Odette du Puigaudeau

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Odette du Puigaudeau (born July 20, 1894 in Saint-Nazaire , † July 19, 1991 in Rabat , Morocco ) was a French writer and explorer .

Life

Odette du Puigaudeau was born to the impressionist painter Ferdinand du Puigaudeau (1864–1930) and the portrait artist Henriette van den Brouke. The baroness grew up in a wealthy family. Her mother's ancestors had become prosperous through trade with the Antilles, and on her father's side she was related to the writer Alphonse de Châteaubriant . The remote estate of the du Puigaudeau in Brittany was used during the First World Waras a haven for fellow artists, writers and musicians from Paris. Her father taught her to draw at an early age, and her parents taught her, among other things, geography, botany and natural history. Odette du Puigaudeau had a childhood that was atypical for that time. As a child, she went on extensive forays through nature with her father. She learned how to handle a rifle at the age of eight, and later accompanied him on the hunt.

In 1920 she went - against the will of the Father - to Paris and studied at the Sorbonne Oceanography . She earned her living as a scientific illustrator for museums and research institutes, and successfully designed clothes for the Lanvin fashion house . It was at this time that the first reports were written for a magazine, for example in 1929 she accompanied Breton tuna fishermen at work.

At the age of 39, she and her friend Marion Sénones set out for Mauritania on board a lobster fishing ship , when it was not yet a matter of course for women to travel without a male companion. In 1934 they crossed the Mauritania desert for eight months on foot and on the back of camels on largely unknown routes, experienced the everyday life of nomads and took part in traditional festivals. Her travel book Pieds nus à travers la Mauritanie , which was also published in German in 2006 under the title Barefoot through Mauritania , received a great deal of attention and received an award from the French Académie . Three years later, du Puigaudeau traveled again to West Africa with Sénones, this time on behalf of two ministries and the French Museum of Natural History. Their second trip took them to Timbuktu , on the way back they joined the salt caravan . In Mauritania, 1937 is still known today as the "year of the two white women". While Marion Sénones mainly photographed and drew people, Odette du Puigaudeau used a pencil to document previously unknown cave paintings and the architecture of old caravan towns as well as handicrafts, weapons and everyday objects of the nomads. Further travel plans were thwarted by the outbreak of the Second World War .

It was not until 1949 that du Puigaudeau undertook a third long journey from Morocco to Mauritania. To her disappointment, she saw the French colonial power as an oppressor and saw the nomadic culture doomed. By the mid-1950s there were seven other books by Puigaudeau and over 150 publications in professional journals. During the decolonization phase , she supported Moroccan politicians who opposed the independence of Mauritania , as du Puigaudeau feared that this would destroy traditional pasture roads and caravan routes. In old age she lived with Marion Sénones, who had become her partner , in Rabat , where in 1961 she was editor in charge of radio programs for Mauritania and sub-Saharan Africa . Until she retired at the age of 84, she worked in a museum department for early history. Odette du Puigaudeau died in 1991 one day before the age of 97.

Publications

  • Pieds nus à travers la Mauritanie , 1936 (new edition 1992)
  • La grande foire aux dattes , 1937
  • Le sel du désert , 1940 (reprint 2001)
  • La route de l'Ouest (Maroc-Mauritanie), 1945
  • Grandeur des îles , 1946 (new editions 1989 and 1996)
  • Mon ami Rachid , 1948
  • Tagant , 1949 (reprint 1993)
  • La piste Maroc-Sénégal , 1954
  • Le passé maghrébin de la Mauritanie , 1962

literature

  • Monique Vérité: Odette du Puigaudeau. Une Bretonne au désert. Jean Picollec, 1992

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Foreword by the editor (JPS, 1991). In: Odette du Puigaudeau: Barefoot through Mauritania . Malik, Munich 2009, p. 12
  2. ^ Foreword by the editor . In: Odette du Puigaudeau: Barefoot through Mauritania . Malik, Munich 2009, p. 12
personal data
SURNAME Puigaudeau, Odette you
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French writer and explorer
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Nazaire
DATE OF DEATH July 19, 1991
Place of death Rabat , Morocco