A country of central Africa. Part of French Equatorial Africa after 1910, it became independent in 1960. In 1966 Col. Jean-Bédel Bokassa overthrew the government and in 1976 declared himself emperor, renaming the country the Central African Empire. After Bokassa's ouster in 1979, political upheavals alternated with periods of peace and the reestablishment of democratic institutions. Bangui is the capital and the largest city.