- Félix Éboué
:"Eboue" redirects here, for the
Arsenal F.C. player seeEmmanuel Eboue ."Félix Adolphe Éboué (
December 26 ,1884 -March 17 ,1944 ) was a Black French (French Guiana n-born) colonial administrator andFree French leader.Biography
Born in
Cayenne , the grandson ofslaves , he was the fourth of a family of five brothers. His father, Yves Urbain Éboué, was an orator and his mother, Marie Josephine Aurélie Leveillé, was a shop owner born inRoura . She raised her sons in the guiana creole tradition. Éboué was a brilliant scholar who won a scholarship to study at secondary school inBordeaux . Éboué was also a keen footballer, captaining his school team when they travelled to games in bothBelgium andEngland .After graduating in law from the École coloniale in
Paris , he served inOubangui-Chari for twenty years and then inMartinique . In 1936 he was made governor ofGuadeloupe , the first Black man to be appointed to such a senior post anywhere in the French colonies.Two years later, with conflict on the horizon, he was transferred to
Chad , arriving in Fort Lamy onJanuary 4 ,1939 . He was instrumental in developing Chadian support for the Free French in 1940, an action which ultimately gaveCharles de Gaulle 's faction control of the rest ofFrench Equatorial Africa . As governor of the whole area during 1940-1944, Éboué acted to improve the status of Africans, classifying 200 educatedAfrica ns as "notable évolué" and reducing their taxes, as well as placing someGabon ese civil servants into positions of authority. He also took an interest in the careers of individuals who would later become significant in their own right, includingJean-Hilaire Aubame andJean Rémy Ayouné .Although a
Francophile who promoted theFrench language in Africa, his circular "La nouvelle politique indigène" ("New Native Policy"), put outNovember 8 ,1941 , advocated the preservation of traditional African institutions.He died of a heart attack while in
Cairo ; after his death, the French colonies in Africa brought out ajoint stamp issue honouring his memory. An Officer of theLegion of Honour , decorated in 1941 with the Cross of the Liberation, and a member of the Council of the Order of the Liberation, his ashes are in the Panthéon, the first Black man to be so honoured.Place Félix-Éboué is in 12th arrondissement of Paris as is Paris Métro station
Daumesnil (Paris Métro) which also honours Félix Éboué.External links
* [http://perso.wanadoo.fr/redris/HTML/eboue.htm Detailed biography, in French]
* [http://www.charles-de-gaulle.org/article.php3?id_article=725 Biography (in French) and photo]
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