Central African Republic

The landlocked country of the Central African Republic, in central Africa, has a population of 4.4 million, a birth rate of 33.9 per 1,000, and an infant mortality rate of 85.6 per 1,000 live births.

In 2006, 70.5 percent of women age 15 and over in the Central African Republic were in the labor force, and their employment-to-population ratio in 2006 was 64.4. In 2006, women age 15 and over constituted 46.1 percent of the labor force, a percentage that has not changed substantially since 1985.

Abortion is highly restricted; even an abortion necessary to save the life of the mother is illegal, although in practice, such abortions are permitted on “grounds of necessity.” Penalties are severe for providing an abortion, including a sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to $2 million Central African francs. However, contraception is not widely used, and illegal abortions are acknowledged to continue. Fourteen weeks of maternity leave is provided at 100 percent of salary. Men may take up to 10 days per year for “family events concerning their own home.”

In traditional society, dowry played an important part in arranged marriages, and women were subservient members of society, effectively the property of their husbands. As slavery flourished, the lives of many women were similar to those of slaves. The French tried to change this from the start of their colonial rule in the region from the 1880s. There was an improvement in health care, but this largely affected the Europeans and the local elite in the capital, Bangui. However, scholar Marie-Ange Kallanda has argued that the Roman Catholic missionary nuns have done much to emancipate many women in the Lobaye district of the country, and this possibly was mirrored by events elsewhere. There were also problems with the spread of venereal diseases, which have led to higher levels of infertility, especially in women in the Nzakara tribe.

After independence in 1960, there was an extension of the hospital services, with midwives helping in the births of children in villages. Many of the doctors and midwives were either French, or trained in France or by the French, but the remoteness of some of the settlements made it hard for mothers to access these facilities. This, combined with the lack of access by many of the population to clean water, has led to high rates of maternal mortality—which at 1.1 per 100 births is one of the highest in the world.

Subsequent studies of the population have shown that there are major differences in primary infertility and secondary infertility—the first when there [Page 176]are no children after five years of marriage, and the other when there are no children born some five years after the birth of a previous child. Professor Larsen of the Harvard School of Public Health found that compared to Chad and Gabon, both of these infertility rates were the highest in the Central African Republic, and were unrelated to place of residence, occupation, or parental education level, or socioeconomic status.

The country became well-known internationally from 1977–79 when Jean Bebel Bokassa—himself one of 12 children—established the Central African Empire. He, as with many of the elite, practiced polygamy, and had as many as 17 wives. He fathered approximately 50 children.

...