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47-415: Henri Brosselard-Faidherbe (1855–1893) was a French military officer and explorer. Henri François Brosselard was born on 3 June 1855. On 30 October 1883 he married Mathilde-Marie Faidherbe, the daughter of General Louis Faidherbe . He was permitted to attach the surname of his father-in-law to his own. Brosselard was a member of the first expedition of Colonel Paul Flatters to explore a possible route for

94-695: A hosier , and his wife, Sophie Monnier. His father died in 1826 when he was seven and he was brought up by his mother. In primary school, he displayed a talent for drawing and mathematics . He was a hard-working student and later received his military education at the École Polytechnique and then at the École d'Application in Metz . From 1843 to 1847 he served in Algeria , then for one year in Guadeloupe , and again from 1849 to 1852 in Algeria. In 1852 he

141-692: A Muslim who has successfully made the Hajj to Mecca , precedes Omar Tall's name in many texts, especially those in Arabic. Later he also took on the honorifics Amir al-Mu'minin , Khalifa , Qutb (pole of the universe), vizier of the Mahdi , Khalifat Khatim al-Awliya (successor of the seal of saints), and Almami (Imam). Omar Tall was born about 1794 in Halwar in the Imamate of Futa Toro (present-day Senegal ),

188-519: A Trans-Saharan railway. Later he wrote a book on this and the second expedition, which ended in disaster. He died on 19 August 1893 in Coutances , Manche at the age of 38. This article about an explorer is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Louis Faidherbe Faidherbe was born into a lower-middle-class family in Lille . He was the fifth child of Louis César Joseph Faidherde,

235-461: A member of the departmental Council of Nord for the canton of Lille center. Between October 1871 and May 1872 Faidherbe undertook a scientific mission to Upper Egypt , where he studied the monuments and inscriptions. On the same trip he visited Jerusalem and Italy. He ran for election to the senate in Nord as a republican on 30 January 1876 but was defeated. Faidherbe was elected on 5 January 1879 to

282-716: A popular tourist destination. He conquered Bambouk , then seized Nioro du Sahel , the capital of Kaarta , in April 1855, which became his capital. Next, Omar Tall turned west towards Futa Toro , Gajaaga and Bundu . This brought him into conflict with the French who were attempting to establish their commercial supremacy along the Senegal river . Tall besieged the French colonial army at Medina Fort . The siege failed on July 18 1857 when Louis Faidherbe , French governor of Senegal, arrived with relief forces. In 1860 Omar Tall made

329-635: A strip of coast. Explorers had, however, made known the riches and possibilities of the Niger regions, and Faidherbe formed the design of adding those countries to the French dominions . He even dreamed of creating a French African empire stretching from Senegal to the Red Sea . Faidherbe's actions were not of his own creation, but were an implementation of "The Plan of 1854": a series of ministerial orders given to Governor Protet that originated in petitions from

376-402: A transcendental personal authority. He denied the importance of adherence to a madhhab and favoured ijtihad or personal religious judgment. He taught that a believer should follow the guidance of a Sufi shaykh who has immediate personal knowledge of the divine truth. Even though Omar Tall never took the title of either mujaddid or Mahdi , he was regarded as such by his followers. He became

423-551: A treaty with the French that recognized his, and his followers', sphere of influence in Futa Toro and assigned them the Bambara states of Kaarta and Segu . Prevented from expanding in the west by the French, Omar Tall turned East. He conquered the important Bambara cities of Nyamina and Sansanding , followed by Ségou on 10 March 1860. When Segu fell, their king, Ali Diara (Bina Ali), fled to Hamdullahi taking with him

470-517: A yearly payment. Soon, however, Tall's continued stockpiling of weapons began to worry the Tamba leaders as well. After a series of emissaries to Tall were rebuffed, and one prominent griot even converted to Islam, Yambi pre-emptively attacked the community but was defeated in September 1852. With his victory in Tamba, Tall proclaimed a jihad against pagans, lapsed Muslims, European intruders, and

517-436: Is now Senegal , Mauritania , Guinea and Mali . Omar Tall’s name is spelt variously: in particular, his first name is commonly transliterated in French as Omar , although some sources prefer Umar ; the patronymic , ibn Saʿīd , is often omitted; and the final element of his name, Tall (Arabic: طعل ), is spelt variously as Tall , Taal or Tal . The honorific El Hadj (also al-Hajj or el-Hadj ), reserved for

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564-676: The Government of National Defence . Faidherbe quickly proved himself to be the most able of the generals fighting Prussian forces in the French provinces, and won several small victories against the Prussian First Army at the towns of Ham , Hallue , and Pont-Noyelles . Despite his military skills, Faidherbe was never able to form an army strong enough to seriously worry the Prussians, as his army, composed of raw recruits, suffered immense supply difficulties and low morale in

611-579: The Torodbe ideal of religious revival and conquest of pagans. Omar Tall's message appealed to a large cross-section of the Sahelian population in the mid-19th century, including Fula , Soninke , Moors, and others. Many lower-class people had grievances against local religious or military elites. Slaves aspired to gain freedom fighting for Islam. Rootless individuals of mixed ethnic backgrounds found new social identities and opportunities. Communities under

658-605: The French possessions into touch with the Niger. He also brought into subjection the country lying between the Senegal river and Gambia . At the Battle of Logandème (18 May 1859), Faidherbe launched war against the Serer people of Sine, during the reign of Maad a Sinig Kumba Ndoffene Famak Joof (King of Sine). After his victory, he gave the order for Fatick (one of the provinces of Sine) and its surrounding villages to be burned to

705-894: The Masina lands led by Ba Lobbo , cousin of executed Masina monarch Amadu III . In suppressing the revolt during the spring of 1863, Omar Tall reoccupied the city of Hamdullahi, and in June Ba Lobbos's combined force of Fulas and Kountas besieged Omar Tall's army there. They captured Hamdallahi in February 1864. Omar Tall fled and managed to make it to a cave in Degembere (in the Bandiagara Escarpment ) where he died on 14 February 1864. Omar Tall's nephew Tidiani Tall succeeded him in retaking Massina, though his son Ahmadu Tall , operating out of Ségou, did much of

752-645: The Pasha and healed his son from a deadly fever. The trends set by the Pasha highly inspired Omar Tall. Settling in Sokoto from 1831 to 1837, he entered into a polygynous marriage, with one of the women being the daughter of the Fula caliph of the Sokoto Caliphate , Muhammed Bello . In 1837, Omar Tall moved to the Imamate of Futa Jallon and founded his religious settlement at Jegunko in 1840. Omar Tall claimed

799-510: The backsliding rulers of Futa Toro and Futa Jallon. As his army scored victories, he reinforced his army with the recruits who flocked to Dinguiraye and English guns purchased in Sierra Leone with the spoils of war. Omar Tall pressed on into what is today the region of Kayes in Mali, conquering several cities and building a tata ( fortification ) near the city of Kayes which is today

846-401: The ban on alcohol. Omar Tall abolished uncanonical taxes and replaced them with zakat , land taxes, and jizya . Polygamists were restricted to only four wives. Omar Tall, however, was uninterested in the logistical aspects of inculcating Islam such as building courts, madrassahs, and mosques. The primary function of Omar Tall's state was predatory warfare, slaving, the accumulation of booty, and

893-531: The basic principles for the later French advance. Senegal became the principal French base, not Guinea. French expansion was aimed towards the interior (which also encouraged expansion south in Algeria), and Faidherbe's vision of empire was confirmed. In 1863 he became general of brigade. From 1867 to early 1870, he commanded the subdivision of Bona in Algeria, and was commanding the Constantine division at

940-526: The city of Bordeaux , took over the new commercial networks of the interior, marginalizing the Métis traders who had always been the middle men of upstream commerce. Faidherbe also placed under direct French control large-scale seasonal groundnut cultivation near the fort systems, and then along the rail lines. This created the navétanes system of seasonal labor migration, first in Cayor, then spreading along

987-635: The commencement of the Franco-Prussian War . Soon after his arrival in Saint-Louis Faidherbe took as a mistress, Diocounda Sidibe (Dionkhounda Siadibi), a fifteen-year-old Sarakolé girl. She helped him in his study of the Wolof , Pular , and Sarakolé languages. On 15 February 1857, they had a son, Louis Léon Faidherbe. In 1858, when Faidherbe was 40, he married his 18-year-old niece, Angèle-Emilie Marie Sophie Faidherbe. She

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1034-683: The defeat of Napoleon III and his French Imperial Army by the Prussian Army in the summer of 1870, colonial officers such as Faidherbe were recalled to France and promoted to higher ranks to command new units and replace generals killed or captured in the war. Faidherbe was promoted to divisional general in November 1870, and in December appointed as commander-in-chief of the Army of the North by

1081-458: The final fall of Hamdullahi in May 1862. Now controlling the entire Middle Niger, Omar Tall moved against Timbuktu , only to be repulsed in 1863 by a combined force of Tuaregs , Moors , and Fulas . In 1863, the coalition inflicted several defeats on Omar Tall's army, ending up killing Tall's generals Alpha Umar (Alfa 'Umar), Thierno Bayla and Alfa 'Uthman. Meanwhile, a rebellion broke out in

1128-643: The first in a series on inland forts up the Sénégal, at Médine just below the Félou Falls (1855). By 1860, Faidherbe had built a series of forts between Médine and Saint-Louis, launching missions against the Trarza Moors in Waalo (north of the Sénégal river), who had previously collected taxes on goods coming to Saint-Louis from the interior. French military forces had previously avoided conflicts with

1175-517: The first part of his design, he had very inadequate resources, especially in view of the opposition from El Hadj Umar Tall , the Muslim ruler of the countries of the middle Niger. By advancing the French outposts on the upper Senegal , and particularly by breaking Umar Tall's siege of Medina Fort , Faidherbe stemmed the Muslim advance. Striking an advantageous treaty with Umar in 1860, Faidherbe brought

1222-427: The freezing winter of 1870–1871. The Army of the North performed remarkably well by striking isolated enemy forces and then retreating behind the belt of fortresses around Pas-de-Calais . Ultimately, however, Faidherbe was ordered by Minister of War Leon Gambetta to attack the Prussians – Faidherbe rushed into an open battle at St Quentin and his army was destroyed. During the course of his military career Faidherbe

1269-648: The ground. The French government in Paris criticised him for undertaking a military campaign without their authority. To answer his critics, Faidherbe claimed that he only occupied areas that belonged to France since 1679. Scholars like Martin A. Klein note that Faidherbe was merely playing with words and was making political decisions in Senegal without any authority whatsoever. Neither the Kingdom of Sine nor any of its provinces had ever belonged to France. Saint-Louis

1316-555: The interior. Faidherbe's large-scale projects included the building of bridges and provisioning of fresh drinking water. But Saint-Louis's place as a door of French trade into an African interior began to wane with the expansion of direct colonial rule. Access to its port became increasingly awkward in the age of the steamship; and the completion of the Dakar-Saint Louis railroad in 1885 meant that up-country trade effectively circumvented its port. Large French firms, many from

1363-598: The last a study of the Berber language . He also wrote on the geography and history of Senegal and the Sahara . He was elected a senator in 1879, and, in spite of failing health, continued to the last a close student of his favorite subjects. Faidherbe died on 29 September 1889, his body receiving a public funeral. Statues and monuments to his memory were erected at Lille , Bapaume , Saint-Quentin and Saint-Louis, Senegal . Numerous streets are named after him, and also

1410-635: The most powerful states in the area, the Peul empire along the Niger River , and the Cayor in the south. By sending emissaries to sign protectorates with weaker states (Bubakar Saada of Bundu , King Samba of Khasso ) and by completing the "pacification" of Casamance and the Wolof peoples through what is now northern Senegal, Faidherbe quickly came into direct conflict with these states. To accomplish even

1457-528: The north. After he resigned from the army he was reelected on 2 July 1871 as representative for the Somme, for Pas-de-Calais and for Nord . He chose to represent Nord. However, he resigned on 26 August 1871 after voting against giving the Assembly the power to define a constitution, because he said the Assembly had given itself that right rather than receiving it from the electors. On 8 October 1871 he became

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1504-723: The order with a commission to destroy paganism in the Sudan. He returned in 1830 as a marabout with the title El Hadj and assumed the khalifa of the Tijaniyya Sufi order in the Sudan . El-Hadj took the Tijani honorific Khalifat Khatim al-Awliya . This authority would become the basis of the authority necessary to lead Africans. When returning from the Hajj, he camped near Damascus , where he met Ibrahim Pasha , Omar Tall befriended

1551-467: The power of Europeans looked to Tall to drive off the foreigners. Marabout families hoped to gain political power in addition to their religious influence. His growing power and number of followers caused tension with the leaders of the Imamate. In 1851 he moved his community to found the city of Dinguiraye in what was then the Kingdom of Tamba . The king, Yambi, granted him the land in return for

1598-612: The powerful Bordeaux-based Maurel and Prom company, the largest shipping interest in Saint-Louis . The plan specified in detail the creation of forts along the Sénégal River to end African control of the acacia gum trade from the interior. Faidherbe's push to build fortifications farther out, his conflicts with Protet, and his protests to Paris over Protet's inaction earned him the governorship in 1854. Within three months of his appointment as governor, he had begun work on

1645-703: The rail lines to Baol and Sine-Saloum , and eventually along the Thies-Kayes railway . This would be a pattern spread throughout French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa well into the 20th century. When he resigned his post, French rule had been firmly established over a very considerable and fertile area and the foundation laid upon which his successors built up the position occupied after 1904 by France in West Africa. The first half-century of French colonialism in Senegal produced neither solid political control nor economic gains. However, it established

1692-637: The reform of morals. In Senegambia, his emphasis during the “jihadic period” is remembered as "not resistance to the Europeans but the “destruction of paganism” in the Western Sudan." In November 2019, the French government returned the so-called sword of Omar Tall—which was the sword of Ahmadu Tall, Omar Tall's son—to the government of the Republic of Senegal. The sword was returned five years later. French MPs will vote later on permanently returning

1739-415: The senate for the département of Nord. He resigned his seat prior to the end of his term in 1888. An enthusiastic geographer, historian, philologist and archaeologist, he wrote numerous works, including Collection des inscriptions numidiques (1870), La Campagne de l'armée du Nord (1871), Epigraphie phenicienne (1873), Essai sur la langue poul (1875), and Le Zénaga des tribus sénégalaises (1877),

1786-483: The subway station in Paris (Faidherbe-Chaligny) . Umar Tall Hadji Oumarûl Foutiyou Tall ( ʿUmar ibn Saʿīd al-Fūtī Ṭaʿl , Arabic : حاج عمر بن سعيد الفوتي طعل , c.  1794 – 1864 CE ), born in Futa Tooro , present-day Senegal, was a Senegalese Tijani sufi Toucouleur Islamic scholar and military commander who founded the short-lived Toucouleur Empire , which encompassed much of what

1833-579: The tenth of twelve children. His father was Saidou Tall, from the Torodbe tribe, and his mother was Sokhna Adama Thiam. Omar Tall attended a madrassa before embarking on the Hajj in 1828, during which he learned from the scholars of Al Azhar University . While in Mecca he stayed with Muhammad al Ghali  [ fr ] , the head of the Tijaniyyah order, who made him a muqaddam (commander) of

1880-538: The traditional idols of the royal family. While Omar Tall's wars thus far had been against the animist Bambara or the Christian French, he now turned his attention to the smaller Islamic states of the region. Installing his son Ahmadu Tall as imam of Segu, Omar Tall marched down the Niger to attack the Massina Empire of Hamdullahi . This was controversial, as attacking a fellow Muslim power

1927-608: The way for the French by weakening West Africa. Omar Tall also figures prominently in Maryse Condé 's historical novel Segu . He remains to this day an influential figure in the Tijaniyya and other reformist movements, which stressed the importance of Muslim orthopraxy. Omar Tall's state forbade dancing, the use of tobacco, alcohol, charms, pagan ceremonies, and the worship of idols. Many un-Islamic practices were banned. These laws were also very strictly enforced, especially

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1974-455: The work in keeping the empire intact. Nonetheless, the French continued to advance, conquering Nioro in 1891. Omar Tall's jihad state was completely absorbed into the growing French West African empire. Omar Tall remains a prominent figure in Senegal, Guinea, and Mali, though his legacy varies by country. While many Senegalese tend to remember him as a hero of anti-French resistance, Malian sources tend to describe him as an invader who prepared

2021-821: Was decorated with the five degrees of the Legion of Honor : the Chevalier in 1852, the Officier in 1855, the Commandeur in 1861, the Grand Officier in 1871 and the Grand Croix in 1880. Faidherbe was named as candidate for the legislature on several lists in the Somme department in the elections of 8 February 1871, and was elected. He decided not to accept his election while retaining his military command in

2068-442: Was forbidden. Ahmad al-Bakkai al-Kunti , of the Qadari Sufi order, led a coalition of local states to resist this invasion, denounced as an illegitimate war of Muslims on Muslims. The coalition included inter alia , Masina and Timbuktu . More than 70,000 died in the battles that followed. The most decisive was at Cayawal , after which Amadu III , the Masina king, was captured and executed. Djenné fell quickly followed by

2115-406: Was placed under formal military control, and a telegraph and road link was set up to the other French colonies in Gorée Island and Rufisque . In 1857, the French seized the inland region between these two from the Lebu Republic, and rechristened their capital Ndakarou as the new colonial city of Dakar . Work was begun on the Dakar–Saint-Louis railway , as well as a rail line along the Senegal into

2162-415: Was the daughter of his older brother, Romain, who had died eight years earlier. The marriage produced three children: Gaston, Mathilde and Wilhem. Angèle also helped care for Louis, the son of Sidibe. Another of Faidherbe's nieces, his wife's older sister Clarence, married the naval officer Théophile Aube in May 1861. At the time Aube was serving in Senegal. He would later be promoted to admiral. After

2209-407: Was transferred to Senegal as sub-director of engineers, and in 1854 was promoted chef de bataillon and appointed governor of the colony on December 16. He held this post with one brief interval (1861–1863) until July 1865. The work he accomplished in French West Africa constitutes his most enduring legacy. At that time France possessed in Senegal little else than the town of Saint-Louis and

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