Pierre-Paul-François-Camille Savorgnan de Brazza (1852-1905), French African Explorer

Pierre-Paul-François-Camille Savorgnan de Brazza (1852-1905).
- French African Explorer

Brazza

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. Brazza had his heart on a career in the navy, but Italy did not have a well-established fleet so With the help of a family friend, Brazza entered the French naval academy in 1870; at 21 he adopted French citizenship and officially changed his name.

De 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.

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. 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.

By the 1900’s with the world rubber boom, conditions in the French Congo soon resembled those across the river in the Belgim Congo. In 1905 the conviction of two officers for particularly brutal tortures shocked the public, and the French government convinced Brazza to lead an investigation. He was received coldly in the city that bore his name, and was appalled at the corruption and slavery he discovered. Various ailments had aged Brazza prematurely and as the mission progressed his health worsened. 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. 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.

East Africa Askari Colonial Soldier Collection

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