Real Dictators - Jean-Bédel Bokassa Part 1: The Butcher of Bangui

Episode Date: December 17, 2025

The former soldier in the French army who seized power in his African homeland. The leader of the Central African Republic who proclaimed himself emperor. The emperor who ruled as an avaricious dictator. Jean-Bédel Bokassa’s time in power in the CAR began with promises of equality and justice. Hailed as a beacon of strength, he would go on to preside over a regime of eccentricity, excess and sadistic cruelty. But decades before the surreal coronation, the 17 wives and the vast collection of luxurious possessions, our story begins in a much humbler setting. In a forested village near the CAR’s southern border, rebellion is in the air… A Noiser podcast production. Narrated by Paul McGann. Featuring Louisa Lombard, Richard Moncrieff, Gino Vlavonou. This is Part 1 of 3. Written by John Bartlett | Produced by Ed Baranski and Edward White | Exec produced by Joel Duddell | Fact check by Heléna Lewis | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design & audio editing by George Tapp | Assembly editing by Dorry Macaulay, Anisha Deva | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cian Ryan-Morgan | Recording engineer: Joseph McGann. You can listen to the final two episodes of the Bokassa story straight away, without waiting and without ads, by joining Noiser+. Just click the subscription banner at the top of the feed or go to noiser.com/subscriptions Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's early morning on a March day in 1975. Deep in a remote forest in equatorial Africa, something is moving in the dense green foliage. The sound of trampling grows louder. A monumental force is closing in. Suddenly, a great clump of tree branches is ripped away. In the freshly made clearing stands one of Africa's great natural treasures, a forest elephant, ten feet tall, with striking white tusks.

In this eastern part of the Central African Republic, these giants dominate the landscape. In herds they stomp their way through the lush undergrowth, weighed through wetlands and drink from water holes. But this elephant is an adult male, and therefore roams alone. He wraps his powerful trunk around the branches of a tree and strips it of its leaves in one sweeping motion. Stuffing his mouth, he chews slowly. These majestic herbivores are a source of abundant life.

Dozens of species of flora depend on them to disseminate their seeds. But that's of no concern to the hunters who target this mighty prize. One of whom is lurking right now, hidden behind the trees not thirty feet away. Crouching low, breathing deeply through his nose, the hunter raises his weapon to his shoulder. He briefly flexes the forefinger of his right hand before placing it around the trigger. Take aim and fires. The elephant stumbles to his knees, then slumps onto his side. He's been shot directly in the head, killed almost instantly.

The hunter beams. Rising to his feet, he thrusts his rifle skywards in celebration. highwards in celebration. It's not the first time his eyes have shone with the thrill of taking a life, and it won't be the last. This is Jean-Bé del Bocasa. For over twenty years a brilliant soldier in the French army. For the last decade, the supreme ruler of his homeland, the center of his

Central African Republic. In that time, he's carved out a reputation for ruthlessness, audacity, and extreme brutality. He baffles as much as he terrifies. On the one hand, he's a proud Central African, fueled by bitterness against his nation's former oppressors, France. Yet on the other, he's bewitched by French culture and hankers for acceptance from the Parisian including the French president, Valéry Gisca Destin, who is here today, part of Boccasse's expedition. Two very different men, united in their love of hunting.

For Bacasa, it's not just the thrill of the chase. It's about money. As with so much else that goes on in this country, he has a controlling interest in big game hunting. For every felled elephant, he makes a profit. This is how the president rules, with predatory violence and avarice. Boccasa strides towards the elephant, limp and lifeless on the ground. Chin in the air he plants a foot on top of the stricken animal's body. With a broad smile rippling across his face, he looks to the French president and the rest of their party. Today, Boccasa is in his element, the master of every living thing in the Central African Republic.

Yet, within two years, his megalomania and narcissism will vault to incredible heights that will make even his friend the French president Bork. Boccasseh will elevate himself to emperor, a central African version of his hero, Napoleon Bonaparte. It will all end in accusations. of torture, murder, even cannibalism. And at that point, it will be Bocasa himself who is in the crosshairs. In these episodes, we'll explore Boccasa's rule of the Central African Republic, a reign as strange as it was chilling. From humble origins in a community that was ruthlessly exploited by a foreign empire, he seized power in the most audacious way,

imaginable. He began his time as leader promising the people of the C.A.R. Equality, justice, and free elections. But ended it having dissolved the government and plunged his country into debt. Convinced he was destined for greatness, Boccasa staged a lavishly surreal coronation for himself, featuring horse-drawn carriages, glittering crowns and songs from Andrew Lloyd-Weber. He amassed 17 wives, countless children, and a never-ending collection of luxurious possessions. But beyond the eccentricity and excess, there was profound darkness, beatings, torture, and innumerable murders, directed at Bacassus' command, and sometimes performed by his own hand. Yet there is also a catalogue of lurid half-truths and urban myths, including stories of cannibalism. which some say are evidence of lingering colonialist prejudice. A significant number still venerate him as the man who presided over a crucial era of development in the C.A.R. Heroic soldier, capricious tyrant, grotesque spendthrift, beacon of strength for a marginalised nation.

Jean-Belbercaste was all these things and more. From the Noisa Podcast Network, this is part one of the Bukasa story. And this is real dictators. At the heart of a continent, the Central African Republic, or C.A.R. is landlocked by Chad to the north, Sudan and South Sudan to the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo to the south, and Cameroon to the west. It's a land of stunning natural beauty, large flat savannahs, team with big game. Unpoiled forests roar with the sound of waterfalls and canyons sink deep into

the earth. Beneath rich soils lie reserves of oil, uranium, diamonds and gold. Yet home to some five million people, it's one of the poorest nations on earth. Since claiming its independence from France in 1960, it's been hampered by civil war, chronic under development and despotic mismanagement. Today, less than 40% of the adult population is literate. It features in the UN's list of least developed nations. Dr. Gino Vlaveno is a Beninueh academic who's written on conflict in the Central African Republic.

It's a beautiful country, massive forest, with tropical vegetation, and it's quite hot and humid. So at times it's a little bit difficult to breathe, but the people are warm. In terms of economic development, Central African Republic has not been faring well overall, usually at the bottom of most of the development indexes. In Bangi, the country's serene capital, wide boulevards fan out from a central district. district, where a handful of government buildings and commercial offices stand a few stories tall. The city is organized in Parisian-inspired administrative districts.

Streets hum at the sound of generators burning diesel to provide electricity to their nearly one million people who call Bangy home. Dr. Louisa Lombard from Yale University is a cultural anthropologist. She's written extensively on the CAR. It used to be known as Dangi La Coquette, Dangi the Flirt, because it was known as this kind of quiet, pretty, lovely city by the river where not that much happened, but where you could have a nice time. There are still shades of that that you can find here and there,

but it also bears the marks of being a city that has been neglected through the decades and where people have had to endure a lot of tumult and violence and just the decaying of the little infrastructure that once existed. The lands that would come to be known as the Central African Republic are first colonized at the end of the 1800s, when European powers perpetrate the infamous scramble for Africa, competing for imperial dominance of the continent. But prior to the arrival of the French,

the region was already a dynamic, varied, and complex play. There were two main tendencies going on in the region in the late 1700s and 1800s. One of these was that most people in this area were living in what nowadays get referred to as stateless societies or acephalous societies or egalitarian societies. But basically, there wasn't one person who could stand up and tell everybody else what to do. They were fairly flexible. They were attached to particular places, but they also moved around. a fair amount. Then at the same time, there were polities that were forming out of these expansionist empires. Some of those were connected to the spread of Islam and the kinds of trading networks

that were attached to that. And it also was a place where some of those raiders were making inroads and setting up capital cities. So a lot of things were changing in the region in that period before French colonizers showed up. And they only showed up at the very, very end, of the 1800s. This was one of the last places where European explorers made inroads. In the 1880s, Italian-born French explorer Pierre de Braza signs treaties with tribes in the Ubangi region. Consequently, France finds itself in control of a vast trench of land, stretching from Gabon on the Atlantic coast to Chad in the Sahara. It equates to more than one quarter of the African continent. Around the turn of the 20th century, a region known as Ubangishari, named after two nearby rivers,

becomes a French dependency, with a native population of about one million people. Compared to other French colonies in Africa, it draws few envious glances. While it has its appeals. Its resources are considered relatively meagre. Ubongishari, which was a colony that the French both had fondness for, particularly those who were interested in big game hunting, because it was a great place for doing that. But also, it was the place that was sort of looked down on the most. It was seen as the place where the colonial officials who got the worst grades on the exams would be sent. And the French really did very little in terms of investing in the infrastructure of this country. The government in Paris decides to lease large swathes of their

African lands to private concession companies. These companies are to oversee the exploitation of natural resources, such as rubber, timber, ivory and gold. The hope is that the companies will invest in infrastructure. But it quickly becomes apparent that that isn't high on anyone's priority list. Richard Moncrief is a former British diplomat and an expert on Central Africa. As with all colonies in Africa, really, the focus of the French was on the areas where they could extract resources and then the infrastructure needed to get those resources out. And French interest and French presence thinned out very much in areas where there were few resources to exploit. France came very late to this project in this part of the world, and once they got there,

they realized that their hopes that it would be a source of resources and wealth for them were probably overblown. They tried to trade it to England for a little speck of land in the Gulf of Guinea, for instance. But England said, no way, no deal. So, Ubenghisari was not particularly a venerated colony and ended up having a colonial government that was alternately neglectful and brutal. The private concession companies run their own militias to enforce their savage working conditions. The colonizers would sometimes resort to modes of spectacular punitive. to try to just make people afraid. And this took a variety of different forms,

but some of the infamous incidents included things like locking people into a house and then setting it on fire. Entire villages of women and children are locked up to incentivize the men to work for their freedom. Whips are frequently deployed to speed up or punish workers. On the spot, 40 franc finds, as much as an individual could earn in a month or issue to those who don't meet rubber quotas.

Insubordination is punishable by death or mutilation. The French people themselves, I mean in France, were not quite aware of what was happening in the Central African Republic. And at the time, I thought that right, it was only the Belgian Congo who was brutal with a rubber collection. You know, this kind of huge taxing activities on the locals.

But the same was happening in the South African Republic. This December on the Noiser Podcast Network, it's a busy month with the launch of a brand new show. Join Sir David Soucher for Charles Dickens' Ghost Stories, a selection of Dickens' most spine-tingling tales. In Jane Austen stories, pride and prejudice concludes, when all said and done, will pride get in the way of true love? Short history of Texas onto the historic canals of Venice

and beyond the courtrooms of the Nuremberg trials. On real survival stories, we'll follow an emergency chopper as it goes down in the Labrador Sea and traverse the mountain bike trails of Patagonia. In Sherlock Holmes short stories, Holmes unpicks a mysterious string of sculpture-related crimes in The Adventure of the Six Napoleons. And Real Dictators returns,

with the extraordinary story of Jean Bedell-Bocasa. Get all of these shows and more early and ad-free on Noisa Plus. And if you're still on the hunt for Christmas presents, then why not grab a copy of A Short History of Ancient Rome, available in all good bookshops? One man who's all too aware of the grim realities of Central Africa is Mindagon and Bundulhu. Mindagon is a hardened worker.

for Forestier, a French company involved in rubber harvesting in Lobe, a region some 50 miles south of the capital city, Bangi. A socially prominent figure within his village, Mindegon is coerced into organizing the local workforce on behalf of the company. Like so many others, he seethes with resentment at the horrific treatment of his community. On February 22nd, 1921, Mindegon's wife, Marie gives birth to one of their 12 children. They name him Boccasa. The boy grows up surrounded by rebellion. The locals are exhibiting more and more dissatisfaction, dissent and defiance.

In a region not far from Bacasa's home, a prophet, known as Kanu, is claiming to have a magical plant, which turns the colonial invaders into guerrillas. He also supplies his followers with hoe handles, with which to do battle with their friendship presses. A huge amount of rebellion and resistance that now is referred to as the war of the Ho Handel or the Kongawarra rebellion.

It was not fought by a unified force. It was more like a groundswell mobilization. of peasants, people living throughout, particularly the southwestern part of the Central African Republic, who were angry at the kinds of labor demands that were being made of them, who were angry about the kind of repression that they were facing, and who, through any means, fought back. Sometimes that took the form of assassinating an isolated private concession owner

when they found him on his own. Sometimes it took the form of refusing to work. Sometimes it took the form of other kinds of, demonstrations. So Ubenghisari was known as the hotbed of resistance to colonial rule, particularly in the 1920s and 30s. Boccassas father hears of Kano's exploits and decides that he will no longer follow French orders. Mindegon takes it upon himself to release some of his fellow villagers who are being held hostage by the Forestier Company. His defiance leads to inevitable consequences.

consequences. It's November the 13th, 1927. A hot, dry day in low bay. Two roosters peck at the dirt in a town square, as men begin to arrive back after a long, hard day harvesting wild rubber. Their bodies are exhausted, their eyes sting in the dust. As they trapes into the square, quiet and forlorn, two forestier militiamen appear, hauling a muscular man, bound in chains.

The militiamen hurled their prisoner to the floor. He cowers beneath them, too weak to resist. It's Mindegon, Boccassar's father. Suddenly the blows start raining down. The bosses know all about his seditious. activities and they've had enough. The local men watch horrified as Mindegon is beaten in front of them. His weak appeals for clemency dying away until finally he stops moving altogether. A week after Mindagon is beaten to death, Boccasse's mother Marie commits suicide,

crushed by the grief of losing her husband. At the age of just six, Boccasa is an orphan. Both of his parents, in their different ways, the victims of colonial oppression. The young boy's remaining family decide that he should receive a French language education at a Christian mission school in Mbiki, the capital of the region. He's frequently taunted by his classmates about his orphanhood. Although he's short, he's physically strong, and soon he learns how to handle himself. Picasso takes to the French language quickly and learns to speak well.

He becomes especially attached to a French grammar book by an author named Jean Bedel, a name that now becomes attached to the boy. During his teenage years, Picasso's studies in Bangi, where a priest intends for him to take holy orders. but Bacassas' interests lie elsewhere. At the age of 18, he enrols as an infantryman in the French colonial army. It's 1939, the eve of the Second World War. During his service, Bacassar develops a deep admiration for all things French,

a fascinating and complex irony. considering his family's experience of the country's rule. He is enchanted by France's uniforms, medals and pageantry. He even comes to describe French military leader Chol de Gaulle as a father figure. When you think about the experience of people from not just Central African Republic, but from that region, going to France in 1939, I think it would have been quite ambivalent. And I think that different individuals took away rather different experience.

I think, on the one hand, going from a poor area of Central Africa to one of the richest countries in the world at the time in France, one would have been struck by the power of France, by its military organization, particularly admiring de Gaulle, no doubt. Ocasa wasn't the only one who had that attitude, and generally leaving with a sense of being impressed. But then others would have taken away, or maybe the same individual. also have contrasting impressions, would have taken away the racism that they would have experienced, even within the French army. For Picasso's part, he takes to military life rather well. The young soldier is well-liked, earns respect in battle, and is promoted quickly up the ranks.

His service takes him to the thick of world events. After France falls to Nazi Germany, he is a member of DeGold's free French forces. In North Africa, he marches across the desert to join up with the British 8th Army and drive the Germans out of the region. On the 15th of August, 1944, he participates in the Allied landing in Provence as part of Operation Dragoon, then fights in southern France and Germany in early 1945 before the collapse of the Nazi regime. The orphan from Lobe has come a long way. After the war, Boccasa remains in the French army, and the foreign postings continue. First, he studies radio transmission in the town of Frasius, on the French Riviera.

After that, he's sent to officer training in San Luis Senegal. Then in 1950, he's off to Southeast Asia, traveling to French Indochina, as company sergeant and transmissions expert on a three-year tour of duty. He's described as a dynamic soldier, always volunteering for missions, and frequently exhibiting great courage. For his exploits in battle, he's eventually decorated with numerous medals for bravery, including the Lijon d'Hourneur. Indochann approves a milestone in his personal life, too. It's there that he marries a 17-year-old Vietnamese girl, Nuen Tai Hui, who gives birth to the couple's daughter.

This is the first of 17 wives, and dozens of children Boccasa will have throughout his life. Before departing, he promises his young bride that he will return, assuming he'll be sent back on another tour, but he never is. Years later, he will say that he found his posting in Indochina to be the most beautiful. and brotherly of experiences. Boccassar's affection for the French army is quite plain, but his broader attitudes towards France and its influence over his homeland are more complex.

He isn't alone. Through the 40s and 50s, many of his African contemporaries have polarized views on how to move away from French rule. Francophone African elites after the Second World War were broadly divided between radical and conservative. The more radical wing

wanted independence and wanted it more rapidly. But there was also quite a significant group of conservative pro-Paris leaders who, in some cases pushed for independence, but the independence they sought was a rather sheltered independence.

It isn't until 1959, after 20 years abroad, that Pocasa, now lieutenant is posted back to Bangi. During that two-decade sojourn, a lot has changed. Most notably French control of the colonies is eroding, and new local heroes are emerging, including one who is closely connected to Boccasa. Bartholome Bouganda is Boccata's uncle. He is seen as the charismatic young leader required to shake off the shackles of colonialism. Like Baccaza's father, Borganda's mother had been beaten to death by French company officials.

In the aftermath of this, the young Borganda is adopted by Catholic missionaries. He's given a good education and in 1938 is ordained into the priesthood, serving at various missions throughout the Second World War. At the end of the war, Borganda founds a party called the Movement for the Social Evolution of Black Africa, also known by its French acronym, Messin. The party advocates for the equal treatment of native black peoples in the colonies. With the French Empire crumbling, Burganda is elected the first Prime Minister of the self-governing territory of Ubengishari in 1958.

He dreams of the four territories of Gabon, Moyen Congo, Ubengishari and Chad, becoming autonomous under a single independent federation called the Central African Republic. We can't talk about the independence of the Central African Republic without mentioning Uganda. As the priest and the father of the country, everyone talks about him even till today.

Uganda was the one who had been scaredheaded the battle for independence, To Central Africans, Baganda is more than just a charismatic political leader. He becomes a messianic figure, considered the Black Christ. In fact, large crowds gather on the banks of the Ubangi River one afternoon when a rumor spreads that he is about to demonstrate his supernatural powers by walking across the placid water. We don't know whether he accomplished this. In 1958, referendums are held across the French African colonies to decide their

future relationship with France. On offer is the opportunity for each colony to become a semi-autonomous member of what is called the French community, an organization attempting to give new constitutional form to the relationship between France and its colonies. Alternatively, each colony could vote for full independence. When the referendums take place at the end of 1958, only Guinea takes that option. Their regional neighbours, including Ubengishari, are more cautious. They choose, for now at least, to maintain some ties with France. Gabon, Moyen Congo and Chad go down a similar Perth, and at the same time they reject Burganda's proposal that they all pool their resources and unite.

Consequently, it's only Ubengishari that becomes what from now on is known as the Central African Republic. Although it still doesn't have full independence, Boganda sets out on building this new nation. He proposes new laws. Among them are prohibitions on nudity and vagrancy, indicative of the moral seriousness of this former member of the priesthood. But just when Burganda is getting started, things come to an abrupt end. On March the 29th, 1959, he boards a plane to return to Bangi after a countrywide tour. As the aircraft soars over the district of Boda, it lurches suddenly downwards and crashes into the jungle. The plane explodes in a ball of flames and oily black smoke.

Everybody on board is killed. For Baganda's adoring followers, the death of their beloved leader is a terrible shock. As the news sinks in, sabotage is widely suspected. Indeed, the Paris Weekly, Le Express, claims that experts found traces of explosive in the wreckage. Others point the finger at French businessmen or the French Secret Service. And it's seen as suspicious that Michel Giordin,

Boganda's widow, had taken out a sizable insurance policy on her husband's life just days prior to the crash. The mysterious circumstances part is a little bit of editorializing. He died in a plane crash and it certainly seems odd, but who knows?

Planes crash quite a bit. in this part of the world, unfortunately. Boganda is instantly a national martyr. His messianic status solidified. The nation's sense of loss is palpable. A void is left. Others start to step forward as new potential leaders of the Central African Republic.

But none of them had that charisma or that deep sense of purpose and nationalism that people identify in Bartolami Boganda. Burganda cannot be truly replaced, but the march to independence continues. Into the spotlight steps yet another relative of Boccassus. This time his distant cousin, David Darko. The son of a plantation night watchman. 29-year-old Darko is heavily backed by France, who consider him a pliant moderate.

Darko becomes the new leader of the Mason Political Party and does so just as the pace towards full independence quickens. Once they saw that the leader of Guinea, which went for independence just a little bit earlier, once they saw that he got the red carpet treatment at the United Nations and everything else, everybody wanted that. And so we ended up with a situation

where each of the former colonies became an independent nation state. The process is swift. On August the 13th, 1960, the Central African Republic cuts the cord with France. But the transition is far from smooth. The French colonial officials were not always generous in the way that they adapted to this new state of affairs. And in some places, they actively sabotaged and destroyed offices

and destroyed infrastructure, like telephones and things like that. In the Central African Republic, they didn't destroy as much simply because there was not much there for them to destroy. French advisors stayed on in most of the ministries and departments of the government, and effectively in most cases they were still running the show, even though there were now Africans who were alongside them and who were the official titular heads of these ministries and departments. So although independence came for Central Africa in 1960, in terms of what people living in the country experienced, they didn't experience that much of a difference. Broadly speaking, many former French colonies in Africa lacked the resources to engage in the kind of state building which has happened in other post-colonial settings. and the elites either encouraged or accepted a situation of continued French influence. After independence, African countries were buffeted by a combination of geopolitical and internal problems and instability. And the French offered both a minimal financial life support and a degree of regime security.

The CAR's new-found independence means that David Darko is the nation's first ever president. But, lacking Burganda's charisma, Darko never commands popular support. His unfortunate resemblance to the cow on a popular brand of cheese means he's known locally as La Vash Kiri, the Laughing Cow. More substantively, he's seen as too close to the old. colonial rulers, using his connections to develop his own financial interests. It was the first point of disenchantment with the independence model and the realization that the new leaders of independence were often overwhelmed by a context that they had insufficient control and influence over. There was a feeling that the civilians who had been handed the reins

at independence hadn't fulfilled the promises of that time of the independence moment. The legitimacy basis of the new leaders in 1960 was not that they were democratically elected, but was that they would enact independence in a way that would bring prosperity and freedom to people, and people didn't see that coming in the mid-1960s. In the shadows of the newly independent nation, there is one man whose personality shines brighter than President Darko's. Jean-Bedell-Bocasa. He has been stationed back in the C.A.R. with the French Army since 1959.

But on New Year's Day, 1962, Boccasa switches to the Central African Armed Forces as battalion commandant. There is a nation to be built, and Bacasa is seconded to Darko to advise on military matters. A very prominent position. The military was important in those early independence years, in part just because it was a structured institution in a brand new country that had very, very little in the way of institutions. And perhaps more importantly, the leaders of this military were people who had served. And so they had that experience of being part of a structured institution, what that meant, chains of command, all of these kinds of things. They could bring that with them into the experience of running things now in the Central African Republic.

But implementing structure into the CAR is no simple task. And things are not made any easier by the corruption and nepotism that quickly grip-tackles government. The president sets about creating as many government jobs as possible in the new administration. Civil servants receive exorbitant salary increases and extraordinary benefits, like housing and interest-free loans. The temptation is irresistible. They begin to buy villas. to buy villas, luxury cars, and travel abroad. Jobs and favours are handed out to friends and relatives. Cabinet ministers grow wealthier by running taxi services and bars. Others use public

funds to build apartments, which they then rent out, pocketing the money. The CAR's finance minister states that the government's revenues would struggle to cover 60% of its expenditure. reluctantly, it's France, still with interests in the region, that is balancing the books. In July 1962, Daco announces that Mesaun will henceforth be the only political movement in the country, and all citizens must take out membership. In 1964, Mesaun puts D'Arco forward as the sole candidate for president. He garners 100% of the ballots cast, and begins a seven-year term in office. His 60 handpicked National Assembly members are unanimously elected.

The Central African Republic is losing its way already. The main thing to know about these early independence years is just that the number of educated Central Africans is tiny. The number of elite Central Africans who can be holding these important, government positions can be counted on, no, not that much more than, you know, two hands. It's a very small number of people who know each other because they have been studying in France together and have kind of come up during this era together. Bokhasa, meanwhile, is continuing his steady rise to prominence. He is, after all a decorated soldier who's fought all over the world.

Not to mention the fact that he's the president's cousin and the nephew of Borganda, the father. of the nation. With his reputation ever-growing, Boccasa starts to apply his considerable experience to the new Central African Army. He's appointed commander-in-chief of this rag-tag bunch of 500 poorly-trained and poorly-equipped soldiers, becoming its first colonel and chief of staff in December by 1964. He's certain that greatness lies ahead. I think he started seeing himself as someone who could lead the country. Darko was perceived as someone who was more quiet, reserved.

And Bocasa was kind of the opposite. More strong armymen who could maybe be more forceful. Well-traveled and ambitious, Boccasa reads the situation shrewdly, realizing that there is power and influence available to Africans in this new post-colonial order. His charm and good humor are winning over influential friends. But while his standing in the army is undisputed, Bacasa is desperate for wider public recognition in the fledgling nation. He rarely appears in public without his military medals on glittering show.

Much to the chagrard President Darko's chief aides, he insists on standing next to or right behind his cousin at public ceremonies. Bacasa is even seen driving the president's car. At first, Daco finds Bacasa's antics amusing. At an official dinner for foreign diplomats in 1965, Daka ridicules the colonel. Bacasa only wants to collect medals, he says. He's too stupid to pull over Kudetat. Yet there is little doubt that Bacasa carries a real threat. Daco's interior minister suggests appointing him to the cabinet

to distance him from the army and moderate his ambitions. This doesn't come to pass. But Daco does create two new institutions designed to bolster his muscle. An armed police force of 500 men. men, the gendarmerie, headed by loyal police chief, Jeanne Zamo, plus a 120 strong presidential guard, his own personal protection force. With these measures, Darko perhaps feels he's neutralized his vain-glorious cousin. Whatever the case, Picasso is just one of the many problems on the president's plate.

The economy is spiraling. Government is stymied by dysfunction and corruption. Regional neighbours are beset by discord and coups. In a desperate attempt to take control of the situation, Darko establishes diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China, who gladly send a delegation to tour the country, showing communist propaganda films in the villages. An interest-free loan of one billion CFA francs follows. But even that is not enough to plug the holes in the sinking ship. Five years into the Daco presidency, conflict and anxiety abound. These are ideal conditions for an ambitious strongman with a thirst for power to make his move,

unless of course the president moves first. In the summer of 1965, Boccassa is sent to Paris as his country's special envoy for the Bastille Day celebrations. At the event, his medals glint in the sun amid a sea of red, white and blue. On July the 23rd, he attends another event, at a cadet school in his old haunt of Frasius. The Riviera town is as resplendent as ever. His sixth wife, whom he's only just married, joins him for the excursion. All in all, it's a very happy stay back in France for Pocasa, that is, until he's preparing

to come home and receives an unexpected and unwelcome phone call. President Darko, he is told, has forbidden his return to the Central African Republic. The colonel is effectively trapped in exile. Boccasa is incensed. For the next two months, he attempts to drum up support back home and in the French army. It seems the president won't budge. The long wait for Bacasa to return home stretches out. Daco finally yields in October 1965 and allows his cousin to re-enter the CAR.

Boccasa claims that it was Chal de Gaul himself, now president. of France who had intervened on his behalf. After this, tensions between Daco and Boccasa bubble like never before. Daco approves a financial increase for his gendarmerie police force, but rejects Boccasse's budget proposal for the military. The enraged colonel tells friends he will execute a coup. There were kind of rivalry between the gendarmerie and the army in the army. country and there was a perception from Pocasa's view that the gendarmerie was being favored

instead of the army where the army was used for mundane tasks. So Pocasa felt that the army was not taking its due place in the development of the country and for that reason was also willing to stage a coup. By December 1965, Darko's personal advisors are alerting him that his cousin is showing signs of mental instability. They say he should be arrested. Daco decides against that dramatic step, perhaps not wanting to escalate an already tense situation. Instead, he intends to replace Boccasa as his military advisor with police chief, Jeanne Zamo.

He also runs the plan by the elders in his home village, who straight away tip off Boccasa. The colonel knows that the president is trying to move him to the side. The time has come. It's now or never. At Desjardin Insurance, we put the care in taking care of business. Your business, to be exact. Our agents take the time to understand your company,

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who's also served in the French army. By late December, rumours of coup plots are openly circulating among officials in the capital. As the year comes to an end, Boccasa is primed to strike. It's New Year's Eve, 1965, a warm, dry evening in Bangi. Outside the presidential palace,

David Daco climbed into the back of his motor car, the metal of the door hot against his hand. As the car swings out of the gates, the president nods to the guards through a tinted glass window, half opened to let in a breeze. He plans to spend the evening at the plantation of one of his ministers, southwest of Bangi. Things haven't been easy, he thinks.

But here's to leaving those troubles behind in 1965. Tomorrow is a new year, a fresh start. What he doesn't know is that Colonel Boccasa also has big plans for the future, and they start tonight. With his co-conspirator Captain Banzer, Bacasa has formulated a strategy to seize power. First they will overpower the security at the presidential palace and arrest Daco. Another group of soldiers will occupy a hill overlooking the police camp, and a third will seize radio bangy. Fearing a French intervention in support of Darko, they order that a final

group blockade the runway at the airport. At 10.30 p.m. on New Year's Eve, Banzar sends word to his men. Go. The coup is underway. While his soldiers ready themselves, Bacasa picks up the phone to police chief Isamo, insisting that he come to Camp de Rue military center to sign some documents. They need attention before the year expires. Isamo is exasperated. He just opened a bottle of wine to toast the new year with friends. Surely this paperwork can wait. If Picasso is insistent, this is crucial business. Isamo jumps in his wife's car and speeds over to the barracks. As he approaches the front gates, a The car's headlights illuminate two figures directly in front of him, arms folded.

It's Boccasa and Banzar. A coup d'etat is in process, they tell him. Would he care to lend his support? Out of the question, Isamma replies. Wrong answer. The president's chief police officer is seized and bundled into a cellar. With Isamo dealt with, there is a... There is nobody to lead a resistance to the coup.

At half-past midnight, the various military units roll out of the Camp de Rue to take up their positions around the city. Bocasa and Banzar lead the entourage, not in a jeep or an armored tank, but a Peugeoio 404. After seizing the capital in a matter of hours, Bocasa, Boccassar. Bacasa and Banzer rushed to the palace to arrest Darko. But as they move from room to room, banging through doors and checking storerooms, he's nowhere to be found. Has the president been tipped off? Is a counter-coup in the works? Or worse still, are the French negotiating their support for the president?

Bacasa orders his soldiers to search for Daco in the countryside until he's found. An agonizing weight begins. For as long as the president is at large, the coup is incomplete. By this time, Darko has left his New Year's Eve party, and word has reached him about an attempted coup. Astounded, he orders his driver to race back to the capital. But it's too late. Bacasa already has control. of the city. His men are everywhere. When a group of soldiers patrolling the streets identify

the presidential car, they apprehend the man on the back seat. And the first president of the Central African Republic is placed under arrest. Back at the presidential palace, Boccassar is fretting. There is still no word of Daco's whereabouts. Standing at the palace, He escapes, he checks his watch, then checks it again, his mouth is dry, his heart races, the weight continues. Eventually a car comes into sight at the far end of the wide avenue. Picasso begins to smile. As the vehicle pulls to a stop, Darko is hauled out by two of his infantrymen. Picasso steps forward, arms open wide, and embraces the president.

I tried to warn you, he beams, but now it's too late. At around 2 a.m., Bacasa and Captain Banzer take Daka with them to the notorious Angarabbar prison. With Banzar waving a pistol menacingly in the face of the prison director, Bacasa makes a spontaneous gesture. He orders the jail to be emptied. Everyone shall be freed. A new beginning for all. The prison gates are flung open. All of the inmates are released into the night, granted instant clemency to begin the new year.

Dhaka was then taken to Camp Kassai military base. Paralyzed by shock and weeping and trembling uncontrollably. He's forced to resign the presidency. Bokasa's plan is complete. As far as coup d'etars go, this one is relatively bloodless. Throughout the night, eight people are killed in gunfights around Bangi, but very little resistance is offered. In fact, one of the last men to hold out is a lone night watchman at a radio station,

bravely firing on soldiers with a bow and arrow. So when Bokasa took power in his coup, this was in some ways understandable, but in other ways quite shocking. Here was the sleepy backwater of a place where this dramatic incident takes place. And initially, I think people were surprised, but also saw it as potentially something that would inject a little bit of energy into the country and drive it forward into this independent era with a new kind of discipline that people felt like had been lacking up to that point.

The following morning, Boccasa takes to Radio Bangi. This is Colonel Boccasa speaking to you, he declares triumphantly. At 3 o'clock this morning, your army took control of the government. The DACO government has resigned. The hour of justice is at hand. The bourgeoisie is abolished. He declares himself an undying patriot, a defender of the people. A new era of equality among us all has begun, he says.

Central Africans, wherever you may be, be assured that the army will defend you and your property. Long live the Central African Republic. A young nation, barely five years old, is now in the hands of a military ruler. The age of Pocasa has begun. In the next episode, a new year brings new beginnings of the CAR. President Boccaso attempts to modernize, improving transport, women's rights, and even establishing two national orchestras.

But at the same time, the mass incarceration and torture ramp up. Corruption takes hold, and then things get really strange. An imposter infiltrates Bacassas' home life. A bizarre public competition is launched to marry off the president's daughters, while the president himself coesies up to Libyan strongman, Colonel Gaddafi. That's next time. Don't want to wait? Join Noiser Plus and you can listen to the whole Boccasa story,

Parts 2 and 3 right now without ads. Just click the Noyser Plus banner at the top of the feed or head to Noyser.com forward slash subscriptions. Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on select nights now through January 3rd. Step into a winter wonderland filled with millions of dazzling lights, festive shows, rides and holiday treats. Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's kindest community,

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