A state secret has resurfaced, linking former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing to an intimate relationship with Catherine Bokassa, the wife of Central African Emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa. This affair allegedly resulted in the birth of a child, information that Bokassa himself reportedly revealed after his fall from power in 1979.
According to consistent sources, the relationship between Giscard and Catherine Bokassa was more than mere protocol. Discreet visits to the Élysée Palace in Central Africa were frequent, and Emperor Bokassa was allegedly kept out of these meetings. Giscard used his stays in Africa, officially to hunt elephants, to maintain this secret liaison with the Empress.
The affair takes a darker turn with the death of René Journiac, Giscard's Africa advisor, on February 6, 1980. His plane crashed near Ngaoundéré, Cameroon, killing nine people. Journiac was a key figure, knowing the details of the relationship between Giscard and Catherine Bokassa, acting as an intermediary between Paris and Bangui.
The official investigation concluded that it was an accident, but shadows remain. Some observers believe that Journiac's disappearance shortly after Bokassa's fall is suspicious. René Journiac was an influential man, Jacques Foccart's successor and Pompidou's advisor, involved in African affairs and relations with figures such as Mobutu in Zaire. Other sources suggest that he was eliminated because of his affair with Catherine Bokassa.
The Bokassa diamonds affair, revealed in October 1979 by Le Canard Enchaîné, had already weakened Giscard's position. The satirical weekly claimed that Giscard had received valuable diamonds from Bokassa when he was Minister of Finance. Bokassa himself reportedly stated that he had given diamonds to the presidential couple on several occasions.
These revelations harmed Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's campaign during the 1981 presidential election, which he lost to François Mitterrand. The Journiac affair, occurring in this context, fuels speculation about the underside of Françafrique and the troubled relations between France and its former colonies.
The scientific investigation into the plane crash of René Journiac excluded the theory of an attack, favoring a piloting error. However, shadows persist, fueling conspiracy theories around this key figure in France's African politics.
