France in Centrafrique explores the early colonial and post-colonial
history of French Equatorial Africa with a particular emphasis on the
role of the Central African Republic in the Second World War and the
Free French Movement. One of the key figures to emerge from this period,
and a man who would shape the modern destiny of the Central African
Republic, was Jean-Bédel Bokassa. Bokassa served alongside the Free
French under General Charles de Gaulle and later in the metropolitan
French military as an NCO in Indo-China. The narrative traces his ascent
from these humble beginnings to his position as one of the region's most
notorious dictators, exploring both his excesses of violence and
personal aggrandizement and the role played by France and the
wide-reaching Foccart intelligence network in his rise and fall. Baxter
examines the past and present relationship of France with her erstwhile
African colonial possessions, giving substance to the cause and effect
of the many French interventions and the play of various individual
personalities, both French and African, and how this has affected the
current complexion of the region and its ongoing relationship with
France. The book traces the overt and covert French military actions in
the region, the rise of internal violence and insecurity and the
increasing involvement of the international community in the series of
coups and counter-coups that characterized the 1990s and the new
century. Featured are Operation Barracuda, Operations Almandin I, II and
II, Operation Boali and the various regional, international and European
regional interventions.
