Bouar, city in the western Central African Republic, capital of Nana-Mambéré Prefecture, 455 km (283 mi) northwest of the country's capital, Bangui. Located on a rolling plateau at an altitude of 950 m (3100 ft), the city is a market town and transportation center. Cattle herding supports a small milk and cheese industry. Minor gold deposits have been found in the area. Bouar is the largest city on the road linking Bangui with Cameroon. A Roman Catholic seminary is located west of town. The city also has a research center devoted to the study of traditional African medicine.
The principal ethnic group of the region is the Baya, a Bantu group living in scattered farming clans throughout the western half of the country. They have been important historically in resisting invasions by various Muslim powers to the north. The Baya rebelled against French colonial rule during World War I (1914-1918) and again from 1928 to 1931. In villages to the north and east of Bouar, a number of granite megaliths stand in a variety of arrangements. Excavated in the mid-1960s, more than 70 groups of standing stones, some weighing several tons, are evidence of a culture that inhabited the area around 500 BC, long before the present peoples arrived. Population (1988) 39,676.
