Yakoma are an ethnic group in the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

(CAR) who make up 4% of the population of the country. 10,000 also reside in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. They gave their name to the city of Yakoma at the confluence of the Welle and Mbobou rivers and provided the land for the French post at

les Abiras Abiras (french: les Abiras) is a former settlement that was located on the northern bank of the Ubangi River at its source, the confluence of the Mbomou and Welle rivers. It was located opposite from the Congolese city of Yakoma in the area ...

which served as the first capital of

Ubangi-Shari Ubangi-Shari (french: Oubangui-Chari) was a French colony in central Africa, a part of French Equatorial Africa. It was named after the Ubangi and Chari rivers along which it was colonised. It was established on 29 December 1903, from the U ...

, the predecessor of the present-day CAR. The Yakoma are

Bantu Bantu may refer to: *Bantu languages, constitute the largest sub-branch of the Niger–Congo languages *Bantu peoples, over 400 peoples of Africa speaking a Bantu language * Bantu knots, a type of African hairstyle *Black Association for National ...

but speak a distinct dialect (also known as Yakoma) similar to Sango.Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.
Central African Republic: The Yakoma
" Accessed 9 Jan 2013. André-Dieudonné Kolingba, president of the CAR from 1979 to 1993, was a member of this group,United States Department of State. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor.
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2001
. 4 Mar 2002. as is the writer

Adrienne Yabouza Adrienne Yabouza (born 1965) is a writer from the Central African Republic. She is of Yakoma people, Yakoma heritage. She has written several novels and a book for children, a number of which were penned in collaboration with French writer Yves Ping ...

References

External links

Central African Republic worsening crisis troubled region
Ethnic groups in the Central African Republic Ethnic groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo {{Africa-ethno-group-stub