Central African Republic

The Central African Republic lies, as its name says, in the middle of Africa, landlocked and almost at the exact geographical centre of the continent. It is a vast country of savanna and forest, thinly populated, with five and a half million people from a great many ethnic groups; the capital, Bangui, stands on the Ubangi River. Its ground holds diamonds and gold and its natural environment is very rich, yet it is one of the poorest countries in the world, worn down by long instability.

The country is a vast rolling plateau, divided between two landscapes. In the south and south-west lies the dense rainforest of the Congo Basin, one of the last great primeval forests on the planet, home to gorillas and forest elephants; the Dzanga clearing, in the Dzanga-Sangha protected area, is one of Africa's great places to watch wildlife. The north and east are wooded savanna, the realm of large mammals. Big rivers, including the Ubangi in the south, cross the country.

Set in the middle of the continent, where many peoples have met, the region was devastated in the 19th century by slave raids from the north and east, which emptied whole areas of their people. Colonised by France as Ubangi-Shari, it was harshly exploited. Independent since 1960, the Central African Republic has had a troubled history: the extravagant reign of "Emperor" Bokassa, then, more recently, civil wars and deep instability.

The Central African Republic has its own common language, Sango, which almost the whole country speaks or understands and which is a national and official language alongside French: a strong force for unity among its many peoples. The country is mostly Christian, Catholic and Protestant, with a large Muslim minority, mainly in the north and among traders; traditional religions and their rites remain very present, often mixed with the other faiths.

Central African culture draws on the variety of its savanna and forest peoples. It is known for the music and polyphonies of the Aka, a forest people of Pygmy hunter-gatherers whose complex songs and yodels are on UNESCO's intangible heritage list. There is also the arched harp, drums and dance, crafts, masks and weaving. The staple is cassava, cooked into a dough ball (gozo), with game, river fish and forest foods.