Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index The Central African Empire was the name of the Central African Republic when president Jean-Bédel Bokassa declared himself Emperor Bokassa in 1977. Bokassa spent over 20 million dollars, a quarter of the country's annual income, on his coronation ceremony. The name Central African Republic was restored in 1979 when Bokassa was ousted in a French-backed coup. On 22 April 2003, the Louvre des Antiquaires, a mall of fine art and antiques across the Rue de Rivoli from the Louvre itself, had a temporary exhibit of Bokassa's coronation robes, copied from those Napoleon himself wore when he crowned himself Emperor of France in 1804. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.