The Sango people (or Basango, Sangha, Bosango, Sangho, Sangos) are an ethnic group living on the banks of the Ubangi River in the Central African Republic.
Some can also be found across the river in Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo, as well as in the Guera, Salamat, and Moyen-Chari prefectures of Chad.
Not to be confused with the Sangas that live in the Lame District of the Bauchi Division of Bauchi State of Nigeria.
They speak a Northern Ngbandi-based creole language called Sango, which belongs to the Ubangian branch of the Niger-Congo family.
During the colonial era, the Sango language was used as a trade language. They are a riverine people known for their skill as canoemen and fishermen. Before the arrival of the French in the late nineteenth century, the Sangas were commercial traders, moving up and down the tributaries of the Ubangi River system. Their language gradually became the lingua franca of the entire Ubangi-Shari region, including contiguous areas of Chad and Middle Congo.
Today, along with French, Sanga is the official language of the Central African Republic.
Sango (also spelled Sangho) is the primary language spoken in the Central Africa especially the Central African Republic, southern-Chad and Democratic Republic of the Congo. This language is co-official language in Central African Republic. It is used as a lingua franca across the country and had 450,000 native speakers in 1988. It also has 1.6 million second language speakers.
They are divided into a number of subgroups, including the:
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