Former Emperor's Son Roughs It on Streets of Paris
December 2, 1998 - 0:0
PARIS Charlemagne Bokassa, 28, named after one emperor and the son of a less glorious one, now lives homeless on the streets of Paris. Two years after the death of his father Jean-Bedel Bokassa, sick and ruined, in the Central African republic he had once ruled as his empire, Charlemagne wanders aimlessly from metro stations to public parks. Like many others of his kind in the French capital, his is a solitary life.
When you've no money, no work, then you've no friends, he said as he sat on a metro station bench, a cigarette stuck in his blue woollen hat. Charlemagne said he was not in contact with the rest of his family, his 13 brothers and 17 sisters by the different wives of his father, who live in the Paris area, Abidjan, Libreville and Bangui. One of his elder half-brothers, Jean-Yves, is in a French jail, having been found in possession of a weapon that had been used in a hold-up.
His half-sister Marie-Ange married a Lebanese fashion designer in Cyprus a year ago. Even his own younger sisters and brothers, Jean le Grand, Jean-Serge, Marie-Beatrice and Diane-Caroline, are estranged, and he accuses other relatives of appropriating his father's former chateau at Hardricourt, west of Paris. Charlemagne was born ten years after his home country gained independence from France and five years after his father, then the head of the armed forces, seized power in a coup.
When Charlemagne was two, Jean-Bedel was named president for life, and five years later proclaimed himself emperor, residing with French aid in a resplendent palace, brutally suppressing all opposition while his subjects lived in poverty. Finally, in 1979, Paris had had enough, and engineered his overthrow, while allowing the fallen despot to reside in France after four years in exile in Cote d'Ivoire.
Charlemagne says he has still not forgiven those responsible for toppling his father. Educated in Switzerland till the age of 13, Charlemagne then went to live with his mother Joelle in Libreville. A year later he joined his father in exile in Abidjan, but six months later his mother demanded that he return to Gabon. The impoverished Jean-Bedel left France in October 1986 to return to Central Africa, where he was arrested and sentenced to death on June 12, 1987, after a seven-month trial.
President Andre Kolingba exercised clemency, commuting the sentence to 20 years in prison. Jean-Bedel was freed in September 1993, three years before the end of the sentence which had been reduced by half. The release raised hopes among his family that better days would return, but the former emperor died in misery, without even leaving a will. His last wife, Catherine, and Charlemagne's mother Joelle have little income.
The interview over, Charlemagne took his leave, a personal stereo playing music in his ears. He headed for a food handout at Paris's Lyon station before catching a bus to the shelter known as the People's Palace. It's the most comfortable doss-house in Paris, he said. (AFP)
When you've no money, no work, then you've no friends, he said as he sat on a metro station bench, a cigarette stuck in his blue woollen hat. Charlemagne said he was not in contact with the rest of his family, his 13 brothers and 17 sisters by the different wives of his father, who live in the Paris area, Abidjan, Libreville and Bangui. One of his elder half-brothers, Jean-Yves, is in a French jail, having been found in possession of a weapon that had been used in a hold-up.
His half-sister Marie-Ange married a Lebanese fashion designer in Cyprus a year ago. Even his own younger sisters and brothers, Jean le Grand, Jean-Serge, Marie-Beatrice and Diane-Caroline, are estranged, and he accuses other relatives of appropriating his father's former chateau at Hardricourt, west of Paris. Charlemagne was born ten years after his home country gained independence from France and five years after his father, then the head of the armed forces, seized power in a coup.
When Charlemagne was two, Jean-Bedel was named president for life, and five years later proclaimed himself emperor, residing with French aid in a resplendent palace, brutally suppressing all opposition while his subjects lived in poverty. Finally, in 1979, Paris had had enough, and engineered his overthrow, while allowing the fallen despot to reside in France after four years in exile in Cote d'Ivoire.
Charlemagne says he has still not forgiven those responsible for toppling his father. Educated in Switzerland till the age of 13, Charlemagne then went to live with his mother Joelle in Libreville. A year later he joined his father in exile in Abidjan, but six months later his mother demanded that he return to Gabon. The impoverished Jean-Bedel left France in October 1986 to return to Central Africa, where he was arrested and sentenced to death on June 12, 1987, after a seven-month trial.
President Andre Kolingba exercised clemency, commuting the sentence to 20 years in prison. Jean-Bedel was freed in September 1993, three years before the end of the sentence which had been reduced by half. The release raised hopes among his family that better days would return, but the former emperor died in misery, without even leaving a will. His last wife, Catherine, and Charlemagne's mother Joelle have little income.
The interview over, Charlemagne took his leave, a personal stereo playing music in his ears. He headed for a food handout at Paris's Lyon station before catching a bus to the shelter known as the People's Palace. It's the most comfortable doss-house in Paris, he said. (AFP)