Boali

Boali lies on the Mbali River, in forested country that is seasonally wet, and the river’s abrupt drop across the Boali Falls gives the place its strongest landmark. The falls spread roughly 250 metres wide and descend about 50 metres, filling the valley with mist and constant sound.

This was Gbaya country. The Gbaya have lived in Central Africa since at least the sixteenth century, and archaeology places their origin somewhere in the lower valley of the Lobaye River. They lived in small rural communities, farming and hunting game in the forest. In the nineteenth century several Gbaya groups moved east, and others fought the Fulani of the Sokoto Caliphate, whose slave raids carried off many of them.