French Equatorial Africa

FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA, the common name for the Gabun, Middle Congo, Ubangi-Shari and Chad colonies. The combined area of these colonies is approximately 912,049 sq.m. ; the population (official estimates, , natives and 4,661 Europeans, of whom the majority were French.

Stretching across two-thirds of the width of Africa these colo nies extend from the Lower Guinea coast, eastward to the Congo Nile watershed and northward to Lake Chad and the central Sahara. No part of French Equatorial Africa lies south of the Congo river; for the greater part the southern frontier, separat ing it from the Belgian Congo colony, is the middle stretch of the Congo and the northern banks of the Ubangi and Mboma (the great northern affluents of the Congo). On the east, French Equa torial Africa adjoins the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan; on the north the hinterland of the Italian colonies of Tripolitania and Cyre naica; north-west it is conterminous with French \Vest Africa. On the west, north of the Gabun, it is bordered by Spanish Guinea and the Cameroons. The south-east part of the Cameroons comes within 13o m. of the Ubangi, so that French Equatorial Africa consists of two large areas joined by a comparatively narrow strip of land. As, since 1919, the Cameroons have been under French mandate (save for an area adjoining Nigeria), this con striction causes no difficulty.

Physical Features.

The country falls into divisions corre sponding, roughly, to its river systems, of which there are three. These are: (I) The rivers which flow into the Atlantic; (2) those belonging to the Congo basin, and (3) those to the inland basin of Lake Chad. The coast extends from I° N. to 5° S. At the northern end is Corisco bay, and not far south of that bay is the deep indentation of the Gabun (a large estuary fed, however, by unimportant rivers). Still further south is Cape Lopez, at the delta of the Ogowe. Near the southern border are the roadstead of Loango and Pointe Noire. Behind the coast plains the Crystal and other mountains, with heights of 3,00o to 4,500 ft., form the western edge of a tableland, part of the plateau which covers the greater part of inner Africa. In the west and north-west this plateau has a general elevation of from 1,500 to 2,800 feet. Fur ther east it marks the northern limit of the Congo basin; and, where it bounds the valley of the Ubangi, is undulating land i,000 to 2,000 ft. high, falling rather steeply to the north towards Lake Chad. In the north-east a hilly region separates Wadai from the Nile basin.

The chief rivers flowing to the Atlantic are the Ogowe (q.v.), navigable from its mouth for some 25o m., the Nyanga (12o m. long), and the meandering Kwila (32o m. long). All these rivers are in the Gabun colony. Of rivers belonging to the Congo system are the Sanga—navigable for over 30o m. from its confluence with the Congo—smaller streams which also flow direct into the Congo and various tributaries and sub-tributaries of the Ubangi. The many rivers of the Chad basin in French Equatorial Africa join the Shari (q.v.) before reaching the lake.

Primeval forest, with trees 15o to 200 ft. high, covers a great part of the Gabun, Middle Congo and Ubangi regions. In the Gabun, besides dense forests, are open lagoons, mangrove swamps, park-like stretches, grass-covered prairies and patches of cultiva tion. The rivers, as they descend from the plateau in rapids and cataracts, form deep and often narrow valleys. By none of them is there any navigable route to the higher ground. The plateau, scored in the west by rivers going north to Lake Chad and south to the Congo, as well as west to the Atlantic, is in parts barren, but for the most part the apparently interminable forest continues. As the great rivers are in flood nearly half the year, and various channels connect the Sanga and the Ubangi, the valleys present a picture of forest and swamp. The Ubangi-Shari plateau is largely savannah land; the dividing line between the southern forests and the open country being, roughly, 7° N. lat. About 14° N. is "the strip of herbage strown that just divides the desert from the sown" and this gives place to sand dunes and sandy wastes where wind erosion has carved the rocks into fantastic shapes. Borku and Ennedi are typical Saharan regions, and alto gether fully 140,000 sq.m. of the Chad colony are pure desert, with here and there small oases. The contrast between these regions and the almost impenetrable forests of the south is complete.

Geology.

The geological formations are imperfectly known. The coast zone, covered with alluvium and superficial deposits is underlain by Tertiary and Cretaceous rocks; the Crystal moun tains zone is composed of granite, metamorphic and ancient sedi ments ; the plateau of the Congo basin is occupied by Karroo sandstones. These plateau sandstones lie horizontally—a lower red sandstone group and an upper white sandstone group; alluvial deposits cover considerable areas. A superficial iron-cemented sandstone, erroneously termed laterite, covers a large part of the littoral zone, the flanks of the mountains and the high plateau. Copper deposits are found in the Crystal mountains. The north ern zone has great plains of lacustrine origin (indicating the former extent of Lake Chad) from which rise hills and ridges of older rocks. East of this region of recent deposits is a sandstone plateau, from which again granitic rocks emerge.

Climate.

Over the greater part of French Equatorial Africa temperature is high and the air moist throughout the year. In the Gabun and Middle Congo the mean annual rainfall is from about 8o to nearly too in., being greater in the north than in the south; the heaviest rainfall is between September and December, when the sun is moving southward ; as the sun moves northward there is a second rainy season, from mid-February to mid-May. But there is no month without rain. The average temperature at Libreville, on the Gabun estuary, is 79° F, with a very limited range (75° F to 8o° F). It is somewhat cooler on the plateau. At Brazzaville, on Stanley Pool, the mean temperature is about F.

In Ubangi-Shari there are only one wet and one dry season in the year, the wet season—which comes when the sun is in the north—lasting from May to October. In the south the average rainfall is about 7o in., decreasing in the north to 5o and 4o inches. Here November–February inclusive are often rainless. Tempera ture increases from south to north, but is uniformly high, the monthly mean varying from 74° F to 83° F. In the Chad colony the air is dry and the heat great, rising to an average of 9o° F in May and June. Here the variation in temperature between night and day is marked. There is only one wet season—July, August and September.

Flora and Fauna.

The forests contain many species of trees growing side by side. The tree most used for export is okume, a kind of light mahogany ; there are also the true mahogany, ebony and walnut trees. The wood of the silk-cotton and tulip trees is also exported. The silk-cotton and the baobab, the screw-pines and palms are all characteristic forest trees. Of palms, there are in the forest region the raphai, a fan-palm (Hypanae guineensis), the oil palm, and the Attalea f uni f era from which piassava fibre is obtained. "Wild" rubber trees (funtumea) are abundant in the forests, as are also rubber vines and other lianas, which twine round the undergrowth in an altogether baffling manner. Along the rivers, papyrus grows to a height sometimes of 20 ft.; and by the banks of the streams are the cottony Hibiscus tiliaceus and fragrant jasmines. The kola nut tree is common in various regions as is also the gum-copal. In Ubangi-Shari are species of wild coffee trees, and here also the cotton plant grows wild, as also in Chad colony. Negro-pepper, a variety of capsicum, and ginger are found, and among fruit trees are the mango and the papaw, tile orange and the lemon. The date palm grows freely in the northern regions. The natives in the southern regions cultivate maize, manioc, bananas and sweet potatoes; in the north millet is the staple food of the people.

The fauna of the forest belt is notable for the gorilla (first found in the Gabun by Paul du Chaillu in 1856), chimpanzees and many varieties of monkeys, some with startling coloration. Elephants are still numerous, as are leopards, especially the forest leopard. The lion is not so common and does not inhabit the dense forest. The spotted hyena is found in the north-easterly regions. The golden cat (many varieties), lemurs and galago, forest pigs, the wild dog and a giant squirrel are all met with. There are red buffaloes, the rare okapi; various species of antelope and, in the north, gazelles. Hippopotami and crocodiles abound in the rivers. The snakes are very numerous. They include the cobra, python, puff-adder and several species of viper. Insects are in numerable and include disease-carrying mosquitoes, the tsetse fly, ants, termites, fireflies and sandflies. The mason wasp (and other wasps) and bees are common in many regions. There are birds in infinite variety, from the ostrich (in the north) to the dwarfish Alcedo cristata.

Inhabitants.

The great majority of the natives are negroes; in the south speaking Bantu, in the north Sudanese. Among the forest tribes are the Okande, the Fiot and the Fang—all found in the Gabun. The Bateka and the Banda dwell further east, and the Zandeh (Niam Niam) live toward the Nile watershed. The Sara cover a wide area in the middle Shari region ; by Lake Chad are tribes of mixed negroid and Semitic strains, as well as Arabs proper and Hausa and Fula immigrants from West Africa. There are also (in Chad colony) Tibbu, probably a negro-Berber mix ture. Pigmy tribes are found in the forests—it was in 1865, in the middle Ogowe country, that Paul du Chaillu definitely proved the existence of these dwarfish people. The northern tribes are Mohammedans, and had organized states and a fair degree of culture. The Fang and the Zandeh were cannibals.

Neither the dense forests nor the semi-arid regions in the north favour a large population; the country is, indeed, even for Africa, very sparsely inhabited, and up to 1921, at least, the population tended to decrease. This was due to the poor stamina of many of the forest tribes, among whom malaria, dysentery, leprosy, sleeping sickness and other serious scourges are rife. The demands for labour for Europeans also told heavily upon them. The French administration devoted much attention to hygiene, and to seeing that natives were not taken to labour for whites at a time when they had to attend to their own affairs, such as getting in their harvest. These measures met with some success, and the 1926 census showed a slight upward trend in numbers.

Towns.

The largest town and the seat of government is Brazzaville (pop. 40,00o) on Stanley Pool. The ports are Libre ville (pop. 20,000) on the Gabun estuary, Port Gentil (Cape Lopez), at the mouth of the Ogowe, the roadstead of Loango and Pointe Noire, the last named developed since 1925 as the ocean terminus of a railway to Brazzaville. Other centres are Bangui on the Ubangi and Fort Lamy (pop. io,000) on the lower Shari. The natives have few large towns; the largest is Abeshr, the capital of Wadai.

Economic Conditions.

For a considerable period the ener gies of the French were given mainly to the acquisition of terri tory and the establishment of authority, and this delayed serious efforts at economic development. In 1899 the French Govern ment, despite the opposition of the local authorities, introduced the concession system, allotting a huge area to various companies, and giving them the sole right for 3o years to the natural products of the territory. The companies helped to make known the riches of the country and developed transport on the rivers, but the system worked badly, and from 1910 onward the administration restricted the area and powers of the concession companies, and by 192o the concession system was moribund, while the activity of private traders increased. A serious obstacle to development was the small number and backward character of the natives of the forest belt ; a still greater obstacle was the lack of an outlet to the sea for all regions except the Gabun. There are in all over 1,200 m. of navigable waters on the Congo, Ubangi, Sanga and Shari rivers within French Equatorial Africa, but the cataract region of the Lower Congo prevents access by water to the Atlan tic. Road transport was excessively costly, but after 1898, when the railway from Leopoldville, on Stanley Pool, to Matadi was completed by the Congo Free State, the French took advantage of that route as far as possible—schemes for building a railway of their own from Stanley Pool to the Atlantic were propounded, but nothing was done. Thus, apart from timber from the Gabun, only goods which could afford to pay high transport rates were exported. In the early days these exports were "wild" rubber and ivory. In 1905, after 20 years occupation of the Middle Congo the total external trade was valued at £85o,000 (annual exports and imports nearly equal). By 1913 the value had risen to £2,320,000. During the World War trade almost ceased and re covery was slow. In 1926 the figures were, in francs, exports 104 million; imports 164 million; roughly (taking a mean rate of exchange), about the value of trade in 1913.

Post-war exports were timber—everyone, white and black, on the Ogowe, lives upon and thinks and dreams of timber—palm kernels and palm oil, and cocoa (a growing industry). "Wild" rubber has been supplanted by plantation rubber, grown else where than in French Equatorial Africa. The imports are miscel laneous, cotton goods figuring largely. Of internal trade no figures are available; the Chad colony has a developing trade in live stock and ostrich feathers. A small caravan trade exists between Wadai and Kuf ra ; in the east, after 1915, trade with Darfur developed, and in the north-west there was some trade between the districts adjoining Lake Chad and Nigeria.

At length, in 1921, the building of a line on a gauge of i.o6 metres and some 34o m. long, to connect Pointe Noire with Brazzaville was begun, together with harbour works at Pointe Noire, though it was not till 1925 that the work was seriously taken in hand. In 1927 the line was open to Minduli (75 m.), and completed in 193o. This line replaced a Decauville line, built 1908-11 by the company which owns the copper mines.

The financial position of French Equatorial Africa may be gauged from the increase in the general budget—services com mon to all colonies—from 4,200,000 fr. in 1919 to 28,5 5o,00o in 1926. In the last named year the public debt was 492,000,000 francs. Of this amount 300,000,00o francs was authorized in Sept. 1926 for public works, an indication that a more rapid development of the riches of the country might be expected.

French interest in equatorial Africa began with settlements on the Gabun estuary. It was not until after H. M. Stanley's dis covery (1876-77) of the course of the Congo that the ambition arose to extend French influence far inland ; later, efforts to acquire a footing in the Upper Nile basin led to the occupation of another large area, stretching to the frontier of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The ports of the Gabun had been centres of the slave trade and, to a lesser degree, of other commerce, and various European firms had factories on the coast. No rights of sovereignty were, however, acquired by any European Power. In 1839 Captain (afterwards Admiral) Bouet-Willaumez obtained for France the right of residence on the south bank of the Gabun estuary, and in 1842 he secured better positions on the north bank. The pri mary object of the French settlement was to secure a port where in men-of-war could revictual. The chief establishment, Libre ville, was founded in 1849, with negroes taken from a slave ship. The settlement grew, Cape Lopez was ceded to France in 1862, and the colony's coast-line extended, nominally, to a length of 200 miles. In consequence of the Franco-Prussian War, the colony was practically abandoned in 1871, Libreville being maintained as a coaling depot merely. In 1875, however, France again turned her attention to the Gabun estuary, the hinterland of which had already been partly explored by Paul du Chaillu and an Eng lish merchant named Walker. In 1872-73 Alfred Marche, a French naturalist, and the marquis de Compiegne' explored a por tion of the Ogowe basin, but it was not until the expedition of 1875-78 that the country east of the Ogowe was reached. This expedition, which was led by Savorgnan de Brazza (q.v.) ascended the Ogowe over 400m., and beyond the basin of that stream dis covered the Alima, which was, though the explorers were ignorant of the fact, a tributary of the Congo. Returning to Europe, de Brazza learned that H. M. Stanley had revealed the mystery of the Congo, and in his next journey, begun Dec. 1879, de Brazza found a way to the Congo above the rapids via the Ogowe. In Sept. 1880 he reached Stanley Pool, on the north side of which Brazzaville was subsequently founded. Returning to the Gabun by the lower Congo, de Brazza met Stanley. Both explorers were nominally in the service of the International African Association (which became the Congo Free State), but de Brazza in reality acted solely in the interests of France and concluded treaties with Makoko, "king of the Batekas," and other chieftains, placing very large areas under the protection of that country. The conflicting claims of the Congo Free State and France in the Stanley Pool and lower Congo regions were adjusted by a convention signed in Feb. 1885.

The Marchand Expedition.

Much energy was shown in the establishment of posts on the Ubangi river and elsewhere and disputes arose with the Congo Free State, which was pushing north and east in territory claimed by France. Both France and the Congo State had their eyes on the Upper Nile basin; finally in Aug. 1894 an agreement was reluctantly signed by the Congo State conceding the French claims. This left the road to the Nile open to the French. The story of these international rivalries is told in the article AFRICA : History. Here it need only be recalled that the Marchand expedition, despatched to the support of Victor Liotard, the lieutenant-governor of the upper Ubangi, reached Tambura in July 1897 and Fashoda in July 1898. Great Britain at once raised objections to the presence of a French force on the Nile, and it was decided that the expedition should evacuate Fash oda. The declaration of March 21, 1899, ended the dispute and fixed the eastern frontier of the French colony except for a region on the borders of Wadai and Darfur. This area was finally divided (1919), and in 1923 the frontier was demarcated.

Besides expanding eastwards the authority of France was ex tended northwards to Lake Chad, and over the countries of the central Sudan between Lake Chad and Darfur and, lastly, north again, the French occupied Tibesti and other Saharan regions. Here French territory adjoins the backland of the Italian colonies of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. Reaching out to Lake Chad the French had to meet the rivalry of Germany, which country desired 'Louis Eugene Henri Dupont, marquis de Compiegne (1846-77) , on his return from the West coast replaced Georg Schweinfurth at Cairo as president of the geographical commission. Arising out of this cir cumstance de Compiegne was killed in a duel by a German named Mayer.

a share of the Chad region for its Cameroons protectorate. In the end Germany obtained part of the south shore of the lake. (For the French conquests between Chad and the Nile basin see