History of the Central African Republic

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Central African Republic, administrative division

The history of the Central African Republic is shaped by the French colonial period since the 19th century, independence in 1960, the Central African Empire (1976-79) under Bokassa and, since the 1990s, by attempts at democratization and civil wars.

Prehistory and early history

Traces of human settlement since the Paleolithic can be found on the territory of what is now the Central African Republic . The oldest of the indigenous societies now settling there are probably the Gbaya and Mandjida . They were organized in segments and had not developed any centralized forms of state coexistence. At the beginning of the 19th century, Banda societies immigrated to the area from the northeast. The Azande in the southeast formed in the 18th and 19th. Century a more stratified social order emerged with a chief chieftainship. Parts of the northeast fell under the rule of the Afro-Arab warlord Rabih b. Fadlallah .

Colonial times

Oubangui-Chari stamp from 1924.

As early as 1887, the French colonial official Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza declared the territory to be a French sphere of interest. In 1889 the first military post was established in what is now the capital, Bangui. From here, deposed in 1890, a military occupation of the country, in 1900 under the name Oubangi-Chari French military territory and was incorporated in 1906 with the north subsequent Chad military territory under one administration. On January 25, 1910, the territory became an independent colony within French Equatorial Africa (AEF). Parts in the west of the country with the places Nola , Mbaiki , Berbérati , Carnot and Bouar were connected to the German colony of German-Cameroon under the Morocco-Congo Agreement of November 4, 1911 under the name New Cameroon and only fell with the Versailles Treaty in 1919 returned to French Equatorial Africa.

On April 25, 1946, the Constituent National Assembly of France passed the Loi Lamine Guèye , according to which from June 1, 1946, all residents of the overseas territories, including Algeria, had the same citizenship status as the French in France or the overseas territories. This made women's suffrage law. In the elections to the French National Assembly as well as for all local elections in all of Africa except Senegal, a two-class suffrage was in effect until 1956. Since 1946 the colony was represented in the French National Assembly. Barthélemy Boganda (1910-1959), who in 1949 founded the Mouvement pour l'évolution sociale de l'Afrique noire (MESAN) party , became a member of parliament .

In 1956, still under French administration, the loi-cadre Defferre and thus universal suffrage was introduced.

The MESAN won all seats in the elections to the state parliament on March 31, 1957. On December 1, 1958, Central Africa received internal autonomy as part of the French colonies . Boganda became Prime Minister on December 8, 1958 .

The first years of independence (1960 to 1965)

Under the name of "Central African Republic", the country achieved its full independence from French colonial rule on August 13, 1960, in the " African Year ". Barthélemy Boganda was appointed Prime Minister before independence at the end of 1958, but had an accident in a plane crash in 1959. David Dacko was elected President in 1960. Several sources cite 1986 for the confirmation of active and passive women's suffrage after independence, a different source cites 1960.

Opposition groups that were dissatisfied with Dacko's pro-French course left the movement in June 1960 and founded the Mouvement pour l'Évolution Démocratique de l'Afrique Centrale (MEDAC). In December of the same year, MEDAC was banned and its leaders arrested. From 1962 to 1964 the MESAN was gradually expanded to become the highest authority within the state, which among other things resulted in compulsory membership for all citizens. The situation of the state was characterized by the increasing suppression of the opposing forces at home and close cooperation with the former colonial power France.

From Bokassa's putsch in 1966 to the end of the German Empire in 1979

On January 1, 1966 coup himself army chief Jean-Bedel Bokassa (1921-1996), a nephew Bogandas, to power. The ousted President Dacko was placed under house arrest. Bokassa secured his power through nationwide terror , torture and elimination of all opposition. French troops stood by his side. In 1972, Bokassa was named president for life. With Bokassa's coronation as emperor on December 4, 1976, the country became a monarchy (→ Central African Empire ).

After violent school and student unrest in January 1979, numerous young people and opposition activists were arrested, tortured and executed with military aid from Zaire , with Bokassa being accused of direct involvement. Former President Dacko took advantage of the absence of the emperor, who was visiting Libya on September 21, 1979 , for a coup . Emperor Bokassa was deposed and the republic reintroduced.

1980s

In January 1981, Dacko won the general election. However, he was ousted from office on September 1, 1981 by a coup by General André Kolingba with the consent of France . On October 23, 1986, ex-Emperor Bokassa returned. He was arrested and sentenced to death . The sentence was commuted to forced labor in 1988. Bokassa died in Bangui on November 3, 1996 .

1990s to 2002

On July 4, 1991, political parties were re-allowed under pressure from abroad . On September 1, 1993, Kolingba issued a general amnesty . Ex-Emperor Bokassa was also released. On September 19, 1993, Ange-Félix Patassé became the new president. From 1996 to 1997 there were military revolts and attempted coups against the Patassé government. In 1999 there were serious clashes between opposition members and government supporters. President Patassé was re-elected on October 22nd.

On February 15, 2000, the mandate of the UN peacekeeping forces ended after around two years of deployment. On May 28, 2001, an army unit loyal to ex-President André Kolingba attempted a coup. With the support of Libyan soldiers and the rebel movement Mouvement de Liberation du Congo (MLC), the insurgents were driven from the capital. These were supported by mercenaries from Rwanda and Angola. Around 300 people died and around 50,000 fled in the course of the fighting. The UN sent the Senegalese Lamine Cissé as a special envoy . Fighting broke out again on November 5, 2001 when government troops tried to arrest former army chief François Bozizé for alleged involvement in the May 28 fighting. Libya then increased its troops in the Central African Republic. Attempts at mediation by the Chadian Ambassador Maitimo Njumbe, the Vice Secretary General of the OAU, Mahamat Habib Doutoum , and Cissés were unsuccessful. President Ange-Felix Patasse was able to assert himself. Ex-army chief Bozizé initially fled.

After the 2003 coup

On March 15, 2003, Patassé was overthrown by François Bozizé . Bozizé won the 2005 presidential election in the second ballot on May 24, 2005 with 64.6% of the vote. The presidential and parliamentary elections planned for April 25, 2010 were canceled by a parliamentary resolution. President Bozizé remained in office. His mandate lasted until June 11, 2010. The 2011 elections were rescheduled.

Coup and civil war from 2012 to 2015

On December 27, 2012, the US flew its ambassador, embassy staff and other foreigners out of the country for fear of assault. This was justified by the fact that the government had been fighting since mid-December 2012 with the Islamic-dominated rebel coalition of the Séléka . Meanwhile protests broke out in front of the French embassy. The demonstrators called for the intervention of around 250 soldiers who are stationed at the capital's airport to protect French citizens. French President Hollande rejected any intervention by France without a UN mandate.

On March 24, 2013, the Séléka took the presidential palace in the capital Bangui and took power. President François Bozizé then fled to the Democratic Republic of the Congo . The leader of the Islamist Séléka, Michel Djotodia , then named himself president. Although he dissolved the Séléka in September, there was increasing violence in November between fighters of the former rebels and Bozizé's supporters - a conflict between Muslims and Christians - as well as against civilians. The state order collapsed; several thousand people were displaced, mainly in the northwest of the country. Both the French government and the African Union Mission (MISCA) announced that further troops would be sent in view of the escalating violence. Around 25 November 2013, around 2,500 MISCA soldiers were stationed in the Central African Republic, plus 650 French soldiers who mainly secured the Bangui M'Poko International Airport and diplomatic facilities in the capital.

On December 5, 2013, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved an expansion of the French military operation. The French President François Hollande then announced the immediate dispatch of further troops. The French Sangaris mission began in December 2013 and lasted until 2016 and from April 2014 overlapped with the UN mission MINUSCA . On January 10, 2014, President Djotodia resigned. In January 2015, around 6,000 people were killed in violent clashes.

Since 2016

In 2016, President Faustin Archange Touadéra was elected in the second ballot. He only controls about a fifth of the country.

In November 2018, the Christian militia leader Alfred Yekatom was transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague . His comrade -in-arms Patrice-Edouard Ngaïssona was caught in Paris that same month and is supposed to follow Yekatom.

literature

  • Pierre Kalck, Xavier-Samuel Kalck (Ed.): Historical Dictionary of the Central African Republic (= African Historical Dictionaries. Volume 93). 3. Edition. Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2005, ISBN 978-0-8108-4913-6
  • Yarisse Zoctizoum : Histoire de la Centrafrique. Violence du développement, domination et inégalités. Volume 1: 1879-1959 . L'Harmattan, Paris 1983, ISBN 978-2-85802-292-2
  • Yarisse Zoctizoum : Histoire de la Centrafrique. Violence du développement, domination et inégalités. Volume 2: 1959-1979 . L'Harmattan, Paris 1983, ISBN 978-2-85802-379-0
  • Walter Schicho (Ed.): Central Africa, Southern Africa and the States in the Indian Ocean (= Handbook Africa. Volume 1). Brandes & Apsel, Frankfurt 1999, ISBN 978-3-86099-120-6
  • Brian Titley : Dark Age. The Political Odyssey of Emperor Bokassa . McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal 1997, ISBN 978-0-7735-1602-1
  • Pierre Kalck : Central African Republic. A Failure in De-Colonization . Praeger, London 1971
  • Pierre Kalck: La République Centrafricaine . La Documentation Française, Paris 1971

Web links

Commons : History of the Central African Republic  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Franz Ansprenger: Politics in Black Africa. The modern political movements in Africa with French influences. Westdeutscher Verlag Köln and Opladen, 1961, p. 73.
  2. ^ Jad Adams: Women and the Vote. A world history. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2014, ISBN 978-0-19-870684-7 , page 438
  3. ^ Mart Martin: The Almanac of Women and Minorities in World Politics. Westview Press Boulder, Colorado, 2000, p. 74.
  4. ↑ United Nations Development Program: Human Development Report 2007/2008 . New York, 2007, ISBN 978-0-230-54704-9 , p. 346
  5. ↑ Christine Pintat: Women's Representation in Parliaments and Political Parties in Europe and North America In: Christine Fauré (Ed.): Political and Historical Encyclopedia of Women: Routledge New York, London, 2003, pp. 481-502, p. 487.
  6. ↑ June Hannam, Mitzi Auchterlonie, Katherine Holden: International Encyclopedia of Women's Suffrage. ABC-Clio, Santa Barbara, Denver, Oxford 2000, ISBN 1-57607-064-6 , p. 9.
  7. ↑ 'US Department of State' , December 28, 2012.
  8. ↑ 'NY TIMES Article' , December 28, 2012.
  9. ^ Thomas Scheen, Johannesburg: Putsch in the Central African Republic. In: FAZ.net . March 24, 2013, accessed December 16, 2014 .
  10. ^ Thomas Scheen: Putsch in the Central African Republic . Frankfurter Allgemeine, March 24, 2013 (faz.net).
  11. ↑ France sends new soldiers in conflict Handelsblatt, November 26, 2013, accessed on November 27, 2013.
  12. ^ Johannes Dieterich: Schlachtfeld für alle Frankfurter Rundschau, November 26, 2013, accessed on November 27, 2013.
  13. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : UN Security Council Approves Intervention , December 5, 2013.
  14. ↑ BBC News : France takes 'immediate' military action amid CAR clashes , December 5, 2013.
  15. ^ Crisis in Central Africa: President Djotodia resigns. In: Spiegel Online . January 10, 2014, accessed December 16, 2014 .
  16. ^ A b Juan Branco: Blue helmets out of control. In: Le Monde Diplomatique , German edition, 09/24. Volume, pp. 1, 15-16.