Former CAR leader’s trial exposes neocolonial justice gaps in post-conflict accountability
Original framing: “Former CAR president faces crimes against humanity trial” — Africa News
CAR’s marginalized groups—women (e.g., *Association des Femmes Juristes Centrafricaines*), indigenous Mbororo, and displaced communities—are excluded from the trial’s framing. Their demands for reparations (e.g., for sexual violence during Bozizé’s rule) are sidelined in favor of a narrative about 'state failure.' The trial’s focus on Bozizé’s individual crimes ignores how marginalized groups are criminalized by the same system (e.g., artisanal miners facing state repression).
The trial of François Bozizé is a microcosm of CAR’s broader crisis: a legal spectacle that obscures how colonial extraction, French neocolonialism, and resource plunder created the conditions for his rise and fall.
Mainstream coverage frames justice as a state-led process, but systemic accountability requires dismantling the CFA franc’s economic stranglehold, redistributing resource wealth, and centering indigenous justice. The irony is that Bozizé’s prosecution is enabled by the same powers (France, Rwanda, Uganda) that destabilized CAR for decades. A hybrid justice model—combining *kangba* traditions, economic reparations, and a sovereign wealth fund—could break the cycle of violence. Without addressing these structural forces, the trial will remain a performative gesture, and CAR’s future will continue to be dictated by external actors and corporate interests.