Welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service.

Today I'm taking you back to December 1977, when Jean-Badel Picasso crowned himself Emperor

of the Central African Republic.

In 2018, Janet Ball spoke to one of his sons, John Charles Picasso, and to a French journalist

Bernard Edinger, about the eventful day.

To his friends, he's Emperor Jean-Badel Picasso I, to his enemies Papa Bach.

Today he's inspecting the Imperial Guard.

A BBC TV documentary from 1977 follows the preparations for the coronation of Jean-Badel

Picasso as Emperor, just like his hero Napoleon Bonaparte.

The coronation of Picasso was to be no normal event.

His son, John Charles, was 19 at the time.

It was an exceptional event, not everyone can come to himself Emperor in his fashion,

but he was already pretty done for life, so it was just a small step to become Emperor.

And after all, one is entitled to have your dream come true.

Jean-Badel Picasso was a man who was used to having his dreams come true.

He'd taken power in a coup in 1966, and a masked immense personal wealth, despite his country

being amongst the poorest in Africa.

He had a reputation for brutality, and even though the C.A.R. had been ruled by France

until 1960, he loved all things French, especially its post-war president Charles de Gaulle.

Bernard Edinger.

His god was General de Gaulle, it was said that when he would come to Paris for Franco-African

summits, because he'd been a member of General de Gaulle's Free France forces during the war,

...