Albert Félix Dubois | |
|---|---|
 Félix Dubois inTimbuktu in 1907 | |
| Born | (1862-09-16)16 September 1862 Dresden, Saxony |
| Died | 1 June 1945(1945-06-01) (aged 82) Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, explorer |
| Known for | Timbuctoo: the mysterious |
Albert Félix Dubois (16 September 1862 – 1 June 1945) was a French journalist, explorer and entrepreneur who is best known for his books about his travels inFrench West Africa.
Dubois was the son of a well-known chef who had written a number of popular cookery books. He began his career as the European correspondent inBerlin andVienna for several French newspapers. In 1890 he went toGuinea to report on an exploratory expedition. He later wrote reports on Palestine and on anarchism. In 1894 he was one of the reporters sent to the newly occupied city ofTimbuktu. His experiences were described in a popular book in 1896. He was sent to report on another expedition in West Africa in 1897, but left in disgust due to the brutality of the commander, who was killed shortly after. In 1898 Dubois conceived the idea of launching the first general freight company to use trucks, avoiding the need for porters in theFrench Sudan and also turning a profit. The venture ran into many difficulties and collapsed in 1900.
Dubois spent several years in Paris before embarking on another expedition in 1907, this time crossing theSahara from north to south. He found relics of ancient civilizations in theHoggar Mountains of southernFrench Algeria, but was unable to take the time to explore them properly. After marrying an heiress with whom he had five children, he embarked on unsuccessful business ventures in Siberia, the Altai and Alberta, Canada. He wrote several books about his travels.
Dubois was born on 16 September 1862 inDresden, Saxony. His father,Urbain Dubois, was a famous chef from Provence. His mother, Marie Virginie Boder, was fromNeuchâtel in Switzerland. His father returned to France when theFranco-Prussian War started in 1870. Felix and his younger brother Ernest studied at the college ofMelun from 1873 to 1880, and then at the School of Commerce in Paris from 1880 to 1882. Felix then spent one year of military service atDreux before becoming a journalist.[1]
His father's connections made him welcome in Berlin and Vienna, where he became correspondent for several French journals, includingLe Soleil,La France,Le Gaulois andLe Petit Marseillais. In 1890L'Illustration asked him to accompany and report on the expedition led byHenri Brosselard-Faidherbe to explore Guinea and the sources of theNiger River. The expedition established the route of a railway line from theMellacorée River toKankan, and defined the border between the new colony ofFrench Guinea and the British colony ofSierra Leone.Dubois's report appeared inL'Illustration in 1892.[1] He then undertook a journey to Palestine forLe Figaro, which he described in an article onNöel en Bethléem (Christmas in Bethlehem). In 1894 he publishedLe péril anarchiste (The Anarchist Peril), a work that was not entirely serious.[2]
French forces led byJoseph Joffre enteredTimbuktu on 12 February 1894.L'illustration sent two senior reporters, Dubois andJules Huret. Dubois reachedDakar in October 1894, and traveled by railway, then by steam boat, by land, and by boat on the Niger toKabara, the port for Timbuktu.[3]On the way, he metErnest Noirot, the administrator of theSine-Saloum circle in Senegal. He admired Noirot's approach to administering Sine-Saloum, and particularly his schools, providing elementary French education, introducing new crops (maize, vegetables and European berries), introducing the students and their parents to the use of the plow. Dubois described Noirot as a modest secular missionary.[4] Dubois thought that theFula people of Senegal had been driven fromAdrar, to the north, by the Moors, who had in turn been driven from Spain.[5]
Further east, Dubois found theSonghai people nearDjenné quite different ethnically from others in the region.[6] They told him they had originally come from the east, and Dubois decided from his research that they might have come fromYemen.[7] Dubois found similarities between the houses in Djenné and the tombs of Ancient Egypt, and visual similarities between the Songhai andNubian people, and speculated that the town could also have originally been an Upper Egyptian colony.[8]On the other hand, he wrote of these people:
A wonderful impulse was imparted to this country in the sixteenth century, and a marvellous civilisation appeared in the very heart of the black continent. This civilisation was not imposed by circumstances and force, as is so often the case, even in our own countries, but was spontaneously desired, evoked, and propagated by a man of the negro races. Unfortunately, its fairest promises were never fulfilled, owing, not so much to the native successors, as to the civilised (some say white) peoples who ruthlessly destroyed all this good seed, and caused the tares of barbarism to sprout anew.[9]
Dubois spent several weeks in Timbuktu making notes and taking photographs. These formed the basis for his 1897 bookTombouctou la Mystérieuse (Timbuctoo: the mysterious).[3] He admitted that Timbuktu lacked impressive buildings, but put this down to lack of suitable materials. He went on, "Unable, therefore, to develop the sensuous arts, Timbuctoo reserved all her strength for the intellectual, and here her dominion was supreme."[10][11] He described a "University of Sankore" in Timbuktu.[a]Talking of an earlier period in the history of the town, he says,
The scholars of Timbuctoo yielded in nothing, to the saints and their miracles. During their sojourns in the foreign universities of Fez, Tunis and Cairo, 'they astonished the most learned men of Islam by their erudition.' That these negroes were on a level with the Arabian savants is proved by the fact that they were installed as professors in Morocco and Egypt. In contrast to this, we find that the Arabs were not always equal to the requirements of Sankoré.[13]
In 1897 Dubois was recruited by the French colonial authorities to accompany a military expedition under CaptainMarius Gabriel Cazemajou to reach Chad before the British. In his race against time Cazamajou drove the porters ruthlessly and shot those who tried to escape. Dubois fell out with Cazamajou over these methods and left the expedition atSay.[3] A few weeks later Cazamajou was killed atZinder. Dubois travelled home viaDahomey, reaching France in 1898.[3]
In the fall of 1898 Dubois attended an exhibition of cars and bicycles which gave him the idea of introducing motorized wagons into theFrench Sudan in place of porters. A private company with good connections with the colonial authorities could make a profit while helping the people of the region. He obtained financial backing to explore the concept further and launched "Dubois et Cie" for this purpose.[14] On 16 December 1898 the first truck was landed atKayes in a ceremony attended by the governor ColonelEdgard de Trentinian.[14]
Trials showed that the state of the roads was the key factor in making a success of the enterprise. With agreement from Trentinian that the roads could be maintained, Dubois returned to France to raise further support and funds. He founded the SOUDAUTO company with 100,000 francs of his own and with total capital of 1,200,000 francs. The colony would maintain the road betweenToukoto andBamako at its own expense, while the company would provide 85 trucks.[14] The total distance between Kayes and Bamako was 400 kilometres (250 mi).[15] The service would commence no later than March 1900. Dubois promised that the investors would receive a good return.[14]
When he returned to Sudan with the first vehicles, Dubois found many problems. Trentinian had been removed from office, the local authorities were hostile to the enterprise, the European staff and Chinese drivers were incompetent and became ill, the roads had deteriorated from overuse and poor maintenance, and there was an epidemic ofyellow fever.[14] Despite all this, Dubois managed to deploy 55 vehicles with fuel drums, and made a symbolic journey fromKati toBamako on 1 January 1900 that was widely reported in the international press.[16] This enterprise was the first in which trucks were used to haul general freight. His vehicles wereDe Dietrich 9.5 horsepower wagons with gasoline engines, built atLunéville, France.[15]
Sand from the unpaved road penetrated the working parts, which soon ground to a halt.[15]The company collapsed. Its property in the Sudan was seized and court cases dragged out while the vehicles stood idle. The failure was finally resolved in December 1913.[17] Dubois lost all his money but retained his reputation, and in 1900 was special commissioner for the French Sudan at theExposition Universelle.[17] His father died in 1901. Dubois inherited some of the royalty rights to his father's books, and made fairly profitable investments with the capital.For the next few years he was able to live comfortably and take part in the social life of Paris.[17]
In 1907, at the age of 45, Dubois was assigned another official mission in Africa, to cross the Sahara without escort from Algeria to the Sudan.[17] The expedition was supported by various government departments as well as theComité de l’Afrique française, theSociété de Géographie and theSociété de Géographie commerciale. Dubois was to study the people of the Sahara, the conditions of the region and the possibility of establishing regular commercial contacts between Algeria and Sudan.[18]His camel party leftBiskra on 9 April 1907 and traveled to theGrand Erg Occidental. He met GeneralFrançois-Henry Laperrine inTaghouzi, reachedAdrar inTuat on 11 June 1907, and reached theIn Salah oasis on 29 July. In October 1907 he met FatherCharles de Foucauld atTamanrasset in southern Algeria.[18]
Dubois made a series of archaeological finds in theHoggar Mountains of southern Algeria near Tamanrasset. These included the first known drawing of a chariot in the region, funerary monuments and rock art.He did not publish the work, which was unknown until recently.[18]He was fascinated by his findings of traces of ancient civilization, and dreamed of returning with a better equipped expedition to undertake a more careful and focused study of the topography, archaeology and ethnography of the region.[19]
From the Hoggar Mountains Dubois's route took him south toGao, then west to Timbuktu, which was now a quiet colonial town, and from there up the Niger toKoulikoro and then by train to Kayes. His last bookNotre beau Niger (1911) celebrated the social and economic benefits that the French colonial rule had brought to West Africa.[17] In his view, the French had done better than other colonialists in Africa because they were averse to color prejudice.[20] Dubois felt that the railway and benefits of French administration would help the Sudan recover its former glory.[21]Notre Beau Niger was perhaps over-enthusiastic, designed to raise interest in the colony within France. His account of his travel in the desert,L'enigme du Sahara, was advertised as due to appear afterNotre Beau Niger.[22] It was never published.
On his return to France, on 24 March 1908 Dubois married Louise Tribert, 30-year-old daughter of SenatorLouis Tribert (1819–1899). They were to have five children. His wife's dowry allowed Dubois to pursue further ventures.[23] In January 1913 he launched a company with a capital of 6 million gold roubles to exploit the resources of theKuznetsk Basin in Siberia.[24] He also became involved in diamond mines in theAltai. Long after therevolution of 1917 swept the Tsars from power, Dubois entertained hopes of recovering these investments. DuringWorld War I he traveled to Canada, where he became interested in theAlberta oilfields, and continued to invest in this area until at least 1925, again losing his money.[24]
His wife died in 1933. Félix Dubois died on 1 June 1945 at the age of 83. He was cremated in a private ceremony atPère Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.[25]
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