Jean-Bédel Bokassa ([ʒɑ̃ bedɛl bɔkasa] ; 22 February 1921 – 3 November 1996) was a Central African politician and military officer who served as the second president of the Central African Republic (CAR) and Emperor of the Central African Empire (CAE) as Bokassa I, ruling these two states from 1966 to 1979.
Bokassa seized power in the Saint-Sylvestre coup d'état on 1 January 1966. He served about eleven years as president and three years as self-proclaimed Emperor of Central Africa, and although the regime gave the appearance of being a constitutional monarchy, in practice it was an autocratic regime. His imperial regime lasted from 4 December 1976 until his overthrow in a 21 September 1979 coup. Following his overthrow, the CAR was restored under his predecessor, David Dacko. Bokassa's self-proclaimed imperial title did not achieve international diplomatic recognition.
In his trial in absentia, Bokassa was tried and sentenced to death. He returned to the CAR in 1986 and was put on trial for treason and murder. In 1987, the jury did not decide on the charges of cannibalism because of a general amnesty, but found him guilty of the murder of schoolchildren and other crimes. The resulting death sentence was later commuted to life in solitary confinement, but he was freed in 1993. Bokassa then lived a private life in Bangui, and died in November 1996.
Bokassa was posthumously rehabilitated by President François Bozizé in 2010, leading to an upsurge in his popularity, despite his well-known crimes and extravagances.
Bokassa was born on 22 February 1921, as one of twelve children to Mindogon Mgboundoulou, a village chief, and his wife Marie Yokowo in Bobangui, a large Mbaka 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. Mindogon was forced to organise the rosters of his village people to work for the French Forestière company. After hearing about the efforts of a prophet named Karnu to resist French rule and forced labour, Mindogon decided that he would no longer follow French orders and released some of his fellow villagers who were being held hostage by the Forestière. The company considered this to be a rebellious act, so they detained Mindogon and took him away bound in chains to Mbaïki. On 13 November 1927, he was beaten to death in the town square just outside the prefecture office. A week later Bokassa's mother, unable to bear the grief of losing her husband, died by suicide. This left Bokassa an orphan at age 6.
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 orphanhood. He was short in stature and physically strong. In his studies, Bokassa 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 him 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. After graduating in 1939, Bokassa took the advice offered to him by his grandfather, M'Balanga, and Father Grüner, by joining the Troupes coloniales (French colonial troops) as a tirailleur on 19 May 1939.
The Second World War broke out in September 1939 following his enlistment. While serving in the second bataillon de marche, Bokassa became a corporal in July 1940, and a sergeant major in November 1941. After the occupation of France by Nazi Germany, he served with an African unit of the Free French Forces and took part in the capture of the Vichy government's capital at Brazzaville. On 15 August 1944, he participated in the Allied forces' landing in Provence, France, as part of Operation Dragoon, and fought in southern France and in Germany in early 1945, before Nazi Germany collapsed. He remained in the French Army after the war, studying radio transmissions at an army camp in the French coastal town of Fréjus.
Afterwards, Bokassa attended officer training school in Saint-Louis, Senegal. On 7 September 1950, he headed to French Indochina as the transmissions expert for the battalion of Saigon-Cholon. Bokassa saw some combat during the First Indochina War before his tour of duty ended in March 1953. For his exploits in battle, he was honoured with membership of the Legion of Honour, and was decorated with Croix de guerre. During his stay in Indochina, he married a 17-year-old Vietnamese girl named Nguyễn Thị Huệ. After Huệ bore him a daughter, Martine, Bokassa had the child registered as a French national. Bokassa left Indochina without his wife and child, as he believed he would return for another tour of duty in the near future. Later as president, Bokassa sought out his Vietnamese daughter, at first falling for an alleged imposter before identifying his real daughter by a distinctive scar on her foot.
Upon his return to France, Bokassa was stationed at Fréjus, where he taught radio transmissions to African recruits. In 1956, he was promoted to second lieutenant, and two years later to lieutenant. Bokassa was then stationed as a military technical assistant in December 1958 in Brazzaville, and in 1959 after a twenty-year absence he was posted back to his homeland in Bangui. He was promoted to the rank of captain on 1 July 1961. The French colony of Ubangi-Shari, part of French Equatorial Africa, had become a semi-autonomous territory of the French Community in 1958, and then an independent nation as the Central African Republic (CAR) on 13 August 1960.
On 1 January 1962, Bokassa left the French Army and joined the Central African Armed Forces with the rank of battalion commandant under then-commander-in-chief Mgboundoulou. As a cousin of Central African President David Dacko and nephew of Dacko's predecessor, Barthélémy Boganda, Bokassa was given the task of creating the new country's military. Over a year later, Bokassa became commander-in-chief of the 500 soldiers of the army. Due to his relationship to Dacko and experience abroad in the French military, he was able to quickly rise through the ranks of the new national army, becoming its first colonel on 1 December 1964.
Bokassa sought recognition for his status as leader of the army. He frequently appeared in public wearing his military decorations, and in ceremonies he often sat next to President Dacko to display his importance in the government. Bokassa frequently got into heated arguments with Jean-Paul Douate, the government's chief of protocol, who admonished him for not following the correct order of seating at presidential tables. At this time Mgboundoulou no longer advocated Bokassa's status as leader of the army. At first, Dacko found his cousin's antics amusing. Despite the number of recent military coups in Africa, he publicly dismissed the likelihood that Bokassa would try to take control of the country. At an official dinner, he said, "Colonel Bokassa only wants to collect medals and he is too stupid to pull off a coup d'état".
Other members of Dacko's cabinet believed that Bokassa was a genuine threat to the government. Jean-Arthur Bandio, the minister of interior, suggested Dacko name Bokassa to the cabinet, which he hoped would both break the colonel's close connections with the army and satisfy the colonel's desire for recognition. To combat the chance that Bokassa would stage a coup, Dacko created a 500-member gendarmerie and a 120-member presidential security guard, led by Jean Izamo and Prosper Mounoumbaye, respectively.
Dacko's government faced a number of problems during 1964 and 1965: the economy experienced stagnation, the bureaucracy was falling apart, and the country's boundaries were constantly breached by Lumumbists from the south and the rebel Anyanya from the east. Under pressure from political radicals in the Mouvement pour l'évolution sociale de l'Afrique noire (Movement for the Social Evolution of Black Africa, or MESAN) and in an attempt to cultivate alternative sources of support and display his ability to make foreign policy without the help of the French government, Dacko established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC) in September 1964.