ABSTRACT
The brutality with which the 1979 student demonstrations in Bangui were quelled, and revelations of Jean-Bedel Bokassa’s personal role in some of the subsequent atrocities, finally propelled a reluctant France to engineer his ouster. In a bloodless military intervention not camouflaged even as an internal upheaval, Bokassa was deposed by French force of arms; and thus the stage was set for a return to normality. The Central African Republic, known during the colonial era as Oubangui-Chari, is a landlocked 2,000–3,000-foot plateau. Heavily dissected by streams and rivers, it is located near the geographical center of the continent. The concessionary system that was imposed upon French Equatorial Africa divided Oubangui-Chari into twenty-seven unequal segments, each leased to a different company for exploitation. The companies entertained grandiose visions of instant enrichment. Gross mismanagement under Bokassa, exploitative shady foreign consortia involved in quick in-out operations, and ecological ravages have all played a role in humbling this potentially vibrant economy.
