Camille-Aimé Coquilhat

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Camille-Aimé Coquilhat
Map of the explorations in the Congo area

Camille-Aimé Coquilhat (born October 15, 1853 in Liège , † March 24, 1891 in Boma ) was a Belgian officer , Africa explorer and deputy governor-general of the Congo Free State .

Life

As a volunteer in the Franco-Prussian War , Camille-Aimé Coquilhat served at the age of 17 on the French side under General Louis Faidherbe and took part in the Battle of Saint-Quentin in 1871 . After the war he returned to Belgium, where he enrolled at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels . He graduated on April 2, 1874 with the rank of sub-lieutenant . He was promoted to lieutenant on March 25, 1880 , and on December 30, 1880, he became adjutant of the general staff and was thus at the beginning of a promising career in the Belgian army.

Instead, he changed to July 15, 1882 in the service of the International Africa Society ; he was to take part in an expedition to the upper reaches of the Congo under Henry Morton Stanley . Coquilhat reached Banana on September 22, 1882, Léopoldville (now Kinshasa ) on November 6, 1882 and Bolobo on December 22, 1882. Weakened by a fever, he was unable to take part in other ventures and was initially assistant to the commandant in Léopoldville. On March 28, 1883, the situation in Kimpoko (east of Léopoldville at the Stanley Pool , now Pool Malebo) between the commanding officer and the locals came to a head. Stanley instructed Coquilhat to calm the situation on the ground, which he succeeded. Coquilhat ran out with the expedition to the upper reaches of the Congo on May 9, 1883. A month later, Equateurville (later Coquilhatville, now Mbandaka ) was founded. While Alphonso van Gèle and Coquilhat stayed on site and set up the base, Stanley made it to the Stanley Falls (now Boyoma Falls ) rapids in the Congo . Four months after the separation, Stanley reached Equateurville, which had now been built up. In January 1884 he instructed Coquilhat to set up the Iboko base (also Bangala Station, later New Antwerp, now Makanza ) in the Bangala area . Coquilhat developed a good relationship with the Bangala; he learned their language and culture. The 15-month stay in Iboko was draining his health, and he decided to return to Europe to recover. He arrived in Antwerp on October 21, 1885.

However, his stay in Europe was not as relaxing as he had hoped, because he had to attend many conferences and meetings. On April 6, 1886, he set sail again for Central Africa. In Matadi he organized the army, the Force Publique , of the Congo Free State founded in 1885 . On August 3, 1886, he was back in Iboko. There he received bad news on September 8th from Stanley Falls station (near today's Kisangani ), which had been captured by Arab slave traders. Although suffering from dysentery , he left with thirty men and reached Stanley Falls Station on September 26th. After a violent exchange of fire, Coquilhat realized that the enemy was outnumbered and ordered a retreat. On the way back, the surviving commander of the station, Walter Deane, was found; he had been hiding with locals for weeks. Coquilhat's health deteriorated further, forcing him to relinquish command and travel back to Léopoldville. Since there was no improvement in sight even after weeks of serious illness, he left Africa and arrived in Belgium on December 18, 1886.

His recovery was slow. In 1888 he was able to publish his experiences in the book Sur le Haut-Congo (German: At the upper Congo ). Leopold II appointed Coquilhat on August 30, 1888 as general administrator of the department for internal affairs of the Free State of the Congo. Coquilhat prepared the anti-slavery conference of 1889 in Brussels and also participated as an expert. The Congo Free State was facing huge financial problems at the time. At Leopold II's request, Coquilhat was to solve the problems on site. Since he was devoted to colonialism, he went, even against medical advice, to Africa for the third time, where he arrived on April 20, 1890. He was appointed Deputy Governor General on December 1, 1890. His troubled health deteriorated and Coquilhat eventually passed away eleven months after returning to Africa. His remains were brought to Antwerp.

Coquilhat's personality is described as sensitive and critical, but he could and had to be cold-blooded when it came to survival.

In his publication Sur le Haut-Congo he shows literary qualities through the lively description. Some of his descriptions of Africans are contradictory. On the one hand, he shows ethnological intelligence. For example, he witnessed cannibalism and tried to fathom its meaning. Unusually for a colonial ethnologist, he got involved in discussions with the locals and tried to change their minds through arguments. He saw learning the local languages ​​as necessary. On the other hand, he denied the Africans creativity and described them as "wild".

Unusually for a traveler to Africa, Coquilhat did not collect any cultural objects; he thought these were fetishes.

He was fully behind the idealized image of the European in Africa who brings humanitarian and scientific progress there and does not want to conquer the country. That is why he took part without a remorse to break the resistance of Africans against imperialism. He consented to the violence if one was provoked, otherwise he condemned it because it contradicted the "higher aims". As a confidante of King Leopold, Coquilhat committed himself to his dubious activities in the Congo, which ultimately cost him his life.

Publications

  • Sur le Haut-Congo . Paris, J. Lebegue, 1888 [2]

literature

  • Alphonse Engels: Lemma Camille Coquilhat , in: Biographie Coloniale Belge , Volume I, 1948, columns 250–260 [3]
  • Johannes Fabian: In tropical fever: Science and madness in the exploration of Central Africa , Verlag CH Beck, 2001, ISBN 3406477933 [4]
  • James L. Newman: Imperial Footprints , Potomac Books, 2004 ISBN 1612342450 [5]
  • Demetrius Charles Boulger: The Congo State: Or, the Growth of Civilization in Central Africa (first 1898), Cambridge University Press, 2012, ISBN 1108050697 [6]

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Engels: Biography Coloniale Belge , 1948, column 250
  2. ↑ Jean-Chrétien D Ekambo: Histoire du Congo RDC dans la presse: Des origines à l'indépendance , Editions L'Harmattan, 2013, ISBN 2296539629 , page 338 [1]
  3. ↑ Engels: Biography Coloniale Belge , 1948, columns 250-256
  4. ↑ Engels: Biography Coloniale Belge , 1948, columns 256-257
  5. ↑ Engels: Biography Coloniale Belge , 1948, columns 258-259
  6. ↑ Fabian: Im Tropenfieber , 2001, p. 361
  7. ↑ Fabian: Im Tropenfieber , 2001, p. 84
  8. ↑ Fabian: Im Tropenfieber , 2001, p. 108
  9. ↑ Fabian: Im Tropenfieber , 2001, p. 336
  10. ↑ Fabian: Im Tropenfieber , 2001, p. 170.
  11. ↑ Fabian: Im Tropenfieber , 2001, pp. 300-301
  12. ↑ Fabian: Im Tropenfieber , 2001, p. 177
  13. ↑ Fabian: Im Tropenfieber , 2001, p. 170
  14. ↑ Fabian: Im Tropenfieber , 2001, p. 258
  15. ↑ Fabian: Im Tropenfieber , 2001, p. 201
  16. ↑ Fabian: Im Tropenfieber , 2001, p. 78
  17. ↑ Fabian: Im Tropenfieber , 2001, p. 201
  18. ↑ Fabian: Im Tropenfieber , 2001, p. 361
personal data
SURNAME Coquilhat, Camille-Aimé
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian officer, Africa explorer and Deputy Governor General
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Liege
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 1891
Place of death Boma