Léon Pétillon

Léon Antoine Marie Pétillon (* 1903 ; † 1996 ), occasionally Leo Pétillon , was a Belgian colonial official and politician.

Originally a lawyer, from 1929 to 1938 Pétillon was attaché and head of cabinet in the Colonial Ministry, at the same time he was a professor at the École Coloniale . In 1939 he became the administrator of the National Committee of Kivu in the Belgian Congo colony , from 1941 he was head of cabinet in the office of the governor general in Leopoldville, from 1942 to 1945 in the colonial ministry and from 1946 to 1949 again with the governor general. From August 1949 to January 1952 he was Governor of the Belgian Mandate Rwanda-Urundi , then from January 1952 to July 1958 Governor General of the Belgian Congo colony. He was then briefly colonial minister in the Belgian government from July to December 1958.

During his tenure as Governor General of the Congo, King Baudouin's visit (1955) and some desperate reform attempts to extend Belgian colonial rule (1957) fell. Pétillon coined the demagogic term of (pseudo-) fraternalism , which was supposed to replace the previous colonial principle of paternalism .

In addition to numerous Belgian medals, he also received Italian and Portuguese awards.

literature

• The International Who's Who , Twenty-Second Edition, page 734. London 1958
• Léopold Petillon Archives , Royal Museum for Central Africa