Mission Voulet-Chanoine
The Mission Afrique Centrale-Tchad , after the protagonist Mission Voulet-Chanoine called, was a military operation to conquer the Chad . It began in January 1899 under the leadership of Captain Paul Voulet and his deputy Julien Chanoine in Say . Together with the expeditions of Foureau-Lamy and Gentil, it was intended to establish final French control of the Lake Chad area. The Voulet – Chanoine mission was characterized by its brutal behavior and numerous attacks on the civilian population.
Composition and task
Paul Voulet
Julien Chanoine
The Voulet – Chanoine mission had a double task. It was supposed to map the areas in the Lake Chad area assigned to France by the Berlin Conference in 1884/1885 , to secure them militarily, to place them under French protectorate and finally to help defeat the Rabih .
It consisted of six French officers and three NCOs, 50 Senegalese riflemen , 20 Spahis , 30 interpreters, 400 recruits and 800 porters. The expedition carried an extensive supply of weapons and ammunition, but hardly any food.
The leaders of the expedition, Captain Paul Voulet and his deputy, Captain Julien Chanoine, were already considered by contemporaries to be unsuitable for carrying out such a civil-military operation. They operated it for exclusively career-oriented reasons and could be particularly sure of the protection of Chanoine's father, General Charles Chanoine . In the battles against the Mossi in the run-up to the mission, the two captains had, in addition to undeniable military successes, displayed particular cruelty.
course
In Koulikoro , the assembled troops were divided, Chanoine continued the march by land with most of the men, while Voulet embarked with some men on the Niger for Timbuktu . From the commandant there, Lieutenant Colonel Jean-François Klobb, he took over another 70 Senegalese riflemen and 20 Spahis. The advance of Chanoine was hampered by supply problems, the local population was unable to supply the column and Chanoine ordered looting. In addition, he ordered the shooting of deserters as porters had fled. In addition, the expedition lost porters every day due to diarrhea. At the beginning of January 1899, the two part expeditions met in Say , France's easternmost outpost in this area. The column, which had meanwhile grown to 2,000 men, did not have enough food to support itself, the actions of Voulets and Chanoines became increasingly cruel, and pillage was followed by pillage, murders and rape. On January 8, 1899, in retaliation for the wounding of some soldiers in the column , the village of Sansané Haoussa was sacked and 101 residents were killed, including 30 women and children.
Perception in France
At the end of January, Lieutenant Peteau, one of the officers, resigned and informed Voulet that he was leaving the column. For his part, Voulet dismissed him in dishonor for "lack of discipline and enthusiasm". Back in Dakar , Peteau wrote a letter to his fiancée, in which he indicated the atrocities of Voulet and Chanoine, whereupon she contacted her MP and the latter contacted Colonial Minister Florent Guillain . This removed Chanoine and Voulet from their function on April 20, 1899, ordered their arrest and ordered the governor of Timbuktu to prevent Klobb, Voulet and Chanoine from entering the Sokoto territory. France had left this to Great Britain in the June 1898 Agreement.
Voulets insubordination
On receipt of the order, Lieutenant Colonel Klobb, together with 50 Senegalese riflemen and Lieutenant Octave Meynier as deputy, immediately left Timbuktu and went on the trail of the column of Voulet and Chanoine. Organized resistance met this at this time, the Queen Sarraounia forced the column at Lougou to fight. On April 16, 1899, the French lost four men and six were wounded.
On July 20, 1899, Klobb reached Voulet and Chanoine's column in Dan Kori . Via a messenger he asked her to give up in writing, the two refused to give the order and Klobb was killed trying to arrest them.
Death Voulets and Chanoines
In the face of the insubordination of Voulets and Chanoines, their troops mutinied and killed the two.
Completion of the expedition and participation in the war against Rabih az-Zubayr
Under the orders of Lieutenant Joalland and Meynier, the remnants of the expedition were united with the columns advancing into Chad from the north and south and led against Rabih az-Zubayr .
Classification of the expedition
Due to its role in the final pacification of French Sudan, the atrocities of Mission Voulet-Chanoine were downplayed in the reception of French colonization in the years that followed. It has only recently been dealt with critically. The British historian Bertrand Taithe calls the mission a colonial scandal .
Movie and TV
- Mercenaries of Hell (Capitaines des ténèbres, TV-F 2005, director: Serge Moati )
literature
Primary sources
- Paul Joalland: Le Drame de Dankori (Mission Voulet-Chanoine - Mission Joalland-Meynier). Nouvelles Éditions Arago, Paris 1930.
- Octave Meynier: Mission Joalland-Meynier . Éditions de l'empire français, collection “Les grandes missions coloniales”, Paris 1947.
- Arsène Klobb: A la recherche de Voulet: sur les traces sanglantes de la Mission Afrique centrale, 1898–1899 . Cosmopole, Paris 2001.
Scientific secondary literature
- Finn Fuglestad : Speaking of travaux récents sur la mission Voulet-Chanoine . In: Revue française d'histoire d'outre-mer . Vol. 67, No. 246 , 1980, pp. 73-87 ( persee.fr ).
- Gilbert Comte: L'Empire triomphant . Denoël, 1988.
- Muriel Mathieu: La mission Afrique centrale . L'Harmattan, "Racines du présent" collection, 1996.
- Bertrand Taithe: The Killer Trail. A Colonial Scandal in the Heart of Africa . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2009.
Belletristic receptions
- Jacques-Francis Rolland : Le grand capitaine. An aventurier inconnu de l'épopée coloniale . Grasset, 1976 ISBN 9782246003427
- Jean-Claude Simoën: Les fils de roi. Le crépuscule sanglant de l'aventure africaine . Jean-Claude Lattès, 1996.
- Abdoulaye Mamani : Sarraounia. Le drame de la pure magicienne . L'Harmattan, "Encres noires" collection, 2000.
- Patrick Girard: La Soudanite . Calmann-Lévy, 2002.
- Isabelle Calin: Sarraounia. La pure magicienne du Niger . Cauris Editions, 2005.
- Serge Moati et Yves Laurent: Capitaines des ténèbres . Fayard, Paris 2006.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bertrand Taithe: The Killer Trail. A Colonial Scandal in the Heart of Africa . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2009.