Pietro Savorgnan di Brazza
Pietro Brazza Savorgnan was born in Castelgandolfo, near Rome, in an aristocratic Roman family, on january 26th 1852. After studying in Paris, he enrolled in the French Navywith the admiral Montaignac recommandation. Poorly noticed and subjected to hostility from other naval officers,he participated to a modest expedition to Gabon after the franco-prussian war.
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There, he designed the project to explore the basin of the Congo on behalf of France. But in Paris, being France in the process of moving to the Third Republic, colonization is not yet among the national priorities. In 1874, the young naval officer was naturalized French, changed its name to Savorgnan de Brazza and his first name to Pierre. He left immediately for Gabon with the sole support of his patron, Admiral Montaignac meanwhile become Minister of Marine. During a first mission, Brazza Ogoué the back, a coastal river that waters the current Gabon, and recognizes the headwaters of Alima, a tributary of the Congo, the great river of central Africa. Note: The Congo is not accessible from the mouth due to major rapids on the river navigable during stops upstream of the rapids in a large deduction now known as Stanley Pool on the banks of which stand Brazzaville and Kinshasa, formerly Leopoldville. During a second expedition, Savorgnan de Brazza founded Franceville on the top-Ogoué.
King MAKOKO
He finally reaches the Congo and down the Almina, in the village of Itier, concluded the famous treaty of protectorate with Makoko-Iloo (official title of Chief Batéké Tio). Brazza returned to France leaving behind small detachments of soldiers, including Senegalese riflemen (from the Niger basin). In the village of N’Couna, which was later renamed by France … Brazzaville become the capital of the colony and the Republic of Congo, one of those sharpshooters, Sgt Malamine, has the fright of his life when he sees land in July 1881 the powerful cast of Stanley. The British explorer down the Congo Basin along the left bank (south side) and submit in any way the local people to his law. Malamine can not be impressed and denied passage on the right bank. Stanley bow. King of the Belgians will be satisfied with the left bank of the Congo.
Savorgnan de Brazza treaty between the king and the Batékés Tio
Savorgnan de Brazza treaty between the king and the Batékés Tio
On September 10, 1880, on the banks of the river Congo, Pierre de Brazza Savorgnan concluded a treaty with several copies of the traditional chief of Batékés. By this treaty to which the African does drop, the French established a protectorate over a vast territory that is now part of Congo – Brazzaville. Ably relayed by the official propaganda, the success will feed without fighting in the country of Jules Ferry the myth of the “civilizing mission” of France. Young Brazza (28), French by adoption, becomes the object of a cult Republican and one likes to contrast his magnanimity to the brutality of Stanley, a Briton serving the King of the Belgians, with whom entered into competition in the Congo Basin.
Triumph and bitterness
Pietro di Brazza
In Paris, the treaty between Brazzaville and Makoko-Iloo ratified 18 September 1882 by the Chamber of Deputies, in the enthusiasm. It the meantime, Jules Ferry has converted many of the elite Republican principle of colonization. Brazza, celebrated as a hero, described as the friend of blacks and the liberator of slaves, was appointed government commissioner in West Africa and, from 1886 to 1897, commissioner general in Congo. It lays the groundwork for future French Equatorial Africa: Congo, Gabon, Ubangi-Shari (now Central), Chad and Cameroon. In February 1905, the explorer is appalled by reading a newspaper that speaks of abuse against blacks in French Equatorial Africa. His successors, like the Belgians on the other side of the river, are suspected of brutalizing the local population and even mutilate, when they refuse to harvest rubber. Brazza demands and gets the President Émile Loubet an inspection. Thus he returns to “his” colony of the Congo to find that it abandoned to the avarice of traffickers and the brutality of some officials, is being resolved by cutting the concession companies. Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza died in Dakar on the way home September 14, 1905 and it is rumored that he was poisoned by traders unwilling to be revealed that their misdeeds. While Explorer has a state funeral, his report was buried in the archives without any advertising.
(from http://www.herodote.net)
Brazza frees slaves in a village in Congo - extracted from a propaganda image of "Beautiful Images of History"
