An original Spotify podcast has just been released. “The Brazza Report” uses fiction to better tell a darker side of the history of French colonization in Equatorial Africa. Dark pan denounced in 1905 by the mission headed by Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, whose report was never made public and thus became a state secret. Among the “voices” of the podcast, Beninese singer Angélique Kidjo, Gabonese artist Ekomy N’Dong and Gaël Kamilindi, from the Comédie-Française.
On July 14, 1903, in the depths of Oubangui-Chari – now Central Africa -, two colonial officials, Georges Toqué and Fernand Gaud, “celebrate” the French National Day by blowing up a “native” at the dynamite, as they say. in prison at the time. In Paris, in January 1905, the news broke: the scandal was enormous and the press seized it. After three days of debate, delegates called for an inspection to be sent. The minister asked Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, a retired explorer, the one who allowed France to found the colony of Congo in the 1880s.
During a six-month mission with around ten employees, Savorgnan de Brazza was stunned to see that abuses against the population were the order of the day. Sadly, he passed away on the way home. “His” report was written in Paris by senior officials, who don’t distort his point too much – except by letting the French government overwhelm the private concession companies that mine rubber. The Minister of Colonies, who had given his word that the report would be published, does not do so. Two cabinet reshuffles later, around 1907, it is finally the President of the Republic who decides: the report will not come out. The state secret is there.
Found by chance
« The most important reason, remembers today Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, historian, that’s because the terms of the Berlin conference at the end of the 19th century stated that if it didn’t work for the Belgians, the French could go ahead. It was therefore very important to show that the French were perfect on the French Congo side. This report was therefore impossible to publish, in particular for the Minister of Foreign Affairs. We will talk about it until 1910. There is another article in the newspaper Humanity in 1910, who said: ” So we still don’t have this report?“And then we forgot. And then we said : « The report is lost.« Much later, we learn that only ten copies were printed: one for the minister and nine for the ministry vault.
In the 1960s, Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch prepared her state thesis. His subject ? “The Congo at the time of the great concessions, 1898-1930”. He is doing more research. In the mass of documents consulted, she finds a copy of the report – probably that of the Minister. She copies the 120 pages, uses them, quotes them and refers to them in her thesis, published in 1972. In a small circle of specialists, we now know that a copy has been found. However, public opinion is no longer interested in it. Life claims its rights, and the historian her teaching career.
Look the story in the face
It was not until the end of the 20th century that the general public became interested in colonial history in France. With the demonstration, in Paris in 1998, around the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery in 1848, then with the law passed by Christiane Taubira on May 10, 2001, recognizing trafficking in human beings and slavery as crimes against humanity, France begins to face its history, and in particular how slavery is linked to colonization. Soon an editor Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch proposed to publish the Brazza report: the 1905 text, accompanied by additions and a very critical device, appeared in 2014. Four years later, the Brazza report was transformed into a comic strip with Congo 1905, by means of Tristan thilic and Vincent Bailly.
In 2021, it is an original Spotify podcast which brings back the reality of the time through a documentary-fiction: we follow Johan Tessman, son of a white colonial administrator who brought him back to Europe and always kept the identity of his mother, black and Gabonese. After becoming an ethnologist, Johan returned to Gabon, officially to collect oral traditions. In reality, he is looking for his mother… and plunges into the reality described by the Brazza report.
“Bone” a systemic racism
Gaël Kamilindi, from the Comédie-Française, who lends his voice to Johan, did not know it ” absolutely not The Brazza report. His participation in the podcast thus made him discover a part of colonization which he knew nothing about: ” I think it’s important to be able to turn this story further, and all this racism that is still systemic today. I think it’s good to be able to take it all apart. »
Ekomy N’Dong, hip-hop artist and Pan-African activist, who plays the role of Johan’s interpreter, also appreciates the informative side of the podcast: ” What I find interesting he said, it is about finding an alternative and popular way to convey information about colonization, about which there are many fantasies and lies. At a time when we even speak of ” positive effects of colonization“It’s interesting to have documents like the Brazza report and the series built around it, which show the atrocities, but which were nevertheless the routine of the functioning of French colonization itself. »
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Angelique Kidjo is the old woman who will reveal a lot about her mother to Johan. ” What touched me explains the singer, is that, for once, we have access to documents which tell us a real part of the French colonization in Africa, and also of the women and their fights during this colonization. We don’t often talk about the resistance of Africans, whether during slavery or during colonization, but today there is hard evidence that will help me speak of colonization. I study! It is very important to be informed and to talk about things that are real, with evidence. »
“The Brazza Report”, an original Spotify podcast in five episodes, produced in collaboration with L’Officine, by Thibaud Delavigne, executive producer and author with journalist Charlie Dupiot. Director: Maya Boquet.
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