CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC : Central African Republic National Anthem
National Anthem of the Central African Republic
La Renaissance

• Author: Barthélémy Boganda (1910-1959)
• Composer: Herbert Pepper (1912-2001)
• Adopted: 1960
• National Day: December 01 (1958) - Republic Day
  Formerly Ubanghi Shari and then Central African Empire (1976-1979)
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• Further details: The composer of the National Anthem of the Central African Republic was HERBERT PEPPER (1912-2001). He was a French ethnomusicologist who married Eliane Barat and both graduated from the Paris Conservatory in 1941. They went to Oubangui-Chari in present day Central African Republic in the heart of Equatorial Africa to study local music. There they met Félix Éboué (1884-1944) a well known Guyanese administrator in Oubangui-Chari, who also was interested in local music. Herbert Pepper and his wife stayed in the country for several years and later they moved to Sénégal where they also studied local music. Whilst in the Central African Republic Hebert Pepper met BARTHÉLÉMY BOGANDA (1910-1959) who asked him to put music to the words he had written for the national anthem of the newly proclaimed Central African Republic. This way Herbert Pepper was able to combine solemnity due to a national anthem along with local music, the result being that he composed a beautiful national anthem. Because of this experience he was also asked to write the music for the National Anthem of Sénégal a country where he also stayed in for several years.
  
  OMISSION The sheet music does not give the year of death of the composer which was in 2001.