Timeline on Central African Republic

[Chris]

Anyways I'm here with the timeline on the Central African Republic. Sorry It took me Awhile to finish because school has started back for me.

Anyways I've separated the timeline on Tribes/Ethnic Group and found that the Kongo-Wara Rebellion was important to the Gbaya, Mandjia, and the Fula/Muslim minorty within Central African Republic. For the Azande, they are more generational linked with the Azande in South Sudan.

Gbaya and Mandjia People

Crisis: Expulsion to Ubangi-Shari/ Usman dan Fodio's Jihad From 1804-1808
Crisis : Rabih az-Zubayr's Expedition into Ubangi-Shari From 1879-1885
Crisis: Kongo-Wara Rebellion from 1928-1931


Azande People

Crisis: Expulsion to Ubangi-Shari From 1804-1808
Crisis: British Expansion/War with Banda From 1880-1881
Crisis: First Sudanese Civil War From 1955-1972

(Source helps to form that info: http://books.google.com/books?id=stl97F ... de&f=false)


Fula/Muslim People of C.A.R

Crisis: Expulsion to Ubangi-Shari/ Usman dan Fodio's Jihad From 1804-1808
Crisis : Rabih az-Zubayr's Expedition into Ubangi-Shari From 1879-1885
Crisis: Kongo-Wara Rebellion from 1928-1931


TimelIne After the Kongo Wara Rebellion

Recovery from 1931-1958: Saw France repel or rid off of laws and practices that caused the Kongo Wara Rebellion. Africans in the C.A.R get representation with the colonial government. Barthélemy Boganda, the colony's first Black-African French parliamentary deputy, founds the Mouvement pour l'Evolution Sociale de l'Afrique Noire (MESAN, Movement for the Social Evolution of Black Africa). Boganda becomes prime minister of the movement in 1958 as the C.A.R and the rest of Africa gain self autonomy

Awakening From From 1958 to 1981: The Central African Republic gains in 1960 seeing the government start as one party state lead by David Dacko to a coup lead by Jean-Bédel Bokassa who is responding to national unrest as the country faces bankruptcy in 1966. Bokassa, who rather famous for calling himself a King and the C.A.R his empire provides many benefits to the C.A.R's people. Darko Comes back into power in 1980 only to be remove from office a year later.


Unraveling From 1981-2005: Uncertain times for C.A.R, a fluctuating economy and ever changing government are the themes of this era. Also withing the Northeast of the Country, the Muslim minority have been largely neglected by the government. A snippet from this article claims that many within the northeast are not from the Central African Republic and conflict between Christian Tribal Groups and Muslim Tribal Group showing the first signs of Crisis Civil War fault line cracking.

http://africanarguments.org/2013/04/02/ ... a-lombard/

In some ways, Djotodia’s rise to power represents a new chapter in the country’s politics. All the previous heads of state have either come from the southern riverine classes favoured by the French colonisers or, for the last twenty years, the Northwest. Both the South and the Northwest are densely populated in comparison to the Northeast, and both are predominantly Christian, whereas the Northeast is mostly Muslim. Many of the people currently living in north-eastern CAR are the descendents of groups who arrived in the late nineteenth century, fleeing the trans-Saharan slave trade. During much of the colonial period, north-eastern CAR (the prefectures of Vakaga and Bamingui-Bangoran today) was declared an “autonomous zone”, being too remote and impoverished to be able to follow governmental directives.

Because of the history of involvement (as participants and as refugees) in the trans-Saharan trades that swept up the area beginning in the nineteenth century, and because there are still active cross-border networks, people from southern CAR frequently refer to all north-easterners as “foreigners” (Chadian or Sudanese) meaning that regardless of their actual citizenship status, they do not belong in the country. When they travel, people from the Northeast are targeted for special surveillance because of their alleged ‘foreignness’. For instance, on the many roadblocks operated by branches of the state security forces, rebels, and/or others, people with Muslim-sounding names or dress are frequently subject to harassment and extra extortion.

Crisis from 2005-Today: Central African Bush War starts around this time as Muslim from the Northeast fight the Central African Government. Although a peace treaty breaks out in 2007, low level violence between the two groups continued until 2013 when Djotodia and the Seleka march to the captial and are removed a year later. The Crisis facing the C.A.R is continuation of the Bush Wars and more.

[John]

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/227526/Gbaya

Gbaya

Written by The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica
Last Updated 3-20-2014

Gbaya, also spelled Baya or Gbeya , a people of southwestern Central African Republic, east-central Cameroon, northern Congo (Brazzaville), and northwestern Congo (Kinshasa). Numbering about 970,000 at the end of the 20th century, they speak a language of the Adamawa-Ubangi subgroup of the Niger-Congo language family that is related to those of their Banda and Ngbandi neighbours.

The Gbaya migrated southeastward from what is now the Hausa area of northern Nigeria early in the 19th century, fleeing the jihad (holy war) of Usman dan Fodio. Led by Gazargamu, their war chief, the Gbaya vanquished, assimilated, or drove ahead of them the peoples that they encountered. Contemporary Gbaya subgroups, which include the Bokoto, Kara, Buli, Kaka, and Bwaka, reflect this integration of defeated peoples. The Gbaya, in turn, were attacked annually by Fulani slavers from what is now northern Cameroon.

The Gbaya resisted French forces throughout the colonial period, notably in the early 1920s, because of the brutal impressment of Gbaya men and women as porters and labourers. In 1928 they began what became a three-year revolt in response to conscription of slave labour for the Congo-Ocean Railway. A French “nightmare campaign” decimated the Gbaya to an extent that was evident for several decades.

The Gbaya observed patrilineal descent and traditionally had a stateless society. In the past, war chiefs were selected only in times of crisis and were divested of their powers thereafter. Village chiefs were arbiters and symbolic leaders, but they were later made into administrative magistrates by the French colonizers. Clans were the primary identity group within which marriage, religious ceremonies, and trade with outsiders (e.g., Arab caravanners) were regulated. Age groups called labi cut across clan identities and further assured intergroup solidarity in times of war; initiates received training in agricultural, social, and religious knowledge and skills.

Rural Gbaya grow corn (maize), cassava, yams, peanuts (groundnuts), and tobacco. They also hunt and fish. Coffee and rice, introduced by the French, are cash crops. The diamond rush of the late 1930s greatly disrupted traditional life of Gbaya in some regions; diamond prospecting continues to be economically important.

[John]

Here's something that a "Guest" previously posted:

Hello John, just wanted to give a few more info about Central African Republic.

1) It's a mosty a Christian Nation with about half the population firm believers. Islam makes up only 10-15% of the population.

2) Islam dominates the north, Christian to the more farmiable south

3)Ngbaka and the Yakoma were the first to have contact with the colonizers and were most likely to benefit from the French presence, especially by having access to formal education. These peoples were more likely to become members of the tiny African elite as a result of their relationship with the French.

That's all I have for now.

[John]

And this was my response at the time:

Thank you for this information. It's difficult to find this kind of
information on the internet.

So, would it be correct to say that the Ngbaka and the Yakoma are
Christian, because of their relationship with the French?

Here's another article on the subject:

Genocide Warning: Central African Republic
04 April 2013
By Katelyn Nawoyski

The political background for the current crisis in the Central
African Republic is described in Genocide Watch’s Country Report
of 2012. The Central African Republic was part of French
Equatorial Africa and became independent in 1960. French
authorities gave preference in education to ethnic groups near
Bangui, the capital.

This created an elite among the Southern Riverine peoples –
including the Ngbaka,, Yakoma and Ubang. This elite dominated
ruling positions in the CAR until 1996 even though northern and
central ethnic groups are more populous, creating resentment among
northern and central groups.

In 1996, Ange-Félix Patassé – from a northern ethnic group, the
Kaba – was elected President. He was re-elected in 1999. The
Yakoma, from the old ruling elite, rebelled. The United Nations
Mission in the Central African Republic – called MINURCA –
attempted to oversee “peace accords” between the Yakama and
Patassé’s Kaba. But despite the UN’s good intentions, MINURCA
lacked all three conditions for a successful UN Peace Keeping
Operation (PKO):

• There must be a peace to keep.
• The PKO must have the Mandate and the material means to
  enforce it.
• The PKO must be backed by the UN’s political will to support
  the PKO financially, with enough well-trained personnel to enforce
  the peace, and with robust Rules of Engagement.

After a failed coup attempt in May 2001, the Immigration and
Refugee Board of Canada reported government sponsored reprisal
arrests and killings of Yakoma in Bangui. Many Yakoma were forced
to flee to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to escape the
killings.

A bloodless coup ensued in March 2003 when François Bozizé took
power. Bozizé was then elected in May 2005. Two groups of rebels –
one based in the northeast (called the Seleka Coalition) and one
based in the northwest near the border with Sudan and Chad –
organized to oust Bozizé.

According to the United States Institute of Peace fighting in the
northwest displaced over 270,000 people over one-quarter of the
northwest region’s population of one million people.

Seleka forces entered Bangui and took the Presidential Palace on
March 24, 2013, forcing President Bozizé to flee the
country. Seleka’s leader – Michel Djotodia – declared himself
President.

Djotodia announced he would also be Minister of Defense. The US
State Department expressed concern at the undemocratic nature of
the coup d’état.

The Red Cross reported on April 1, 2013, that 78 bodies had been
found during the week after Djotodia came to power, and The
Guardian reported that Djotodia used child soldiers who were
killed during the coup.

The Guardian documented first-hand accounts from eyewitnesses that
Seleka child soldiers appeared to be drugged, and some were crying
for their mothers before they were killed. Use of child soldiers
is a war crime. South Africa – which had sent 298 soldiers to aid
Bozizé’s government – lost thirteen men. The UN Security Council
condemned Djotodia’s coup. The African Union sanctioned Seleka
leaders and suspended the CAR’s participation in the African
Union.

Genocide Watch has issued a Genocide Alert for the Central African
Republic. Genocide Watch recommends that the follow actions be
taken immediately:

• The Central African Republic is a state-party to the Rome Treaty
  of the International Criminal Court. If Seleka leaders used child
  soldiers, they should be charged and tried by the ICC.
• The Central African Republic should not be re-admitted into the
  African Union until it holds free and fair elections for public
  officials.
• Uganda has withdrawn its forces from the Central African Republic
  in the hunt for Joseph Kony, who is believed to be hiding in the
  CAR. The UN should demand that the CAR cooperate fully in Kony’s
  capture for trial by the International Criminal Court.

http://www.genocidewatch.org/centralafr ... ublic.html

[John]

Thanks for all your work on this, Chris. This is really interesting.

One thing that keeps confusing me, Chris, is that every time I read
anything about the history of CAR, I get what seems to be a completely
different list ethnic tribes name. All these articles give me the
impression that there are about 100 different tribes, allied with each
other in different ways, on different generational timelines, and that
you can almost just take your pick on any given day, depending on what
point you want to make.


By the way, I've copied some of your previous work into the "Expanding
Certain Crisis Lists" thread:
http://gdxforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php ... 652#p25192
However, I see that the current thread is updating the previous posts.