Barthélemy Boganda

Barthelemy Boganda was born on April 4, 1910, in Bobangui, Lobaye. Ordained in 1938 as the first indigenous Catholic priest of Oubangui-Chari, he was elected to the French National Assembly in 1946, where he fiercely denounced the concessionary company system and the brutal exploitation of rubber and cotton workers.

Leaving the priesthood to marry, Boganda founded the Movement for the Social Evolution of Black Africa (MESAN). He coined the national motto Zo Kwe Zo ('Every human being is a person') and designed the national flag. A passionate Pan-Africanist visionary, he championed a federal 'United States of Latin Africa' uniting Chad, Gabon, Congo, and Angola. He died tragically in an airplane crash on March 29, 1959, just before full independence.