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In August 1908, a white mob attacked Springfield, Illinois’s Black community, destroying homes and businesses and lynching two Black men. National outrage over the violence helped spur the movement that created the NAACP the following year.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
| 1979 Central African coup d'état | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Central African Empire |
Armed Forces rebels France | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Bokassa I |
David Dacko Valéry Giscard d'Estaing | ||||||
Operation Caban, also known as the 1979 Central African coup d’état, was a bloodless military operation by the French intelligence service SDECE in September 1979 to depose Emperor Bokassa I, reinstate the exiled former president David Dacko, and rename the Central African Empire back to Central African Republic.[1][2][3]
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Throughout most of Bokassa's reign as president and emperor, he had maintained good relations with France. This was exemplified by French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing receiving diamonds from Bokassa in 1973 (which later turned into a political scandal) as well as substantial material support to Bokassa's lavish coronation ceremony in 1977.[4][5]
However, a combination of factors created a rift between France and the Central African Empire. Firstly, Bokassa was seeking a closer alliance with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. This led to a fear that French interests in the country could be threatened.[5] Alexandre de Marenches, head of the French intelligence service SDECE, later stated that France aimed to "ensure that the Libyans did not establish a position in the center of Africa", a point that was also brought up by Giscard d'Estaing.[6] The Chadian–Libyan War exacerbated the strategic importance of the Central African Empire to France. In this context, Bokassa was perceived as an increasingly unreliable ally, although up to 1979 the French saw appeasement as the best strategy to protect the stability of their position.[7] However, this changed as internal opposition to the Empire mounted.
By January 1979, Emperor Bokassa had become a widely resented autocrat. His fall was precipitated by a decree that all high school students must buy uniforms from a business owned by one of his wives. This led to protests by students in Bangui and rocks thrown at the Emperor's car.[citation needed] In April 1979, Bokassa called in the Central African Armed Forces to put down the agitation and arrest the teenage students. During the following two days, about 100 students were brutally killed in the Ngaragba Prison massacre, which became known as the "Bangui children's massacre".[8] It was even reported that Bokassa personally participated in beatings and torture.[6]
The widely publicized atrocities made it hard for Giscard to maintain his support to the Central African Empire with respect to the public opinion.[5] The president's counsellor on African affairs, René Journiac, met with Bokassa in July 1979 and tried to convince him to abdicate; however, the emperor angrily refused and "briefly threatened to beat Journiac with his cane".[6] In August 1979 a panel of investigators, selected by other African states, found that Bokassa was complicit in the massacres, which further damaged his international legitimacy. By that time the French were already planning to remove him by force.[6]
Giscard discussed this plan with his prominent African allies Senghor and Bongo, the presidents of respectively Senegal and Gabon.[6] They agreed to launch a coup to overthrow Bokassa and reinstall former president David Dacko, who was then in exile in Europe. As historian Brian Titley pointed out, deposing Bokassa was only part of the coup; equally important was hand-picking a successor who could be trusted to serve French interests in the country. France had vetoed any figures with Marxist or leftist views, such as Abel Goumba, as well as those it deemed untrustworthy, including Ange-Félix Patassé and Sylvestre Bangui. Prime minister Henri Maïdou was considered, but the French eventually favored Dacko due to Maïdou's current connection to the Bokassa government.[9]
France was careful to organize the coup in such a way that it was not perceived as an unprompted French invasion. To ensure this, Dacko had to be transported to Bangui and would "request" assistance in carrying out the overthrow of Bokassa, prior to the actual arrival of foreign troops. After Giscard rejected a proposal to use mercenaries to safely escort Dacko, the French settled on a central role for the SDECE. A commando squad linked to the latter, joined by the 1st Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment, flew Dacko into Bangui on 19 September 1979 through the international airport. At the time, Bokassa was on a state visit to Libya.[6] Prime minister Maïdou had been the one to inform France of Bokassa's landing in Tripoli.[8]
The SDECE commando escorted Dacko from the airport to the radio station. There, shortly before midnight, he broadcast a message denouncing Bokassa and proclaiming the Empire's overthrow.[10] It was only minutes after Dacko proclaimed his message that French troops invaded the country from Gabon and Chad. The operation was completed within a matter of hours without a shot being fired: Central African soldiers across Bangui immediately surrendered, whereas the imperial guards at Berengo left for their villages.[10] Neither the French embassy in Bangui nor the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were aware of it until it was over.[8] As a result of the coup, Dacko successfully reclaimed the presidency after his 13-year absence and the country was again renamed to the Central African Republic (CAR). Operation Caban was followed by Operation Barracuda, its counterpart carried out by the regular military and troupes de marine (instead of the SDECE) to stabilize the new regime over the course of the next two years,[5][6] although Alexandre de Marenches used the two codenames interchangeably.[8]
The affair did not bring accolades to France: while many in the CAR supported the coup, many in France including Giscard were criticised for their handling of the situation.[2][11][12] It also damaged Chadian trust in France in the context of Opération Tacaud, as noted by historian Nathaniel Powell: "If Giscard could overthrow a formerly close friend and ally, how could the Chadians trust French intentions?"[6] Dacko would not remain in power long, being overthrown himself while on state visit to Libya in a 1981 coup by General André Kolingba.
Bokassa initially fled to France, claiming that his French citizenship authorized him to reside there. However, Journiac convinced Félix Houphouët-Boigny to offer the dethroned emperor exile in Côte d'Ivoire instead.[1][6] Bokassa returned to the CAR in 1987, where he was immediately arrested and sentenced to death. This was commuted to life in prison a year later. As one of his last acts in office in 1993, Kolingba granted a general amnesty for all prisoners, including Bokassa, who died three years later.[1]
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
Operation Caban, also known as the 1979 Central African coup d’état, was a bloodless military operation by the French intelligence service SDECE in September 1979 to depose Emperor Bokassa I, reinstate the exiled former president David Dacko, and rename the Central African Empire back to Central African Republic.
Operation Barracuda was a military operation by France during 1979–1981, to return to power the former President of the Central African Republic, David Dacko. It followed up Operation Caban of 21 September 1979, a bloodless military operation in which Emperor Bokassa I of the Central African Empire was overthrown by French paratrooper troupes.
Emperor of Central Africa (French: Empereur de Centrafrique) was the title used by Jean-Bédel Bokassa (as Bokassa I) from 4 December 1976 until his deposal in a French coup in September 1979. Bokassa, who had already ruled the Central African Republic (CAR) as a military dictator since taking power in the 1966 coup d'état, was officially crowned on 4 December 1977 in a lavish ceremony that was estimated to cost the Central African Empire US$20 million (equivalent to $106 million in 2025). Although nominally a constitutional monarch, in practice Bokassa ruled with absolute power. For all intents and purposes, the country was still a military dictatorship, as had been the case with the CAR. Bokassa I attempted to justify his actions by claiming that creating a monarchy would help Central Africa "stand out" from the rest of the continent, and earn the world's respect. The coronation consumed one third of the nation's annual budget and all of the French aid that year; France also supplied substantial material support to the ceremony from both public and private sources. Despite generous invitations, no foreign leaders attended the event, although delegations were present, such as Robert Galley and René Journiac for France. His rapprochement to Muammar Gaddafi and his widely publicized repression of internal dissent (culminating in the 1979 Ngaragba Prison massacre) created a rift between Bokassa and the French. The latter decided to depose him through a coup by intelligence service SDECE, codenamed Operation Caban, which took place on 19-20 September 1979. Former president David Dacko was reinstalled and abolished the imperial title.
The coronation of Bokassa I and Catherine as the Emperor and Empress of Central Africa took place on 4 December 1977 at a sports stadium in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Empire. It was the only coronation in the history of the Empire—a short-lived one-party state and self-proclaimed monarchy—which was established in 1976 by Jean-Bédel Bokassa, military dictator and president for life of the Central African Republic, and lasted until 1979 when he was deposed in a French-backed coup d’état. The coronation—which was almost an exact copy of the coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of the French in 1804—and related events were marked by luxury and pomp. Despite substantial material support from France, expenses amounted to over US$20 million ($110 million today) and caused serious damage to the state, leading to a huge outcry in Africa and around the world. After the coronation, Bokassa stayed in power for less than two years. In September 1979, in his absence he was deposed through Operation Caban. As a result, the monarchy was abolished and the country became a republic again.
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →The Greenwood District.