Ferdinand de Béhagle
| Jean Jacques Marie Ferdinand de Béhagle | |
|---|---|
Ferdinand de Béhagle c. 1895
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| Born |
18 July 1857 Ruffec, Charente, France |
| Died | 15 October 1899 (aged 42) Dikoa, Bornu Empire |
| Nationality | French |
| Occupation | Explorer |
Jean Jacques Marie Ferdinand de Béhagle (18 July 1857 – 15 October 1899) was a French explorer of Africa. He served with the colonial service in Algeria and travelled in the Congo and Ubangi region. While attempting to find a viable land route from the Congo to the Mediterranean via Chad he was taken prisoner by Rabih az-Zubayr and hung.
Jean Jacques Marie Ferdinand de Béhagle was born in Ruffec, Charente on 18 July 1857. He became an officer of the merchant marine. He was then employed as administrator of mixed communes in Algeria. He served in Algeria from 1885 to 1891. On 15 September 1885 he married Rosine Dehoux in Bône, Algeria.
In 1892 de Béhagle was a volunteer member of the exploratory expedition organized by Casimir Maistre, François Joseph Clozel and Albert Bonnel de Mézières that followed the expedition of Paul Crampel. The mission ascended the Congo River, then the Ubangi River, and explored the divide between the Chad and Congo Basins. After his return, between 1893 and 1897 de Béhagle published a number of papers on the French colonization of Africa. He was an erudite man. De Béhagle and Paul Bourdarie (1864–1950) 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.
During the 1890s the Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr was actively expanding his power in the former Bornu Empire around Lake Chad. He built a fortress at Dikoa, to the south of Lake Chad, and attempted to obtain munitions to modernise his army from the British Royal Niger Company. The French officer Émile Gentil reached the Chari River from the Congo in 1897, and learned that Rabih az-Zubayr had been responsible for the death of Paul Crampel. Gentil signed a protectorate treaty with Gaorang, Sultan of Bagirmi to the southeast of Lake Chad.
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