Dark Age: Political Odyssey of Bokassa

Posted on 11 January 2019 by Brian Titley

Dark Age recounts the turbulent political career of the late Jean Bedel Bokassa, flamboyant president for life and later emperor of the Central African Republic Empire Brian Titley examines the myths and legends surrounding the man, probes their origins and veracity, and attempts to provide a balanced perspective on this controversial and misunderstood figure Following a lengthy career in the French army, Bokassa seized power in the Central African Republic in 1966 His excesses soon became legendary he was accused of cannibalism, feeding enemies to lions and crocodiles, and beating schoolchildren to death Bokassa s tendency for self aggrandizement culminated in 1977 when he named himself emperor and orchestrated a coronation based on Napoleon s He was overthrown by French paratroopers in 1979 and went into exile, but returned to his homeland in 1985 to face a sensational trial Titley interprets Bokassa s authoritarian and self aggrandizing style as an attempt to legitimize his regime in a context devoid of indigenous political structures and explores the troubled relations between France and its former colonies Combining techniques of historical inquiry and investigative journalism, he has produced a fascinating account of a pivotal chapter in contemporary African history. New Read Dark Age: Political Odyssey of Bokassa By Brian Titley For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr This would be 3 stars if I wasn t living in CAR right now meaning 3 stars of interest for the general public, 4 stars of useful for the Central Africa focused.Titley does a well rounded job here of combining Central African history, politics, and economics with Bokassa s narrative Titley s a story historian before all else, and he says as much in the introduction The Bokassa story is titillating, and the author seems to relish the dirty details cannibalism, first hand torture, child murder, This would be 3 stars if I wasn t living in CAR right now meaning 3 stars of interest for the general public, 4 stars of useful for the Central Africa focused.Titley does a well rounded job here of combining Central African history, politics, and economics with Bokassa s narrative Titley s a story historian before all else, and he says as much in the introduction The Bokassa story is titillating, and the author seems to relish the dirty details cannibalism, first han...Dark Age is a story telling of the Bokassa era in the Central African Republic, which reads almost like a novel as Titley paints a picture of thegruesome facts and rumors of the day Eventhan I expected, the book sets the scene and explains many elements that underlie the current conflict crisis especially in terms of post colonial relationship with France, natural resource extraction, and particularly impunity The whole history is all theinteresting because I found that Dark Age is a story telling of the Bokassa era in the Central African Republic, which reads almost like a novel as Titley paints ...If it had not been for the pseudo Napoleonic coronation, Bokassa would have been just another corrupt and murderous African dictator Titley does a good job of contextualizing Bokassa He even manages to de exoticize him, whilst acknowledging the extent to which Bokassa exoticized himself.The best book about Bokassa in English.

English
11 January 2019

Brian Titley