He was deposed in 1979 with French support, and replaced again by Dacko. Instead, after the founding hero of the nation, Barthelemy Boganda, died shortly before independence, a small circle of elites centred in the capital, Bangui, focused on gaining power and keeping it.ĭavid Dacko, who took the presidency through a questionable deal with parliamentarians upon independence, was deposed in a coup d’état by the army commander Jean-Bédel Bokassa in 1965.īokassa ruled brutally, becoming increasingly paranoid of any challenge to his rule. The state’s institutions have not dealt effectively with these issues. Politicians and public figures often question the true Central Africanness of people who they assume once came from elsewhere or don’t speak the national language. Heated debates on belonging versus foreignness, status and dependency have ensued. Such practices have divided the people living within the borders of the Central African Republic, created on 13 August 1960. Over the centuries slave raiders hunted for people, French concessionary companies brutally enforced unpaid labour, and foreign militias took up camp when chased from their own countries. The Central African Republic has a long history as a meeting point between societies from different parts of Africa and more recently colonisers from Europe. I argue that only an emphasis on civilian aspects of rule – such as providing education, health and building infrastructure – can stop rebellions from successfully challenging the state’s rule in the future.

In an in-depth study comparing the Central African Republic with South Sudan and Somaliland, I found the imprint of the state in peripheral areas of the former to be by far the lowest. A view into the country’s history shows that military control has always been short-lived in this vast and lightly populated country.

Armed conflict in central africa