Fernand Foureau

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Fernand Foureau

Fernand Foureau (born October 17, 1850 in Saint-Barbant , † January 17, 1914 in Paris ) was a French explorer of Africa . He led the Foureau-Lamy mission , which from 1898 to 1900 crossed the Sahara and other areas in Africa . Most recently he was governor of the French colonies of Comoros and Martinique .

Life

Fernand Foureau became a Fourier in the French Navy in 1870 . He served in the Armée du Nord under General Louis Faidherbe during the Franco-Prussian War . After the lost battle of Saint-Quentin he got into Koblenz in captivity .

After his release, Foureau emigrated to Algeria in France in 1876 . There he initially tried unsuccessfully as a farmer for a short time until he began to devote himself to research expeditions into the Sahara desert . He carried out his first expedition in 1876/1877 together with Louis Say . He learned Arabic and Berber languages and, as an autodidact, acquired knowledge of astronomy , botany , ethnology and geology .

A photo taken by Foureau of an 1890 Sahara expedition

After the death of Henri Duveyrier in 1892, Foureau was considered France's leading Sahara expert. By 1898 he had completed a total of eleven desert expeditions, nine of which were commissioned by the state. He covered 11,000 kilometers, 9,000 kilometers of which were previously unknown to the French. He traveled to the oases In Salah and Ghadames , the Tademait Plateau and the Tassili n'Ajjer mountain range , among others .

When trying to advance further south, he was always prevented by the Tuareg . He would only succeed in this with expensive military support. Finally, Fernand Foureau and the officer Amédée-François Lamy headed the military-scientific mission Foureau-Lamy , which from 1898 to 1899 managed to completely cross the Sahara from north to south. In 1900 the mission reached Lake Chad , where Lamy was killed in the Battle of Kousséri .

Foureau published his research results in numerous publications, including the extensive Documents scientifiques de la mission saharienne on the Foureau-Lamy mission, which appeared in 1905. During his travels he was also active as a photographer. The fossils he brought with him were considered scientifically remarkable.

Foureau was appointed Governor of the French Protectorate of the Comoros in Mayotte in 1906. In 1908, he first worked as the French envoy at an international conference on arms trade in Brussels , until he became governor of the Martinique colony in the Caribbean in the summer of the same year . He retired in 1913.

Fernand Foureau's grave at Pere Lachaise Cemetery

Fernand Foureau died of pneumonia in 1914 and was buried in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris .

Fonts

  • Exploration in the Sahara . In: Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris . No. 12 , 1877, p. 563-564 ( persee.fr ).
  • Excursion in the Sahara Algeria. Extrait du carnet de route . Denolle, Paris 1883 ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
  • Une mission au Tademayt (Territoire d'In-Salah) en 1890. Report to M. le Ministre de l'Instruction Publique et a M. le Sous-Secrétaire d'État des Colonies . Schlaeber, Paris 1890 ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
  • Une mission chez les Touareg. Conference faite à la Société de Géographie, on May 19, 1893. Extrait du Bulletin de la Société de Géographie . Société de Géographie, Paris 1893 ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
  • Coup d'oeil sur le Sahara français. Simple esquisse . In: Annales de Géographie . No. 14 , 1894, pp. 61-75 ( persee.fr ).
  • Ma mission de 1893–1894 chez les Touareg Azdjer. Le Tademayt - le Bâten et In-Salah. L'Eguélé - le Tassili des Azdjer - l'ouad Mihero. L'erg d'Issaouan . Librairies-Imprimeries Réunies, Paris 1894 ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
  • Rapport sur ma mission au Sahara et chez les Touareg Azdjer Octobre 1893 - Mars 1894, adressé à Monsieur le Ministre de l'Instruction Publique, à Monsieur le Ministre des Colonies, à Monsieur le Gouverneur Général de l'Algérie, à l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres . Challamel, Paris 1894.
  • Mission chez les Touaregs. Mes deux itinéraires sahariens d'octobre 1894 to may 1895. Report adressé to M. le ministre de l'instruction publique, to M. le gouverneur de l'Algérie, à l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres . Challamel, Paris 1895 ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
  • In the Grand Erg. Mes itinéraires sahariens, de décembre 1895 à mars 1896. Report adressé à M. le ministre de l'instruction publique, à M. le gouverneur de l'Algérie, à l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres . Challamel, Paris 1896 ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
  • Essai de catalog des noms arabes et berbères de quelques plantes, arbustes et arbres algériens et sahariens ou introduits et cultivés en Algérie . Challamel, Paris 1896 ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
  • Mon neuvième voyage au Sahara et au pays Touareg. Mars – June 1897. Report adressé à Monsieur le Ministre de l'Instruction Publique et à la Société de Géographie . Challamel, Paris 1898 ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
  • Réunion d'études algériennes: Sahara, Soudan, Tchad, Congo. Conference de M. Foureau, d'après la sténographie de M. Raynaud . Paris 1901 ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
  • Saharienne Foureau-Lamy Mission. D'Alger au Congo par le Tchad . Masson, Paris 1902 ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
  • Documents scientifiques de la mission saharienne. Mission Foureau-Lamy d'Alger au Congo par le Tchad . Volume I: Observations astronomiques. Meteorology. Orography. Hydrography. Topography. Botanique. Masson, Paris 1905 ( jubilotheque.upmc.fr ).
  • Documents scientifiques de la mission saharienne. Mission Foureau-Lamy d'Alger au Congo par le Tchad . Volume II: Geology. Petrography and paleontology. Esquisse ethnographique. Notes on the faune préhistorique. Aperçu commercial. Conclusions économiques. Masson, Paris 1905 ( jubilotheque.upmc.fr ).
  • Documents scientifiques de la mission saharienne. Mission Foureau-Lamy d'Alger au Congo par le Tchad . Atlas (cartographer: Verlet-Hanus). Masson, Paris 1905 ( jubilotheque.upmc.fr ).
  • Les Populations de Mayotte . In: Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris . No. 8 , 1907, pp. 148-149 ( persee.fr ).

Honors

Rue Fernand Foureau street sign in Paris

Fernand Foureau was honored as Commander of the Legion of Honor , Knight of the Order of Agriculture , Commander of the Order of the Crown and Grand Officer of the Order of the Dragon of Annam . He has received numerous prizes from the Société de Géographie and other learned societies.

The city of Kousséri in French Cameroon , located opposite the city of Fort-Lamy named after Amédée-François Lamy , was renamed Fort-Foureau after Fernand Foureau in 1915 . After Cameroon's independence in 1960, it was given its previous name again. Rue Fernand Foureau , a street in the 12th arrondissement of Paris , has been named after the African explorer since 1930 . The street was named in the run-up to the Paris colonial exhibition of 1931.

literature

  • Yves Boulvert: Fernand Foureau (1850-1914). Saharan explorer . In: Jacques Serre (Ed.): Hommes et destins . Tome XI. Afrique Noire. L'Harmattan, Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-296-54603-5 , pp. 311-318 ( horizon.documentation.ird.fr [PDF]).
  • Louis Gardel: Les rêveurs du Sahara. Fernand Foureau and François-Joseph Lamy, de l'Algérie au Soudan, 1898–1900 . In: Pierre Fournié, Sophie de Sivry (ed.): Aventuriers du monde. Les grands explorateurs français au temps des premiers photographes, 1866–1914 . L'Iconoclaste, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-913366-07-4 , pp. 212-223 .
  • Henri Schirmer: Fernand Foureau (1850-1914) . In: Annales de Géographie . No. 128 , 1914, pp. 179-182 ( persee.fr ).

Web links

Commons : Fernand Foureau  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Jean Dubief: L'Ajjer, Sahara central . Karthala, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-86537-896-9 , pp. 107-108 .
  2. ↑ a b c d Yves Boulvert: Fernand Foureau (1850-1914). Saharan explorer . In: Jacques Serre (Ed.): Hommes et destins . Tome XI. Afrique Noire. L'Harmattan, Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-296-54603-5 , pp. 311–312 ( horizon.documentation.ird.fr [PDF; accessed August 17, 2019]).
  3. ^ Douglas Porch: The Conquest of the Sahara . Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-374-12879-1 , pp. 147-148 (first edition: Knopf, New York 1984).
  4. ^ Notice biographique. In: Léonore. Archives nationales, p. 1 , accessed on August 17, 2019 (French).
  5. ^ A b Fergus Fleming: The Sword and the Cross. Two Men and an Empire of Sand . New York 2003, p. 96-97 .
  6. ↑ a b Notice biographique. In: Léonore. Archives nationales, pp. 2–3 , accessed on August 17, 2019 (French).
  7. ↑ a b Yves Boulvert: Fernand Foureau (1850-1914). Saharan explorer . In: Jacques Serre (Ed.): Hommes et destins . Tome XI. Afrique Noire. L'Harmattan, Paris 2011, ISBN 978-2-296-54603-5 , pp. 314 ( horizon.documentation.ird.fr [PDF; accessed August 17, 2019]).
  8. ↑ a b Obsèques de M. Fernand Foureau . In: L'Homme libre. Journal quotidien du matin . January 23, 1914, p. 2 ( gallica.bnf.fr [accessed August 17, 2019]).
  9. ^ Notice biographique. In: Léonore. Archives nationales, p. 4 , accessed on August 17, 2019 (French).
  10. ↑ Guide du Paris colonial et des banlieues . Syllepse, Paris 2018, ISBN 978-2-84950-659-2 , entry Fernand-Foureau (Rue) .
personal data
SURNAME Foureau, Fernand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French explorer and colonial governor
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Barbant
DATE OF DEATH January 17, 1914
Place of death Paris