Maria Petringa
In 1905, scandalous reports of torture in France’s overseas colonies rocked Paris. Brazzà was sent to investigate. Born an Italian nobleman, Pierre Savorgnan de Brazzà had spent twenty years exploring equatorial Africa as a French naval officer. His attempts to reconcile African development and prosperity with French colonial policy had already cost him his career. Now his commitment to expose colonial abuses would cost him his life.
Already divided by the anti-Semitic currents of the Dreyfus Affair, France was about to discover the reality of its administration in central Africa. The European economy’s greed for rubber had created a hidden world of slave labor and violence, with scenes that inspired the “horror” of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.
Brazzà, A Life for Africa is the first English-language biography of a man who lived an extraordinary life. Pierre Savorgnan de Brazzà was a nobleman, a naval cadet, an explorer, a glamorous idol to 19th-century Parisians, a colonial governor, and a human rights investigator, as well as a husband, father, and friend. By turns thrilling, romantic, and tragic, Brazzà’s story blends exotic adventures with all-too-human emotions and experiences.
Born in Boston, a graduate of Harvard and the Sorbonne Nouvelle, Maria Petringa has spent her adult life in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. She has worked as a teacher and translator, and is now a non-fiction writer and art critic. She lives in Paris.
From Brazzà, A Life for Africa …
Lambarene was located in the territory of the Inenga tribe. Their king, Renoke, had signed a treaty with the French ten years earlier, and was in theory under a French protectorate. In reality, little had changed since the arrival of the first white traders. No European went beyond Lambarene until Renoke had personally accepted him as his guest. Brazzà, a newcomer and leader of other white men, would have to be evaluated carefully. King Renoke prided himself on his good judgement and his profound knowledge of the human soul. As a young man, he had been told by a shaman that his intuition, or “inner sight,” would be enhanced by the sacrifice of his “outer sight.” Without hesitation, Renoke had blinded himself with scalding water. In his kingdom of magic and mystery, it was a small price to pay for supernatural powers.
Brazzà was led to the King’s tent, where he presented the chieftain with gifts of fine fabrics. Speaking through interpreters, the two men conversed for hours. Brazzà was intrigued by the old man, who in turn came to know the explorer by the tone of his voice and by his reactions. As he observed Renoke’s authority and dignity, and heard the story of his blindness, Brazzà sensed that he was on the threshold of a new and mystical world. He watched the King’s gestures and tried to understand the unfamiliar words of the Inenga dialect. At the end of the interview, Brazzà returned to his camp, lost in thoughtful fascination at the sights and sounds of his first diplomatic encounter.
The days passed. Naturalist Alfred Marche, the only European member of the mission who had any experience in the African bush, went on ahead to the next village, checking on the availability and prices of boats, rowers, and porters. Brazzà, the quartermaster Victor Hamon, and the young doctor Noël Ballay stayed in their makeshift camp in Lambarene, writing letters and getting used to the heavy, soaking daily rains. Despite their constant fatigue, the men slept fitfully, sometimes in their uncomfortable camp beds, sometimes in hammocks slung between the enormous trees, trying to avoid the clouds of mosquitos, the armies of giant red ants, and the seemingly endless variety of monstrous insects. At first Brazzà, Hamon, and Ballay had little contact with the tribesmen, who regarded them warily and mistrustfully. The Inengas had become accustomed to white traders, but these Frenchmen seemed to want something else, and no one was quite sure what it was.
Every evening the tribe gathered around a fire for music and dancing that went on late into the night. Brazzà wandered over to see what was going on. Falling under the spell of the drumming and chanting and the agile, rhythmic movements of the brightly-painted dancers, he felt as if he had entered one of the adventure stories that had so engrossed him as a boy. Night after night he came to watch these extraordinary spectacles, and as time passed, he began to understand the symbolism and intricate meanings of each gesture, talisman, and sound.
Slowly the words of the Inenga language began to have meaning for him, and after a few weeks he could ask for food and play games with the children. For their part, the Inengas began to like this white man who spoke softly and chose to sit with them and share their meals. Meanwhile the parleys with Renoke continued. Every few days the King would send someone to bring Brazzà to him, and at each audience Brazzà offered more gifts, hoping that this would be the day Renoke would grant his approval for them to head off along the Ogoway to pursue their mission. But weeks passed without any mention of the approval. His conversations with Renoke began to seem aimless and repetitive. Brazzà felt his frustration mounting, but he tried to control his feelings. He sensed that time had a different meaning in Africa, and that this delay was another of Renoke’s tests to determine the white leader’s true character.
