves were thoroughly depleted. In some regions of the AEF, supplies or rubber, a prime export, had been exhausted. The Depression caused a crash in the price and demand for rubber; in any case, Southeast Asian rubber provided unbeatable competition for African producers. (Aldrich, Greater France, p. 194).
The economy of the AEF showed limited diversification. The standard of living for the African population probably declined during the concessionary regime. The companies' actions in the first years of the system have been characterized as an 'economy of pillage' marked by human exploitation and environmental depredation. Only by the late 1920s and 1930s, as concessions expired and government capital replaced private funds, the logging industry stabilized, and the volume of exports and imports grew, did the AEF really develop a 'proper' imperialistic economy capable of expansion and profit-making. (Aldrich, Greater France, p. 195).

CONCHON
Georges Conchon was Secretary of the Central African Republic National Assembly for a couple months in 1960-1961. Then he wrote a fictious novel on the Africa he met and his novel was awarded the Goncourt Prize in 1964. The people and places described in his novel are those of Bangui which in his novel is named Fort-Jacul. In 1978 Francis Girod directed a movie based on Conchon’s novel.

Conchon, Georges. L’état sauvage. 1964.

CONDITIONALITY cf. IMF, WORLD BANK, BUDGETARY SUPPORT

CONDITIONALITY AND DIAMONDS
1989
It now seems likely that the government will move to tighten up collection of the diamond tax, and a halving of the present 12 per cent rate to make legal export channels more attractive is certainly in the cards. France has pledged that it will not release the final tranche of this year's CFAfr bn ($12.2 mn) budget support until the government has raised CFAfr 1.6 bn in diamond taxes. The process should be given further impetus by the new computer systems being installed to monitor tax and customs collection. The new element of conditionality in French budgetary support is expected to influence government thinking, and will become a growing theme in relations with the donor community. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 3rd Quarter 1989, p. 7)

CONDOMAT cf. TRANSCOOP, TRUCKERS CONTROVERSY, AMICALE
Bernard Condomat

Among the leaders in the Amicale Oubanguienne were Pierre Indo, Antoine Darlan, Bernard Condomat, Jean-Baptiste Songomali, and Benoit Mombéto, all of whom were important in political activity after 1945 and all of whom were from riverain tribes. (Ballard, “Political Parties,” p. 148 and fn. 46.)

The truckers controversy, which was one of the many subjects that divided the two colleges of the assembly, was touched off by the creation in July 1950 of an African cooperative (TRANSCOOP) by [Bernard] Condomat, an [Ubangi] assemblyman. He lost no time in asking the assembly to bring pressure on the government to give the TRANSCOOP some of its official business, and on the European companies to share with it part of the lucrative transport of cotton, which they monopolized The European companies involved were the Société des Transports Oubangui-Cameroun (STOC), the Compagnie des Transports Routiers de l’Oubangui (CTRO), and Uniroute, a firm that operated mainly in Tchad. (Thompson and Adloff, The Emerging States of French Equatorial Africa, p. 405.) All of these companies had been in Oubangui for about 20 years, and from very modest beginnings had had built up fleets of trucks, of which by 1958 STOC had 170, CTRO 150, and Uniroute 53. By virtue of short-term contracts with the territorial governments, these companies held a monopoly of the territory’s transport business. (Thompson and Adloff, The Emerging States of French Equatorial Africa, p. 405.)

CONFÉDÉRATION GÉNÉRALE DU TRAVAIL Cf. CGT, FORCE OUVRIÈRE GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF WORK

The Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT or "General Confederation of Work") is one of the five major French confederations of trade unions. It was founded in 1895 and for a long time maintained ties with the French Communist Party. This led to a split in 1948, when Léon Jouhaux founded Force Ouvrière. During the 1990's, the CGT cut organic links with the French Communist Party and managed to remain one of the two french major union confederations. CGT left the communist-oriented World Federation of Trade Unions at its 1995 congress and became a member of European Trade Union Confederation in 1999. Its leader is Bernard Thibaut. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conf%C3%A9d%C3%A9ration_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9rale_du_travail)

Cf. Jean Meynaud and Anisse Salah-Bey, Le Syndicalisme africain. Paris: Payot, 1963 and June 1965 issue of Africa Report.

CONFÉDÉRATION FRANÇAISE DES TRAVAILLEURS CHRÉTIENS Cf. CFTC

The Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens (CFTC or French Confederation of Christian Workers) is one of the five major French confederations of trade unions. It was created in 1919. In 1964, the union split, a majority founding the CFDT.

CONFÉDÉRATION GÉNÉRALE DU TRAVAIL - FORCE OUVRIÈRE Cf. CGT-FO, GENERAL CONFEDERATION OF WORK - WORKERS' FORCE

The Confédération Générale du Travail - Force Ouvrière (CGT-FO or General Confederation of Work - Workers' Force), generally known as Force Ouvrière (FO), is one of the five major French confederations of trade unions. It was founded in 1948 by formers members of the CGT who denounced the dominance of the French Communist Party over that union. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_Ouvri%C3%A8re)

CONFÉRENCE DE RÉCONCILIATION NATIONAL cf. DIALOGUE NATIONAL
Cf. comments of Webmaster Serge Simon Bozanga http://dialogue.national.free.fr/

Pendant près d'un mois les protagonistes de la «chose politique» débattront des orientations politiques, économiques et sociales de notre pays. Pareille réunion semble être devenue un rituel. Déjà en 1980, ce fût le «Séminaire National»; puis «Le Grand Débat National» en 1992 et plus tard «les réunions du Comité de Concertation» entre 1996 et 1997, et en 1998 «la Conférence de Réconciliation Nationale».
(http://dialogue.national.free.fr/)

CONFÉRENCE EPISCOPALE CENTRAFRICAINE

CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE cf. REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO, RC?

"African state seeks diamond gain." BBC News World Edition, 1 Septembrer 2005, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4198408.stm

The Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic have long accused their smaller neighbour [Congo-Brazzaville] of helping to smuggle diamonds out of the two countries as well as Angola. ("African state seeks diamond gain." BBC News World Edition, 1 Septembrer 2005, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4198408.stm)

CONGO-KINSHASA cf. DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO, DRC

"Refugee-hosting families in distress." IRIN, 29 March 1999.
NAIROBI, 29 Mar 1999 (IRIN) - The situation of DRC refugees hosted by local families in the CAR capital, Bangui, is deteriorating as the resources of the local population will soon be exhausted, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said. In an update received by IRIN, IFRC said tensions are rising in Bangui and the situation will be aggravated by the presidential election campaign expected to start soon. Some 7,500 refugees crossed the river to CAR following the outbreak of fighting in Equateur province in December 1998/January 1999. Some were sheltered in a UNHCR-assisted transit camp in Bangui, while some 2,500 were accommodated with friends and relatives in the city. The Bangui transit camp was closed in February and some 300 refugees have so far been transferred to a new camp at Boubou, some 300 km from Bangui, where they have been allocated plots of land to promote self-sufficiency, the report said. Living conditions for the refugees are more favourable at Boubou than in Bangui, it said. The local Red Cross Society urgently requires additional funds for its refugee assistance efforts, the report added.

CONGO BASIN FOREST PARTNERSHIP cf. CBFP

"International partners discuss Congo Basin forest initiative." NAIROBI, 22 Jan 2003 (IRIN) - The first meeting on the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP), an economic development and conservation programme for six Central African countries, is being held at the International Conference Centre in Paris from 21 to 23 January. The US State Department said on Tuesday that the meeting would provide an opportunity for governments, international organisations and NGOs to exchange information on their contributions to the CBFP. US Secretary of State Colin Powell announced the creation of the CBFP on 4 September 2002 at the Sustainable Development Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. It embraces Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo. The US State Department quoted Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Environment Jeffry Burnam as saying that the meeting "is designed to harness the ideas and energy of all the many partners in the Congo Basin Forest Partnership into a long-term plan to conserve the incredible natural resources of the Congo Basin forest area".
Burnam said the CBFP was a "critical response" to the sustainable development needs of the peoples of the Congo Basin. "It has set the standard for sustainable development initiatives by identifying collaborative approaches that concurrently advance economic growth, social development and environmental stewardship," he added. Countries participating in the CBFP are Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Also participating are organisations such as the World Bank and the World Conservation Union, NGOs and private sector groups such as the World Wildlife Fund, the World Resources Institute and the Centre for International Forestry Research. The CBFP was one of more than 20 US-led partnerships announced during the World Summit, designed to attract government funding with financial support from the private sector to help increase the access of poor countries to such things as safe drinking water, clean energy and better sanitation. It seeks to promote economic development and alleviate poverty through conservation programmes to be set up in the six countries. The State Department said the government planned to invest up to US $53 million up to the end of 2005 to help the African countries develop a network of national parks and protected areas, and to help local communities better manage the forest and wildlife resources of the Congo Basin.

CONGO-NILE MISSION cf. MARCHAND MISSION

...politics, not argument, finally sent the Congo-Nile mission on its way. Marchand's old commanding officer, Archinard, was fighting the civilians from his perch in the Defense Office. He...guided Marchand to deputies who could help the campaign, and politicked to destroy the influence of civilian opponents. He prepared instructions to be sent to Liotard stating that a reduced colonial budget would "not permit him to occupy all the posts ceded to us by the Belgians." Liotard would have to stay where he was, and await the arrival of "some missions" organized to occupy the Nile basin, and to which Liotard was to lend his full cooperation. Archinaud even proposed recalling Liotard. Roume strongly disapproved and Archinard's instructions were countermanded. But shortly after Marchand's impatient January letter, Roume resigned his post. His replacement was one Gustave Binger, the former governor of the new Ivory Coast colony, an active member of the Comité de l'Afrique Francaise, and a former army officer who had served under Archinaud....The minister of colonies, the gray Monsieur Guieysse, now decided it was politic to approve Marchand's scheme for the second time. On 24 February 1896, he signed the captain's preliminary marching orders, but expressly subordinated his mission to Liotard's authority....(Lewis, The Race to Fashoda, p. 89.)

CONGO-OCEAN RAILWAY cf. CHEMIN DE FER CONGO-OCÉAN

Madame Augagneur drove in the inaugural spike of the Chemin de fer Congo-Océan (CFCO) in January 1921...
The tortuous arguments could not veil the fact that the railroad made no sense economically. Its real justification was political, for it was above all an imperial line [from Point-Noire to Brazzaville]. Mornet (1912:936), who surveyed the route, asked:

Is it admissible that the French Congo be politically, militarily, and economically a tributary of the Belgian Congo?... Is it admissible that when the governor general of our colony goes to his post, he must buy a ticket at a Belgian train station? (Cited and translated by Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 275)

Antonetti deplored the slow progress [of the railroad] since 1921. In 1925 he accelerated the pace of construction because he hoped the Belgians would cancel the expansion of their railroad and use the French one instead to ship out the minerals of Katanga. He expected Belgian construction to proceed more slowly than the French because the Belgians had outlawed forced labor (Pégourier 1926:157, 19, cited in (Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 278)
Instead of limiting the recruitment area [Antonetti] extended it to the edge of the Sahara. The only way to build [the Congo-Ocean Railway] more quickly was to get more labor and the only regions with dense enough populations to supply labor were Ubangi-Shari and Chad. In the end, most of the workforce would be composed of Banda from central Ubangi-Shari and Sara from Moyen-Congo and Moyen-Logone, circumscriptions transferred from Chad to Ubangi-Shari to facilitate recruitment (Kerboriou 1985:24, cited in (Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 278)
A phamacist who worked with [the Banda and the Sara] in the Mayombe, constrasted the two groups. The Banda were "large, heavy, easy-going and childlike," wheras the Sara were tall, solid, straight, and considered touchy, vindicative, and somewhat difficult...Their normal environment is the savanna ...dry, tropical climate, with hunting, fishing, animal raising, and farming. This environment is the opposite of the humid, hot forests of the Mayombe. (Cited and translated by Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 278)

As news of the high mortality reached Chad and Ubangi and relatives did not return home, panic spread at recruitment time. Villagers rebelled or fled to remote regions or across the borders (Sautter 1967:247-52, cited in Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 279)
The deaths began from the moment the recruits were put on the road. In Chad and Ubangi-Shari, doctors examined them in their villages or at an assembly point. From there, escorted by brutal militiamen, they walked, often tied together and forced to march for days to the best of a drum the 300 miles to Fort-Archambault and Bangui. There they were vaccinated, checked for sleeping sickness, and given innoculations of dubious value agains pneumonia and dysentery when they were available. (Azevedo 1976:172-75; Bangui 1929; Boussoukou-Boumba 1977:243; Ouesso 1928; Pégourier 1926; Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 279)

Table 11.2 Mortality by Diagnosis and Region of Origin, CFCO Coastal Section, February-May 1926

Ubangi-Shari
Average size of contingent 549
Respiratory infections 5
Dysentery and G-I infections 51
Fever 18
Beriberi (vitamin deficiency) 29
Physiological misery 4
Undiagnosed, dead in camps 77
Total 185

For the Pégourier inspection mission of 1926, doctors prepared a table of deaths occurring from May 1925 to June 1926. These statistics indicated the following annual mortality rates (Houillon 1926b)
Africans from northern Congo, Ubangi-Shari, and Chad: 55-60%
The doctor in Bangui, commenting on the small contingent of libérés, remarked that they no longer had the miserable look of those discharged the year before (Mindouli 1929; Bangui 1929; (Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 298) Some of the credit for the happier statistics goes to the stricter selection process. The doctor in Bangui eliminated over one-quarter of the recruits who passed through the examination and vaccination in July and August 1929. Clearly there were serious problems in recruitment on the village level because many men were taken who were too small, too weak, or too young. Some of them may have been substituted by the local chiefs at the last minute for the healthier men chosen by the administration; sometimes poor specimens did not resist because they knew they would be disqualified and sent back (Kair 1929b; Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 298)
The severe triage in Bangui cut down on death and illness further along the route and in the camps (Muraz 1930:29-30; Bangui 1929; Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 298)
Administrators from the railroad zone itself to Chad and eastern Ubangi-Shari were diverted from other work to recruit. Doctors in Brazzaville, Bangui, and other towns along the trails to the construction gave most of their attention to the railroad workers. The doctor in Bangui found it impossible to examine workers, give them smallpox vaccinations, anti-pneumonia vaccinations, and three anti-dysentery shots, and still do his regular work (Bangui 1929; Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 300)

From 1930 on mortality on the CFCO dropped sharply.

Table 11:10: Fate of CFCO continents in the Mayombe, January & April 1930
Rest of Ubangi-Shari
Size of original contingent 302
Dead 86
Sent home early 18
Deserted 0
Hospitalized at discharge 4
Reenlisted 51
Discharged 143
Percent dead 28%
(Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 302)

CONGRÉGATION DE SAINT JOSEPH OF CLUNY cf. CATHOLIC CHURCH, GLAUDE,
Cf. Sister Thérèse Glaude of the Congregation of Saint Joseph of Cluny, born to a French father and Gbaya mother in Berberati, sent to Brazzaville after her father died on a ship sunk by the Germans during World War I

"Soeur Thérèse Glaude de la Congrégation de Saint Joseph de Cluny." Except included in Banville, Raconte-moi la Mission, pp. 156-159 [Trans. Bradshaw])

CONGREGATION DU SAINT-ESPRIT Cf. Archives de la Congregation du Saint-Esprit http://www.spiritains.org/

CONJUGO-BATOMA (human rights, civil rights activist killed on 1 August 1992)
Jean-Claude Conjugo-Batoma
Cf.

CONJUGO

Conjugo, Glenn-Michaël. Central African Republic athlete brother of Marie-Joëlle.
Conjugo, Marie-Joëlle. Central African Republic athlete sister of Glenn-Michaël.

CONNAIS TU LA RÉPUBLIQUE CENTRAFRICAINE

Cf. Ministère de l’Information. Magazine created on 19 June 1974 and published from 1974 to ?.

CONNAISSANCE DE LA CHASSE

Cf. Henriot, D. "RCA, Chronique d'un Naufrage." Connaissance de la Chasse, (November 1993):56-61.

Cf. d'Orgeix.

CONSEIL DÉMOCRATIQUE DES PARTIES POLITIQUES DE L'OPPOSITION cf. CODEPO, DEMOCRATIC COUNCIL OF OPPOSITION POLITICAL PARTIES, PATASSÉ

At the end of August 1995 supporters of Kolingba's RDC [Central African Democratic Rally] staged a peaceful demonstration in protest at perceived abuses of power by the government, including the imposition of a two-year term of imprisonment on the editor of the RDC newspaper, who had been convicted of treason following the publication of an article which criticized the head of state. In December [1995] several opposition movements (including the ADP and MDD, but excluding the RDC) united to form the Democratic Council of Opposition Political Parties (Conseil démocratique des partis politiques de l'opposition, or CODEPO), which aimed to campaign against alleged corruption and political and economic mismanagement by the Patassé regime. (Englebert et al., ASS 1998, p. 279)

CONSEIL RÉPRESENTATIF DE L'OUBANGUI-CHARI Cf. REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL OF UBANGI-SHARI

On 25 October 1946, a Representative Council of Ubangi-Shari was established by decree and elections were set to take place on 15 December. The colony was divided into only four huge voting districts: Bangui, Berberati (southwest), Sibut (north-central), and Bangassou (southeast). After Boganda’s departure for Paris, George Darlan and a small group of his lieutenants drew up a list of candidates for the Action Economique et Sociale (Economic and Social Action) party in all four districts which received the backing of both the Catholic missions and the French administration because they wanted to limit the influence of Alibert and Gandji-Kobokassi....
Gamona, Bafatori and Gono were elected in Berberati, Georges Darlan, Bernard Condomat, Henri Kinkol, Jacque Koppe and Arthur Onghaie in Bangui, Antoine Darlan, Benoit Mombeto, Louis Yetina, Barthelemy Zinga-Piroua, and Pierre Enza in Sibut, and Vermaud Hetman and Ibrahim Tello in Bangassou. The socialists running for election in Bangui were Jean-Marie Kobozo, Alphonse Dongouale, Barnabe Nzilavo, Theophile Ngini, and Tiemoko-Darra. The socialists-communists in Sibut were Antoine Gabati, Ferdinand Bassamongou, Emile Embi-Maidou, Gabriel Pounaba, and Augustin Bayonne. (Pénel, Boganda, p. 33).

CONSEIL SUPÉRIEUR DE LA MAGISTRATURE cf. JUDICIARY, LAW
Created on April 30, 1962, the Conseil Supérieur de la Magistrature is the ruling body of the Judiciary in the Central African Republic. The President of the Republic is also President of this ruling body.

CONSTANTIN cf. L’ANNEE POLITIQUE AFRICAINE, POLITICS

Constantin, François. «Centrafrique.» L’année politique africaine 1965. Paris : Pdeone, 1966.

CONSTITUTION cf. BRETON, KAMTO, OWANA, LECLERCQ

Cf. Breton

Cf. Kamto, M. "Les nouvelles institutions constitutionelles et politiques de la République Centrafricaine." Penant, 99, 793 (1983):7-31.

Cf. Owana, J. "La nouvelle constitution centrafricaine de 1976: De la République monocratique à 'l'Empire parlementaire'." Penant, 87, 759 (1978):42-57.

Cf. Leclercq. C. "La Constitution de la RCA du 21 novembre 1986 et les statuts du Rassemblement démocratique centrafricain." Afrique Contemporaine 26, 144 (1978):49-51.

Cf. Leclercq. C. "La Constitution de la République Centrafricaine du 21 novembre 1986." Revue Juridique et Politique 26, 4 (1978):290-298.

1946 French Constitution
When France regained its own independence, after its liberation by British and American armies in 1944, the people of France also needed a 'new deal'. All their old conservative and middle-of-the-road parties - those that had made the empire - had gone down in defeat. Many were badly stained by collaboration with the nazi occupiers of their country. Liberal and left-wing parties came to power, and some of them were anti-colonial. They shaped a new constitution for France and its empire. (Davidson, Modern Africa, p. 109)
Rather like the Brazzaville Declaration, this constitution seemed at first to make little change. The colonies remained colonies in fact; in name only, they were changed to become members of a sort of commonwealth called the French Union (Union Française). But the new constitution went further in one important respect. Thanks to liberal leadership in Paris, the constitution (agreed by national referendum in October 1946) provided for many colonial Africans to vote in elections for the French National Assembly. They were able to elect about 20 Africans to that assembly; while other Africans were elected to a less important but still useful platform of opinion, in Paris - the Assembly of the French Union. (Davidson, Modern Africa, pp. 109-110).

CONSTITUTION [1960]
The government consists of an elected Legislative Assembly of 50 members, elected for a five-year term, and a President invested by the Assembly with broad executive powers. He appoints members of the government and may terminate their functions; he is head of all administrative services and makes appointments to state posts; he promulgates laws and has power to issue regulations; he ensures the maintenance of law and order and may proclaim a state of emergency. The Legislative Assembly meets twice a year in ordinary session and may be convened in extraordinary session at the request of the President. Both the President and the members of the Assembly may initiate legislation. (Junod and Resnick, "The Central African Republic," p. 47).

Englebert et al., ASS 1998, p. 279:
In August 1994, several committees of specialists, appointed by the government, began to draft a new constitution. The completed document included provisions empowering the president to nominate senior military, civil service and judicial officials, and requiring the prime minister to implement policies decided by the president. In addition, provision was made for the creation of directly-elected regional assemblies, to enable the decentralization of government, and for the establishment of an advisory state council, which was to deliberate on administrative issues. Despite opposition from a number of groups in the governing coalition (notably the MDD [of Dacko]), which expressed concern at the level of power afforded to the president in the draft constitution, 82% of those who participated in a national referendum in late December voted in favour of the draft constitution. (The turnout at the referendum was, however, estimated at only 45% of the electorate). The new Constitution was duly adopted on 7 July 1995. (Englebert et al., ASS 1998, p. 279)

During the latter part of 1994, the government prepared the draft of a new constitution for the CAR, on which Mr Patassé had promised a referendum by the end of the year [1994]. The new constitution is designed to replace that introduced by General Kolingba, which established the rule of law and a constitutional state after several years of direct military rule, but made no provision for multiparty democracy. Pluralist freedoms introduced since 1992 have been enshrined in routine decrees and legal provisions, with no constitutional safeguards. The new framework gives the CAR's new democracy a more durable legal foundation... key aspects are the creation of new regional authorities and decentralisation, both longstanding themes of Patassé's personal political agenda. Drafted in August [1994], the new constitution was submitted in late October [1994] to a ten-day Assises nationales de la concertation of representatives of political parties, trade unions, churches, local councils and interest groups. On [14 December 1994] Mr Patassé signed a decree announcing a referendum on the new constitution for December 28, with the official campaign period beginning on December 18. On [27 November 1994] by-elections were held in six constituencies to fill seats where results in the 1993 general elections had been declared invalid. The polls hinted at growing for Mr Patassé's Mouvement pour la libération du peuple centrafricain (MLPC), which lost one seat. Three of the by-elections saw the out-going deputies re-elected as independents, but the main beneficiary appears to have been the Mouvement pour la démocratie de le développement (MDD), headed by veteran politician and twice former president, David Dacko. This testifies to Mr Dacko's enduring popularity; after an enforced retirement under the Kolingba regime and a low-profile role in the pro-democracy campaign he contested the presidency in 1993, coming in a respectable third. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1995, p. 21)

However, the constitutional proposals met with fierce criticism from the opposition. The RDC said that the decentralisation measures threatened the "Balkanisation" of the CAR. Even some government supporters said that this was not the time to break the country up into pieces. Their criticisms were hardly surprising: neighboring Congo, still struggling back from the brink of civil war, vividly illustrates the damage that regional and tribal tensions can cause. However, Mr Patassé pointed out that his plan would group existing regional groups together to create larger regions that would be better placed to pool development services and attract external aid. Government sources have also pointed out that, even on the present regional map, there is no region where a single ethnic group is so significantly dominant to exert power on an ethnic basis. Should this plan become reality, it may prove popular with foreign donors, especially the World Bank and organisations concerned with grass-roots projects and rural development, as a means of making projects more relevant to local needs and, tacitly, reducing the size and cost of central government bureaucracies. On [27 November 1994] by-elections were held in six constituencies to fill seats where results in the 1993 general elections had been declared invalid. The polls hinted at growing for Mr Patassé's Mouvement pour la libération du peuple centrafricain (MLPC), which lost one seat. Three of the by-elections saw the out-going deputies re-elected as independents, but the main beneficiary appears to have been the Mouvement pour la démocratie de le développement (MDD), headed by veteran politician and twice former president, David Dacko. This testifies to Mr Dacko's enduring popularity; after an enforced retirement under the Kolingba regime and a low-profile role in the pro-democracy campaign he contested the presidency in 1993, coming in a respectable third. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1995, p. 21)

Five minor partners in the government coalition, including the Alliance pour la démocratie et le progrès (ADP), pulled out in early December (although some of their cabinet members remained) in protest at Mr Patassé's [constitutional] proposals. They announced they would campaign for a "No" vote. An ADP spokesman said their principal concerns were the rule change allowing a president to serve three six-year-terms (instead of two, as previously) which they fear could be exploited by Mr Patassé to stay in office until well into the new century. The ADP felt that the presiding judge and assistant judge of the constitutional court [see below], who would be the arbiter in any future controvery over interpretation of the constititution and potentially one of the few constraints on a powerful president, should be elected by fellow judges and not appointed by the executive. The ADP was also worried that the new constitution would give the president too much power over the prime minister, making the head of the government a stooge. Finally, the ADP resented Mr Patassé's decision to drop the clause stipulating that the president must be a person of high moral standing. Sceptical observers might wonder why Mr Patassé felt this necessary. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1995, p. 22)

The leader of the Front Patriotique pour le progrès (FPP), Dr Abel Goumba, also campaigned for a "No" vote [on Patassé's proposed Constitution in late 1994]. He complained that the opposition had not been given fair access to the media and that there was no neutral joint election commission to monitor the vote, which was organized by the interior ministry. He also alleged that the new proposals had been drafted by the president and prime minister. He felt the constitution should have been drawn up by a constituent or a consultative assembly (although it had been debated by politicians and interest groups at the ten-day Assises nationales de la concertation) (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1995, p. 22)

The final result was both a victory and a setback for Mr Patassé. The "Yes" camp secured a huge majority: 82.06% of the votes cast against a mere 17.17% against (some 0.77% of the ballot papers were blank or spoilt). However, the turnout was only 45% of the 1,247,290-strong electorate. This was hardly a ringing vindication for Mr Patassé, who had campaigned vigorously for a "Yes" vote. It was even less comforting for the opposition, however, and suggests that its complaints made little impression on peasant farmers who see Mr Patassé as the main who boosted their living standards by raising farm prices in the wake of devaluation. Support for Mr Patassé may have been stronger in rural areas, which stand to benefit most from the decentralisation plan and the creation of directly elected local assemblies in provincial centers. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1995, p. 22)

CONSTITUTIONS OF THE CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC
Full text in French
http://webs.ono.com/usr013/juanfandos/constrca.htm (under construction)
http://webs.ono.com/usr013/juanfandos/

CONSTITUTION OF 1959
First Constitution of the Central African Republic.
http://teya.org/Constitutions_RCA

CONSTITUTION OF 1995
Full text in French
http://www.beafrica.org/centrafrique/constitution/sommaire_constitution.htm

CONSTITUTION OF 2004
The Constitution of 2004 was approved by the Central African Nation on December 5, 2006 in a constitutional referendum and came into force on December 27, 2004.
http://www.sangonet.com/actu-snews/ICAR/Dsp/constitution2004-qmout.html
http://www.fodem.org/fodeminfo/CONSTITUTION%20FINAL.htm
http://democratie.francophonie.org/article.php3?id_article=1126&id_rubrique=115

CONSTITUTIONAL COURT IN BANGUI

"Ten presidential candidates confirmed." IRIN, 30 July 1999.
NAIROBI, 30 Jul 1999 (IRIN) - The Constitutional Court in Bangui on Friday published the official list of 10 candidates for the presidential election, the first round of which is scheduled for late August. The country’s five leading political figures have declared their candidacy as expected, Radio France Internationale reported. They included President Ange-Felix Patasse, two former heads of state, Andre Kolingba and David Dacko, and two former prime ministers, Enoch-Derant Lakoue and Jean-Paul Ngoupande. The other candidates confirmed were: Abel Goumba, who was unsuccessful in the 1993 presidential elections; Justice Henri Pouzere, a lawyer at Libreville Courts; businessman Joseph Abossolo; former minister Charles Massi; and telecommunications engineer Fidele Ngouanjika.

CONSTRUCTION

The programme to reduce the number of state employees...Already 750 people, including many teachers, have taken voluntary redundancy. The promised severance payments of 40 months' salary per employee have cost the government some CFAfr3.5 bn, whereas the authorities had only allowed for 600 volunteers up to this point. The government had budgeted a total of CFAfr4.6 bn for the programme, but there are a further 919 applications now being considered, which will boost the total cost to CFAfr1.5.3 bn more than planned.... Some have invested in manufacturing, notably carpentry and the production of bricks for the booming construction sector (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 2nd Quarter 1990, p. 27)

CONTE

Conte, Chris. "Review of Cutting the Vines of the Past: Environmental Histories of the Central African Rain Forest by Tamara Giles-Vernick." Environmental History, 1 October 2003.

CONTEMPORARY WOMEN'S ISSUES DATABASE

"Central African Republic Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1997." Contemporary Women's Issues Database, 1 January, 1998.

CONVENTION OF SAINT-GERMAIN-EN-LAYE

Under the Convention of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, signed in 1921 by the Allied Powers, the government [of France] was required to allow missionaries of any nationality to establish themselves [in FEA]. In fact, officials resented this treaty and translated their resentment into monumental foot dragging. After all, nothing in the treaty required instant access. (Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 255) [This claim that the French engaged in "monumental foot dragging" is disputed by Bradshaw in "Protestant Missions and French Colonial Administrators in Ubangi-Shari, 1910s-1930s"]

There were, however, some French administrators as well as Catholic missionaries who were unhappy about the influx of non-French missionaries into Ubangi-Shari, as the following excerpt demonstrates: (Bradshaw, editor)

In 1933 Fulconis, head of the health services of French Equatorial Africa, wrote:

In...French Equatorial Africa, Americans, Swedes, missionaries of every denomination meddle in the business of giving health care to the natives. Do the neutralization and the internationalization of the Congo River extend to all French territories watered by the tiniest rivulets which are tributaries of the great river? This is a regrettable consequence of the lack of resources of the government to substitute Frenchmen for foreigners (SdS AEF 1933, translated by Headrick, Colonialism, Health and Illness, p. 255)

CONVENTION RELATIVE AU DÉVELOPPEMENT DU SECTEUR MINIER, cf. AURAFRIQUE, MINING, MINERALS, GOLD, DIAMONDS, DABANGA, NDOUNDIGAI

Cf. Fleury, K. "Gouvernement-Société Aurafrique : une convention qui vaut de l’or." Le Confident, 30 January 2006, www.leconfident.net

Une cérémonie de signature de la Convention relative au développement du secteur minier a eu lieu vendredi passé, dans l'enceinte du Ministère des Mines, de l'Energie et de l'Hydraulique, entre l'Etat Centrafricain et la société Aurafrique. Dans son discours introductif, le Ministre Sylvain Ndoundigaï a fait savoir qu'après les états généraux du secteur minier qui s'étaient tenus à Bangui, sa première préoccupation, a été de procéder à l'industrialisation de l'exploitation du secteur minier centrafricain afin de jouer son rôle de « mamelle de l'économie ».
Tout en reconnaissant que l'exploitation artisanale du diamant et l'or constitue à l'heure actuelle 40,5% des richesses de l'Etat Centrafricain, et dans le souci de hisser la production nationale au même diapason des autres pays producteurs du diamant et l'or, il s'est inspiré du modèle minier Malien pour aboutir à la signature de cette Convention, relative à l'ouverture de la première mine d'or à Ndassima dans la Ouaka.
Le Ministre a fait mention de ce que l'Etat Centrafricain, contrairement à d'autres pays producteurs a non seulement arraché 20% des actions de cette société mais, bénéficiera aussi des Taxes sur la Valeur Ajoutée (TVA), les taxes superficiaires ainsi que de la taxe ad valorem. Cette Convention, d'un montant total de 100.000.000 millions de dollars, permettra à notre pays d'augmenter la production nationale d'or à des millions de tonnes/ an.
Le gérant de la société Aurafrique, M. Bill John Howard pour sa part a remercié le département des Mines pour la franche collaboration ces trois dernières années avant de dresser une petite historique de sa société. Pour M. Howard, c'est depuis 1999 que la société Aurafrique a foulé le sol centrafricain dans la phase de recherches mais, les soubresauts politiques qu'a connus le pays ont retardé les recherches entreprises par cette société. Après les événements du 15 mars 2003, la société Aurafrique a agrandi ses activités dans notre pays et les résultats sont d'ailleurs toujours positifs. La signature de cette Convention, marque la fin de la transition entre la phase de recherches et ouvre la voie de ce fait à la phase d'exploitation pour la première mine d'or centrafricain à l'échelle industrielle. Par ailleurs, le Ministre des Finances et du Budget, Théodore Dabanga qui a co-signé avec le Ministre Ndoudingaï cette Convention a fait savoir que cette cérémonie de signature est très importante pour l'économie centrafricaine car, cet investissement permettra au gouvernement centrafricain de créer des emplois et de redistribuer les bénéfices pour le développement de la RCA. Cette déclaration de bonne volonté du Ministre Dabanga, nous emmène à nous poser la question de savoir si réellement le bas peuple profitera des retombées financières de cette Convention. Signalons enfin que 11 géologues centrafricains, trois techniciens géologues et trois administrateurs font partie de l'équipe administrative de la société Aurafrique. (K. Fleury, "GOUVERNEMENT-SOCIETE AURAFRIQUE: UNE CONVENTION QUI VAUT DE L'OR." Le Confident, 30 January 2006, www.leconfident.net) Lundi 30 Janvier 2006, Fleury - K.

COOPÉRANTS cf. FRANCE'S RELATIONS, DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE

French aid covers all sectors of the economy and includes the placing of coopérants in key positions as ministerial advisers. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1988, p. 21)

Many of the teachers in the lycées and institutions of higher learning were French coopérants (technical assistants on tours of duty in former colonies), and it was inevitable that they would expose their students to Western political traditions and notions of human rights. In spite of repression, surveillance, and espionage, these ideas found fertile ground in the schools, and intellectual opposition to the regime began to smolder beneath the surface. Students came to conceive of democratic alternatives to the neofeudal [sic] notion of leadership. (Titley, Dark Age, p. 106)

The major confrontation between the students and the state in 1979 had its origins in the emperor's dissatisfaction with the results of the 1997 baccalaureate - the challenging French-based examination that faced lycéens at the conclusion of their studies. Henri Maïdou, minister of education at the time [1979], felt that the fault lay with the coopérants, whose attitude betrayed a lack of sympathy for their culturally different students. His solution was to get rid of the French teachers and Africanize the school system. Bokassa, a firm believer in France's civilizing influence, could not agree. He thought that certain subjects could be taught effectively only by coopérants. The disappointing "bac" results were due, he surmised, to laziness and lack of discipline in the schools. The troublesome behavior of the students over the years was surely proof of that. (Titley, Dark Age, p. 107)

COOPÉRATION FINANCIÈRE EN AFRIQUE cf. CFA

The CAR, along with other former French colonies, is a member of the Coopération financière en Afrique (CFA). Members of the 'Franc Zone', as the CFA is called, are guaranteed currency exchangeability with other Zone members and, more important, with the French franc. In return for this support members agree to allow full participation of the Banque de France in currency and banking regulation. Although the currency union has enhanced price stability, it has seldom worked in favor of the CAR from the perspective or regional trade. The... figures for 1988 list exports at CFAFr39.2bn and imports at CFAFr55.9bn (a deficit of CFAfr16.7bn) for trade within the Zone. However, businesses within the CAR still see membership within the Zone as beneficial for long-term growth. At a...forum of African businesspeople [in 1990], concern was expressed that if France drops its own currency in favor of a 'Euro-currency', it [would] end its management of the CFA Zone. In their view the shared financial sovereignty with France is offset by the control of inflation and the fiscal responsibility imposed upon the state. (AB, May 1990, no. 141, cited in Webb, "Central African Republic," ACR 1989-1990, p. B173).

COOPERATIVE FOR AMERICAN RELIEF EVERYWHERE (CARE)
Main entry: CARE
Title: Records, 1945-1985
Size: 1116 linear feet (1086 RCs, 67 ABs, 13 1/2 ABs)
Access: One folder of Management files and three folders of Peace Corps personnel files are restricted until 2040; otherwise, access is unrestricted.
Source: Gift of CARE, 660 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016. 1985
Historical Statement: The international relief agency CARE was founded in 1945 to provide food and clothing to European victims of World War II. Gradually it broadened its focus to include ongoing
projects in agriculture, nutrition, education, medicine, and community development, in conjunction with host governments in developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Description: Correspondence, project files, reports, minutes of meetings, press releases, posters, and other items. Materials document the policy-making decisions of CARE's Board of Directors and the implementation of those policies by the executive staff, overseas programming, publicity and fund-raising efforts of CARE's headquarters and regional field offices, and CARE's relationships with MEDICO, the Peace Corps, and CARE International.
Copyright information: Quotation for publication requires permission in writing from both CARE and the New York Public Library.
The contents of Boxes 816 and 817, new country files, pertain mostly to proposals to initiate or resume operations in non-CARE countries.
Series 3: OVERSEAS OPERATIONS
Subseries 3.2: Numbered Country Correspondence
New Country Files: 1976-1984 816 Bangui-Somalia

COOPERATIVES

Prices paid to producers for coffee and cotton are already based on world market prices and the state-controlled marketing regime pays the average French franc commercial price for these key cash crops. However, in the longer term, the government aims to end even the minimalist form of stabilising intervention, the then industry and trade minister, Léon Odoudou, told the London-based newsletter Africa Analysis earlier this year [1995]. However, the government remains concerned that complete deregulation in the present circumstances would leave small growers open to pressure and exploitation by the big commercial coffee and cotton trading houses; they would have no bargaining power and, given the CAR's position as a small and useful but generally non-essential supplier, could find themselves in a weak position, vulnerable to the whims of traders switching between sources of supply. So the government decided to set up a system of peasant cooperative organisations loosely modelled on those used successfully by small French wine-growers. These would provide training, technical support and quality control and would have the capacity to market crops on a commercial scale and negotiate with the big buyers. The EU is to help with the establishment of the scheme and has already agreed [on a] Ecu8.5m ($11.2m) EDF credit to support coffee growers in the east and center of the CAR. France's FAC is providing a FFr12m credit for the cotton sector: this will be used to improve financial management, set up credit and savings schemes for farmers and, most importantly, to develop or set up marketing or professional groups for farmers that will be able to take on the functions currently held by state organisations. These French and EU credits are part of a broad coordinated donor effort to support agriculture known as the Projet d'appui aux institutions agricoles (PAIA); (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 2nd Quarter 1995, p. 24)

COPET-ROUGIER cf. HISTORY, POLITICS, ECONOMICS, ANTHROPOLOGY, SOCIAL STRUCTURE, ETC.

Copet-Rougier, Elisabeth. “Political-Economic History of the Upper-Sangha.” In Heather E. Eves, Rebecca Hardin, Stephen Rupp, eds. Resource Use in the Trinational Sangha River Region of Equatorial Africa: Histories, Knowledge Forms, and Institutions. New Haven: Yale University, 1998.

COQUERY-VIDROVITCH

Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. Le Congo au temps des grandes compagnies concessionnaires, 1898-1930 (The Congo at the time of the large concessionary companies, 1898-1930). Paris: Mouton, 1972. 604pp.

Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. "Les idées économiques de Brazza et les premières tentatives des compagnies de colonisation au Congo français, 1885-1898." Cahiers d'études africaines (Paris). 5, 17 (1965):??

Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. "Brazza et la prise de possession du Congo. La mission de l'ouest africain, 1883-1885. Thèse de doctorat de 3e cycle. Paris: 1966. 2 Vols. 352pp. and Paris: la Haye, Mouton: 1969. 502pp.

Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. "Quelques problèmes posés par le choix économique des grandes compagnies concessionaires du Congo français (ex. A.E.F.) 1900-1920." Bulletin de la société d'histoire moderne, 5, Supplément à la Revue d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, 1 (1968):2-13.

Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. "Le Congo au temps des grandes compagnies concessionnaires: 1898-1930."Thèse de lettres, Paris: 1970. Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes, 6e section, 1ère série, Etudes 37 and Paris: la Haye, Mouton, 1972. 601pp.

Coquery-Vidrovitch, C. "The Upper Sangha in the time of Concession Companies," in Resource Use in the Trinational Sangha River Region, Equatorial Africa (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo): Histories, Knowledge Systems, Institutions. vol. 102, Forestry and Environmental Studies Bulletin Series. Edited by H. Eves, R. Hardin, and S. Rupp. New Haven: Yale University, 1998.

Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. "Population et démographie en A.E.F. dans le premier tiers du XXe siècle." In African Historical Demography, vol. 1, pp. 331-51.

Coquery-Vidrovitch, C. Afrique Noire: permanances et ruptures. Paris: Editions Payot, 1995. Translated into English by David Maisel (see below).

Coquery-Vidrovitch, C. Africa: Endurance and Change South of the Sahara. Tran. David Maisel. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

Re: local leaders, chiefs, sultans

"Many chiefs, in both the Muslim and the animist areas, collaborated with the administration to the disadvantage of their dependents. The process constituted a distortion of their office at all levels and in all situations - whether it was that of an emir ruling over vast areas and many peoples, or the local chief of a village or of a larger kin-group."
"The colonial powers, however, even if they felt a strong desire to abolish the chiefdoms, knew very well that the great families assured of their authority owing to their rank were more willing to serve the colonialists than anyone else was. Thus, in eastern Ubangi-Chari, where Islam first appeared as an instrument of political rule over subject animist populations, the French indirect policy long had no grounds for envy of its British counterpart. The sultans of the right bank of the Ubangi were large-scale slave-raiders... The French colonialists transformed the sultans from robber-warriors into agents of repression, administrative representatives and commercial entrepreneurs working with the agents of the Company of the Sultanates of the Upper Ubangi, who, in 1900, received the monopoly on the commercial exploitation of the area. Thus, the "French peace" was maintained cheaply; the administration, short of staff, as long as possible pursued a policy close to a protectorate by employing useful intermediaries throughout their lifetimes (Semio until 1912, Sultan Labasso, successor of Bangassu, until 1917, and Sultan Hatman of Rafai until 1940)." (Coquery-Vidrovitch, Africa: Endurance and Change South of the Sahara, p. 90.)

Note: I have eliminated a portion of the excerpt above which is clearly incorrect, namely that the sultans of the Ubangi region "had come from the northeast and settled there in the last third of the nineteenth century, lured by the trade in guns..." (Coquery-Vidrovitch, Africa: Endurance and Change South of the Sahara, p. 90.) These so-called sultans were descendants of the Bandia and Vongara clans in the region who became rulers of the Nzakara and Zande peoples by at least the 18th century. Some of these rulers married the children of slave-raiders from the Sudan in order to form alliances, but they did not "come from the northeast", they did not settle in the Upper Ubangi region "in the late nineteenth century", and they were not "lured" there "by the trade in guns."

RE: missionaries

"The missionaries... played a cultural and, above all [sic], linguistic role in the history of Africa that has not been sufficiently considered. All the Protestant missionaries, and the earliest Catholic ones, based their hopes of success on communicating with the Africans in their own language. Hence they endeavored to understand, translate, transcribe, and teach - in other words, to standardize - the local languages, using as their starting point the specific dialect of the place where they first happened to settle. Thus came into being the 'ethnic' frontiers of linguistic groups determined and fixed through the efforts of missionaries." (Coquery-Vidrovitch, Africa: Endurance and Change South of the Sahara, p. 100.)

Note: In the case of the CAR, it is certainly the case that missionaries played an important cultural and linguistic role which historians have not yet studied in any detail. But missionaries did not always use "as their starting point the specific dialect of the place where they first happened to settle." (see above quote). The Baptists in Ubangi-Shari, for example, beginning with Mr. Hass, consciously chose Sango as their referred medium of communication even before they entered Ubangi-Shari. They learned local dialects in the places they opened stations as well, but they chose to use Sango precisely in order to overcome ethnic differences within their congregations and within the mission field as a whole. The 'ethnic' frontiers of linguistic groups in the CAR were not "determined and fixed through the efforts of missionaries." (see above quote). Indeed, if anything, missionary promotion of Sango tended to deemphasize ethnicity and promote supraethnic linguistic identity. (Bradshaw 2005)

Re: Kongo-Wara Rebellion

"The Kongo-Warra [sic] insurrection began with the Baya people, who until then had lived in scattered groups. It engulfed the heart of the Federation [French Equatorial Africa], particularly western Ubangi-Chari but also the areas bordering on the Middle Congo and Cameroon. The country had for many years been subject to a particularly extreme degree of exploitation, mainly by the private sector in the form of vast concessionary companies, dealing in rubber and ivory, that were famous in this region for their harsh practices. André Gide, who passed through the country in 1925, gave a striking account of it in his Voyage au Congo. In addition to the requirements of taxation, forced labor was demanded at harvest and for porterage of the rubber crop, which was almost valueless and yet exploited by the Compagnie Forestière Sangha-Oubangui (the Compagnie Pordurière, or Garbage Company, of Céline's Voyage au bout de la nuit), whose monopoly originally extended over seventeen million hectares (reduced to five million in 1920); furthermore, peasants were recruited to work on the Congo-Ocean railway, begun in 1921. The prophet Karnu, the "soul of the rebellion," was the catalyst, not of a spontaneous movement, but of one that came to maturity after long years of humiliation and suffering. In about 1924, Karnu began preaching an anti-European doctrine of nonviolent action whose principal points were refusal of contact with the Whites and passive resistance to colonial demands. The adminstration did not take note of him until 1927, when Karnu's now numerous followers, who were convinced that the kong-warra (the prophet's bastion of command) made them invincible, began armed revolt. More than 350,000 people joined the movement, including about 60,000 warriors. A strong sense of solidarity united villages and clans in an area hitherto known for its political fragmentation."
"Karnu was killed in December 1928, but the insurrection continued to spread until 1931, when the colonizers began the last phase of repression, a period of extreme cruelty known as the War of the Caves. In 1935 the last warriors were still in hiding, refusing to leave their places of refuge for fear of reprisals." (Coquery-Vidrovitch, Africa: Endurance and Change South of the Sahara, p. 179.)

Note: Coquery-Vidrovitch continues by claiming that the "harshness of the colonial repression [against the Kongo-Wara insurrection]... left the country impoverished and underinhabited. The area has not yet recovered. This fact [sic] perhaps explains the apparent apathy of Central African peasants toward the tyranny of their rulers." (Coquery-Vidrovitch, Africa: Endurance and Change South of the Sahara, p. 179.) The repression of the insurrection was indeed harsh but the "impoverishment and underpopulation" of the region and the "apparent apathy of Central African peasants toward the tyranny of their rulers" can hardly be attributed to any significant extent to this repression. Compared to other rural regions of the CAR, this region is relatively - only relatively - prosperous today due partly to its location at the border-lands of the CAR and Cameroon. It is also relatively - and only relatively - more densely populated than many other rural regions of the CAR, partly because local Gbaya and Banda groups joined together with French colonialists to defeat Fulbe slave-raiders in the late nineteenth century so that depopulation due to the export of slaves diminished rather than intensified (as it did in eastern CAR) during the first decade of the twentieth century. Is what Coquery-Vidrovitch calls "the apparent apathy of Central African peasants toward the tyranny of their rulers" any different in this region than it is in other regions which were not at all involved in the Kongo-Wara insurrection? Coquery-Vidrovitch's claims in this case are not supported by any suitable evidence and are not at all convincing.

Re: Peasant Uprisings

"The most violent outburst [among peasant uprisings] was that of the Manja, who had been ravaged by the forced porterage in the upper Chari (1903-1904) that linked the Congo and Chad basins. This country, normally so fragmented, put together a comprehensive movement with guerrilla forces from every village." (Coquery-Vidrovitch, Africa: Endurance and Change South of the Sahara, p. 173.)

Note: Many Manza villagers did take up arms to resist their forced recruitment to work as porters on the "Route to Chad" in Ubangi-Shari, but it is simply not the case that, as Coquery-Vidrovitch's claims, the Manza "put together a comprehensive movement with guerrilla forces from every village." (see above)

Re: compulsory labor

French Equatorial Africa limited recruitment by the administration itself to "a third of the ablebodied male population that had reached adult age" and by 1926 warned the new exploiters of the forest areas that they were setting up their work sites "at their own risk and peril and in the knowledge that they were in danger of not finding the necessary manpower on the spot." The official rates of recruitment were generally exceeded, however, by a variety of means. The concept of ablebodied male, for example, could be translated loosely... (Coquery-Vidrovitch, Africa: Endurance and Change South of the Sahara, p. 229, citing Avis du G. G. Antonetti, Journal Officiel de l'AEF 1, no. 6 [1926]; and 1, no. 12 [1927].)

CORBET, J.B.

Corbett, J.B. Ma paroisse 'Negrè'. s.l. Annecy: 1982.

Corbett, J.B. Vision d'Afrique. Chambéry: Route d'Assise. s.d.

CORBETT, E.

Corbett, Edward. The French Presence in Black Africa. Washington, D.C.: Black Orpheus, 1972.

RASSEMBLEMENT DEMOCRATIQUE AFRICAINE

The first effective political organization to draw its strength from African sources was the Rassemblement Democratique Africaine (RDA). Founded in Bamako in 1946, the RDA sought to unite the forces of all of France’s Black African territories in a drive for independence [or for the elimination of the distinction between citizens and subjects?] It was sparked by the realization that France was not ready willingly to implement the liberal proposals for colonial development the Africans had been led to expect when World War II was in progress. Initially the RDA was associated with the French Communist Party – not because of ideological affinities, but simply because no other French political party bothered to accept the invitations issued by the organizers of the Bamako Conference. The PCF provided useful organizing assistance in the formative stages of the RDA, but by 1950 the RDA contingent in the French National Assembly was sufficiently disenchanted with the Communists to terminate its affiliation. Sections of the RDA operated more or less effectively in nearly all of the continental French territories [but was very weak in the CAR] in the decade from 1946 to 1956 under varying degrees of repression by the French administration. Numerous rival splinter groups sprang up in some territories, and French-supported competitors were established in others. The only metropolitan French political movement to exercise much influence among Africans in the postwar period was the Socialist Party (SFIO). The SFIO had been active in Senegal long before the war, having been firmly established among the French colony in Dakar. The SFIO influenced Senghor to boycott the Bamako Conference, but within a couple of years he had aligned himself with other Senegalese who were free of metropolitan French political ties. Subsequently, the SFIO was instrumental also in revivifying political activity in Madagascar, which had been out of the mainstream after the 1947 rebellion there had been put down with much bloodshed. (Corbett, French Presence, p. 68).

Jean-Bedel Bokassa…has indulged from time to time in intemperate criticism of France, but in 1968 he wined and dined Foccart for six days in a manner befitting the visit of a head of state, climaxing the festivities with a two-day safari. At that time, French relations with Chad were somewhat strained because of the efforts of Congo [Zaire] President Mobutu to weaken the ties of Equatorial African states with France, and Chadian President Francois Tombalbaye refused to see Foccart when the Frenchman passed through Fort Lamy en route to the Central African Republic. (Corbett, French Presence, p. 68).

CORDELL

Cordell, Dennis D. "The savanna belt of North-Central Africa." Pp. 30-74 in David Birmingham and Phyllis M. Martin, eds. History of Central Africa. Vol. 1. London: Longman, 1983.

Cordell, Dennis D. "Libya, Wadai, and the Sanusiya: A Tariqa and a trade route." Journal of African History, 18, 1 (1977):21-36.

Cordell, Dennis D. "Blood partnership in theory and practice: the expansion of Muslim power in Dar al-Kuti." Journal of African History, 20, 3 (1979):379-94.

Cordell, Dennis D. “The Delicate Balance of Force and Flight: The End of Slavery in Eastern Ubangi-Shari.” pp. 150-171 in Suzanne Miers and Richard Roberts, eds., The Ending of Slavery in Africa. Madison: U. of Wisconsin Press, 1988.

Cordell, Dennis D. “Extracting People from Precapitalist Production: French Equatorial Africa from the 1880s to the 1930s.” pp. 137-152 in Dennis D. Cordell and Joel W. Gregory, eds. African Population and Capitalism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1987.

Cordell, Dennis D. “The Labor of Violence: Dar-al-Kuti in the Nineteenth Century.” pp. 169-192 in Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch and Paul E. Lovejoy, eds. The Workers of African Trade. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 1985, pp. 169-192.

Cordell, Dennis D. “Warlords and Enslavement: A Sample of Slave-Raiders from Eastern Ubangi-Shari, 1870-1920.” pp. 335-365 in Paul E. Lovejoy, ed. Africans in Bondage: Essays presented to Philip D. Curtin on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the African Studies Program. Madison: African Studies Program and the University of Wisconsin Press, 1986.

Cordell, Denis D. "A history of the Central African Republic." Bangui: Peace Corps, March, 1975. Contract No. PSC/TR 676-75-019. 27p. Typescript.

Cordell, Dennis D. "Review of Central African Republic by Pierre Kalck. World Bibliographical Series, 152. Oxford, Santa Barbara, Denver: Clio Press, 1993. p. liv + 153." The Journal of African History 41, no. 2 (2000):295-346. 52 p.

Cordell, Dennis D. "Throwing Knives in Equatorial Africa." Bashiru, 5, 1
(1973):94-104.

Cordell, Dennis D., Joel W. Gregory and Victor Piché. "The Demographic Reproduction of Health and Disease: Colonial Central African Republic and Contemporary Burkina Faso." In The Social Basis of Health and Healing in Africa. eds. Steven Feierman and John M. Janzen. Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, USA: University of California Press, 1992, pp. 39-70.

Cordell, Dennis D. "Où sont tous les enfants? La faible fécondité en Centrafrique, 1890-1960." In Population, Reproduction, Sociétés. Perspectives et Enjeux de Démographye Sociale. eds. Dennis D. Cordell, Danielle Gauvreau, Raymond R. Gervais, and Céline Le Bourdais. Montréal, Canada: Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal, 1993, pp. 257-282.

Cordell, Dennis D., Joel W. Gregory and Victor Piché. "African Historical Demography: The Search for a Theoretical Framework." In African Population and Capitalism: Historical Perspectives. eds. Dennis D. Cordell and Joel W. Gregory. Boulder, Colorado, USA: Westview Press, 1987, pp. 14-32.

CORDELLIER

Cordellier, Roger and B. Geoffroy. Les Moustiques de République centralfricaine: distribution, abondance et fréquence des Culicinés dans l'Ouest du pays, les Arbovirus isolés. Paris: Office de la recherche scientifique et technique outre-mer, 1976. 105p. 25 cm.

CORNEVIN

Cornevin, Robert. “La politique étrangère du government de Bangui.” Revue E.P.A. ???

CORRUPTION

1960s-1970s

It was generally understood that anyone trading in diamonds in Central Africa had to contribute generously to what the French call pots de vins [bribes]. The usual way of doing this was to invite Bokassa to become a director or investor in one's firm. He contributed little, of course, and his exactions were considerable. He collected millions of frances from these companies - his dividends. The business concerns knew full well that he would not hesitate to seize their assets or cancel their mining permits if his demands were not met. (Titley, Dark Age, p. 75).

2005
[On 8 August 2005] the president, Ange-Félix Patassé, perhaps with an eye to improving relations with foreign donors, launched a campaign against corruption, describing it as an "evil that erodes society and dangerously damages the national economy." In a decree read on state radio, he set up a special unit to combat corruption, which would, he promised, have a separate budget and its own police force. The deputy head of the unit is General Raymond Sambo, chief inspector of the gendarmerie, and the head is Mr Patassé's personal adviser, Jean-Jacques Demafouth-Mafoutapa, who negotiated the president's settlement of the embarrassing Angoulème bank affair in 1994. Mr Patassé called on individuals and on local and foreign businesses to report cases where officials demanded bribes. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 4th Quarter 1995, p. 21)
The first person to pay the price for the president's new-found zeal for clean government was André Zanafei Toumbona, health minister in the government of Mr Patassé's first prime minister, Jean-Luc Mandaba. [Toumbona] was arrested in mid-August [2005] on suspicion of having stolen CFAfr26.9m ($55,000) in Chinese aid money intended for the Amitié hospital in Bangui. The hospital director, accused of paying the money into an account in the minister's name at a Bangui bank, was also detained. It is too early to say whether the allegations are true. The Mandaba administration was brought to a premature end when it became mired in allegations of corruption and faced certain defeat in a parliamentary vote of censure in April [2005]. The former minister vigorously rejected the charges and recruited the well-known lawyer and human rights activist Nicolas Tiangaye to his defence team. By late August Mr Tombona was ill in [a] hospital in Bangui himself, and his lawyers requested permission for his transfer for treatment to Paris. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 4th Quarter 1995, p. 21)

COTE D'IVOIRE Cf. MINURCA, UN SECURITY COUNCIL, REFUGEES

COTEL

Cotel, R.-P. P. "Sur le Haut-Oubangui." Les Missions Catholiques, (1912):429-435.

Cotel, R.-P. P. "Lettre sur un voyage dans les sultanats." Les Missions Catholiques, (1910):436-437.

Cotel, R-P. P. Dictionnaire Français-Banda et Banda-Français et Essai de Grammaire. Abbeville: Paillart, 1907.

COTTON

Where cotton is grown [by the Gbaya of southwest CAR], it has been possible for traditional swidden cultivation to develop and take a first step towards some sort of semi-stationary crop rotation:
first year: cotton second year: peanuts of maize third year: sesame or manioc
After this the ground is left fallow for several years and is soon invaded by grass and bushes.
(See Guernier, Afrique Équatoriale Française, p. 311, cited in Hilberth, Gbaya, p. 14).

1980-1982
Production [of cotton] fell from 50,000t of cotton-seed in the early 1970s, to 32,150t in 1978-79, 22,590t in 1980-81 and 17,000t in 1981-82. The recent decline was linked to the 'cotton strike' staged by producers who felt their remuneration was so low as to be not worthwhile. An increase from CFA 60 per kilogram to CFA 70 was promised to producers, and a CFA 16bn expansion programme launched as part of the Government's attempt to increase production to 27,000t in 1982-3. (ACR, 1983, B355)

1987
Seed cotton output in 1987 is thought to have fallen by as much as one third from its level of 35,000 tons in 1986... the area under cultivation was scheduled to be reduced from 83,105 ha in 1985/86 to 60,000 ha in 1986/87 after pressure from IMF on the industry parastatal, Société Centrafricaine de Développement Africole (Socada) (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 1st Quarter 1988, p. 21)

1988-1989
President Kolingba's drive to increase the area under cotton cultivation in the CAR has begun to pay off: in 1998/89 the cultivated area was 57,017 ha, compared with 40,364 ha in 1987/88 but still far short of the 80,000 or so ha of the early 1980s. Raw cotton production rose an impressive 47 per cent in 1988/89 to 28,200 tons, while lint output showed a similar recovery, up 50 per cent to 11,400 tons. Deliveries to local industry should be little changed from the 1,200 tons recorded in 1987/88. If the local textile industry could be expanded, it might provide a more reliable outlet for the increasing local cotton production than the unstable world market can offer. This would also add more local value to exports, an important consideration for a landlocked country for which freighting accounts for such a large share of export costs. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 4th Quarter 1989, pp. 27-28)

The cotton sector adjustment programme aims to limit raw cotton output to 30,000 tons on 80,000 ha [hector = ???] of land. An export subsidy will be introduced, and collection and processing of the crop will be privatized. Three of Socada's eight processing plants were closed in 1986/1987. The remaining five at Guiffa, Pende, Bossangoa, Bambari and Bozoum have a combined capacity of about 51,000 t/y [tons per year]. Major donor for the cotton reform programme have been the World Bank's IDA ($15mn), Japan ($5.6mn), Saudi Arabia ($2.4mn) and France's CCCE. Studies on possible reconversion and diversification are underway, while the government also hopes cotton seed can be used to make items such as soap and oil, as in neighboring countries, rather than discarded as now. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 4th Quarter 1989, p. 28)

1991
Over the last few years, the cultivation of cotton has, under the aegis of Socada (Société centrafricaine de développement agricole, established in 1980), a positive evolution with regard to the production of cotton grain: 19,158 bons for the 1987/88 season, 27,969 tons in 1988/89, 26,487 tons in 1989/90, and 36,940 tons in 1990/91. Yields have improved, from 475kg/hectare to a record figure of 750kg/hectare. Several factors explain these good results: sufficient rainfall (une bonne pluviométrie), growth in the surface area cultivated, improvement in the use of insecticides, and better agricultural maintenance. On the other hand, the number of cultivators decreased, falling from 99,000 to 91,000... At the same time, the surface area planted rose, from 40,364 hectares to close to 47,000 hectares. (Gilguy, "Centrafrique," p. 3075).

Socada now has four seed-extracting factories, two in the west (20,500 tons treated this year), and two in the east (14,600 tons treated this year). Even though the yields of seed-extraction has risen, from 40.7% to 41.3% between 1988/89 and 1989/90, these [factory] installations are to be the object of a project of restructuring of the [cotton] sector. The principal markets [for cotton] are divided between:

-the international market, with the support of CFDT (Compagnie française des fibres textiles), which place 70% of the fiber. L'effondrement des cours in 1986 perturbed the development of the sector a bit. (Gilguy, "Centrafrique," p. 3075).

-the internal market, with the textile factory Ucatex, whose purchases took 1,400 tons in 1990 and 1,200 tons in 1991. But the financial problems of this enterprise [Ucatex] are such that it has a debt of 236 millions CFA to its supplier during the last season. (Gilguy, "Centrafrique," p. 3075).

recently, one part of the [cotton] kernels (amandes) found an outlet, the oil factory Husaca having undertaken to transform one part into cotton oil. But this company has also had difficulty fulfilling its obligations: it owed, in the spring [of 1991], 10 million CFA to its supplier. (Gilguy, "Centrafrique," p. 3075).

2004
BANGUI, 3 Mar 2004 (IRIN) - Cotton farmer Faustin Bagaza, 55, wears the cloak of poverty around him even tighter these days. Despite harvesting his crop for two successive years, he has made no sales. The reason? A rebellion in northwestern Central African Republic (CAR) that has devastated the country's agriculture, health, education and other services. "I have kept the cotton I harvested in 2002 and 2003 in my house and nobody has come to buy it," he told IRIN on 26 February. Bagaza lives in Sibut, Kemo Province, 185 km northeast of the nation's capital, Bangui. He has been able to keep his three children at Sibut Secondary School, despite his meagre earnings and despite not having planted cotton in 2004. Bagaza's situation is not unique. Poverty seems to be the experience of most people in the northwest, an area that bore the brunt of a six-month rebellion waged by former army chief of staff Francois Bozize against President Ange-Felix Patasse. The rebellion ended on 15 March 2003 when Bozize overthrew Patasse.
History of civil strife
The country has undergone several armed conflicts since the mid-1990s that badly affected the population. But unlike the 1996-7 mutinies and the May 2001 coup attempt by former leader Andre Kolingba, which affected a section of Bangui residents, Bozize's October 2002 to March 2003 rebellion wrecked havoc in five provinces: Ouham, Ouham Pende, Nana Grebizi, Kemo and parts of Ombella Mpoko. Thousands of people abandoned their homes for the bush or for neighbouring Chad.
As a result of the rebellion, most peasant farmers lost two planting seasons and have had no buyers for their last cotton harvest; health and educational facilities were looted, exposing people to diseases and epidemics; and insecurity increased in villages as armed robbers acquired modern guns and ammunition.
So far, an estimated 41,000 refugees remain in southern Chad, afraid to return home because of continued insecurity, the collapse of infrastructure, and destruction of villages.
To assess the situation and to prick the conscience of the international community to the plight of people living in the northwest, a mission of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) arrived in the country on 22 February for a two-week evaluation tour.
Headed by Special Humanitarian Adviser Ramiro Lopes Da Silva, the mission toured the provinces of Kemo, Nana Grebizi and Ouham from 26 to 28 February. Besides other OCHA officials, those from the UN Children's Fund, the UN Development Programme, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) accompanied Da Silva.
Plight of cotton farmers
The UN mission found that despite the adverse impact of the rebellion on the cotton-rich northwest, farmers had been picking their cotton - their major source of income - since 2002. Unfortunately, the cotton factory in Bossangoa, 305 km north of Bangui, was looted during the rebellion and its equipment taken to Chad by former rebels loyal to Bozize. Consequently, the Société Centrafricaine de Developpement des textiles (Socadetex), which was the only taker, was unable to buy from the farmers.

"Together with Socadetex, we began in January a campaign among farmers to encourage them to resume cotton farming," Jean de Dieu Sepokode, the deputy governor of Sibut, told IRIN.
He said Socadetex would rehabilitate its factories and could buy this year's cotton harvests.
On 3 February, CAR Prime Minister Celestin Gaombalet set up a committee to coordinate the rehabilitation of cotton factories in Bossangoa and Bambari, 385 km northeast of Bangui. In villages along the road from Sibut to Kabo, a town 260 km north of Sibut in Ouham Province, farmers like Bruno Gona dumped cotton on the road for lack of storage room in their homes.
"The cotton I have in my house is worth up to 300,000 francs CFA [US $580]," Bruno Gona, a 25 year-old cotton farmer from the village of Patcho, 60 km south of Kabo in Nana Grebizi Province, told IRIN on 27 February.
In 2003, when an oil and soap firm, the Huilerie, Savonnerie de Centrafrique (Husaca) learnt of the cotton farmers' plight, it urged them to switch to maize and pledged to buy their crops. However, when the maize was harvested, the firm failed to keep its promise.
"We have stored our maize harvests in one of the village chief's houses as we wait for a buyer," Gona added. (IRIN, Bangui, 3 Mar 2004)

COUDRIN

Coudrin, Hervé. "Les Pygmées Mbenzélé en quête de la maîtrise de leur devenir. Analyse d'une mutation sociale à partir de l'autoévaluation d'un projet de développement. Diplôme des Hautes Etudes de la pratique sociale, Université de Strasbourg II, CEFODE, 1988. 154p.

COULOMB

Coulomb, J. Projet de développement rural intégré des savanes du nord-est de la République Centrafricaine (Integrated rural development project in the savannas of the northeast of the Central African Republic.) Paris: GERDAT, 1978. 90p.

COUNTRYWATCH INC., HOUSTON

Central African Republic Country Review.

COUP ATTEMPTS

Patassé left Paris at the end of February 1982, to return to Bangui where he was welcomed by a crowd of up to 10,000 people. Speaking to journalists soon after, he said he regarded himself as the rightful president of the CAR. In the presidential elections of 1981, Patassé had gained 38% of the votes, cf. David Dacko's 50.3%. Now, he defiantly accused Kolingba of 'treason', and said he was waiting for him to hand over power. Kolingba was also accused of treason in a pamphlet put out by a previously unknown group, the Centrafricain Liberation Front (Frolica), which was thought to be the MLPC under another name. A coup d'état was attempted by Patassé's supporters on 3 March [1982]. Gen. Bozize, Minister of Information and a supporter of Patassé, went to the radio to accuse Kolingba of treason, and called for resistance against an attempt by the Deputy Chief of Staff, Col Diallo, to take over the government with the backing of Zaire. (A frequent theme of Patassé's is that Mobutu supports the tribes of the Chari [sic: should be Ubangi River area - such as Kolingba's Yakoma and Diallo's M'Baka [Ngbaka] - against the Northern tribes.) This allegation was shortly denied by Diallo himself, and Kolingba replied in a speech in which he recalled the reasons for the military takeover and appealed for calm. Demonstrations and riots followed, during which Patassé's supporters erected barricades in the streets of Bangui. Three to five people were killed, 30 wounded and c. 100 arrested. No firm basis of support for the coup appeared to exist, and it was crushed in a few hours. When a call for a general strike on 5 March was not heeded, the coup leaders fled in the immediate aftermath of the events. The authorities tried to play down the whole affair. No curfew or other special measure was introduced, while the purging of conspirators from the government was described as a "slight reshuffle." Two main instigators, Bozize and Gen. Mbaikoua (Justice), lost their posts, as did tow others - Lt. Col Dokossi (Industry and Commerce) and Major Maboua (Economy and Finance). Patassé himself entered the French embassy and demanded political asylum. This provoked a crisis in relations between Bangui and Paris, with the former demanding that Patassé should be handed over immediately to stand trail; and the latter citing its traditional hospitality for political refugees and negotiating for him to go into exile in another African country. In the end, the CAR authorities gave in and Patassé was sent to Togo on a French military transport plane, after having been refused admission by the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Zaire, Gabon, the Congo and Senegal. (ACR, 1983, B350-351)

COUPS D'ETAT

"Le coup d’etat de la Saint-Sylvestre 1965. Film des evenements."
http://www.sangonet.com/HistoireRCA/coups-ET-1965_2004C.html

Le putsch de Bokassa. Histoire sècrete. By Jean Français.

COUPON (Akapygmies, photography, etc.)
Coupon, William www.williamcoupon.com/21/pygmy.html
Note: Coupon is a portrait photographer, living in New York City, who photographied the Pygmy people living in Bayanga on the Sangha River.

COURSULLES

Courseulles, de Barbeville. Essai sur la codification des coutumes banda. Bangui: Archives de l'Oubangui-Chari, n.d. Typescript.

COURRIER

Monthly report, Letter no. 119 by ? Courrier, Zemio, 1 August 1903. CAOM-Aix, Fond AEF 4 (3) D10, cited by Grootaers, "The Zande," 90.

Administrator Courrier wanted to show the Zande "that the easy and reliable way that connects the sultanate of Zemio to Europe are the Ubangi and the Congo, and not the Nile." (Cited and translated by Grootaers, "The Zande," 90).

COURTET

Courtet, H. "Le fer chez certaines peuplades de l'Afrique Centrale." La France coloniale (Paris) 19 (1911):188-192.

COVER cf. BRETHREN MISSION HERALD
Robert Cover Sr.

Cover, Robert Sr., Viki Rife, Ashley Woodworth, and Sarah Pratt, Heroes Who Live On. Vol 2. Winona Lake: IN: Brethren Missionary Herald Books, 2005.

Cf. “Orville Jobson (1900-1974).” In Robert Cover, Sr., Viki Rife, Ashley Woodworth, and Sarah Pratt, Heroes Who Live On. Vol 2. Winona Lake: IN: Brethren Missionary Herald Books, 2005, pp. 51-55.

Cf. “Noel Gaiwaka (1910-1996).” In Robert Cover, Sr., Viki Rife, Ashley Woodworth, and Sarah Pratt, Heroes Who Live On. Vol 2. Winona Lake: IN: Brethren Missionary Herald Books, 2005, pp. 74-79.

Cf. “Allen Bennet (1899-1923).” In Robert Cover, Sr., Viki Rife, Ashley Woodworth, and Sarah Pratt, Heroes Who Live On. Vol 2. Winona Lake: IN: Brethren Missionary Herald Books, 2005, pp. 42-48.

Cf. “Florence N. Gribble (1879-1942).” In Robert Cover, Sr., Viki Rife, Mallory Nixon and Holly Jones, Heroes Who Live On. Vol 1. Winona Lake: IN: Brethren Missionary Herald Books, 2005, pp. 16-23.

Cf. “James S. Gribble (1883-1923).” In Robert Cover, Sr., Viki Rife, Mallory Nixon and Holly Jones. Heroes Who Live On. Vol 1. Winona Lake: IN: Brethren Missionary Herald Books, 2005, pp. 26-33.

Cf. “Estella Myers (1884-1956).” In Robert Cover, Sr., Viki Rife, Mallory Nixon and Holly Jones. Heroes Who Live On. Vol 1. Winona Lake: IN: Brethren Missionary Herald Books, 2005, pp. 36-42.

COUVERT

Couvert, C. La langue francaise en République Centrafricaine. Paris: I.R.A.F., 1983.

COWEL

Cowell, Alan. "In Central African Republic: A Coup or Just a Charade?" New York Times, 17 March 1982.

CRABBE

Crabbe, M. and C. Farra-Frond, L’éducation sexuelle en milieu scolaire ou préparation à la vie familiale (Sex education at school or preparation for family life). Bangui: Ministère de la Santé, 1985. 110p.

CRAMPEL

Crampel, Paul. "Les Bayagas, petits hommes de la grande forêt équatoriale." Lettre du 16 août 1890, présentée par Harry Alis à la séance du 5 décembre 1890 de la Société de Géographie, Comptes rendus des Séances de la Société de Géographie, 1890, pp. 548-554.

CRAWFORD

Crawford. Young. “The northern republics, 1960-1980.” In History of Central Africa, ed. David Birmingham and Phyllis M. Martin. Vol 2. London: Longman, 1983. pp. 291-335.

CRECENT

Crecent. "Missions Liotard et Marchand." Bulletin de la Société de géographie de Lyon. 15 (???):390-422.

CRÉDIT LYONNAIS Cf. UNION BANCAIRE EN AFRIQUE CENTRALE, BANKS

BANKS (as of 1 January 1958) included Crédit Lyonnais (Junod and Resnick, "The Central African Republic," p. 52).

Meridien-BIAO is important to the CAR because it is the principal rival to the local offshoot of Crédit Lyonnais, Union bancaire en Afrique Centrale, as a provider of personal, commercial and trade finance services. (EIU Country Report, "Central African Republic," 3rd Quarter 1995, p. 32)

CRIBBE

Cribb, P.J. and J. M. Fay. Orchids of the Central African Republic: A Provisional Checklist.

CRINESOY

Crisenoy, M. De. Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. Paris: Spes, 1938.

CROUIAL

Crouial, J. C. “Une étape vers la sédentarisation de l’éleveur M’Bororo en République Centrafricaine." In République Centrafricaine: le bain détiqueur adapté à l’élevage nomade. Alfort: Thèse doctorat vétérinaire, 1969.

CROUZET

Crouzet, Paul. "Education in the French Colonies." In I. Kandel, ed. Educational Yearbook. Columbia University, International Institute of Teachers' College, 1931.

CUCHEROUSSET
Father Joseph Cucherousset.

Cucherousset, Father (Père) Joseph. "La mort accidentelle de Monseigneur Grandin" (The accidental death of Monsignor Grandin), Quoted in Banville, Raconte-moi la Mission, pp. 152-155 [Trans. Bradshaw])

Monday morning, 4 August 1947, Monseigneur [Bishop Grandin] was very happy to receive Brother Marc Feraille who was returning from his vacation in France. He received as well with his personal kindness Father Gaist, [who had] come from his Mission of Bossembele to report on his work (rendre compte de son travail) and ask for instructions and advice. Monseigneur was thus very far from thinking that, a few hours later, he would report to God (rendrait ses comptes à Dieu) and enter into possession of eternal happiness. In the afternoon, he went to Bangui to continue the quest he had undertaken to purchase church bells and a harmonium for the cathedral. At 17:20 (5:20 pm), to return to the Mission, he took the interior route along the Ubangi river bank (la corniche de Bangui), a road still officially [designated] as a one-way street, but then in practice, since the work of widening it was finished, a road that vehicles often took. Monseigneur [Grandin], alone in his car, traveled in the forbidden (or wrong) direction (dans le sens interdit). About a hundred meters from the Artillery building (bâtiment de l'Atillerie), he found himself facing a military vehicle. A this place, the route is flanked by a hill (à flanc de coteau), maintained? (maintenue) on one side by a supporting wall (mur de soutènement) two meters high, on top of which were 23 boundary stones (23 bornes garde-fous), bordered on the other side by a rock one meter high which extended into (or stuck out) into the road (s'avance sur la route)....(Cucherousset, "La mort accidentelle de Monseigneur Grandin," quoted in Banville, Raconte-moi la Mission, p. 152 [Trans. Bradshaw])
Help came quickly. The chauffeur of the military vehicle, the local soldiers of the Artillery under the command of European officers plunged [into the water] to open the car and pull our Monsignor who, unfortunately, due to the impact (le choc), had been thrown to the back (était passé à l'arrière) and a second door had to be opened to remove the body. (Cucherousset, "La mort accidentelle de Monseigneur Grandin," quoted in Banville, Raconte-moi la Mission, p. 152 [Trans. Bradshaw])
The rescue operation (opération de sauvetage) lasted about 5 to 10 minutes. Monsignor thus breathed his last breath. Doctors, the Fathers and Brothers of Notre-Dame Mission and Saint-Paul, quickly arrived, Father Gruner save absolution and extreme unction with a short formula while the doctors tried for one hour, alas in vain, to revive the body which no longer showed any sign of life. Every method was vigorously employed: artificial respiration, pulling out the tongue, an adrenaline shot in the heart. But Monsignor died of shock or drowning, maybe both together. The doctors firmly believed that [Bishop Grandin] suffered a fracture at the base of his cranium and the backbone. It mattered little, we had lost our Father and our Chief. (Cucherousset, "La mort accidentelle de Monseigneur Grandin," quoted in Banville, Raconte-moi la Mission, p. 153 [Trans. Bradshaw])
The body was transported to Saint-Paul where the funeral was held. The Fathers, the Brothers, the Sisters (Religieuses), the Europeans, and particularly members of Colonial Catholic Action (Action Catholique Coloniale) supplied the honor guard for the body throughout the night. Towards 8 o'clock (a.m.), colleagues from Boda and Mbaiki as well as the Sisters (Religieuses) of the last mission (Mbaiki), informed by a kind lady (dame charitable) during the night, arrived. At 10 o'clock (a.m.), the burial ceremony took place at the cathedral in an atmosphere particularly recueillie in the presence of a huge crowd never [before] equaled of Europeans and Natives. An imposing [funeral] procession of the faithful in cars and on foot then went to the cemetery of Saint-Paul where the body of Monsignor Grandin was laid to rest next to that of Monsignor Calloc'h, his predecessor. (Cucherousset, "La mort accidentelle de Monseigneur Grandin," quoted in Banville, Raconte-moi la Mission, p. 155 [Trans. Bradshaw])

CUISANCE

Cuisance, Dominique. La lutte contre les glossines dans le zone d'action pastorale de Yeremo (République Centrafricaine). (Tsetse fly control in the pastoral land action area of Yeremo, Central African Republic.) Maisons-Alfort, France: IEMVT, 1988. 68p. 3 maps.

CUREAU
Dr. Cureau (born 1864 – died 1913) was the head of the Oubangui-Chari colony from 1900 to 1904. He succeeded Victor Liotard.

Cureau, Dr. Adolphe-Louis. "Les états Zandés." Revue coloniale, 5 (1899):707-713 and 15 (1900):390-422.

Cureau, Dr. Adolphe-Louis. "Travaux astronomiques et topographiques dans le Haut-Oubangui." La géographie. 2 (1900):263-290.

CURET

Curet. "Poison d'épreuve, coutume banda au tribunal de Fort-Sibut." Bulletin de la Société des Recherches Congolaises, 10 (1929):123-128. Describes a traditonal ordeal.

CURRENCY DEVALUATION

In January 1994, the currency used by CAR and 11 other francophone African countries was devalued 100 percent. The CFA franc [had] been pegged since 1948 to the French franc at 1 FF = 50 CFA francs ($1 - 290 CFA). Overnight the new pegged rate became 1 FF = 100 CFA ($1 - 590 CFA). The move was pushed by the International Monetary Fund and World Bank as a key measure to reduce imports and to boost exports such as coffee, diamonds, and timber by making the prices of these products more competitive on world markets. However, subsequent increases in the price of imported fuel have driven price increases in all other products, including those necessities produced in the CAR such as sugar and soap. Because local people need to obtain cash to purchase these items, they are also raising prices of commodites they produce: manioc and bushmeat. Economic difficulty may put even greater direct pressure on wildlife resources. At the same time, greater export production from logging, diamond mining and coffee plantations indirectly harms wildlife by reducing habitat. If resources like timber and diamonds are found in forests, people will enter forests to collect them, and will hunt wildlife to feed themselves while they are there. (Noss, "Duikers, Cables and Nets," p. 144-144).

CURSES AND REMOVING CURSES Cf. HAMAN, CHRISTENSON

Haman Matthieu supplied this description...of zanga-nu as a Gbaya way to confess sins [or remove the effects of a curse]. Haman's narrative describes an incident that occurred in his home village...when the chief became angry with everyone and cursed them, saying, "If I really am chief here, may you no longer succeed in anything you do! If I am not in fact your chief, then may you succeed. But since I am in truth your chief here, may all your success come to me!" (Christenson, An African Tree of Life, p. 103)
The chief taps on the top of his head, naming all the bad things the village has done to him: "I told you to work in my fields, but you refused! I told you to repair the walls of my concession, but you didn't want to help! The authorities came to visit, but you did none of the work to receive them! You killed animals on the hunt and ate all the meat in the bush, not giving me my part! I curse the lot of you! May my curse take you!" (Christenson, An African Tree of Life, p. 103)
In the days that followed, no one in the village succeeded in anything. People died from much sickness, and many quarrels broke out. The manioc fields failed to produce, the corn crop was not enough even for the children. Over and over again bad words among the people destroyed relationships in the village. Even when the people found something to eat, they were still hungry; they became thin. There was no happiness. (Christenson, An African Tree of Life, pp. 103-104)
But finally the chief's anger calmed down because the old men and women of the village told him, "Chief, if you stick to those hard words, everyone here will be destroyed! You'll find no more strong men in the village. Wash your heart so peace can be restored!" Then the chief called everyone together early one morning, including all the old men. He took a new calebash and filled it with water. He also put manioc flour (zeze) into the water to make it white. All the elders gathered together and held the chief's calebash with their right hands while he spoke:
"I'm doing zanga-nu, the real thing, with all my people here today! I was angry with you because you did not work for me, so I cursed you, and you have all been afflicted. But today I'm happy to call you back to me. If it was not really my own father who gave me this village, as I told you before, then my words would have had no effect, because the arms are not stronger than the thigh [the chief is a thigh; the young men of the village, arms]. So I'm gathering you here today in order to put an end to our fighting and quarreling. I tell you, I'm not lying, the bad words I spoke before, I herewith throw them out top!" (Christenson, An African Tree of Life, p. 104)
"My heart is at peace now, and I spit (touffee) into this water! I hereby wash my mouth and head, since I told you that all your wealth and animals should come to me! Now may you all succeed again! Kill many animals! Get rich!" Then he carefully poured the water on the ground and anointed all the young men with fresh mud. He anointed their foreheads and hands, their chests and feet. Then the village was at peace again. (Christenson, An African Tree of Life, p. 103)

CUCHEROUSSET

Cucherousset, Monseigneur J. "Rapport annuel juillet 1947 - juillet 1948." 23 August 1948, Bangui. Archives CSE, Chevilly, 297 B file 6.

CURTIN

Curtin, Philip, Steven Feierman, Leonard Thompson and Jan Vansina. African History. London: Longman, 1978. Reprinted in 1981.

By 2000 B.C., the dessication of the Sahara was complete and its former populations had been integrated into the various areas where they had sought refuge. But this did not mean the end of the spread of food-producing economies in Africa. From the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Nile in the east, the southward expansion of agriculture proceeded without great hindrance until the margins of the equatorial forest were reached. The forests were then inhabited by gatherers and hunters and also perhaps by less sedentary fishermen. Some of these gatherers had evolved a technique of producing food called vegeculture. Without really domesticating a plant to begin with, they found that certain roots and fruits would grow again in the same spots, provided slips were put into the ground and a little weeding was done afterwards. In this way, they gradually domesticated several types of yams, all sorts of gourds and calabashes, as well as the oil and raphia palm. These did not become the mainstay of their food supply, however, and most food was still collected from wild leaves, roots and berries or came from hunting both large and small animals. Because there is no archaeological evidence for the practice of vegeculture, it cannot be dated, but it may have existed for thousands of years. Its major advantage was to make the supply of food more secure and above all to allow people to stay a little longer in each camp. Incipient sedentarization was the motive for vegeculture, rather than better nutrition. When the growers of cereals met with these populations, stimulus diffusion began to take place. The forest peoples began to pay more attention to planting root crops and may have taken the notion of regular fields from their new neighbors. Slowly they also learned to clear some bush by burning and found that some cereals could be cultivated there as well. But they were never able to rely on them as staple crops... But this whole evolution finally led some forest people to a fairly sedentary way of life. They began to live in villages, cleared fields, and relied on root crops, tree crops, and fishing as they major activities. Hunting persisted, and the social values attached to hunting proved to be almost impervious to the economic changes. But hunting gradually declined in importance, and with it the need for migration disappeared and made village life possible. What evidence we have shows that this evolution took place along the northern margins of the forest from the Upper Ubangi to the Gambia (Philip Curtin, Steven Feierman, Leonard Thompson and Jan Vansina. African History, p. 16-17.)

The Proto-Bantu were fishermen. They used canoes, nets, lines, and fishhooks. They also hunted big game and small game and cultivated yams and palm trees as well as some cereals, probably millets and sorghums. The people made pottery, used barkcloth, and perhaps already wove fibers of the raphia tree on a wide loom. They bred goats, perhaps sheep, and had some cattle. But they did not take the cattle with them during their migration. They did not work iron, so tools must have been fashioned of wood or stone...The fishermen were sedentary and lived in compact villages of unknown size. Social organization was partly based on kinship; polygyny was common... The ancestral Bantu-speakers feared witches and blamed them for their evil. They employed religious specialists who were often both medicine men and diviners at the same time. It is probable, but less clear, that they believed in nature spirits as well as in the power of ancestors. (Philip Curtin, Steven Feierman, Leonard Thompson and Jan Vansina. African History, p. .)

In more remote times... the [North Central Africa] grasslands people spoke Central Sudanic languages, like...the Sara spoken in the Shari basin, or the Mangbetu and related languages spoken on the fringes of the Ituri forest. But then people speaking Adamawa-Eastern [-Ubangian] languages came in from the west - that is, people who were not Bantu-speakers, but whose languages belonged to the same broad Niger-Congo language family that includes the Bantu languages. The descendants of these intrusive peoples would be the present-day Gbaya, Ngbandi, Zande, and Banda, stretching east to the border between the republics of Zaire [Democratic Republic of the Congo] and the Sudan... The most spectacular historical movement was that of the Zande... Once in the region of the Ubangi and Uele rivers, they began a slow expansion in the east that ended in the creation of a dozen different kingdoms. But these were not mass migrations, pushing the local people ahead of them. They were, rather, the imposition of Zande clans as rulers over the local people, who still retained their culture and transmitted much of it to their new rulers. In the process, the Zande and their subjects evoled complex institutions that permitted the rapid mutual assimilation of "foreigners" to the body politic. By 1800, the cultural similarities across these northern grasslands outweighed the more obvious division between stateless peoples like the Gbaya and others like the Zande states. Most people lived in dispersed settlements, cultivating sorghum in the north and bananas in the south. Villages were small, usually no more than an extended family; political organization was loose even in regions with states, so that society was often disturbed by feuds and quarrels, mitigated by the distance between settlements. Religion was mainly an ancestor cult centering on certain sacred objects kept in shrines and guarded by lineage [sic] elders; these objects were the ultimate sanction for correct relations between individuals and groups. Even though the ultimate origins and historical changes in these cultures are not known, they are very similar to the kinds of society found in central Cameroon. (Philip Curtin, Steven Feierman, Leonard Thompson and Jan Vansina. African History, pp. 272-273.)

By the 1860s, ivory moving down the Congo or Zaire, by way of Stanley Pool amounted to a sixth of all the ivory that was marketed in London, and the new trade brought increasing quantities of tobacco, palm oil, and peanuts. By the early 1880s, the annual value of trade at the Congo mouth was about £ 3 million sterling, somewhat more than the value of trade at the mouth of the Niger [river]. The heart of the Congo River trade was the market at Stanley Pool, the crucial transit point where boat transportation toward the coast was blocked by the long stretch of the Congo Rapids. The rapids divided the Congo trade into an upper or waterborne segment and a lower or overland segment linking the pool with a series of ports along the coast both north and south of the [Congo] estuary itself...The main goods moving over this lower segment were salt from the coast and a mix of three European products: guns, gunpowder, and cloth. All three had to be present in any transition that involved ivory or slaves. The currency, however, was cloth, designated in "fathoms," though the actual length of the fathom differed... (Philip Curtin, Steven Feierman, Leonard Thompson and Jan Vansina. African History, p. 426.)

The market at Stanley Pool wass controlled by Tio middlemen, settled in sizable towns on the present sites of Kinshasa and Brazzaville. The total trade there was far more valuable than the ivory and slaves that passed on through by caravan to the coast, because river transportation was far cheaper per ton-mile, and bulkier goods could beat the cost of transport. The Pool markets received at least a ton of waterborne goods each day, even in the slack season. During peak seasons, the incoming river traffic would rise to the order of twenty-five to forty tons per day, with redwood, pottery, smoked fish, and beer coming downstream along with the ivory and slaves, while copper and lead... copper jewelry, smoked meat, cassava, and other foodstuffs passed through the Tio markets headed upriver along with the European imports. The Tio people lived from trade, the manufacture of jewelry, and tobacco growing to supply caravans bound for the coast; they imported most of their food from the surrounding region. (Philip Curtin, Steven Feierman, Leonard Thompson and Jan Vansina. African History, p. 426.)

On the Ubangi, the Loi water people took over [from the Bobangi] near the confluence [of the Ubangi] with the main [Congo] river [see map] and sent goods upstream through a number of middle groups, each of which controlled a small section of the Ubangi, as well as the Uele and Mbomou rivers beyond [and flowing into it]. The Bobangi were freer of competition, however, on the affluents that emptied into their own home stretch of the river... On these tributaries, the Bobangi traded over the entire navigable length; some of their trips on the Sanga took them right across the forest to the eastern Adamawa grasslands, where they may well have met Hausa traders from northern Nigeria. The Ngala and the Bobangi has similar customs to begin with, and the growth of their trade with each other brought their customs even closer together. A common pidgin language, Lingala, had already become the trade language for the Bobangi, the Ngala, and many others. Along with Lingala came a common culture... The knives of office from the bend of the Ubangi became prized insignia among the Tio... crops like cassava, lemons, oranges, tobacco and maize - all these were broadly accepted along with other aspects of social structure, religion, or the kind of talisman used to make rain...the Europeans visitors thought they recognized a single 'tribe', the Bangala, speaking its own language, Lingala, and having its distinct culture. The traders, in short, had created a single culture over a huge area of Equatorial Africa... Later still, colonial penetration was to follow the trade routes, which intensified the interculturation of African peoples along these routes until it welded the whole northwest of the Belgian Congo and French Middle Congo into a single civilization. In the colonial period, the interchange continued, first under Congo Independent State, then by the colonial companies acting under Belgian and French authority. (Philip Curtin, Steven Feierman, Leonard Thompson and Jan Vansina. African History, pp. 428-429.)

The northern savannas of Central Africa were... dominated by intrusive merchants in this period [after 1800], but here the demand for ivory and wax are inconsequential. Slaves for Egypt and North Africa were the chief objectives of the alien traders, and the combination of slave raids with the rapid rise and fall of secondary empires was even more disastrous here than in a similar pattern of events had been to the south of the forest. As of 1800, the beginnings of these revolutionary changes were barely visible. The political structure... a tier of states along the desert edge from Lake Chad to the Red Sea including Bagirmi, Wadai, Darfur, the region of Kordofan normally in contest with Darfur and the Funj sultanate at Sennar, and finally Sennar itself controlling the Nilotic Sudan. The principal trade routes were the north-south axis following the valley of the Nile from Sennar to Aswan and beyond, and an east-west axis staying close to the desert along the whole of the savanna belt. In the early nineteenth century, however, the flow of through traffic along this route was heaviest over the section from Darfur to Suakin on the Red Sea, though a few pilgrims bound for Mecca came through from the far west. Other traffic passing the region of Lake Chad reached only a far as Wadai or Darfur. (Philip Curtin, Steven Feierman, Leonard Thompson and Jan Vansina. African History, p. 438.)

The principal traders over these routes were the jallaba of the Nile valley. By the end of the eighteenth century, large numbers of Ja'ali, or Nubian, jallaba were operating in trade all along the southern fringe of the major sahelian states, from southern Darfur east to Bahr al-Ghazal and the White Nile south of Sennar, among Nilotic peoples like the Shilluk and the Dinka... Of the three sahelian states, Darfur was clearly the strongest, with overlordship covering both Wadai and the region of Kordofan, and with easy trade links to Egypt, northeast along the "forty-day road" to the desert edge of the Nile. Though Darfur remained strong (Philip Curtin, Steven Feierman, Leonard Thompson and Jan Vansina. African History, p. 438.)

CUYPERS

Cuypers, H., L.V. Gucht and H. Bourget. Merveilleux Pays: La République Centrafricaine. Versailles: Editions Delroisse, 1969.

CUSTOMS AND DUTIES cf. UDEAC, UDE, SMUGGLING, GENERAL SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES

Encyclopedia of the Nations, s.v. "Africa - Central African Republic - Customs and Duties." www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Central-African-Republic-CUSTOMS-AND-DUTIES.html

In 1959, the four territories of French Equatorial Africa joined the Equatorial Customs Union (Union Douanière Equatoriale— UDE), within which goods and capital flowed without obstruction. The UDE was expanded in December 1964 to include Cameroon and together they formed the Central African Customs and Economic Union (Union Douanière et Economique de l'Afrique Centrale—UDEAC). The Republic therefore had no customs system of its own. In early 1968, the Central African Republic left the UDEAC to join an economic union with Zaire and Chad, but in December 1968 it returned to the UDEAC. As of 1993, the Central African Republic was a member of both UDEAC and CEEAC. The UDEAC covers the entire range of commodity trade and bans all import and export taxes between member states. Goods and merchandise originating in member states are exempt from various taxes except in special circumstances. The gains derived from import duties in member states go into the state budgets, but to offset the advantages gained by transit trade, especially to coastal countries, a share of import duties is deposited in a common fund. There is a uniform customs tariff levied against all third parties, but since the UDEAC countries are associated with the common market, imports from EU countries receive a reduction in customs duties. Imports from outside the franc zone require a license. Customs evasion through the smuggling of goods across the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Cameroon borders is a serious problem. Such goods are sold at 10–40% off the price of legitimate items, depriving the government of significant revenue. (Encyclopedia of the Nations, s.v. "Africa - Central African Republic - Customs and Duties." www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Central-African-Republic-CUSTOMS-AND-DUTIES.html)