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480px) { #cntnt1 {display: none;} } </style> <div id="cntnt1"> <div class="pubs-container"> </div> </div>   <br> <h1>1966 - Jean-Bedel Bokassa</h1> <p><img alt="Emperor Bokassa" align=left src="/military/world/war/images/emperor-bokassa.jpg">On January 1, 1966, following a swift and almost bloodless coup, Col. Jean-Bedel Bokassa assumed power as President of the Republic. Bokassa abolished the constitution of 1959, dissolved the National Assembly, and issued a decree that placed all legislative and executive powers in the hands of the president. </p><p> Bokassa, like Napoleon, rose to power through the French army. Son of a tribal chief in what was then the French colony of Ubangi-Shari, Jean-Bedel Bokassa was educated at mission schools, joined the army at the start of World War II and by 1950 had risen to the rank of company sergeant. He survived the debacle at Dien Bien Phu and later retired as a captain. When the Central African Republic became independent in 1960, the country's first first president (and Bokassa's cousin), David Dacko, named him commander of the Army. As the fledgling state suffered through the inevitable independence pangs, the frustrated president at one point shouted to a group of bureaucrats: "what this country needs is a good revolution;" as head of the country's only organized institution, Bokassa swiftly obliged by deposing Dacko and taking power for himself. Bokassa was one of the last of the old semi-literate non-commissioned French army officers who had "ruled" his country since independence. He saluted when sharply nudged. In the early 1970s a national holiday and festival was held when Bokassa claimed to have found the illegimate daughter he fathered while serving in Vietnam in the early 1950's. She lived in regal splendor in the President's palace for months before being discovered as a fraud.</p><p> During his years as dictator, Bokassa established a reputation for megalomania and incompetence that rivalled that of Uganda's Idi Amin Dada. Incensed at the rising theft rate in Bangui, Bokassa in 1972 joined his troops in the public beating of 45 thieves in the capital's central square. Three died, and the brutally wounded survivors were put on display for six hours in the broiling sun. A year earlier, to celebrate Mother's Day, bokassa ordered that all mothers in prison be released -- and that all those who had been accused of matricide be executed. Two were. Ever dissatisfied with his cabinet, Bokassa customarily assumed the portfolios of ministers he had dismissed from office; he held as many as ten at one time. Lemuel J. Walker, a twenty-eight-year-old Liberian, put together a series of forged documents alleging that the United States was going to spend a million dollars to assassinate President for Life General Jean Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic, and then invade the C.A.R. While the documents may appear outrageous to Americans, they did not seem so to Bokassa, who had come to power by a coup and assumed that others would use force in attempts to unseat him. Bokassa reacted swiftly to the documents by threatening to break relations with the United States. Technical analysis of the document eventually convinced Bokassa that the documents were indeed fabrications.</p><p> For many years Bokassa had expressed a strong desire to visit the United States; however, for reasons of his own prestige he refused to make such a visit, even ona private basis, without some prior assurance that he can meet with the US President. He felt particularly humiliated in 1973 when, after having accepted an invitation from a private US organization, he left the CAR for a private visit to the US (in conjunction with a state visit to Haiti) only to be informed en route that President Nixon would not be able to receive him. He abruptly cancelled the extensive plans for his visit and returned to the CAR.</p><p> By 1975 the United States enjoyed increasingly productive political relations with the CAR. Bokassa, for example had continued to give the US strong support on important international issues. The CAR was one of only four African states to co-sponsor the friendly Korean resolution at the UN General Assembly, despite heavy pressures to switchto a hostile position. The CAR voted against the Zionism resolution and Bokassa indicated that he intended to re-establish diplomatic relations with Israel.</p><p> In September 1976 the Central African Republic was renamed the Central African Empire. Marshal Jean-Bedel Bokassa, President for Life of the Central African Republic, was proclaimed the country's first emperor on December 4, 1976, with the promulgation of the imperial constitution and the proclamation of the president as Emperor Bokassa I.</p><p> It was an extravaganza that few of the 3,500 guests from 43 nations would ever forget - or forgive. The scene was Bangui, dusty upriver capital of the Central African Empire, and the event was the coronation of the continent's only Emperor since the deposition and death of Ethiopia's Haile Selassie. Sweltering in the 100° heat and 90% humidity, the guests, in morning coats and Parisian gowns, struggled to attention as a voice boomed out over the loudspeaker: "sa majeste imperiale, l'empereur Bokassa Premier". </p><p> Entering his coronation palace -- actually, a sports arena disguised with flowers and rich draperies--emperor bokassa looked cool and calm. He wore a white robe set off with two striped sashes in the CAE's national colors (blue, white, green, yellow and red) and a wreath of golden laurel on his balding head. Ascending his throne -- shaped in the form of a giant eagle, with a 13.6-ft. Wingspan, 800 gilded feathers and a seat carved out of the bird's belly -- Bokassa donned a flowing ermine and velvet cape with a 39-ft. train. </p><p> The Emperor then took an oath to de- fend the constitution, which he suspended after seizing power in a 1966 coup. At the climactic moment, Bokassa, 56, crowned himself and placed a smaller coronet on the head of the youngest of his three wives, 28-year-old Empress Catherine. (Rumor had it that the Emperor also keeps a blonde Rumanian mistress on the side.) </p><p> World prices for cotton dropped at an average annual rate of 12 percent in real terms between 1976 and 1979, and in 1979 coffee prices fell to half their 1976-77 high level in constant terms. In the past, cotton and coffee exports had provided the country with some 50 percent of export receipts. These earnings declined to about 35 percent because of falling prices. In addition to cotton and coffee, CAR also exported timber (20 percent of receipts) and diamonds (30 percent). </p><p> His regime was characterized by numerous human rights atrocities. The US terminated bilateral assistance programs in 1979, due to the human rights violations of the Bokassa regime, but modest development assistance was resumed in 1982. The brutal Bokassa regime ended in 1979 when he was overthrown by Jean-Bedel Dacko in a comeback coup.</p><p> Institutional deficiencies and poor economic policies, especially under the Bokassa regime, led to mis-management of the country's meager resources and contribute to the poor economic and financial performance of later years. The hike in oil prices in the late seventies and the worldwide recession in the early eiqhties have exacerbated economic problems in the CAR. Since the end of the reign of Emperor Bokassa in 1979, the number of large firms operating in CAR has dropped from over 300 to around 30 by the year 2009. </p><p> Ousted by his army in 1979, this self-proclaimed emperor fled to neighboring Côted’Ivoire. France, his first choice for sanctuary, would not have him. Perhaps hoping for a political comeback, Bokassa returned home in 1986, whereupon he was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. Fortunately for him, the death sentence was commuted to hard labor. Bokassa was held until 1993. 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