Paul Bourdarie
Paul Bourdarie was a French explorer, journalist, lecturer and professor.
He became known as a specialist in colonial topics and gave lectures on subjects such as growing cotton and domesticating African elephants.
He believed in a liberal policy regarding the indigenous people of the French colonies.
Bourdarie was one of those responsible for founding the Grand Mosque of Paris.
Early years (1864–94)
Paul Bourdarie was born on 19 July 1864 in Montfaucon, Lot.In 1893 he left on a study mission in the Congo.
His report described the culture of the lime growers of Gabon, the need to establish experimental farms, and construction of a port at Pointe-Noire that would be the terminus of the railway from Brazzaville.
To avoid using porters at a time when tractors had not yet been invented he advocated domestication of African elephants.
The problems of rubber collection that he described caused the Minister of the Colonies and the Museum to import Hevea brasiliensis to Guinea, Ivory Coast and Dahomey, and Palaquium gutta to Gabon.
African Society (1894–97)
From 1894 to 1897 Bourdarie was secretary general of the Société africaine de France founded by Admiral Vallon and Doctor Verrier.In 1895 he was candidate for the Gabon-Congo delegation to the French Africa Committee, representing the colonists, and raised questions about Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza's approach to colonization.
In 1897, in La France Noire, Bourdarie acknowledged Brazza's honesty and his contribution to the French Congo colony but opposed his appointment as Commissioner General of the colony on the basis of his lack of tact and the opposition he had raised among the colonists,
In 1895 the Algerian Arab interpreter Djebari claimed that survivors from the Flatters expedition were still being held prisoner by the Tuaregs at the oasis of Taoua.
A committee of African experts was formed to examine these claims.
It included Colonel Ludovic de Polignac, who had helped to negotiate the Ghadames treaty of 1862; Jean-Marie Bayol, former Lieutenant-Governor of Dahomey; the explorers Gaston Donnet, Bernard d'Attanoux and Ferdinand de Béhagle; and Paul Bourdarie.
Bourdarie and Ferdinand de Béhagle made speeches to the Société africaine de France in which they stressed the importance of the French colonists making a military "association" with the natives for defense of the colonies.
Bourdarie prepared the Chad expedition of Ferdinand de Béhagle, who was hanged in 1899 in Dikoa by the order of Rabih az-Zubayr.
Bourdarie then undertook the repatriation of the mission of Béhagle and Albert Bonnel de Mézières.
In the course of this mission he proposed construction of railway around the Bangui rapids.
Journalist and lecturer (1897–1908)
In 1896 Bourdarie succeeded Béhagle in taking charge of the "Colonies and Protectorates" column in the newspaper La France, where he wrote a personal column "The art of colonizing."From 1896 to 1898 Bourdarie gave lecture tours on the domestication of elephants in Africa.
After a lecture tour in Belgium he was received on 25 May 1898 by Leopold II, who charged Captain Laplume to inquire on the trials of domesticating elephants undertaken at Fernan Vaz by the Fathers of the Holy Spirit.
In 1904–1905 he talked in the French textile industry centers on establishing cotton cultivation in Africa.
In 1906 Bourdarie founded the Revue indigène to promote a liberal policy for treatment of indigenous people.
The Revue indigène: Organe des intérêts des ineligènes aux colonies et pays de protectorat was published in Paris from 1906 to 1932 under his direction.
It advocated respect for the institutions and authorities of the colonized societies, gradual modernization at their own pace through collaboration between traditional elites and the colonial authorities, with progressive granting of political rights including the vote and French citizenship, while letting the colonized peoples retain their traditional laws, customs and culture.
The periodical was read by many North African Muslims.
Professor (1908–20)
In 1908 Bourdarie was appointed professor at the Collège libre des sciences sociales under the direction of Ernest Delbet.Until 1914 he taught courses on the history and sociology of French Equatorial Africa.
In 1909 Bourdarie and Professor Paul Pellet of the École des Sciences Politiques founded the Souvenir colonial français to create bronze plates that marked the deeds of the French overseas.
In 1910 he made a trip to Tunisia, where the Revue indigène was read by many of the Tunisians as an alternative to the propaganda of the colons.
From 1914 to 1920 he lectured on current events, politics and "the colonial lessons of war".
In 1915 Bourdarie originated the project to found the Grand Mosque of Paris with an associated Muslim Institute.
At the invitation of the Resident General he made a trip to Morocco in 1916 and visited Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakesh, Fez, Taza, Mazagan and Safi.
Other activities (1919–50)
Bourdarie was general delegate of the Association cotonnière coloniale from 1917 to 1921.In 1919 he was chairman of the League of Nations Division for Colonial and Foreign Affairs and supported the independence of Azerbaijan and Georgia from Russia.
In 1920 Bourdarie was appointed to the Conseil supérieur des Colonies.
At this time Bourdarie, Governor Alfred Albert Martineau and Maurice Delafosse began the process of creating the Académie des sciences coloniales, now the Académie des sciences d’outre-mer.
On 8 July 1922 he was appointed permanent secretary of the Academy.
In 1928 Bourdarie was decorated as Officer of Public Instruction.
In 1929 he was appointed to the Transaharian Railway Study Committee.
In 1930 he was a member of the Higher Council of the Exposition coloniale internationale.
In 1938 he was appointed to the Upper Scientific Committee of the French Institute of Black Africa.
In 1939 Bourdarie was awarded the grand prize of the Académie française.
During World War II Bourdarie continued the work of the Académie des sciences coloniales in 1939–40, moved to his house at Veyrac when the Germans advanced, then returned to Paris.
In 1943, at the age of 79, he resigned from his position as permanent secretary of the Academy and returned to Veyrac, where he lived until his death on 21 February 1950.