Barthélemy Boganda

Who is Barthélemy Boganda?

Barthélemy Boganda was born in Bobangui in what was then Ubangi-Shari, a territory of French Equatorial Africa. Orphaned young, he was raised by Catholic missionaries and became the first person from the territory ordained as a Catholic priest, before leaving the priesthood to enter politics. In 1946 he was elected as Ubangi-Shari's deputy to the French National Assembly, and in 1949 he founded MESAN (Mouvement pour l'Évolution Sociale de l'Afrique Noire), a movement built around his philosophy of "Zo kwe zo" — every human being is a human being — which called for the equal dignity of all people regardless of race or status. He pushed for a broader federation uniting the territories of French Equatorial Africa rather than fragmented small states, fearing that individual territories would be too weak to stand alone. As the territory moved toward self-government he became the first President of the Grand Council and then the first Prime Minister of the autonomous Central African Republic in 1958. He died in a plane crash near Boukpayanga on 29 March 1959, months before the country reached full independence, and is remembered as its founding father; his "Zo kwe zo" motto remains the country's official national motto today.

Sources: Pierre Kalck, Central African Republic: A Failure in De-Colonisation (1971) · Thomas O'Toole, The Central African Republic: The Continent's Hidden Heart (1986) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Barthélemy Boganda"