Central African Republic

How Music and Dance Are Restitching the Social Fabric of the Central African Republic

BANGUI, Central African Republic — The first notes come quietly: a low thump of the drum, a ripple of balafon keys. In the Boy-Rabe district, dusk settles over ochre earth, and a walled...

Peace at Gunpoint: Central African Republic’s War Without End

KAGA-BANDORO, Central African Republic — The morning air in this northern market town carried a deceptive stillness. Beneath tin awnings, traders arranged cassava roots and bruised tomatoes in neat piles. A few stalls...

Books on Wheels: Mobile Libraries Drive a Literary Revival in the Central African Republic

KEMBE, Central African Republic — At first light, a thin red haze rises over the savanna as a dented Toyota Land Cruiser navigates the...

Books on Wheels: Mobile Libraries Drive a Literary Revival in the Central African Republic

KEMBE, Central African Republic — At first light, a thin red haze rises over the savanna as a dented Toyota Land Cruiser navigates the ruts of a dirt track. Wooden crates fill the back, their contents shifting with each jolt. Inside are books — hundreds of them — bound for a school with no shelves, in a village without a single bookstore, in a region where reading has often been more aspiration than habit. In much of rural Central African Republic, decades of political instability and chronic underinvestment have hollowed out public infrastructure. Here, 200 miles from Bangui, electricity falters, the internet is scarce, and printed materials are rare. Yet,...

Boom or Bust: The Central African Republic’s Uneasy Gamble on Its Mineral Wealth

BERBÉRATI, Central African Republic — The midday heat settles heavily over the ravine, thick with the smell of damp earth. Barefoot men in tattered...

Nature’s Return: Eco-Tourism Revives the Central African Republic’s Hidden Parks

DZANGA-SANGHA, Central African Republic — At dawn, a pale mist drapes the Dzanga Bai clearing. Forest elephants emerge from the shadows, their vast frames...

Seeds of Renewal: Community Farming Revives Rural Economies in the Central African Republic

By Fadila Ngatakou BIMBO, Central African Republic — In the village of Gbaya-Dombia, the early light filters through acacia branches, casting long shadows over a patchwork of fields. The rhythmic swish of machetes cutting through weeds breaks the morning stillness. Around the edges of the clearing, a cooperative of women and young men works side by side, their hands roughened by years of labor, their...

Harnessing the Sun: The Central African Republic’s Quiet Solar Revolution

By Aurélien Dombé BANGUI, Central African Republic — On the fringes of Bangui, where nights once descended into unbroken darkness, sunlight is now captured and stored. Along the rooftops of modest cinderblock homes, solar...

Nature’s Return: Eco-Tourism Revives the Central African Republic’s Hidden Parks

DZANGA-SANGHA, Central African Republic — At dawn, a pale mist drapes the Dzanga Bai clearing. Forest elephants emerge from...

Harnessing the Sun: The Central African Republic’s Quiet Solar Revolution

By Aurélien Dombé BANGUI, Central African Republic — On the fringes of Bangui, where nights once descended into unbroken darkness, sunlight is now captured and stored. Along the rooftops of modest cinderblock homes, solar...

Boom or Bust: The Central African Republic’s Uneasy Gamble on Its Mineral Wealth

BERBÉRATI, Central African Republic — The midday heat settles heavily over the ravine, thick with the smell of damp...