From my salon, or living room, I can see the Oubangui River gliding along the edge of the city. I’ve been living in Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic (CAR) for more than six months now, but just recently moved to this sunny apartment with its tantalizing river view. From before dawn until after dusk the Oubangui teems with life: fisherfolk cast their nets, and slender dugout canoes ferry people back and forth to villages in the Democratic Republic of Congo, just 10 minutes’ journey across the water. The Oubangui straddles the length of CAR’s long southern border, and trade flows back and forth every daylight hour.
Bangui is a riverside city of some 650,000 people who are, officially at least, francophone. But the real national language is Sango – first created by Oubangui fisherfolk as a common trade language for riverside communities from different tribes, and now spoken everywhere.
