Voulet–Chanoine Mission

The Voulet–Chanoine Mission, also called Central African-Chad Mission (), was a French military expedition sent out from Senegal in 1898 to conquer the Chad Basin and unify all French territories in West Africa. This expedition operated jointly with two other expeditions, the Foureau–Lamy and Gentil missions, which advanced from Algeria and Middle Congo respectively. The refusal of the expedition commander and his second-in-command to follow orders from France, their murder of a commanding officer and their subsequent deaths at the hands of their own soldiers cast a dark shadow over France's emerging colonial empire in Africa at the end of the 19th century.
The expedition is remembered for its descent into depravity and extreme violence, actions which today would legally be considered war crimes.

Structure and directives

The Voulet–Chanoine Mission to Lake Chad set out from Dakar in November 1898, moving through French Sudan (modern Mali). It was composed of 50 Senegalese Tirailleurs, 20 spahis (both units recruited in West Africa) and 30 interpreters, but the bulk was formed by 400 auxiliaries and 800 porters that were pressed into service. The force was directed by nine Europeans: the two commanders, the artillery expert lieutenant Paul Joalland, Lt. Louis Peteau, Marine-Lt. Marc Pallier, the medical officer Dr. Henric and three NCOs. The expedition was fully armed with artillery, machine guns, hundreds of rifles and millions of rounds of ammunition.

In command were captain Paul Voulet and his adjutant Lt. Julien Chanoine. The captain, a 32-year-old son of a doctor, was said by his officer colleagues to mix "a true love of blood and cruelty coupled with a sometimes foolish sensitivity"; while the lieutenant, son of the general and future War Minister Charles Chanoine, was judged impulsive, ruthless and "cruel out of cold-bloodedness as well as for pleasure". Both had already proved their ruthlessness and efficiency two years before, when they invaded the Mossi Kingdoms and conquered its capital Ouagadougou.

The mission was the brainchild of Voulet, who saw it as a means to further his career. He actively sought support from French politicians, which was difficult to obtain because conflicts divided and preoccupied the Minister of Colonies André Lebon and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabriel Hanotaux. The political crisis of the Dreyfus affair also consumed the attention of French politicians, making it even more difficult for Voulet to be heard. In spite of these obstacles, he successfully obtained approval for his project, with the help of his adjutant Chanoine.

The four months of delay in the start of the mission—and the very limited funds granted—had dire consequences for the future. Voulet completely ignored the local hierarchies and took liberties with the orders he received, which were anyway very vague—he was asked only to explore the territory between the Niger River and Lake Chad, and put the area "under French protection". The Minister of Colonies merely said, "I don't pretend to be able to give you any instructions on which route to choose or how you are to behave towards the native chieftains." In the opinion of the British historian G. Regan, this meant "giving ''carte blanche'' to two known psychopaths in uniform," especially as Voulet had already told the governor of French Sudan that he meant to crush any resistance by burning villages.

Division and reunion of the column

When the column reached Koulikoro, on the Niger, it divided. Chanoine led most of the expedition overland across the 600-mile bend of the river, while Voulet took the rest of the men downriver to Timbuktu, held by Lieutenant-Colonel Jean-François Klobb, who provided him with another 70 tirailleurs and 20 spahis. Chanoine had increasing difficulties finding provisions for his large column in the arid region where he marched; he started pillaging the villages on the way, and gave orders for anyone trying to escape to be shot. In addition to these troubles, a dysentery epidemic broke out. By the end of the first two months the mission had lost 148 bearers to dysentery.

Voulet and Chanoine reunited with the expedition in January at Say, the easternmost French post in Sudan (modern Niger). The column was by now 2,000 men strong, well over the number that their supplies could sustain. Even though they were in French-controlled areas, Voulet's troops started pillaging, looting, raping, and killing. Among the most brutal episodes was the sacking of the village of Sansanné-Haoussa on 8 January 1899. One hundred and one people were killed, among them thirty women and children, to set an example in retaliation for the wounding of a couple of his soldiers. When at the end of the month the mission left the Niger River to pass into the semi-desert areas extending east, their march became an endless orgy of looting and killing.

Scandal in Paris

In January, Lt. Peteau, one of the mission's officers, told Voulet that he had had enough and was leaving; Voulet countered by dismissing him on 29 January 1899 for "lack of discipline and enthusiasm." This decision eventually backfired: on 15 February Peteau wrote a letter to his fiancée that fully detailed the atrocities committed by Voulet and Chanoine that he had witnessed. Peteau's fiancée contacted her local deputy, who promptly sent her letter on to the Minister of Colonies Antoine Guillain. This brought about the decision by the Dupuy ministry on 20 April to arrest Voulet and Chanoine and send orders to the Governor-General of French Sudan, Colonel Vimard, to have them replaced at the head of the mission with the governor of Timbuktu, Klobb. Among the chief concerns of the French government was that Voulet was carrying out his depredations in Sokoto, an unconquered territory that by the Anglo-French agreement of June 1898 had been assigned to the United Kingdom.

Klobb immediately left Timbuktu, taking fifty tirailleurs and Lt. Octave Meynier as his second. Meanwhile, Voulet was meeting considerable resistance to his advance from the local queen Sarraounia, and at Lougou on 16 April he encountered his hardest battle yet, with 4 men killed and 6 wounded. Voulet took his revenge on 8 May: in one of the worst massacres in French colonial history, he slaughtered all the inhabitants of the town of Birni-N'Konni, killing possibly thousands of people.

Voulet's rebellion

Klobb followed the trail left by the " infernal column's" passage; a trail of burned villages and charred corpses. He passed trees where women had been hanged, and cooking fires where children had been roasted. He also found the corpses of the expedition's guides; those that had displeased Voulet had been strung up alive in a position that the foot went to the hyenas and the rest of the body to the vultures.

On 10 July, after a pursuit of over 2000 km, Klobb arrived at Damangara, near Zinder, where the villagers informed him that Voulet and his men were just a few hours' march ahead. He sent an African sergeant with two soldiers to give Voulet a letter informing him that he had been removed from his position and was to return home immediately; to this Voulet replied that he had 600 guns against his (Klobb's) fifty, and would use them if he dared to come near. Voulet and Chanoine were careful not to inform the other officers of Klobb's letter, and in the following days kept them occupied in raids. On July 13 he conducted his last massacre: after a villager killed two of his men, Voulet had 150 women and children slaughtered. The same evening he wrote a second letter to Klobb, in which he again told him not to try to come closer.

Klobb did not believe the other officers or the riflemen would dare to kill, or let be killed, a superior officer. He was unaware that Voulet had kept the new orders secret, and that as a precaution Voulet had made sure only himself and Chanoine would be present to receive him. Consequently, the following morning, Klobb proceeded with his men to Dankori, where Voulet waited. Upon seeing him, Voulet ordered his men to disperse and sent Klobb a last warning, which Klobb ignored.

Klobb, after telling his men not to open fire under any circumstances, in full-dress uniform and with his ''Légion d'honneur'' medal pinned on his chest, proceeded alone toward Voulet, who kept telling him to go back. To emphasise his warnings Voulet ordered two salvos fired in the air. When Klobb addressed Voulet's men, reminding them of their duties, Voulet threatened them with a pistol and ordered them to open fire. Klobb fell, wounded, still ordering his men not to return fire; but his words were truncated by a new salvo that killed Klobb, while his soldiers fled.

Voulet and Chanoine's deaths

On the evening of Klobb's assassination, Voulet informed his officers of the clash and, while stripping off his galloons, proclaimed: "I'm no longer a Frenchman, I'm a black chief. With you, I will found an empire" (''Je ne suis plus Français, je suis un chef noir. Avec vous, je vais fonder un empire''). The officers' reaction was far from enthusiastic, and their mood infected the troop. On July 16 an informer told Voulet that the troop was about to mutiny. Voulet and Chanoine assembled the riflemen, and after shooting the informer in front of the troop—for informing him too late of the impending mutiny—Voulet harangued the soldiers about their duty to obey their leaders, while at the same time shooting at them. The Senegalese returned fire, killing Chanoine, but Voulet escaped into the darkness and found refuge with some villagers. A sergeant then informed Lt. Pallier, the first French officer he found, of what had happened, and pledged the loyalty of the troop to him.

The last chapter of Voulet's rebellion was played out the following morning, when he tried to reenter the camp, but was blocked by a sentry who refused to let him pass. Voulet shot at him but missed, and the sentry killed him. Pallier, who was now in command, decided to take Zinder, then the biggest town in present-day Niger and a former vassal of the Bornu Empire

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases