Central African Republic: Daba's Travels

Daba's Travels from Ouadda to Bangui

by Pierre Makombo Bambote

This was literally the only work of fiction I could find that is set in Central African Republic (CAR.)  Other bloggers have reported the same challenge, so it seems many of us are reading the same book for this small, seemingly forgotten country in the middle of Africa.   Daba's Travels from Ouadda to Bangui is a children's novel that is the largely autobiographical story of the author's childhood.  Our young narrator, Daba begins with his early years in the remote village of his birth, but he doesn't linger there for very long.  The book follows Daba on a strange series of events that turns into one amazing opportunity after another.  Although he misses his parents as any child would, Daba seems quite stoic and curious about his each environment and surroundings as he journeys far from home, first living with his aunt and uncle, then a wealthy family friend, and finally at a boarding school where he works hard and excels in his education.  Daba becomes pen-pals with Guy,  a schoolboy in France.  Guy ... ironically ... wins a trip to CAR and shows up to spend the summer ... without parents or any other adult ... with Daba and his schoolmates, traipsing outside of the city and into the villages where they chase lions and crocodiles and forget to return to school.  This part of the story seemed as much of a daydream or a yearning for boyhood adventure than it did a memory of actual events, but I believe it can fairly be chalked up to the author's right to take poetic license.  It does serve as a lovely insight into Bambote's love for his homeland and sets the stage for the final chapter in which Daba wins a scholarship to study in France.

This was a quick read with some entertaining glimpses into life in CAR through the eyes of a child.  Clearly written for children, perhaps in the 3rd to 5th grade range, this story was written in 1962 and translated into English in 1970.