International Africa Society

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The Internationale Afrika-Gesellschaft , also Internationale Afrika-Vereinigung or for short International Association , ( French Association Internationale Africaine, AIA ) was a society founded in 1876 to coordinate international humanitarian and scientific work in Africa. It served the Belgian king, Leopold II , as a sham organization for his colonial plans.

history

The International Africa Society was founded at the international geographical conference in Brussels convened by Leopold II with an executive committee consisting of four people. As its first president, Leopold was unanimously elected for one year. All conference participants, with the exception of the UK, formed national committees in their home countries.

The only meeting of the committee took place in June 1877. On this, an expedition starting from Zanzibar was approved, which should establish a branch of the company on Lake Tanganyika . In addition, Leopold was re-elected as President and the flag was set with a gold star on a blue background. Leopold's confidante, Henry Shelton Sanford , was added to the Executive Committee, which had been granted the right to independently approve expeditions.

In 1877, Leopold appointed the Belgian diplomat Jules Greindl as General Secretary of the Society . In the same year, the AIA commissioned the African explorer and explorer Henry Morton Stanley to carry out extensive expeditions in Central Africa, after he had previously hoped in vain that the British government would support his project.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ruth Weiss / Hans Mayer: Africa to the Europeans. From the Berlin Congo Conference in 1884 to the Africa of the new colonization. Wuppertal 1984, p. 24.
  2. ^ GVK - Common Union Catalog : bibliographical evidence