A Brief History of Bangui

Assignment:

1. Write a short history of your city. Include screen shots of your main points highlighted with polygons, points, and lines. When was it founded, by whom, and in what circumstances? What does the name of your city mean? What is the broader significance of this history and name? What questions does this name raise? What if any earlier names were there? Formal presentation in class of your findings (5 min.)

Bangui, the capital of Central African Republic, was first established by the French explorer Michael Dolisie (Braimah) in 1889 as a military post at the union of the Ubangi and Mpoko rivers (Young). The post was moved upstream two years later to the present site of Bangui at the base of several rapids on the Ubangi. There the post became the base for French infiltration north toward the country of Chad and east toward the Nile River (Braimah).

Bangui is named after the Ubangi River which is the word for ‘rapids’ in the Bobangi language (Wikipedia).

In 1906, the post became the administrative center of the Ubangi-Chari territory (present day Central African Republic) of French Equatorial Africa (see image).

French Equatorial Africa (Sandafayre.com)

Growth of the city happened northwestward away from the hill to the east and the river of the south. The country continued to expand as an administrative and trading hub all through the Second World War (Young).

The city has played a large part in the history of the Central African Republic.

Bangui has a soap-making factory, breweries and other light industry but is mostly a commercial and trading center.

Locally made beer in Bangui
 (https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5517/10523098494_c85cc10c66_b.jpg)

As of 2012 Bangui’s population was about 700,000 people (Wikipedia). Expatriates and the elite live in the center of the city while the majority live in the sprawling suburbs, or ‘kodros’ to the north and west (Young).

Kilometre Cinq houses a large marketplace, bar, and dance halls as well as the city’s largest mosque.

The city’s most distinctive landmarks were built during the leadership of president, than self-declared Emperor Jean-Bédel Bokassa. They include the royal palace and triumphal arch honoring his reign.

(http://wikitravel.org/upload/shared//thumb/3/3a/Bangui.jpg/400px-Bangui.jpg)

References:

Ayodale Braimah. "Bangui, Central African Republic (1889- ) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed." Bangui, Central African Republic (1889- ) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

"Why the Name Bangui (Capital of Centrafrique)?" African Heritage. N.p., 17 Oct. 2012. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

Young, Eric. "Bangui, Central African Republic." Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience, Second Edition. Ed. Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates Jr.. New York: Oxford UP, 2008. Oxford African American Studies Center. Sun Feb 28 12:09:00 EST 2016. http://www.oxfordaasc.com/article/opr/t0002/e0354