Eugène Maizan (28 September 1816 in

Montauban Montauban (, ; oc, Montalban ) is a commune in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, region of Occitania, Southern France. It is the capital of the department and lies north of Toulouse. Montauban is the most populated town in Tarn-et-Garonne, ...

– July 1845) was a French Naval

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

and

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

, possibly the first European to penetrate East Africa and the first to enter

tropical Africa Although tropical Africa is mostly familiar to the West for its rainforests, this biogeographic realm of Africa is far more diverse. While the tropics are thought of as regions with hot moist climates, which are caused by latitude and the trop ...

from

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islan ...

. In 1844-1845 Maizan reached as far as the district of Dege la Mhora, on the Uzaramo plateau about 80-150 kilometers from the coast, where he was seized by Zaramo tribesmen under Hembé, the son of Chief Mazungera, and bound to a calabash tree before being tortured, mutilated and murdered. Hembé amputated Maizan's limbs and sliced off his

genitals A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, a ...

while still alive before beheading him. Hembé later claimed to be acting on the orders of

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

ivory traders. This book mistakenly gives Maizan's year of death as 1844.

Expedition in tropical Africa

Preparation

Maizan studied at the

École Polytechnique École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

. He was appointed to the rank of lieutenant (''

enseigne de vaisseau Ensign (; Late Middle English, from Old French (), from Latin (plural)) is a junior rank of a commissioned officer in the armed forces of some countries, normally in the infantry or navy. As the junior officer in an infantry regiment was tra ...

'') by order of King

Louis Philippe I Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wa ...

on 1 January 1840. Upon returning from a campaign made in the waters of East Africa, in late 1843 Maizan conceived the project to explore the lakes of the East African interior, journeying from east to west from Zanzibar. The campaign took place in 1843 aboard the corvette '' La Dordogne'' under the command of Captain Charles Guillain. In 1844, once his mission was accepted by the relevant ministries, Eugène Maizan went to Bourbon, where he boarded the corvette '' Berceau'' commanded by Captain Joseph Romain-Desfossés. This ship went to Zanzibar to sign a treaty with

Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat and Oman Sayyid Saïd bin Sultan al-Busaidi ( ar, سعيد بن سلطان, , sw, Saïd bin Sultani) (5 June 1791 – 19 October 1856), was Sultan of Muscat and Oman, the fifth ruler of the Busaid dynasty from 1804 to 4 June 1856. His rule commenced fol ...

, and install the new

Consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

, M. Broquant. Initially, the plan was to begin the exploration of tropical Africa from Zanzibar. Maizan's program was to journey to Lake Chad, then try to find the source of the White Nile. He would then, after passing the

Niger ) , official_languages = , languages_type = National languagesSahara. The Société Orientale de France (Oriental Society of France), of which he was a member, had given him a few questions that he should strive to answer during his journey.

History

Maizan landed on

Zanzibar Island Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...

at the end of 1844."The Lake Regions of Central Equatorial Africa" (Burton), pp. 93-96. He spent more than eight months at the

Sultanate of Zanzibar The Sultanate of Zanzibar ( sw, Usultani wa Zanzibar, ar, سلطنة زنجبار , translit=Sulṭanat Zanjībār), also known as the Zanzibar Sultanate, was a state controlled by the Sultan of Zanzibar, in place between 1856 and 1964. The Su ...

in order to learn Kisawahili, during which he changed his plans and regularly increased his baggage. Maizan ultimately left the island in haste, having seen a French vessel entering the harbor and fearing that he would be recalled. He had visited the coast three times before finally landing. The Banians (who had strong commercial interests in the region) feared that the French were occupying the region, and Maizan was wrongly believed to have been sent to prepare for the arrival of the French troops. They probably used their influence to push Maizan to leave the island quickly. The Sultan offered Maizan an armed guard of forty musketeers, but Maizan declined in his haste to depart. The explorer left Zanzibar on 21 April 1845 and made landfall in

Bagamoyo Bagamoyo, is a historic coastal town founded at the end of the 18th century, though it is an extension of a much older (8th century) Swahili settlement, Kaole. It was chosen as the capital of German East Africa by the German colonial administra ...

(opposite Zanzibar). He then traveled to Dege la Mhora, accompanied only by Frédérique, a man from

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

or the Comoros, and a few other followers. Initially, Maizan had planned to take a caravan of merchants'

ivory Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals i ...

, but changed his mind given the amount of baggage. During his journey, he was warned that P'hazi Mazungera (or Mzŭngéra), the chief of the Wakamba subtribe of the Wazaramo, wanted him. To better prepare for their journey and learn about what to expect in the land, the expedition spent a few days on the coast. Maizan then decided to make a big detour to avoid the territories of the bloodthirsty leader who seemed to have bad intentions towards him. After two days of walking (to cover in a direct line a distance equal to three days of travel), Maizan stopped in the

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred ...

of Daguétamohor. It was from this village that he sent a letter to the consul of France based in Zanzibar (M. Broquant did not receive the letter until 10 August 1845), asking him to send his baggage. He entrusted this task to a servant who betrayed him and gave the location of Maizan's camp to Mazungera. The African leader came upon the French at the end of July 1845 at the village of Dege la Mhora. Maizan was initially taken in by Mazungera's false hospitality. After a few days, Mazungera accused Maizan of giving gifts to other chiefs. Frédérique was saved by Mazungera's wife, but Maizan apparently did not have the presence of mind to touch her. Manzugera, falsely believing that Maizan was carrying treasure, tortured him to find out where it was hidden. His arms were bound around a pole to which his legs and head were secured with rope. Manzugera's son Hembé cut off Maizan's limbs and genitals, then cut his throat and beheaded him, interrupting the throat-cutting to sharpen the knife in front of Maizan before killing him. This book also mistakenly gives Maizan's year of death as 1844. Frédérique subsequently disappeared from Zanzibar, and reportedly fled to Marungu on Lake Tanganyika. The French consul arranged to collect the material left by the unfortunate explorer.

After the expedition

Ordered to judge Mazungera under the French laws, the Naval Division Commander of Bourbon and

, Joseph Romain-Desfossés, made several requests to the Sultan of Muscat and Oman to capture the criminal.Guillain, p. XVIII. Not having achieved anything, Joseph Romain-Desfossés charged Charles Guillain (who then started to explore the eastern coast of Africa) to remind the Sultan of his commitment to deliver the murderer to the French authorities. The Sultan sent an army of 300-400 musketeers after Mazungera, but they discovered that he had fled. Hembé led his father's tribe into a few days of skirmishes against the Zanzibaris. The man who had beaten the drum during Maizan's killing was taken into custody and put in chains at Zanzibar, where he eventually died.Jeal, p. 67. Hembé later told

John Hanning Speke Captain John Hanning Speke (4 May 1827 – 15 September 1864) was an English explorer and officer in the British Indian Army who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa. He is most associated with the search for the source of the Nil ...

that he had killed Maizan on his father's orders. Because Mazungera held a title conferred by the Sultan, Speke, who was favorably disposed toward Africans, blamed Maizan's death on the urging of Arabs who did not want Europeans interfering with the ivory trade. Speke assumed that Hembé would have been killed if he had disobeyed.Jeal, p. 129. Famed explorer

Richard Francis Burton Sir Richard Francis Burton (; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, orientalist scholar,and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary kn ...

would later comment that the Wazaramo had greatly declined in power and importance since Maizan's death, and that "few murders have been more pregnant in their consequences than that of M. Maizan in East Africa."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maizan, Eugene 1816 births 1845 deaths Castrated people Deaths by decapitation École Polytechnique alumni Explorers of Africa French explorers French Navy officers French people murdered abroad French torture victims People from Montauban People murdered in Tanzania 1845 murders in Africa