Why Africa Struggles to Develop: A Case Study of the Central African Republic
Many viewers of Xiao Yuehan’s videos tend to oversimplify Africa’s challenges, blaming either tyrants like Bokassa and Amin for "ruining Africa" or French/British colonialism for stagnating its development. In reality, the causes are infinitely more complex—no simplistic, one-dimensional narrative can do them justice.
For instance, a common misconception is that African tyrants are incompetent buffoons, inferior even to the average person, and that a random civil servant from China could easily outperform the likes of Mobutu, Amin, or Bokassa. These figures are dismissed as irredeemable villains, born evil and worthless. But one must ask: How could someone lacking in ability cling to power for decades on a continent as volatile as Africa?
Africa’s history is far more nuanced than most imagine. To explain it thoroughly would require more than a few sentences—it would take at least a 30,000-word essay. This article uses the Central African Republic (CAR) as a case study, delving into its history to shed light on why Africa struggles to develop.
Table of Contents
The CAR’s Savanna Grasslands and Polygamous Social Structure
Egyptian Slave Trade: "Claim 72 Virgins for Free"
French Colonial Rule: The Hoe Handle Uprising and History’s Highest Casualty Ratio
Bokassa’s Turbulent Childhood: Orphaned at a Young Age
Bokassa’s Military Career: Africa’s Version of "Xu Sanduo"
The CAR’s Independence and Encirclement by Enemies
Bokassa’s 500-Man Military Coup
Bokassa’s Early Reforms: Striving for Progress
Corruption After Engaging with the Soviet Bloc
Epilogue
1. Natural Environment
First, let us examine the CAR’s natural environment: vast stretches of tropical savanna grasslands—the most inhospitable climate for agricultural development.
Rainy Season (May–October): Annual rainfall ranges from 1,000 to 1,600 mm, but it falls in violent downpours, causing floods that wash away seeds, seedlings, and topsoil.
Dry Season (November–April): Six consecutive months of rainfall under 100 mm (some areas see no rain for two months). Evaporation far exceeds precipitation, leaving soil too dry to sustain crops—everything planted withers.
This alternating cycle of floods and droughts also devastates soil quality: rainy seasons erode soil structure and prevent humus accumulation, while dry seasons bring extreme heat that cracks the earth, accelerating mineralization and hardening. The CAR’s soil is primarily acidic red soil—heavy, compacted, low in organic matter, and virtually infertile. Agriculture here is all but impossible; nothing grows.
Worse still, the CAR has no shallow deposits of copper or iron. Without bronze or iron, it never entered the Metal Age. Lacking plows, axes, or weapons, its people could not clear forests, develop farming, or unify through warfare. Its civilization was trapped in the Stone Age.
What kind of social structure did the CAR’s dominant ethnic group, the Bandas, develop under these conditions? The answer is the "lion model"—in plain terms, extreme polygamy.
Banda society mirrored that of lions on the savanna: a single chieftain ruled over a tribe of 20–150 people, accompanied by 10+ wives. Each wife bore 2–4 children, who, upon reaching adulthood, were expelled from the tribe to become 流浪者.
Larger tribes sometimes formed warrior bands (called moran, ilmurran, or regheb) consisting of the chieftain’s brothers-in-law and teenage sons. However, these bands were not permanent; they were only mobilized during food shortages and disbanded afterward.
A tribe also included 1–5 male confidants of the chieftain, who lived with him and shared access to the women. Larger tribes had a five-member council of elders.
To control the women in their tribes, these elders invented female genital mutilation (FGM), completely removing external female genitalia. This ensured women could not experience sexual pleasure and suffered excruciating pain during intercourse—effectively preventing "betrayal."
This grotesquely distorted social model defined Banda life on the savanna for 3,000 years, trapping the society in the Stone Age.
Everything changed in the 11th century CE.
2. Egypt’s "Paradise"
An Egyptian named Aḥmad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Ja‘fari set out to find the source of the Nile. Departing from the Aswan Dam, he traveled up the Nile through southern Sudan to Lake Chad, where he established diplomatic relations with the king of Kanem-Bornu. There, he learned of a populated region south of Lake Chad—the first time the CAR entered the consciousness of "civilized" humanity.
The Arab historian al-Maqrizi, in Kitāb al-Masālik wa al-Mamālik (Book of Roads and Kingdoms), described this southern land as "overflowing with beautiful women." When word reached Egypt, it caused a sensation.
An Egyptian merchant, Abū Sa‘īd ʿAbdallāh ibn Abū Bakr, mapped a route to the CAR: sail up the Nile to Darfur (Sudan) for supplies, ride camels to Wadai (on the Sudan-Chad border), then follow Lake Chad’s waterways into the CAR.
Abū Bakr returned with vast quantities of ivory and ostrich feathers—but his most explosive claim was of "countless passionate, half-naked Black women." He described the CAR as "a fragment of paradise on earth, where one could claim 72 virgins upon arrival."
Egypt’s Muslim population went wild. The Darfur-Wadai-Lake Chad region was rapidly exploited, and the Muslim traders here even called themselves Jabalī ("womanizers").
The CAR was defenseless: stuck in the Stone Age with no metal, its tribes had only 1–5 fighting-age men each, outnumbered by women and children. Muslim raiders saw the women as easy prey—and the CAR’s nightmare began.
Egyptian Muslim traders would execute a "decapitation strike": kill the tribal chieftain, chain up hundreds of women, castrate teenage boys, and ship them down the Nile to the Muslim world.
The Arabs also exploited conflicts between Banda tribes: supplying them with iron weapons and teaching them to ride horses, then profiting from the chaos. Their favorite tactic? Castrating prisoners of war. Accompanying Egyptian surgeons (tajir al-raqiq) would perform castrations on the spot, seal the wounds with scalding blades and date syrup, and hang the severed testicles in leather bags from the caravan’s flagpoles as a warning.
As the African anthropologist Ann Brower Stahl noted, these Egyptian traders destroyed the CAR’s social fabric entirely. The Ubangi River basin alone exported 8,000–12,000 slaves annually. The iron weapons supplied by the Arabs escalated tribal warfare, causing male deaths to skyrocket: 34% of Banda men were castrated, patrilineal lineages collapsed, clan names vanished, and "villages of women and children, with no elder"—as European explorers later described them—sprang up across the region.
This horror continued until 1894, when the French arrived in the Ubangi River basin, drove out the Arab raiders, and suppressed the slave trade.
3. The French Colonial Era
Contrary to popular belief, French colonial rule in the CAR was relatively short:
1894: French troops first arrived in the region.
1911: The Treaty of Fez formally established French control over the CAR.
1920: French Equatorial Africa (including the CAR) was officially founded as a colony.
From full French rule in 1920 to the CAR gaining self-governance in 1958, direct colonial influence lasted only about 30 years—far less impactful than many assume.
The CAR’s ancient suffering cannot be blamed on external forces alone. Given its Stone Age social structure, even if it had encountered the relatively benign Ming Dynasty Chinese instead of Arabs, exploitation would have been inevitable.
The root of its pain lay in nature: the savanna’s alternating floods and droughts, barren acidic soil, and lack of metal deposits. The CAR was simply dealt a bad hand by geography.
The French colonizers soon discovered that while the acidic soil was useless for food crops, it was ideal for rubber and coffee. They forced locals to harvest these crops for free, holding their families hostage until quotas were met.
To their surprise, the CAR’s people proved "exceptionally obedient" slaves. Unlike in Guinea or Algeria—where slaves rebelled repeatedly, killing French overseers—the CAR’s population was accustomed to servitude: first to chieftains, then to Egyptians. They accepted French slavery without resistance.
Seeing this compliance, the French exploited the CAR ruthlessly. In the 1930s, thousands of Bandas were sent to build roads and railways across French African colonies. By 1934, over 17,000 workers had died along the railways—from industrial accidents, malaria, and other diseases.
Every year after the harvest, when farmwork ceased, the French shipped CAR locals thousands of kilometers to build roads. By 1931, after 11 years of exploitation, the CAR finally rebelled.
A Banda shaman named Kongo Wara held up a "sacred hoe," declaring it would make Black people invulnerable to bullets—claiming French guns would only shoot water, not fire.
The Hoe Handle Uprising erupted, involving 350,000 Banda fighters. It remains the most lopsided conflict in human history:
The CAR’s rebels, still in the Stone Age, fought with fists, stones, and sticks.
The French stood on high ground, machine guns blazing, mowing down waves of half-naked rebels. They incinerated the corpses with flamethrowers.
French casualties: 0. CAR casualties: 110,000.
This was Africa’s largest anti-colonial uprising between World Wars I and II.
Among the victims was Chief Mindogon, a Banda leader who had been co-opted by the French to force slaves to work for a colonial forestry company. When he heard of the uprising, Mindogon refused to obey French orders and freed some hostages. The French labeled this "rebellion," arrested him, chained him, and dragged him to the colonial governor. On November 13, he was beaten to death in the square outside the provincial government building.
Chief Mindogon was the father of Jean-Bédel Bokassa—later Emperor of the Central African Empire.
4. Bokassa’s Childhood
Bokassa’s father was an unusual man for his time: he insisted on monogamy, loved his wife deeply, and never abused his children.
When news of Mindogon’s death reached the family a week later, Bokassa’s mother could not bear the grief and hanged herself. At just 6 years old, Bokassa became an orphan.
Now, we enter the third chapter of CAR history: the story of Bokassa himself.
After his parents’ deaths, the 6-year-old Bokassa was sent to live with his uncle. His aunt ignored him and beat him with whips and sticks. While his cousin was sent to the best local school to learn French, Bokassa was forced to work like a slave—feeding pigs.
Malnutrition and abuse stunted his growth; he stood only 158 cm tall as an adult. Finally, his uncle took pity on him and sent him to the École Sainte-Jeanne d’Arc (Joan of Arc School), a Christian missionary school in Mbaïki founded by the French.
In reality, these French missionary schools were little more than slave factories. After a cursory education, children were sold to rubber and coffee plantations. Bokassa’s fate seemed sealed: slavery.
His status as an orphan and his small stature made him a target for bullies. At 10, he was as short as a 6-year-old. To defend himself, Bokassa fought constantly—developing fierce hand-to-hand combat skills. Though small, he was strong, and no one dared to mess with him.
Bokassa also showed an unexpected talent for languages: he quickly mastered fluent French and could read French literature. His favorite books were heroic epics, especially those by Jean Bédel. Impressed by his enthusiasm, his teachers began calling him "Jean-Bédel."
Father Gruner, a French priest at the school, was shocked by this young African boy—especially when he learned of Bokassa’s tragic past. He took the 10-year-old Bokassa to a major city, hoping to train him as a priest or doctor.
But Father Gruner’s hopes were dashed. He soon realized Bokassa had no interest in academics; he only wanted to read heroic stories. He was also hot-tempered and unable to empathize with others—completely unsuited for the priesthood or medicine.
Over the next few years, Bokassa made no progress in medicine or literature. Instead, he spent his free time drinking and fighting with local gangsters. Disappointed, Father Gruner told the 17-year-old Bokassa he was "unfit for this path" and sent him back to his uncle’s home.
At 17, Bokassa returned to a home he had not seen in a decade. Everything felt alien yet familiar, and he was overwhelmed with confusion: in the vast CAR, what future could he have? He was an orphan, poor, short, uneducated, a rural youth with no connections or money. He was too "stupid" to learn medicine, and all the heroic stories he loved seemed meaningless—he was just an unemployed nobody with empty ambitions.
What could he do?
The answer was clear: join the military.
Father Gruner, still fond of his former student, wrote a letter of recommendation for Bokassa to join the 2nd Battalion of the French Army. He even sent Bokassa his nephew’s old military uniform.
In 1939, the dry season arrived earlier than usual. Dust like fine copper shavings covered 18-year-old Jean-Bédel Bokassa’s uniform as he stood in Bangui on the morning of May 18. Clutching his reddish-brown enlistment papers, he glanced back at the sun-bleached thatched roof of his grandmother’s house. She stood in the doorway, holding a string of dried baobab fruits—like a prayer she refused to let go. He saluted awkwardly, then jumped onto a truck bound for Brazzaville.
Bokassa joined the French Army on May 19, 1939.
It was the best decision of his life.
5. Bokassa’s Rise in the Military
World War II was in full swing, and African soldiers like Bokassa were ordered to attack Vichy French colonies in Africa.
Bokassa knew a little about fascism—he had read some of Mussolini’s writings and knew Hitler had killed many people. He understood that Germany had occupied France and installed a puppet government, but he knew no details.
The journey to the Free French military base in the Congo was filled with absurdities.
Three hours into the truck ride on a rutted dirt road, a young Gbaya man suddenly stood up and tore off his new khaki uniform shirt. Grinning at Bokassa and the others, he revealed teeth stained black by kola nuts and shouted in Sango: "This cloth scratches like a pangolin!"
Most soldiers on the truck were unaccustomed to wearing clothes; in their tribes, they had been either half-naked or clad in loose cloaks for sun protection. The stiff military uniforms were unbearable. Inspired by the Gbaya man, the entire group stripped off their shirts, crumpled them into pillows, and stuffed them under their seats. The truck’s interior reeked of sweat and sour goat cheese. A French lieutenant yelled at them in French—but none of the CAR soldiers understood a word.
When the translator rendered "Nazi" as "naiqi" (a Sango word for biting red river ants), the soldiers were confused. Some thought they were being sent to help the French fight ants; others assumed it was just another slave-grabbing mission.
Bokassa sat next to a tall Pua man, who held his rifle across his knees like a piece of excess firewood—he could not read a single number on the stock. When the Pua man tried to mimic the French officers and mutter "Deutschland," it came out as "Daisy."
In Bokassa’s memoirs, he described the truck’s bumpy journey: by the fifth hour, soldiers began deserting. They had no idea where they were going—they had joined the military just for fun. Groups of them jumped off the slow-moving truck, their bare feet burning on the sand, and fled back along the tire tracks.
After days of detours, Bokassa and the remaining soldiers finally reached the 2nd Battalion’s base in the Congo, where they underwent two weeks of basic training.
On July 14, 1940—Bastille Day—the company commander kicked Bokassa awake and announced he was being promoted to corporal. The reason? Most of the other Black soldiers had deserted.
Bokassa sewed on his new V-shaped corporal’s insignia, pricking his fingers until they bled.
When a French officer asked the short, stocky Black youth about his dreams, Bokassa thought hard and replied: "After I retire, I want to wear a red flower and open a big restaurant in my hometown village."
This was the start of Bokassa’s military career.
Many people look down on African tyrants, dismissing them as incompetent fools and claiming a random college student could do better. But this is a mistake: any politician (non-hereditary) who earns a place in history is far more capable than the average person. Without real talent, they would never be remembered.
Was Bokassa evil? Undoubtedly—he was a brutal dictator. But true fools and incompetents are never written into history.
6. The CAR’s Independence
Let us shift focus: while Bokassa fought in the French Army, his cousin David Dacko—leader of the CAR’s independence movement—was making history. In a country where most people had no formal education, Dacko was one of the few university graduates. |
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