Some dictators, including modern ones, are quite difficult to understand. How to explain their eccentric antics, wild quirks, frankly immoral actions? Mental Disorders? Trying to hold unlimited power in your hands? Flush with your own impunity?
We will try to "get into the head" of one of these political figures of the twentieth century and analyze the reasons why he became what the whole world knows him. Meet: Jean-Bedel Bokassa, Emperor, Eater, and Dictator of the Central African Republic.
Let's follow his life path. What kind of mental trauma received in childhood, led him to this kind of moral decline? And most importantly: who helped the dictator get to the heights of unlimited power?
Childhood
The future cannibal Jean-Bedel Bokassa was born on the territory of Ubangi Shari in the village of Bobanga, in a peasant family of a village headman, on February 22, 1921. His parents belonged to the Mbaka tribe, from which many officers of the colonial period in French Equatorial Africa came out.
In addition to Jean-Bedel, another 11 children were raised in the family. By the way, about the strange name of the dictator. The boy's parents were very pious, but illiterate. They decided to name him in honor of the saint, whose day was celebrated on February 22 according to the Catholic calendar. This is Jean-Baptiste de la Sal.
But in the calendar the name of the saint was indicated in abbreviated form - Jean-B. de la S. Misread by semi-literate parents, it transformed into Jean-Bedel. As for Bokass, this word in the Mbaka language means "small grove." It was used freely by the dictator: either as an appendage to the name, then as a surname.
We do not know anything about the early years of Bokassa. But it is known that his father opposed the French authorities (at that time the CAR was a colony), for which he was shot. Mother, however, committed suicide. Perhaps this mental trauma that Jean-Bedel suffered at the age of six, and caused an unstable psyche?
Military career
Orphaned children were taken up by relatives. Jean-Bedel was clearly preparing for him to become a priest. But the 18-year-old boy decided differently.
Not at all worried that the French colonial authorities had become the direct cause of the death of his father and, indirectly, his mother, he enters the armed forces of this country (Overseas Legion). In a photo taken in 1939, the cannibal Bokassa looks like a handsome smiling young man.
He spent the entire Second World War on the fronts. In 1941, he participated in the rank of senior sergeant of the "Fighting France" in the capture of Brazzaville. In 1944, as part of the anti-Hitler coalition, he landed on the southern coast of France, then took part in battles on the Rhine and in Normandy.
At the end of the war, Bokassa was already in the rank of senior sergeant. Feeling that the army was his vocation, the future dictator entered the officer school in Senegal and graduated from it in 1949. He took part in the French war for Indochina from 1950 to 1953.
Perhaps Bokassa was an immoral killer, but he could not be called a coward. For military merits, he was awarded the Lorraine Cross and the Order of the Legion of Honor of France. In the early 60s, we see him as a soldier with the rank of captain in Brazzaville.
The path to big politics
Suddenly, from January 1962, the biography of the cannibal Bokassa changes dramatically. He leaves the military service of France to join the armed forces of his country - the Central African Republic.
For this, a person with pathological ambitions had completely rational reasons. After all, the president of a young independent country was none other than his cousin, David Daco. And Bokassa was not mistaken in his calculation.
Daco really helped the poor relative "beat out into the people." Having entered the rank of major in the military service of the Central African Republic, Bokassa already in 1963 became the chief of staff of the country's armed forces and was elevated to the rank of colonel. But David Daco did not know that he had warmed a snake on his chest.
After receiving command of the army, Bokassa made a coup on New Year's Eve 1965-1966. and put his benefactor in prison. This event was called the "coup on St. Sylvester."
The president
Without thinking twice, the chief of the General Staff took over the reins of government. He proclaimed himself the President of the Central African Republic and, concurrently, the leader of the only authorized party, which bore the ambitious name of the Movement for the Social Evolution of Black Africa.
In order to collect as many membership dues as possible, the cannibal Bokassa without fail recorded in his political strength the entire adult population of the republic. But even this seemed to him not enough.
Already on January 4, 1966, he liquidated the country's constitution and in fact became its dictator. Six years later, he proclaimed himself president for life. A legitimate question arises: how could such worldly politics support such an odious personality?
But in establishing international relations, Bokassa was a real genius. He played very successfully in the confrontation between the socialist and capitalist camps, either approaching the DPRK, China and the USSR, or playing along with France and the FRG.
The dictator generally blackmailed his former metropolis by extorting money. That, not wanting to lose its uranium mining in Baku (CAR), made concessions. But in several attempts to attempt the life of the dictator in 1974-1976, the activities of the French special services are traced.
The emperor
The cannibal Bokassa admired Napoleon Bonaparte and decided to repeat the path of the ascension of the "little Corsican" to the throne. On December 4, 1976, he convened an emergency congress of his only party, where he renamed the CAR into the Central African Empire, and appointed himself emperor.
Exactly one year later, the coronation took place. A quarter of the country's annual export revenue was spent on it. Bokassa shoes are included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most expensive shoes.
In the best jewelry stores in the world, a crown with two thousand diamonds was made. And also foreign cars, white horses, leopard mantles and a throne in the form of an eagle weighing two tons were purchased.
Bokassa wanted to make the coronation ceremony as similar as possible to the enthronement of Napoleon. The sixth, but beloved wife of the cannibal Catherine Martin Dangiade was assigned to the role of Josephine Beauharnais (he was only married to her according to the Catholic rite).
Bokassa planned to imitate Napoleon in everything and for this purpose invited Pope Paul VI to tear the crown out of his hands like Bonaparte at Pius VII and put it on his head himself. But world leaders ignored the invitation to the coronation. Only the French Minister for Cooperation arrived.
The quirks of a crazy emperor. Cannibalism
At what age Bokassa became a cannibal is not completely clear. But it is known that he strangled his first girlfriend, student Doris, while she was sleeping, and then ate her heart and liver (to become braver, as he himself recalled) and a raw brain (to become smart as a woman).
Bokassa also had a perverted sense of humor. He canned Doris meat and subsequently treated them to his subsequent girlfriends. And when they bothered him, they themselves became dishes in his kitchen.
Once he executed one of his ministers and ordered his personal chef to cook his meat. He fed them the cabinet of the government and informed them of what they were eating only at the end of the meal.
A maniac called a man "sweet pork." In the literal sense of the word, he ate political opponents, but as a gourmet he appreciated children and young girls more.
The gastronomic preferences of the president and emperor were no secret to anyone. After a visit to the USSR, Bokassa brought a cook with him to the Central African Republic, who was to prepare Russian dishes for him.
But after he discovered parts of human bodies in the refrigerator, he fled to the Soviet embassy in Bangui. Nevertheless, the dictator later convinced the court that he did not eat people, but kept their parts as talismans.
Cruelty and Murder
Despite the removal of the charge of cannibalism, the judge had much more to show to the cannibal Bokassa. He dealt with the objectionable without ceremony. Political opponents and independent journalists were tortured and killed.
In some particularly sophisticated executions, the president and later the emperor took a personal part. So, in 1979, Bokassa issued a decree on the mandatory wearing of school uniforms.
The clothes were sewn at the only textile factory, owned personally by the emperor, and cost a lot of money. The country was in a deep crisis at that time.
There were only a dozen doctors and only one dentist for the entire “empire”. Most of the country's population lived in poverty. Therefore, the decree of the emperor caused unrest. Bokassa ordered to brutally crush them with the help of troops.
He spent two days in prison, where children and adolescents were transported, resulting in the death of 150 people. Another hundred schoolchildren and students from six to 20 years old were brought to the courtyard of the imperial palace.
Bokassa ordered his driver to drive a truck on the bodies of those arrested, and when he refused, he got behind the wheel. The sadistic emperor killed all survivors under the wheels with a stick.
Bokassa and the USSR
The African Tsarek learned the Soviet rhetoric about building a bright communist future and used it for his own purposes. He received finances not only from France, the USA and Germany, but also from the opposite bloc.
In 1970, the cannibal dictator Bokassa paid an official visit to the USSR. There he really liked Brezhnev with his many titles and award-strewn lapels of his jacket.
Bokassa was delighted with the "fraternal kisses" of the Secretary General and, returning home, kissed the ministers and advisers of the Central African Republic who were lining up at the ramp. During this visit, the cannibal also traveled to Artek, where he was initiated into "honorary pioneers."
Bokassa and religion
In 1976, the CAR president, who was in need of money, decided to take advantage of financial assistance from the oil magnates of North Africa. To this end, he broke off relations with Israel and began rapprochement with Muammar Gaddafi.
In October 1976, the Libyan leader visited the CAR. In honor of his visit, Bokassa (voluntarily) and some of his ministers (forcedly) converted to Islam.
But before becoming emperor, the cannibal Bokassa again converted to Catholicism, apparently in order to be able to invite the Pope to the coronation.
Overthrow
The eccentric antics of the head of the former colony greatly saddened the French government. But Bokassa knew how to stay afloat.
He sent luxurious gifts to the president, and also granted France the right to develop uranium. But the massacre of schoolchildren and the dangerous rapprochement of the CARs with Libya became the last straw in the patience of the world community.
Rumors about the emperor's cannibalism also fueled the mood. French journalists conducted a study and made public that President Valerie Giscard d'Estaing received luxurious gifts from the cannibal Bocassa, including diamonds.
In the same way, the head of the Central African Republic bribed US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. The announcement cost Giscard d'Estaing the presidency. In November 1979, when Bokassa was on a visit to Libya, a French landing party landed in Bangui and carried out a bloodless coup, returning the presidential rule to the Central African Republic.
last years of life
In 1990, a documentary about the cannibal Bokass “Echo of the Dark Empire” (directed by Werner Herzog) was released, which tells the whole truth about the cannibal, which reached the pinnacles of power. But then, in the late 70s, Giscard d'Estaing did everything so that the disgraced emperor could live in a magnificent castle near Paris.
Meanwhile, in the CAR, the court sentenced the monarch to death in absentia. But in 1986, the cannibal Jean Bokassa made another folly. He came to the CAR, hoping that the people would support him against Daco.
But the cannibal was immediately arrested. The trial began, where Bokassa denied allegations of cannibalism. He was sentenced to death in 1987, but the verdict was changed to life imprisonment. And in 1993 he came out in connection with the general amnesty. And he died three years later from a heart attack.
Eater Bokassa: personal life
The African king had 19 official wives. They bore him 77 children. His love was Catherine Dangiade, who became his sixth wife at the age of 16. She gave birth to Bokassa seven children, including the "heir to the throne" Jean-Bedel II.