7.2 Central Africa-Mired in Despair
Essential Question(s) How did the central part of Africa become so distressed and what challenges remain in the future? Do countries like the United States have an obligation to promote development in such a challenging area?
We have studied many of the worlds challenges and problems. Water shortages, regional poverty, public health short-comings, and ethnic wars. No place on the planet is more plagued by a combination of these issues than the Central African Republic. When the Europeans began to exploit the land and people of Africa the Central African region suffered in unique ways. The expansion of the rubber trade and the increased need for diamonds combined with the European's sense of racial superiority to turn the region into a giant plantation. Millions of Africans perished in this early period and the subsequent times have been almost as cruel.
Today the country and the region are rocked by religious (sectarian) divisions that have pitted communities of Muslims against their Christian neighbors. Health outcomes are still poor, economic development is limited to resources extraction (blood diamonds and gold) and political divisions are still settled with force. While the outside world has worked to try and bring stability the near future of the region is still dim.
One particular problem of the region is the instability that is related to rebel groups such as the Lords Liberation Army and ethnic fighters related to both the Hutu and Tutsi tribal groups. These groups all fight one another and the government with little regard for their civilian victims. The government forces are not much better, often behaving more like rebel groups than official representatives of the people. These rebel groups (and many others around the region and the world) use "child soldiers" to replenish their ranks and build "support." Many of these unwilling recruits will be killed, and those who escape are scared for life by their experiences. Several books have been written about and by these child soldiers. One "Beast of No Nation" was turned into a movie that is receiving great reviews. While the details are fictionalized the story is very common. For many young people in the CAR, this is what life is really like.