Central African Republic, a Christian country
From our correspondent Sylver Biakao, an article on the Central African Republic and the presence of the Christian Church
Brief introduction to the Central African Republic
The Central African Republic, also known as CAR, is a landlocked country with a diverse natural and ethnic environment.
Formerly an Equatorial African territory with the name Oubangui-Chari, it is a country covering an area of 623,000 km .
According to the last official census in 2023, it has an estimated population of 5,742,000.
Half of the country’s population is under the age of twenty-five.
The Central African Republic borders Cameroon to the west, Chad to the north, Sudan and South Sudan to the east, and the Central African Republic to the south.
Its borders are the result of the colonial division of Africa.
A country open to a variety of beliefs
In the face of the early and significant presence of the Protestant churches, for whom the reading of the Bible, tinged with literalism and concordism, made it the official text used for evangelization and liturgy, Catholic missionaries clearly distinguished themselves by the imposition of social and economic infrastructure (schools, health centers, farms, small industries, etc.) as a reliable system of outreach evangelization.
Most often this was at the expense of personal faith.
Various religions are practiced in the Central African Republic. According to the last census dating back to 2023, statistics can be presented as follows:
- Christians 80% (Catholics and Protestants)
- Muslims 10% (Sunni and Malekite)
- Animist 10%
- The Catholic Church in Central Africa
1. An evolving Church
The evangelization of Ubangui (Central Africa) was led by Bishop Augouard, who founded Mission Saint-Paul des Rapides in Bangui in February 1894, followed by Mission Sainte-Famille des Banziri in September 1894.
In 1994, the Central African Catholic Church celebrated its first centenary. Currently, it has nine dioceses, headed by four indigenous bishops and five bishops of foreign nationality.
Moreover, before being structured into archdioceses and dioceses, the Central African Republic was a mission territory.
It was first established as Apostolic Prefecture of Oubangui-Chari on May 8, 1909; then it was elevated to Vicariate of Oubangui Chari on December 2, 1937, and Apostolic Vicariate of Bangui on May 8, 1940, to become Metropolitan of Bangui on September 14, 1955.
To date there is only one archdiocese in the CAR.
2. The first Central African priest
Born April 9, 1910, in Bobangui, Barthélemy Boganda, originally from Lobaye, was the first Catholic priest in Ubangi (Central African Republic) on March 27, 1938.
An orphan, he lost his parents during an attack by militiamen and was taken in by Catholic missionaries from the Congregation of the Holy Spirit.
He threw himself headlong and was elected deputy for Oubangui-Chari in the French Assembly in 1946. Since his baptism, Boganda’s goal had been to defend the interests of his Ubangi, who at the time were considered less than nothing by the colonizers.
Boganda was the most educated of the country’s children and enjoyed a very solid reputation. Finally, married to a white woman, he became equal to the whites.
The question of Boganda’s relationship with the Church must take into account all these intertwined elements. Boganda himself was well aware of this.
He died in a plane crash on March 29, 1959, shortly after leaving Berberati.
At his funeral on April 3, 1959, Father Féraille, the vicar general to whom Boganda had said, “You are one of the few spirituals for whom I have esteem,” declared in front of Bangui Cathedral “that before becoming the elected representative of the people, Boganda had been the elected representative of God.”
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