Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza

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Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza (Castel Gandolfo, Jan. 26, 1852 - Dakar Sept. 14, 1905), was a French explorer, born in Italy and later naturalized Frenchman. With the backing of the Société de Géographie de Paris, he opened up for France entry along the right bank of the Congo that eventually led to French colonies in Central Africa. His easy manner and great physical charm, as well as his pacific approach among Africans, were his trademarks. Under French colonial rule Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, was named after him and the name was retained by the post-colonial rulers.

Born in Rome on 26 January 1852, Pietro Savorgnan di Brazzà was the seventh son of Count Ascanio Savorgnan di Brazzà, a nobleman of Udine with many French connections and his wife Giacinta Simonetti. Pietro was interested in exploration from an early age and won entry to the French naval school at Brest. He graduated as an ensign and sailed on the French ship Jeanne d'Arc to Algeria.

His next ship was the Venus, which stopped at Gabon regularly and in 1874 Brazza made two trips, up the Gabon River and Ogoue River (Ogowe River). He then proposed to the government that he explore the Ogoue to its source. With the help of friends in high places, including Jules Ferry and Leon Gambetta, he secured partial funding, the rest coming out of his own pocket. He also became a naturalized French citizen at this time, adopting the French spelling of his name.

In this expedition, which lasted from 1875–1878, 'armed' only with cotton textiles and tools to use for barter, and accompanied by Noel Ballay, a doctor, naturalist Alfred Marche, a sailor, thirteen Senegalese laptots and four local interpreters, Brazza charmed and talked his way deep inland.

The French authorized a second mission, 1879-1882. By following the Ogoue River upstream and proceeding overland to the Lefini River and then downstream, Brazza succeeded in reaching the Congo River in 1880 without encroaching on Portuguese claims. Stanley at Viva, He then proposed to King Makoko of the Batekes that he place his kingdom under the protection of the French flag. Makoko, interested in trade possibilities and in gaining an edge over his rivals, signed the treaty. Makoko also arranged for the establishment of a French settlement at Mfoa on the Congo's Malebo Pool, a place later known as Brazzaville; after Brazza's departure, the outpost was manned by two laptots under the command of Senegalese Sergeant Malamine Camara, whose resourcefulness had impressed Brazza during their several months trekking inland from the coast. During this trip he encountered Stanley near Vivi. Brazza did not reveal that he just signed up Makoko and it took Stanley some months before he realised that he (and his sponsor King Léopold) had been beaten in the 'race'.

In 1886, Brazza was named governor-general of the French Congo. Journalists' reports of the decent wages and humane conditions there contrasted with the personal regime of Belgian King Léopold on the opposite bank, in the Congo Free State. This, combined with the poor profitability of the new colony, made Brazza some important enemies, and a mounting smear campaign in the French press led to his dismissal in 1898.

But by 1905 stories were reaching Paris of injustice, forced labour and brutality by the Congo's new governor, Emile Gentil, in conjunction with the new concession companies imposed by the French Colonial Office and condoned by Auguoard, Catholic Bishop of the Congo. Brazza was sent to investigate, and produced a damming report in spite of many obstructions placed in his path. When his deputy Félicien Challaye brought the embarrassing report in front of the National Assembly it was suppressed and those oppressive conditions remained in the French Congo for decades... Read more

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