Sango love poem

Translation of my poem into sango (sangho), the national vehicular language of the Central African Republic. With Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo, a total of 5 million people speak this Creole language. It was originally the language of the Sango tribe added of words coming from French, the rapid development of the capital Bangui, assured it its spurt.

The written language was introduced in the 1920s by the missionaries, without a fixed spelling. It is in 1984 that it will define. The first non religious writings, are correspondences and journalist articles. The Sango will develop after the arrival of Belgians and French at the end of the 19th century, an arrival with African soldiers and workers coming from different regions. It is the Belgians who will first note the existence of this lingua franca based on an ngbandi lexicon. Like many creoles. we must note the use of a limited vocabulary. Today the Sango even if its scope is limited, is a symbol of indentity, in the Central African Republic, and is most often the preferred language in Bangui. Efforts to extend the language, with the creation of new words, to complete it, are underway.

Stuck between Chad, Sudan, Cameroon and Congo, the Central African Republic is populated by several ethnic groups. Originally pygmy, Babingas, Saras and Nzakaras have populated the country. The Gbayas and the Zandés will arrive later. Diamonds, uranium and an actively exploited forest are with the rubber plantations the great resources of the country. Crafts remain active everywhere, while industrialization remains modest.