REPUBLIQUE CENTRAFRICAINE RCA CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC CAR 2

REPUBLIQUE CENTRAFRICAINE (RCA) CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (CAR) (2) The CAR is more or less a flat plateau, crisscrossed by large rivers, covering an area of about France + Belgium. West and South are mainly equatorial forest while East and North are mainly savannas. Towns outside of Bangui are quite small though widespread, very undeveloped (nearly no tarred streets, nearly no ‘modern’ buildings : most of the concrete - or at least solid - constructions were built by the French). Dominique LAURENT Meet me on mosttraveledpeople. com or thebesttravelled. com AUTOMATIC NO COMMERCIAL USE WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL

‘COUR IMPERIALE DE BERENGO’ (Former residence of Emperor Bokassa, the dictator who ruled CAR between 1966 and 1976)

Jean-Bedel Bokassa 1 er

Bokassa’s tomb

Entrance gate of Bokassa’s residence

Note the letters JB (Jean-Bedel Bokassa)

Main building (Bokassa’s living quarters)

Main building (Bokassa’s living quarters) : one of the 2 safes where Bokassa kept his gold & diamonds …

Main building (Bokassa’s living quarters)

Guests’ residence (Giscard d’Estaing stayed there when visiting Bokassa for hunting safaris ; he was offered diamonds by Bokassa …. )

Bokassa’s wives living quarters (Bokassa maintained a harem of 19 women despite converting to Catholicism)

Swimming pool

Bokassa’s wives living quarters

Graffitis written in a rather broken French in Bokassa’s wives living quarters : Right : ‘If Bokassa believes in himself, he should not die’ Bottom : ‘A good deed is never wasted. Thanks God for taking care of my wife & children’

Entrance of two tunnels ; one of these tunnels (wide enough for a small car) was leading to Bokassa’s former private airport, 4 km away ….

AROUND BANGUI (South on the way to Berengo and Northwest on the way to Boali)

A local bar (in CAR, bars are named ‘caves’) bearing a strange name ‘Le Colabo’

Street art

Small shops Right : ‘It is nothing’ Bottom : It’s God who gives

A ‘chouaterie’ (‘chouateries’ are small local restaurants, found everywhere, even in small towns, serving grilled beef and goat meat) named ‘le bon goût’ (‘the good taste’)

One of ubiquitous checkpoints

Ange Patassé’s mausoleum (Ange Patassé was president between 1997 & 2003; he was overthrown in a military coup lead by Bozizé). He died in 2011 in very unclear circomstances …

N’DELE (About 11, 000 inhabitants, 648 km Northeast of Bangui, not far from border with Chad) (Préfecture de Bamingui-Bangoran)

N’Délé small earth airstrip (our chartered aircraft)

N’Délé region (like most of the Eastern part of CAR) is still unsafe

Sultan’s palace

Hospital

Church

Children and man (with t-shirt ‘I want peace, I surrender my weapons’)

Market

Manioc

BERBERATI (3 rd town of CAR with 62, 000 inhabitants, 516 km West of Bangui) (Préfecture de Mambéré-Kadéï)

Production of gold and diamonds (main source of income of the country – though the most corrupted sector of the economy), which is mostly artisanal, comes mainly from the region of Berbérati.

Eglise du Sacré-Coeur

Former cathedral

Main square

Near main square

Shops on main square

Post office

Above : Shop ‘Ready-to-wear On the straight path’ Bottom : ‘Berbérati the flamboyant’ Bottom right : ‘Berbérati City of peace’

Colonial house

BOSSANGOA (39, 000 inhabitants, 305 km Northwest of Bangui) (Préfecture de l'Ouham)

‘The whole Bible, only the Bible’

Colonial houses

Due to heavy fights between the Selekas (the muslim rebels) & Antibalakas (Christians) which occurred there mostly end of 2013, the Sangaris French operations was very active in Bossangoa …