>>11785340Pic related is the current state of the CAR's civil war, Bokassa's historical image had a brief period of rehabilitation by the last president prior to the civil war, describing him as "a son of the nation recognised by all as a great builder".
Bokassa did not die, for a year he waited in prison, until Dacko's succesor voided his punishment (He did not believe in capital punishment), instead he would spend 20 years in prison, at 67, it was effectively still a death sentence.
But then, again, Dacko's succesor interevened, with the by product of saving Bokassa's life, he released Bokassa with general amesty in 1993, one one his last acts before his democratically elected succesor (international condemnation combined with the end of the cold war effectively forced him to hold elections)
On the 1st of August, 1993, Bokassa took his first breath of air as a free man in 6 years, he was now 72 , he would spend the rest of his life a freeman in his homeland.
But the reaper was near.
As i've said numerous times now, Bokassa was a man with a large ego, but in his final days, after his health began to fail, he expressed christian virtue and contrition as well as a man of his character could, he claimed himself the 13th apostle of christ, and claimed to have meetings with the pope, Bokassa was never a particularly good Christian, he had 17 wives, had abandoned one wife and her child in vietnam, and had been guilty of a great deal of sins during his time as Emperor and President, he sired 50 children, he was not a man of chastity, patience, temperance, charity, dilligence, contentment, and certainly not humility.
It was the 2nd of november, 1996, and it was a heart attack.
Bokassa in his final days lived in the former home of one of his wives, filled with various treasures he had amassed, and i have to wonder what he felt in those final days, and those final hours, I wonder if his father would be proud of his meteoric rise, or cry at what he became.
