Central African Republic
- Karen Darnell
- Jul 17, 2020
- 4 min read
Updated: Jul 19, 2020
We have two tracks for the Central African Republic – the track where we see forest elephants and hear Bayaka music, and the track where we see war and corrupt politics. If we only go down the track of the elephants and the music, we risk being unrealistic about what is happening in the country. If we only go down the track of the war and politics, we risk not seeing the beauty of the land and people. But first, if you, like me, don’t know that much about the Central African Republic, check out the YouTube show Geography Now! to get the fast fun overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4KyslvtOk4
The Forest and Music Track
I really enjoyed learning about forest elephants, a smaller subspecies of African elephants than their savanna cousins. I found two online options showing something about Andrea Turkalo's twenty years of observations of forest elephants.
· For some reason the free option, an episode of Natural World called “Forest Elephants: Rumbles in the Jungle” on YouTube, is presented in the middle of a long bar. If the picture quality doesn’t bother you, the information on how elephants communicate is interesting. It can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrJ7Wnn9lzU.
· The more professional presentation and a different Andrea Turkalo story is told in Elephant Path: Njaia Njoku which costs $4.99 on Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/ondemand/elephantpath
I also enjoyed Louis Sarno’s story. He has lived in the rainforest of the Central African Republic for 25 years, recording the music of the people and becoming a part of the Bayaka community. I watched the documentary Song from the Forest (which can be rented for $3.99 on Amazon or watched free on Amazon Prime). Louis Sarno has also published a book and has CDs for sale. His CD Music of the Bayaka is available on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TrXTwA0yv8.
Besides the music of the Bayaka, you can also listen to sounds from a Central African Republic market or night sounds in the Central African Republic either by downloading the CD Sounds of Animals Deep in the Jungle from the LA County Library free or from Amazon at $0.99 per track.
Andrea Turkalo and Louis Sarno have succeeded in living in the forest in the Central African Republic and becoming part of the community there. Not everyone is able to make that cultural connection. The movie The Forest, found on Vimeo for $2.99, gives more of a “what not to do” example https://vimeo.com/ondemand/lesilencedelaforet
A shorter video, Goliath Tigerfish on Fly in the Chinko Reserve, has beautiful photography https://vimeo.com/376817953
Besides these films, I bought one book and picked up another one from the Los Angeles County Library:
· I bought African Tales: Folklore of the Central African Republic translated by Polly Strong with illustrations Rodney Wimer. It includes stories of Tere, a clever man with supernatural powers, stories of how various animals came to be enemies, stories of people’s relationships with each other and with animals. The stories don’t always end well and they have morals – just the kind of stories I expect and love from oral tradition. These are different enough from those I’ve heard before to show the unique personality of the country.
· I borrowed Inside the Dzanga-Sangha Rain Forest compiled by Francesca Lyman. These excerpts from the journals of scientists, artists, and filmmakers from the American Museum of Natural History not only document six weeks in the Central African Republic but also how they created an exhibit for the museum with a life-size section of forest.
The War and Corruption Track
There were four videos I watched on the war and corruption track that explained much:
· Secret cameras and an undercover filmmaker posing as a corrupt businessman demonstrate how to get diplomatic credentials from Liberia to do illegal business in the Central African Republic in The Ambassador https://tubitv.com/movies/462463/the_ambassador?utm_source=google-feed&tracking=google-feed
· The Craziest Dictator You’ve Never Heard Of introduced me to Jean-Bedel Bokassa https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoY1a-U5HjM
· The most recent civil war in the Central African Republic has been ongoing since 2012. I learned about who is fighting in “War in the Central African Republic” a full length news report from March 2014 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoQAxQgevEA
· This final link will take you to a transcript of an interview with Mike Fay, which might belong in the Forest and Music Track, but the attached video explains more about why the war is driven by poverty and corruption, not by religion. https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2017/04/09/mike-fay-discusses-his-expedition-through-the-heart-of-africa-and-his-plan-to-keep-on-walking-for-ten-years/
As usual, The Crazy Tourist shows great places to visit and reminds me of what is beautiful about the country after I have been sidetracked by the war. Here is the link: https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-central-african-republic/.
When this pandemic is over, you might want to plan travel to the Central African Republic using your local travel advisor. Shout out to my favorite travel advisor, Kaitlin Darnell at Laura's Travel in Redlands. May the travel industry survive and thrive - may we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace and health to flourish in the Central African Republic and throughout the world.
Photo Credit: Ralph Earlandson. (There are many beautiful pictures from the CAR online, but I spent two days looking for one that was legal for me to use. I finally chose this one from a nearby country that shows a great blue turaco which might also be found in the Central African Republic.)
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