Voulet-Chanoine Mission - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Voulet–Chanoine Mission or Central African Mission was a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

military expedition sent out from Senegal

Senegal

Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...

in 1898 to conquer the Chad

Chad

Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...

Basin and unify all French territories in West Africa

West Africa

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

. This expedition operated jointly with two other expeditions, the Foureau-Lamy and Gentil missions, which advanced from Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

and Middle Congo respectively.
With the death of the Muslim warlord Rabih az-Zubayr

Rabih az-Zubayr

Rabih az-Zubayr ibn Fadl Allah or Rabih Fadlallah , usually known as Rabah in French, was a Sudanese warlord and slave trader who established a powerful empire west of Lake Chad, in today's Chad....

, the greatest ruler in the region, and the creation of the Military Territory of Chad in 1900, the Voulet–Chanoine Mission had accomplished all its goals. However, this success followed numerous misadventures, including the refusal of the expedition commander and his second-in-command to follow orders from France, and their subsequent murder at the hands of their soldiers. In the end, only one of the nine Europeans leading the mission, Paul Joalland

Paul Joalland

Paul-Jules Joalland is a French officer, known mainly for completing the Voulet-Chanoine Mission.He was one of the six officers of the latter expedition, and was an artillery expert with the rank of lieutenant...

, was to reach Chad.

Structure and directives

The Voulet–Chanoine Mission to Lake Chad

Lake Chad

Lake Chad is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Africa, whose size has varied over the centuries. According to the Global Resource Information Database of the United Nations Environment Programme, it shrank as much as 95% from about 1963 to 1998; yet it also states that "the 2007 ...

set out from Dakar

Dakar

Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...

in November 1898, moving through French Sudan

French Sudan

French Sudan was a colony in French West Africa that had two separate periods of existence, first from 1890 to 1899, then from 1920 to 1960, when the territory became the independent nation of Mali.-Colonial establishment:...

(modern Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

). It was composed of 50 Senegalese Tirailleurs

Senegalese Tirailleurs

The Senegalese Tirailleurs were a corps of colonial infantry in the French Army recruited from Senegal,French West Africa and throughout west, central and east Africa, the main province of the French colonial empire...

, 20 spahis (both units recruited in West Africa) and 30 interpreters, but the bulk was formed by 400 auxiliaries and 800 porter

Porter (carrier)

A porter, also called a bearer, is a person who shifts objects for others.-Historical meaning:Human adaptability and flexibility early led to the use of humans for shifting gear...

s that were pressed into service. The force was directed by nine European officers, i.e. the two commanders, the artillery expert lieutenant Paul Joalland

Paul Joalland

, Lt. Louis Peteau, Marine-Lt. Marc Pallier, the medical officer Dr. Henric and three NCO

Non-commissioned officer

A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...

s. The expedition was fully armed with artillery, machine guns, hundreds of rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition.

In command were captain Paul Voulet and his adjutant Lt. Julien Chanoine. The captain, a 32-year-old son of a doctor, was said by his officer colleagues to mix "a true love of blood and cruelty coupled with a sometimes foolish sensitivity"; while the lieutenant, son of the general and future War Minister

Minister of Defence (France)

The Minister of Defense and Veterans Affairs is the French government cabinet member charged with running the military of France....

Charles Chanoine

Charles Sulpice Jules Chanoine was a French military officer who played an important role in the Far East, and later became Minister of War....

, was judged impulsive, ruthless and "cruel out of cold-bloodedness as well as for pleasure". Both had already proved their ruthlessness and efficiency two years before, when they invaded the Mossi Kingdoms

Mossi Kingdoms

The Mossi Kingdoms, sometimes mistakenly referred to as the Mossi Empire, were a trio of powerful states in modern-day Burkina Faso. Each state possessed similar customs and government, but were ruled independently of each other...

and conquered its capital Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou

Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso and the administrative, communications, cultural and economic center of the nation. It is also the country's largest city, with a population of 1,475,223 . The city's name is often shortened to Ouaga. The inhabitants are called ouagalais...

.

The mission was the brainchild of Voulet, who saw it as a means to further his career. He actively sought support from French politicians, which was difficult to obtain because conflicts divided and preoccupied the Minister of Colonies

Minister of Overseas France

The Minister of Overseas France is a cabinet member in the Government of France responsible for overseeing French overseas departments and territories .The position is currently held by Brice Hortefeux, who is also the Minister of the Interior...

André Lebon and the Minister of Foreign Affairs

Minister of Foreign Affairs (France)

Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs ), is France's foreign affairs ministry, with the headquarters located on the Quai d'Orsay in Paris close to the National Assembly of France. The Minister of Foreign and European Affairs in the government of France is the cabinet minister responsible for...

Gabriel Hanotaux

Albert Auguste Gabriel Hanotaux, known as Gabriel Hanotaux was a French statesman and historian.-Biography:...

. The political crisis of the Dreyfus Affair

Dreyfus Affair

The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...

also consumed the attention of French politicians, making it even more difficult for Voulet to be heard. In spite of these obstacles, he successfully obtained approval for his project, with the help of his adjutant Chanoine.

The four months of delay in the start of the mission—and the very limited funds granted—had dire consequences for the future. Voulet completely ignored the local hierarchies and took liberties with the orders he received, which were anyway very vague—he was only asked to explore the territory between the Niger

Niger River

The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...

and lake Chad

Lake Chad

, and put the area "under French protection". The Minister of Colonies merely said, "I don't pretend to be able to give you any instructions on which route to choose or how you are to behave towards the native chieftains". In the opinion of the British historian G. Regan, this meant "giving carte blanche to two known psychopaths in uniform"., especially considering Voulet had already told the governor of French Sudan

French Sudan

that he meant to crush any resistance by burning villages.

Division and reunion of the column

When the column reached Koulikoro

Koulikoro

Koulikoro is a city in Mali. The capital of the Koulikoro Region, Koulikoro is located on banks of the Niger River, from Mali's capital Bamako....

, on the Niger, it divided. Chanoine led most of the expedition overland across the 600-mile bend of the river, while Voulet travelled downriver with the rest of the men, and reached Timbuktu

Timbuktu

Timbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...

, held by Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-François Klobb

Jean-François Klobb

Jean-François Arsène Klobb was a French colonial officer.Born on June 29, 1857 in Ribeauvillé in the department of Haut-Rhin in Alsace, he was sent as an officer to French Sudan...

who provided him with another 70 tirailleurs and 20 sipahis. Chanoine had increasing difficulties finding provisions for his large column in the arid region where he marched; he started pillaging the villages on the way, and gave orders for anyone trying to escape to be shot. In addition to these troubles, a dysentery

Dysentery

Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...

epidemic broke out. By the end of the first two months the mission had lost 148 bearers to dysentery.

Voulet and Chanoine reunited with the expedition in January at the easternmost French post in Sudan, Say

Say, Niger

Say is a town in southwest Niger, situated on the Niger River. It is the capital of the Say Department in the Tillabéri Region. The municipality has 12,000 inhabitants, and its economy is dominated by agriculture, herding and small trade.-Overview:...

in modern Niger

Niger

Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

. The column was by now 2,000-men strong, well over the number that their supplies could sustain. Even though they were in French-controlled areas, Voulet's troops started pillaging, looting, raping and killing. Among the most brutal episodes was Sansanné-Haoussa, a village that on 8 January 1899 was sacked. One hundred and one people were killed, among them thirty women and children, to set an example in retaliation for the wounding of a couple of his soldiers. When at the end of the month the mission left the Niger River

Niger River

The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...

to pass into the semi-desert areas extending east, their march became an endless orgy of looting and killing.

Scandal in Paris

In January, Lt. Peteau, one of the mission's officers, told Voulet that he had enough and was leaving, and Voulet countered by dismissing him on 29 January 1900 for "lack of discipline and enthusiasm." This decision eventually backfired: on 15 February Peteau wrote a letter to his fiancée that fully detailed the atrocities committed by Voulet and Chanoine that he had witnessed. Peteau's fiancée contacted her local deputy, who promptly sent her letter on to the Minister of Colonies Antoine Guillain. This brought about the decision by the Dupuy ministry

Charles Dupuy

Charles Alexandre Dupuy was a French statesman, three times prime minister.-Biography:He was born in Le Puy-en-Velay, Haute-Loire, Auvergne, where his father was a minor official. After a period as a professor of philosophy in the provinces, he was appointed a school inspector, thus obtaining a...

on 20 April to arrest Voulet and Chanoine and send orders to the Governor-General of French Sudan, Colonel Vimard, to have them replaced at the head of the mission with the governor of Timbuktu, Klobb. Among the chief concerns of the French government was that Voulet was carrying out his depredations in Sokoto

Sokoto State

Sokoto State is located in the extreme northwest of Nigeria, near to the confluence of the Sokoto River and the Rima River. As of 2005 it has an estimated population of more than 4.2 million...

, an unconquered territory that by the Anglo-French agreement of June 1898 had been assigned to the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

.

Klobb immediately left Timbuktu, taking fifty tirailleurs and Lt. Octave Meynier

Octave Meynier

Octave Meynier was a French military officer, born on February 22, 1874 at Saint-Yrieix-la-Perche in France and died on May 31, 1961 at Algiers. He is remembered as one of two officers who took control of the Voulet-Chanoine Mission, which mutinied and rampaged through West Africa in 1899. He...

as his second. Meanwhile, Voulet was meeting considerable resistance to his advance from the local queen Sarraounia

Sarraounia

Sarraounia was a Queen of the African Azna people, who ruled in a region of Western Africa during the late 19th century.She was ruler of an animist group of Eastern Hausa. Queen Sarraounia of the Aznas fought the French colonial troops in 1899...

, and at Lougou

Battle of Lougou

The French Voulet-Chanoine Mission, led by the captains Paul Voulet and Julien Chanoine, had been dispatched in 1898 to Africa by the French government with the mission to conquer the territories between the Niger River and Lake Chad and join in uniting French territories in West Africa...

on 16 April encountered his hardest battle yet, with 4 men killed and 6 wounded. Voulet took his revenge on 8 May: in one of the worst massacres in French colonial history

French colonial empires

The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...

, he slaughtered all the inhabitants of the village of Birni-N'Konni

Birni-N'Konni

Birni-N'Konni is a town in Niger, lying on the border of Nigeria and the Kori River. It is an important market town and transport hub and the 2001 census had a population of 44,663. The town is the historic center of the small pre-colonial Hausa state of Konni...

, killing possibly thousands of people.

Voulet's rebellion

Klobb followed the trail left by the "infernal column's

Infernal columns

The infernal columns were operations led by general Louis Marie Turreau during the War in the Vendee, aimed at eliminating all resistance after the setback of the virée de Galerne.-Other uses:...

" passage; a trail of burned villages and charred corpses. He passed trees where women had been hanged, and cooking fires where children had been roasted. He also found the corpses of the expedition's guides; those that had displeased Voulet had been strung up alive in a position that the foot went to the hyenas and the rest of the body to the vultures.

On 10 July , after a pursuit of over 2000 km, Klobb arrived at Damangara, near Zinder

Zinder

Zinder is the second largest city in Niger, with a population of 170,574 by 2005 was estimated to be over 200,000...

, where the villagers informed him that Voulet and his men were just a few hours' march ahead. He sent an African sergeant with two soldiers to give Voulet a letter informing him that he had been removed from his position and was to return home immediately; to this Voulet replied that he had 600 guns against his (Klobb's) fifty, and would use them if he dared to come near. Voulet and Chanoine were careful not to inform the other officers of Klobb's letter, and in the following days kept them occupied in raids. On July 13 he conducted his last massacre: after a villager killed two of his men, Voulet had 150 women and children slaughtered. The same evening he wrote a second letter to Klobb, in which he again told him not to try to come closer.

Klobb did not believe the other officers or the riflemen would dare to kill, or let be killed, a superior officer. He was unaware that Voulet had kept the new orders secret, and that as a precaution Voulet had made sure only himself and Chanoine would be present to receive him. Consequently, the following morning, Klobb proceeded with his men to Dankori, where Voulet waited. Upon seeing him, Voulet ordered his men to disperse and sent Klobb a last warning, which Klobb ignored.

Klobb, after telling his men not to open fire under any circumstances, in full-dress uniform and with his Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...

medal pinned on his chest, proceeded alone toward Voulet, who kept telling him to go back. To emphasise his warnings Voulet ordered two salvos fired in the air. When Klobb addressed Voulet's men, reminding them of their duties, Voulet threatened them with a pistol and ordered them to open fire. Klobb fell, wounded, still ordering his men not to return fire; but his words were truncated by a new salvo that killed Klobb, while Klobb's soldiers fled.

Voulet and Chanoine's deaths

On the evening of Klobb's assassination, Voulet informed his officers of the clash and, while stripping off his galloon

Galloon

Galloon is a decorative woven trim sometimes in the form of a braid and commonly made of metallic gold or silver thread, lace, or embroidery. Galloon is used in the trim of military and police uniforms, ecclesiastical garments, and as trim on textiles, drapery, and upholstered furniture.-...

s, proclaimed: "I'm no longer a Frenchman, I'm a black chief. With you, I will found an empire" (Je ne suis plus français, je suis un chef noir. Avec vous, je vais fonder un empire). The officers' reaction was far from enthusiastic, and their mood infected the troop. On July 16 an informer told Voulet that the troop was about to mutiny. Voulet and Chanoine assembled the riflemen, and after shooting the informer in front of the troop—for informing him too late of the impending mutiny—Voulet harangued the soldiers about their duty to obey their leaders, while at the same time shooting at them. The Senegalese returned fire, killing Chanoine, but Voulet escaped into the darkness and found refuge with some villagers. A sergeant

Sergeant

Sergeant is a rank used in some form by most militaries, police forces, and other uniformed organizations around the world. Its origins are the Latin serviens, "one who serves", through the French term Sergent....

then informed Lt. Pallier, the first French officer he found, of what had happened, and pledged the loyalty of the troop to him.

The last chapter of Voulet's rebellion was played out the following morning, when he tried to reenter the camp, but was blocked by a sentry who refused to let him pass. Voulet shot at him but missed, and the sentry killed him. Pallier, who was now in command, decided to take Zinder

Zinder

Zinder is the second largest city in Niger, with a population of 170,574 by 2005 was estimated to be over 200,000...

, then the biggest town in present day Niger

Niger

and a former vassal of the Bornu Empire

Kanem-Bornu Empire

The Kanem-Bornu Empire existed in modern Chad and Nigeria. It was known to the Arabian geographers as the Kanem Empire from the 9th century AD onward and lasted as the independent kingdom of Bornu until 1900. At its height it encompassed an area covering not only much of Chad, but also parts of...

; Pallier defeated the local ruler sarki Amadou, and took the city on July 30.

The mission's completion

Shortly afterwards, Pallier left Zinder with 300 riflemen to make a reconnaissance of the route to Lake Chad

Lake Chad

, but was forced by a mutiny among his men to make a premature return to the city. The soldiers had threatened to kill him if he didn't immediately take them back to Zinder and promise to send them back to French Sudan

French Sudan

. Consequently it was decided at Zinder to split the expedition, with 300 riflemen, Lt. Pallier, Dr. Henric and two European NCOs

Non-commissioned officer

A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...

leaving immediately for French Sudan while the remaining 270 riflemen (who had pledged to continue the mission for another year) put themselves under the command of Lt. Paul Joalland

Paul Joalland

. Klobb's former officer, Lt. Octave Meynier

Octave Meynier

, became Joalland's second and the expedition became known as the Joalland-Meynier Mission.

Joalland and Meynier remained for some time in Zinder to pacify the area; the sarki Amadou was killed on September 15 during a skirmish, which brought Zinder's territory under full control. This freed the two French officers to leave Zinder on October 3 to continue with their reconnaissance. They took 170 men and a cannon, while 100 men were left behind to secure the city under the command of the Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an sergeant Bouthel, who was awaiting the Foureau-Lamy mission that was heading towards Zinder from Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

across the Sahara

Sahara

The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...

, and which arrived in November.

In January 1900 Foureau and Lamy

Amédée-François Lamy

Amédée-François Lamy was born at Mougins, in the French département of Alpes-Maritimes on February 7, 1858 and died in the battle of Kousséri on April 22, 1900....

left Zinder, moving south-east towards the Komadugu Yobe River. They followed this river east to Lake Chad

Lake Chad

, north around the western and northern shores of the lake and then south along its eastern shore. Here they encountered Joalland who had travelled north, up the east side of the lake, to meet them. The united expeditions, now under the overall command of Lamy, returned south to Joalland's base camp on the right bank of the Chari River

Chari River

The Chari or Shari River is a 949-kilometer-long river of central Africa. It flows from the Central African Republic through Chad into Lake Chad, following the Cameroon border from N'Djamena, where it joins the Logone River waters....

, near where it enters Lake Chad from the south.

The joint expedition conquered Kousséri

Kousséri

Kousséri is a city in Far North Province, Cameroon, lying on the border with Chad, across the Chari River from N'Djamena. It is the capital of the Logone-et-Chari department. It is a market town, and its population has recently been swollen by refugees from Chad. It had a population of 89,123 at...

in April 1900; shortly afterwards, on April 21, they were joined by a third expedition, the Gentil Mission, that had entered the area from the Congo and been awaiting them for some time in the region of Lake Chad. The following day, in the battle of Kousséri

Battle of Kousséri

The battle of Kousséri originated in French plans to occupy the Chari-Baguirmi region. In 1899–1900, the French organized three armed columns, one proceeding north from Congo, one east from Niger and another south from Algeria...

, this combined force totally defeated Rabih az-Zubayr

Rabih az-Zubayr

Rabih az-Zubayr ibn Fadl Allah or Rabih Fadlallah , usually known as Rabah in French, was a Sudanese warlord and slave trader who established a powerful empire west of Lake Chad, in today's Chad....

's forces, and Rabih was killed in the fight, his empire crumbling with him. This event meant that the original expedition had now accomplished all its main aims, that is, surveying the lands of Northern Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

and Niger

Niger

(contributing to a clearer Franco-British delimitation of the colonial borders), uniting with the Foureau-Lamy mission and destroying Rabih's empire, which permitted the institution in September by the French government of the Military territory of Chad.

Having achieved their goals, Joalland and Meynier left Chad and returned to French Sudan

French Sudan

and the Niger River

Niger River

The Niger River is the principal river of western Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in southeastern Guinea...

by November. Joalland, the doctor Henric and the other French officers, due to the military success of the campaign, were able to avoid the scrutiny of the Council of war

Council of war

A council of war is a term in military science that describes a meeting held to decide on a course of action, usually in the midst of a battle. Under normal circumstances, decisions are made by a commanding officer, optionally communicated and coordinated by staff officers, and then implemented by...

. Both Joalland and Meynier went on to have successful careers, and become generals.

Reactions in France

When, in August 1899, the government made public the atrocities committed by the Voulet's expedition and the murder of Klobb, a storm of indignation arose from the press, and France's claim of a "civilizing mission" in Africa was tarnished, as was the army, whose prestige was already considerably weakened by the Dreyfus Affair

Dreyfus Affair

.

The expedition's eventual success greatly reduced the public indignation; and when the radical

Radical-Socialist Party (France)

The Radical Party , is a liberal and centrist political party in France. The Radicals are currently the fourth-largest party in the National Assembly, with 21 seats...

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

Paul Vigné d'Octon proposed in the National Assembly

French National Assembly

The French National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of France under the Fifth Republic. The upper house is the Senate ....

on December 7, 1900 the formation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry, the government rejected the request as being "dangerous and purposeless". An enquiry requested by the Ministry of Colonies was closed on December 1, 1902, claiming that Voulet and Chanoine had been driven mad by the dreadful heat, the "soudanite aiguë".

The mission in literature and cinema

After a long period of oblivion, the memory of the expedition was revived in 1976 by the writer Jacques-Francis Rolland in his Le Grand Captaine, honoured with the Prix des Maisons de la Presse. The book is centered on the figure of Voulet, seen as a titanic individual, reckless and unsubmissive, bloody for reasons of strategy. A very different perspective was taken in 1980 by Abdoulaye Mamani

Abdoulaye Mamani

Abdoulaye Mamani was a Nigerien poet, novelist and trade unionist.-Biography:Mamani was born in 1932 in Zinder, Niger. He was a trade unionist. In 1980 he published his novel Sarraounia, based on the real-life Battle of Lougou between Azna queen Sarraounia and French Colonial Forces. To write the...

in Sarraounia, the masterpiece of Niger

Niger

ien fiction. Here the protagonist is not the conqueror, the invader who is openly censured, but the African queen that refuses to submit, and whose heroism is extolled. There is no pretence of impartiality: the author himself was to call his work a roman engagé, i.e. a politically motivated novel.

Mamani was to participate in the 1986 screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

of Sarraounia
Sarraounia (film)
Sarraounia is a 1986 historical drama film written and directed by Med Hondo. It is based on a novel of the same name by Nigerien author Abdoulaye Mamani, who co-wrote the screenplay. The novel and film concern the real-life Battle of Lougou between Azna queen Sarraounia and the advancing French...

, a film based on his novel and directed by the Mauritania

Mauritania

Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

n Med Hondo

Med Hondo

Med Hondo is a Mauritanian film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and voice actor. He emigrated to France in 1959 and began to work in film during the 1960s. He received critical acclaim for his 1967 directorial début Soleil O.-Biography:Hondo was born in 1936 in Ain Oul Beri Mathar in the...

, in a France-Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...

coproduction that won the first prize in the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou

Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou

The Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou is the largest African film festival, held biennially in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The festival is the biggest regular cultural event on the African continent and it mostly focuses on the African film and African filmmakers...

. An anticolonialist epic, the work, like that of Mamani, sets out to offer a radically new African historical perspective, countering the Eurocentric view. A French television movie

Television movie

A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...

produced by Serge Moati

Serge Moati

Serge Moati is a French artist, journalist, film director and writer. Serge Moati is the brother of Nine Moati, author of the novel Les Belles de Tunis...

in 2004, Capitaines des ténèbres, focuses on the column, and especially on its two captains. The film is openly influenced by Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad

Joseph Conrad was a Polish-born English novelist.Conrad is regarded as one of the great novelists in English, although he did not speak the language fluently until he was in his twenties...

's novella

Novella

A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...

Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness
Heart of Darkness is a novella written by Joseph Conrad. Before its 1903 publication, it appeared as a three-part series in Blackwood's Magazine. It was classified by the Modern Library website editors as one of the "100 best novels" and part of the Western canon.The story centres on Charles...

and in particular by its character Kurtz

Kurtz (Heart of Darkness)

Mr. Kurtz is a central fictional character in Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness. A trader of ivory in Africa and commander of a trading post, he monopolises his position as a demigod among native Africans. Kurtz meets with the protagonist, Marlow, who returns him to the coast via steamboat...

, of whom Voulet is seen as an incarnation. The material collected for Moati's movie also provides the basis of the documentary Blancs de mémoire, directed by Manuel Gasquet, that follows in the expedition's footsteps and examines its impact on the inhabitants of the areas it passed through.

External links

Massacre de Birni-N'Konni

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Structure and directives

Division and reunion of the column

Scandal in Paris

Voulet's rebellion

Voulet and Chanoine's deaths

The mission's completion

Reactions in France

The mission in literature and cinema

See also

External links