Brazza
A
photograph of Brazza taken by Paul Nadar about 1882.Courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris
A
romantic figure, once the toast of Paris, Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, whom
French schoolbooks call "the greatest French explorer of his time," is
now relatively unknown even in Europe.
Count
Pietro di Brazza Savorgnani grew up in Rome, where he spent his boyhood reading
adventure novels and poring over atlases, using his imagination to fill in the
spaces marked "unknown territory" on maps of Africa. He set his heart
on a career in the navy, but Risorgimento Italy did not have a well-established
fleet. With the help of a family friend, Pietro entered the French naval
academy in 1870; at 21 he adopted French citizenship and officially changed his
name.
Brazza's
first sight of central Africa came in 1872, as his ship neared present-day
Gabon on an antislavery mission. Trading posts had been established along the
coast, but the interior remained a mystery to Europeans. The following year,
his plan to explore equatorial Africa with an eye toward commerce and
colonization found favor with the French government. He began preparing a new
kind of colonial mission, with a minimum of arms and several tons of cloth,
glassware, and tools to be used for barter and as gifts for the tribal
chieftains, explaining that he intended to use violence only as a last resort.
His entire staff consisted of two Europeans (a doctor and a naturalist), 12
Senegalese infantrymen, and two native interpreters. Between 1875 and 1878 this
first mission covered 900 miles of inland territory, discovering several rivers
and many plant and animal species unknown in Europe, all with the aid of the
native tribes. Brazza's natural charm and unhurried manner always seemed to
enable him to establish friendly relations.
Incredulous
at his methods and impressed with his geographical findings, the French
government authorized a second mission (1879-82). Reaching the Congo River in
1880, Brazza presented to King Makoko of the Batekes the advantages of placing
his extensive domain under the French flag. Makoko, seeking to expand river
trade and to gain protection from attacks by rival tribes, signed a treaty. A
French settlement, later called Brazzaville, was established at Malebo Pool on
the Congo.
Returning
to Paris, Brazza found the government in doubt about colonial policy. To
stimulate interest in his explorations, he made the rounds of Parisian society
and gave immensely popular public lectures. Reports of his travels were
published in illustrated magazines. Merchants began selling Brazza cigarettes,
Brazza fountain pens, and romantic pictures of the explorer. The resulting
enthusiasm yielded support for subsequent missions.
In
1886 he was named governor general of the French Congo, and spent the next
dozen years establishing schools, clinics, and job-training programs. He
required that all European traders pay their African employees a fair wage. The
integrity of his administration earned him the rank of commander in the French
Legion of Honor. Meanwhile, across the river in the Belgian Congo, Africans
worked in slavery under conditions that inspired "the horror" of
Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
The contrast between the two colonies was reported by European journalists and
Brazza acquired a powerful enemy, King Leopold of Belgium, who considered the
Belgian Congo his private estate and did not take kindly to the shameful
comparison. A smear campaign launched in the French press played on currents of
xenophobia raised by the Dreyfus affair. Brazza, who had added an area three
times the size of France to the French empire in Africa, was labeled a
negrophile and a foreigner. In 1898 he read of his dismissal in a newspaper.
Soon
conditions in the French Congo resembled those across the river. In 1905 the
conviction of two officers for particularly brutal tortures shocked the public,
and the French government convinced Brazza to lead an investigation. His wife,
Thérèse, sensing danger, insisted on accompanying him. He was received coldly
in the city that bore his name, and was appalled at the corruption he
discovered. In the more isolated settlements, local commanders tried to
disguise the slaves' terrible living conditions. One colonial officer organized
a festive tribal dance for the investigators. Brazza, realizing that the
dancers were telling him that there was a slave camp nearby, interrupted the
performance and asked to be taken to the camp. His stunned host was forced to
comply.
Various
ailments had aged Brazza prematurely, but as the mission progressed, Thérèse
noticed her husband's health worsening. On the way back to France, he was
hastily brought ashore at Dakar, where he died. He was given a full state
funeral in Paris, but the French Assembly voted to suppress the Brazza Report
as potentially embarrassing. Thérèse quietly maintained until the end of her
life that her husband had been poisoned.
The
African continent that Brazza so loved has kept his memory alive. Brazzaville
is one of the few African cities to retain its colonial name, out of respect
for "the peaceful conqueror," a fitting tribute to an idealist who
always remained faithful to his quest for knowledge and to his dream of a
better world.
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Maria Petringa '80 is a freelance
writer in Paris. She lived in Brazzaville, Congo, from 1982 to 1984.
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