Xavier Coppolani

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Xavier Coppolani

Xavier Coppolani (* 1. February 1866 in Corsica Marignana ; † 12. May 1905 in Tidjikja ) was a French colonial official and the founder of Mauritania . He was commonly referred to as a "peacemaker in Mauritania". The territory he first defined was called “Western Mauritania” and stretched from the right bank of Senegal to Cape Juby .

Beginnings

In 1879, Xavier Coppolani went to Algeria at the age of 13 . He lives with his eldest sister and her husband, who have settled in Sidi Mérouane, not far from Constantine . In Constantine he finished his school education.

He then carried out various activities for the local French administration. In April 1889 he was appointed secretary of the mixed parish of Oued Scherf. There he deals intensively with the mentality of the local population. He learns Arabic and tribal law and examines the strong influence of the Muslim brotherhoods on the local population. In 1893 he published a monograph on the Ammaria Brotherhood, which was founded at the beginning of the 20th century by Sidi Ammar ben Senna, a locally important saint.

Due to his preoccupation with the Ammaria and administrative work in the mixed community, he developed his theses, which were to have a lasting influence on France's fickle and uncertain policy towards the natives. Addressing the ruling circles of Algeria, he wrote: “In Muslim countries the word religion replaces the word fatherland . Islam is a unit. Wherever you come across it within its catchment area, it has an impact wherever believers live ”.

Through this study, Coppolani became known in the Algerian administration, which led to his being transferred to the Office for Local Affairs and Military Personnel in Algiers in 1896 . There he becomes Octave Depont's assistant and together with him he prepares a study of the religious Muslim brotherhoods in Algeria. The book was published in Algiers in September 1898.

His idea

Coppolani is convinced that the colonial endeavors can never be successful without a good understanding between the colonial administration and the colonized peoples. Coppolani's innovative idea is to bring the colonial power and religious leaders closer together on the basis of an understanding of their culture and local customs, with the aim of gaining influence over large parts of the local population.

In 1901 in Paris he drafted a "pacification plan" for the Moorish areas, which was approved by the French government. The model for this plan was the pacification of Madagascar by Joseph Gallieni .

The two religious leaders Sheikh Saad Bouh and Sheikh Siddiya, reliable friends of Coppolani, called him the "magician" and referred to his engaging nature and his diplomatic skills. In his quest to promote colonialism in a spirit of respect for the culture and religious beliefs of the local population, he used his extensive knowledge of Arab and Muslim culture with the aim of the tribes of Mauritania accepting an administration that is familiar with their customs is.

Career

In 1895, Xavier Coppolani was appointed assistant to the chief director of the Bureau for Local Affairs and Military Personnel in Algiers. In 1898, General de Trentinian, then governor of French Sudan , asked Coppolani to apply his pacification plan in this French colony and to put his ideas, which had been purely theoretical up until then, into practice for the first time.

He made first contacts with the Moorish tribes of the Hodh El Gharbi and the Azawad . "The Moors were impressed by his tall, stately figure, his amiability and especially by his knowledge of their language and religion and received him very benevolently," writes Geneviève Désiré-Vuillemin. He accepted the submission of several tribes and settled in Timbuktu , where he conferred with the tribal leaders.

He pursued the politics determinedly as laid down in his “Plan d'ensemble d'organization des tribus maures”. He became head of the Service for Muslim Affairs in the Paris Colonial Ministry and later head of the Special Service for Moorish Affairs in Saint-Louis .

In 1899 he was made a resident (highest local representative of France) in Mauritania. In 1902 he was appointed Secretary General of the Colonies and, as such, Commissioner of the Senegal General Government in Mauritania. He is placed in reserve readiness under civil service law, i.e. outside the career for special use.

With Coppolani, the first phase of the French conquest of the regions on the northern bank of Senegal takes place with the peaceful penetration and the establishment of the administrative units Trarza (1903), Brakna (1904) and Tagant (1905) as French protectorate . He reports about this to his superior Ernest Roume, Governor of French West Africa .

Xavier Coppolani in Mauritania

President Waldeck-Rousseau entrusts him with the task of creating an area in Western Sahara that will later (1904) be called Western Mauritania . So he is its founder and is appointed chief administrator of this administrative unit. Again he can win the trust of certain tribes.

In Mauritania, Coppolani face three major religious leaders:

  • Sheikh Siddiya Baba, who has great influence in Trarza, Brakna and Tagant,
  • Sheikh Saad Bouh, whose power extends into the Tagant and Senegal,
  • Sheikh Ma el-Ainin , the half-brother of Saad Bouh and leader in the Adrar and in the north as well as in the Spanish Sahara and in the south of Morocco .

Sheikh Ma el-Ainin fights the other two religious leaders as well as the advancing French. General Louis Faidherbe , Governor of Senegal from 1854–1861, had already pointed out that the key to pacifying Mauritania lies in the Adrar. Ma el-Ainin relies on military strength and seeks the support of the King of Morocco by recognizing his sovereignty over Mauritania - with major consequences for the region in the 20th century.

During his march to Adrar, Coppolani was murdered in Tidjikja on May 12, 1905 by members of a fanatical brotherhood led by Sidi Seghir Ould Moulay Zein - at the instigation of Ma el-Ainin. The background to this act was, among other things, Coppolani's intention to stop the illegal but lucrative arms smuggling and slave trade with the tribes of the north , which the colonial administration more or less tolerated . In doing so, he drew opposition from the influential merchants in Saint-Louis, who consequently fought against the pacification of the region he sought. - Robert Randau , who accompanied Coppolani's company up to his assassination, describes all these events in his novel Les Explorateurs and in his biographical report Un Corse d'Algérie chez les hommes bleus: Xavier Coppolani le pacificateur .

Ma el-Ainin continued to try to win the support of the Moorish tribes for his struggle with promises from Morocco. In 1906, Sherif Moulay Idris, a cousin of the King of Morocco, mobilized a force of 600 men together with the fighters of Ma el-Ainin and besieged Fort Coppolani in Tidjikja, without success. In 1908 Colonel Gouraud took over the leadership of the armed forces in Mauritania, ending Coppolani's strategy of peaceful penetration.

Coppolani and the military

The troops accompanying Coppolani were mostly local or Algerian auxiliaries who were recruited on Coppolani's behalf. The approximately 100 regular Senegalese riflemen were mostly led by French lieutenants, but they were subordinate to Coppolani and were largely used by him to secure the subjugated areas. Again and again there was trouble with these lieutenants who were of the opinion that they did not have to take orders from a civilian. In general, the military were convinced that Coppolani had no place in their very own area of ​​activity, the conquest of new territories for France. He would take away their opportunity to excel. The merchants of Saint-Louis also sabotaged Coppolani's company, especially the supply chain, because they feared for their lucrative but illegal business ( gum arabic against modern rifles and slaves ).

family

Coppolani married Armandine de Blois in Paris in October 1902, whose family was among the first to settle Algeria. - He didn't see her often. In 2005, on the 100th anniversary of the death of his great-uncle Xavier, his great-great-nephew Georges wrote a biography to honor his life and work and to wrest him from general oblivion in France.

Publications

Coppolani burial site in Tidjikja
Monument in his place of birth Marignana with the inscription: "Conquerant pacifique de la Mauretanie qu'il a donnée à la France" (German: Peaceful Conqueror of Mauritania, which he gave to France )

In 1897, Coppolani published the handbook Les confréries religieuses musulmanes in collaboration with Octave Depont and on behalf of Jules Cambon , Governor General of Algeria .

He advocates the thesis that it is not Islam that opposes colonization, but rather the numerous Muslim brotherhoods, which he equates in structure and effect with religious sects. He regards their leaders as "Muslim monks" who fanatize them as mediators between God and the believers. Coppolani believes that her influence can only be reduced by persuasion and not with a gun. He had some success with it in French Sudan and Mauritania.

His report to Ernest Roume is entitled Mission d'organization des territoires du Tagant .

Subsequent honors and monuments

The tomb of Coppolani is still in Tidjikja. The Arabic grave inscription that has disappeared today read: Il fut l'ami des Musulmans کان صديقا للمسلمين / Kan Ṣadiqū lil-Muslimīn  / 'He was the friend of the Muslims'.

In honor of Xavier Coppolani, a monument was erected in his birthplace, Marignana.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Plan de pacification de la Mauritanie par l'administration coloniale française
  2. ↑ a b c Book by Georges Coppolani, see literature
  3. ↑ see internal link Louis Henri de Gueydon on the mixed parishes
  4. ^ A b Philippe Decraene, François Zuccarelli, GRANDS SAHARIENS, à la découverte du désert des déserts, Denoël, L'aventure coloniale française, 1994, 270 pages
  5. ↑ La Compagnie Commerciale de Saint-Louis
  6. ↑ Book by Geneviève Désiré-Vuillemin, see literature
  7. ↑ Sansot, 1911; Albin Michel, 1929
  8. ↑ Alger, Imbert, 1939
  9. ↑ Gérard Crespo: "Robert Randau et la société coloniale pendant l'entre-deux-guerres", in Écrivains français d'Algérie, Kailash, 2008, p. 220
  10. ↑ complete text on Gallica in Les confréries religieuses musulmanes
  11. ↑ November 1903 and May 1904
  12. ↑ France moved most of the heroes' graves in the colonies to France in the 1950s. But Coppolani was not moved.

literature

  • Octave Depont, Xavier Coppolani: Les confréries religieuses musulmanes , Jourdan, 1897, 576 pages, ISBN 2-7200-1051-0 .
  • Robert Randau: Un corse d'Algérie chez les hommes bleus: Xavier Coppolani, le pacificateur , Alger, A. Imbert, 1939, 212 pages
  • Robert Randau: The Invention of Mauritania - Xavier Coppolani 1866 - 1905 . with a foreword by Ulrich Rebstock . Ed .: Helmut Wüst. Edition Hamouda, Leipzig 2014, ISBN 978-3-940075-98-7 .
  • Louis Frèrejean: Mauritanie 1903-1911. Mémoires de randonnées et de guerre au pays des Beidanes, Karthala-CEHS, 1995.
  • Georges Coppolani: Xavier Coppolani, fils de Corse, homme d'Afrique: fondateur de la Mauritanie , Harmattan, October 2005, 212 pages, ISBN 2-7475-9289-8
  • Geneviève Désiré-Vuillemin: Mauritanie Saharienne (November 1903 to May 1904): suivi de L'opposition des traitants du Sénégal à l'action de Coppolani , L'Harmattan, September 1999, 184 pages, ISBN 2-7384-8191-4
  • Joseph Galliéni: Rapport d'ensemble sur la pacification, l'organisation et la pacification de Madagascar (October 1896, March 1899) , R. Laffont, 1990, 1020 pages
  • Philippe Decraene, François Zuccarelli: Grands Sahariens, à la découverte du désert des déserts , Denoël, “L'aventure coloniale française”, 1994, 270 pages

Web links

Commons : Xavier Coppolani  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Coppolani, Xavier
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French colonial official, founder of Mauritania
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Marignana
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1905
Place of death Tidjikja