Bokassa was born on 22 February 1921 as one of 12 children to Mindogon Bokassa, a village chief, and his wife Marie Yokowo in Bobangui, a large M'Baka village in the Lobaye basin located at the edge of the equatorial forest, then a part of colonial French Equatorial Africa, some 80 kilometres (50 mi) southwest of Bangui.
Bokassa's extended family decided that it would be best if he received a French-language education at the École Sainte-Jeanne d'Arc, a Christian mission school in Mbaïki. As a child, he was frequently taunted by his classmates about his orphan-hood.In his studies, he became especially fond of a French grammar book by an author named Jean Bédel. His teachers noticed his attachment, and started calling him "Jean-Bédel". During his teenage years, Bokassa studied at École Saint-Louis in Bangui, under Father Grüner. Grüner educated Bokassa with the intention of making him a priest, but realized that his student did not have the aptitude for study or the piety required for this occupation. He then studied at Father Compte's school in Brazzaville, where he developed his abilities as a cook
In 1939, immediately after leaving school, he joined the French army and fought with the Free French forces, who captured General Husson, the Vichy commander at Brazzaville. Later he went to Indo-China and won 12 medals in the field, an experience which made him a great medal collector throughout his life. He was commissioned in 1949 and left the French army in 1961, as a captain.
With independence in August 1960, President David Dacko asked him to establish a Central African Army and he rose to become Commander in Chief in January 1963 and Chief of General Staff in 1964. In February 1965 he was elected president of the Defence
Committee of the Organisation for African Unity.
President Dacko was fighting a losing battle with a corrupt, overpaid civil service which was a drain on the economy. When he asked the civil servants to refund 10% of their salaries, the ensuing outcry gave Bokassa a chance to intervene on New Year’s eve, 1966. Dacko was persuaded to resign, put under house arrest and Bokassa extolled his great honesty.
He abrogated the constitution, appointed a new cabinet on January 3, with himself as Prime Minister and President, and dissolved the National Assembly the following day. He broke off diplomatic relations with Communist China and seized large stocks of Chinese arms and weapons.
At first he tried to come to grips with the economic inequality that had wracked the Dacko regime, but as time went on he became progressively entangled in petty political squabbles and concerned mainly in preserving his own power position. His right-hand man, and paratroop commander, Lt.-Col. Alexandre Banza, came under suspicion for plotting and he asked for French paratroops to come to his assistance in November 1967.
At loggerheads with most of his governmental team, there were frequent cabinet reshuffles and gradually he personally took on an increasing number of portfolios.
He pursued an erratic foreign policy, breaking with the UDEAC, the Customs Union of Central African States (grouping the old French Equatorial African countries) and joining the UEAC, the Union of Central African States, formed by Zaire and Chad, on February 4, 1968. But by November relations between Zaire and CAR began to deteriorate. On December 10, he arrived in Brazzaville and told the UDEAC states that he would rejoin them. This pleased de Gaulle, who invited him to France in February 1969 and gave him a DC-4 aircraft. Jean Arthur Bandjo, who had been his foreign minister since the coup in January 1966, resigned in December 1968.
On April 12, 1969, he announced that a plot by Col. Banza had been discovered two days earlier. Banza was shot by a firing squad the same day. After he had rid himself of Banza few others dared challenge his rule. He maintained power by frequent cabinet reshuffles, changing his cabinet up to six times a year. On December 1, 1970, he promoted himself lieutenant-general and his rule became more personal and dictatorial. He banned all strikes and demonstrations, imposed censorship of foreign news, decreed that strikes among civil servants could be punished by prison sentences of 5 to 10 years. Civilians were barred from army premises and from submitting political proposals to any members of the armed forces.
He became incensed when the french ambassador listed the ways Franсe had assisted the CAR and started a major row between the two countries, but by November he was weeping at Paris airport for de Gaulle’s funeral, and at the graveside at Colombey-les-Deux Eglises, was led away sobbing “Papa, Papa”.
In 1971 he promoted himself full general and in March 1972 called a National Congress of the Social Emancipation Movement of Black Africa (MESAN), the political party that had been defunct since he seized power in 1966. He had called MESAN to get himself voted life-President and, when the party duly obliged, he said he was “very happy” to accept the privilege. Radio Bangui said that the people’s sovereignty had been brilliantly mani-fested in a “great and historic decision”. After the Congress, MESAN was quietly buried and the Prefects were told that the National Assembly would not be recalled and that they would be given more power to rule instead.
In July 1972 he announced new laws for thieves: for the first theft one ear to be cut off, for the second the other ear, for the third the right hand and, finally, public execution. On July 31, 1972, he personally led his soldiers in an attack on 46 prisoners convicted for theft, telling them “one soldier per man. ... You must hit until you have no strength left.... You may even beat them to death.” They carried out the command. At least three died and the rest were publicly displayed in the main square in Bangui for vagrants to touch and see what their fate would be if they robbed.
Though he denied it later, the UN Secretary-General, Kurt Waldheim, was reported to have protested and, as a result, Bokassa called him a “colonialist and imperialist” for interfering in the CAR’s internal affairs.
But Bokassa’s efforts to deter robbers were not very successful; one day at the end of July, he returned to his palace to find it burgled and the guards sleeping off the effect of drugs.
He visited President Amin, of Uganda, at the height of the Asian crisis in September 1972, and praised Amin for his “policies aimed at African independence”.
Catholicism, Islam briefly between September 1976 and December 1976
His foreign policy continued its erratic course. He started by ridding himself of the Communists, but by 1969 he was establishing diplomatic relations with a number of East European countries. In July 1970, he led a major delegation to the Soviet Union and Rumania. In October 1970, he said publicly he was leaving the “conservative camp and joining the progressive camp”.
Bokassa remained in the CAR for the rest of his life. In 1996, as his health declined, he proclaimed himself the 13th Apostle and claimed to have secret meetings with the Pope. Bokassa died of a heart attack on 3 November 1996 at his home in Bangui at the age of 75. He had 17 wives and a reported 50 children, three of which included Jean-Bédel Bokassa, Crown Prince of the Central African Empire, Jean-Serge Bokassa, and Kiki Bokassa.
Physical Characteristics: He was short in stature and physically stron
Married Catherine Dengueade.
22 February 1921 – 4 December 1976: Jean-Bédel Bokassa.
4 December 1976 – 21 September 1979: His Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Central Africa.
21 September 1979 – 3 November 1996: Jean-Bédel Bokassa.
Full title as Emperor
His Imperial Majesty Bokassa I, Emperor of Central Africa by the will of the Central African people, united within the national political party, the MESAN.
