Terra d'ebano

by Albert Londres

En 1927-28, Albert Londres s’embarque pour un périple de quatre mois en Afrique. Il connait un peu le continent noir pour avoir séjourné brièvement à Dakar et écrit quelques articles sur les « petits blancs », mais il s’agit cette fois d’un travail approfondi : Sénégal, Niger, etc. Découvrant un univers dont il ne soupçonnait pas l’existence, le grand reporter trouve un ton très juste – et la violence qui convient – pour en parler.

Publié en mars 1929 chez Albin Michel sous le titre Terre d’ébène, le livre-reportage suscite de furieuses polémiques, la presse coloniale se déchaine, et le gouverneur général de l’AOF se voit contraint d’organiser un « voyage de presse » pour journalistes et parlementaires afin de combattre l’effet produit par les dénonciations de Londres.

Genres: France, Nonfiction

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Albert Londres was a French journalist and writer. One of the inventors of investigative journalism, he criticized abuses of colonialism such as forced labour. Albert Londres gave his name to a journalism prize for Francophone journalists.

Reviews

[Meike]

Londres was one of the first investigative journalists, the most important journalism prize of the Grande Nation is still called the Albert Londres Prize. The texts contained in this volume are considered classics of anticolonialist literature, BUT: Londres did not argue against colonialism as a whole. Rather, he wanted a better colonialism: Like many of his contemporaries, he saw the colonies as a civilizing mission. He wasn't upset that the land and the people were exploited, but how they were exploited.

So while still read these reportages that are crafted from a deeply racist standpoint? Because this book is a history lesson, and because you have to give it to Londres that his writing, his reporting is excellent and even did some good. After André Gide published Voyage au Congo / Le Retour du Tchad, Londres told his editor at "Le Petit Parisien" that he wanted to venture to the colonies as well, to educate the French public. For four months in 1928, Londres traveled French colonial Africa, 24 reportages were published (and are now included in the first part of the book). And these texts are brutal, scenic, atmospheric, eye-opening: The Congo-Ocean railway? A massacre, killing tens of thousands of Black workers to save money on machinery. The wood trade? The same. The abolishement of slavery? Only in effect on paper. Mixed-race people? Outcasts in Black and white society. The relationship between the colonial administration and economic companies? A battle about the question what laws really need to be abided to, because no one wants to give the Black population basic human rights - because they are not considered human.

Londres writes against inhumanity and pointless cruelty, he wants a humane colonialism (which doesn't exist, but let's follow his logic for the sake of investigating his time and colonial thinking). He was severely attacked in France, sued, called a traitor to France. But the documentary character of his writing and the facts he reported, especially the numbers, forced officials to act: The French colonial minister had to answer question regarding the "systematic murder of Black people" in the context of the Congo-Ocean railway, for example.

And then there's today's treatment of colonial history: In 2005, President Sarkozy wanted to implement a law demanding to include the positive aspects of colonialism in school textbooks - he failed. And what did I, a German, learn about German colonialism (which included a genocide in Namibia) in my German high school? Nothing. What about you?

You have to praise all publishers who provide the public with Londres' works, because they are instructive historical documents.

[Leonardo]

Testimonios sobre el "espantoso consumo de vidas humanas".

Una breve historia de la igualdad Pág.83

[kdn · Rating 4 out of 5]

C’est le premier livre d’Albert Londres que je lis. C’est agréable et facile, ls phrases sont courtes mais percutantes. Il a de l’esprit et de l’humour. Ça permet de prendre connaissance d’une époque et d’une mentalité pas si lointaine, sur la relation entre la France et l’Afrique. Super !

[Madjita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Edifiante cette traversée de l'Afrique Occidentale Française et de l'Afrique Equatoriale Française.

Cette découverte de l'Afrique coloniale et des populations qui la peuple réalisée à travers les écrits d'Albert Londres,est une critique humanisante et anti-raciste,là où l'on parle de "moteur à banane"(!)

[Iñaki Tofiño · Rating 3 out of 5]

J’espérais quelque chose de plus poignant, plus critique avec le système colonial, plus de controverse... En tout cas, un point de vue intéressant pour la fin des années 30.