My mother tongue, ‘Sango’, is the 2nd official language of The Central African Republic” after French.

France continues to exert control over the country by establishing an education system that is entirely taught in French.

This means that despite growing up speaking Sango at home, even the most privileged Centrafrains don’t have access to something that many of us in the west take for granted… a book in our native language.

The only exception was made for the Bible. Showing how the colonial powers were only willing to promote our language if it meant perpetuating their stories.

My frustration with the lack of material in my native language brought me to my passion project:

Project Ubangui

creating An anthology of folktales or, ‘Tere’s’ in the language Sango.

To not only create a book that people can finally read in their native language, but also preserve our stories… not the ones forced on us by others.

How?

Transcribe

I’ll be interviewing elders who have kept memories of my culture’s oral tradition. Then, transcribing all the stories in Sango.

(This will involve trips to the Central African Republic)

Create

I’ll write the book itself and have it printed.

(there are a lot of steps involved in this)

Disperse

I’ll travel back to the central africaine republic and share the project with people and disperse copies.

Support

Sharing the project is highly appreciated!

As much of this is informal anthropological work, spreading the word to those in the humanities would be very helpful.

As completing this would involve expensive international travel, any donations would help the dream come true!