Published on the Facebook page “Planète Culture 236,” a post has gone viral, showing photos of cotton production in the Central African Republic. The images depict farmers weeding their fields, collecting, and storing their cotton harvest.
The author of the post suggests that cotton cultivation is booming in the CAR. However, after verification by Centrafrique Check using image verification tools, it turns out that most of these photos were actually taken in Mali, Benin, and Burkina Faso, with only two images originating from the Central African Republic.
On May 3, 2024, “Planète Culture 236,” a Facebook page in the Central African Republic that promotes Central African culture through images, posted a highly viral piece showing farmers in various cotton fields weeding or harvesting their crops, indicating that cotton cultivation is expanding in the country’s interior, particularly in the north, specifically in the Ouham prefecture, its sub-prefectures, and main towns.
This post received at least 1,000 likes, 93 shares, and numerous comments. Here is what the post’s caption claimed: “All in Ouham (Bossangoa, Kabo, Nana-Bakassa, Boguila, Markounda, Bouca, and Bantagafo), areas richly blessed by cotton.”
Verification:
A simple image search using the Reverse Image Search tool allowed us to trace the source of these photos.
Among them, two images do come from the Central African Republic, but they are not from 2024. However, most were taken in Mali, Benin, and Burkina Faso, according to research by Centrafrique Check.
• A photo of a child harvesting cotton in a field in southern Mali. In 2018, the country became the leading producer in Africa. (MICHELE CATTANI/AFP). Published on 09/23/2020, available here. It was taken in Mali, posted online in 2018 by Agence France Presse (AFP), and also used by other media outlets in 2020 as an illustrative example, as seen in the link above. It is neither from 2024 nor taken in the Central African Republic.
• This photo showing cotton harvesting was first taken in Mali on October 30, 2017, and has no connection to the CAR.
• This photo was taken by Agence France Presse on January 9, 2018, in Benin. It was republished by RFI on their website on May 17, 2019, in an article available through the link above. This has no connection to cotton production in the CAR.
• This photo was published in an article on December 2, 2016, and later used on November 10, 2017, by an online news site in Burkina Faso, and shared by an online news site in Mali on December 20, 2017. However, it has no connection to cotton production in the CAR.
The photo of a man picking cotton was taken by Getty Images and posted online on September 1, 2016, in an article published by RFI. It does not originate from the Central African Republic, nor is it from 2024.
Verdict:
The majority of these photos showing booming cotton production were not taken in the Central African Republic.
