Fort de Possel (french: Fort-de-Possel) was a French garrison and settlement in central

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

which served as the capital of

Ubangi-Shari Ubangi-Shari (french: Oubangui-Chari) was a French colony in central Africa, a part of French Equatorial Africa. It was named after the Ubangi and Chari rivers along which it was colonised. It was established on 29 December 1903, from the U ...

from February 11 to December 11 in 1906. It lies on the northern shore of the main bend of the

Ubangi River The Ubangi River (), also spelled Oubangui, is the largest right-bank tributary of the Congo River in the region of Central Africa. It begins at the confluence of the Mbomou (mean annual discharge 1,350 m3/s) and Uele Rivers (mean annual discharge ...

at the mouth of the much smaller Kémo River. Its importance derived from the use of the Kémo in provisioning Fort Sibut and linking the Ubangi trade with

Lake Chad Lake Chad (french: Lac Tchad) is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Central Africa, which has varied in size over the centuries. According to the ''Global Resource Information Database'' of the United Nations Environment Programme, ...

.Adolf Friedrich, Duke of Mecklenburg.
From the Congo to the Niger and the Nile: An Account of the German Central African Expedition of 1910–1911
', Vol. 1, p. 20. Duckworth & Co. (London), 1913. It was gradually superseded in importance by

Bangui Bangui () (or Bangî in Sango, formerly written Bangi in English) is the capital and largest city of the Central African Republic. It was established as a French outpost in 1889 and named after its location on the northern bank of the Ubangi ...

further downstream at the head of the navigable portion of the river. The settlement was founded in 1891 by the agriculturalist

Jean Dybowski Jean Thadée Emmanuel Dybowski (18 April 1856 – 18 December 1928) was a French agronomist, naturalist and explorer of Polish heritage born in Charonne, Paris. He was the cousin of the Polish naturalists Benedykt Dybowski and Władysław Dybows ...

as Kemo (') and moved to its present site in 1899. In 1900, it was renamed for Marshal Possel-Deydier, who was killed in combat against

Rabih az-Zubayr Rabih az-Zubayr ibn Fadl Allah or Rabih Fadlallah ( ar, رابح فضل الله ,رابح الزبير ابن فضل الله), usually known as Rabah in French (c. 1842 – April 22, 1900), was a Sudanese warlord and slave trader who establish ...

at Kouno the year before. It possessed no proper fortifications whatsoever and largely consisted of a central quad surrounded by huts and official buildings. It was the site of the confinement of Adam ‘Asil, the Wadai rebel, when he was detained by the French in 1903.Houtsma, Martijn Theodoor (ed.).
Wadā’i
in the ''First Encyclopaedia of Islam 1913–1936'', p. 1076. Brill, 1987. . Accessed 30 Mar 2014. The locality at the site is now known simply as Possel, part of the commune of Galafondo, prefecture of

Kémo Kémo is one of the 16 prefectures of the Central African Republic. Its capital is Sibut. Notable people * Andrée Blouin, political activist, human rights advocate, and writer See also * Lake Chad replenishment project * Waterway A ...

in the

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR; ; , RCA; , or , ) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to the north, Sudan to the northeast, South Sudan to the southeast, the DR Congo to the south, the Republic of th ...

. Located on the bank of the Ubangi River, it is upstream from

and the Elephant and Makongué rapids, at the confluence of the Kémo River. It is also known by the name of Gigi.

References

1906 in Africa Ubangi-Shari {{CAR-geo-stub