Voulet there Chanonne: the macabre killing French Niger

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I've seen horrors. Horrors that you have not seen. But do not call me murderer. You have the right to kill me. You have the right to do that. But he has no right to judge. There are no words ... to describe what is necessary for those who do not know what horror. The horror ... The horror has a face!

These staccato words uttered by a dying Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now, have been sculpted in the history of cinema, telling example of the barbarism and madness of man know no bounds. However Coppola, Joseph Conrad, author of The Heart of Darkness and maybe even Colonel Kurtz himself had paled in astonishment to learn the history of Voulet and Chanoine. As many times truth is stranger than fiction, and the expedition of these two French soldiers wrote one of the most brutal pages of the African colonization. The horror in this case charged face and spread like a shameful stain on the heart of the Sahel.

We are located in the summer of 1898, African colonization experiencing one of its highlights. The two major European powers embark on a mad race to secure the dominance of the black continent. France from West to East and England from North to South draw a symbolic cross that for the next fifty years will govern the destinies of a complex mosaic of ethnic groups., very diverse peoples and religions. Captain Voulet is the head of the French detachment destined to occupy Chad. Veterans of the war against the warlike country in Burkina Faso Mossy. Voulet and his deputy Captain Chanoine, enjoy great prestige in France at the time. Before issuing prophetic words pronounced Voulet, "The most humanitarian war is the most merciless and at the same time the shortest".

Before issuing prophetic words pronounced Voulet, "The most humanitarian war is the most merciless and at the same time the shortest"

The column goes into the lands of Upper Niger, along the river are leaving behind a trail of looting, disease and destruction. The bloody episodes follow one another like a swarm; abductions of young girls in villages to meet the needs of the troops, prisoners become slaves to make porters functions, theft of crops, fire , executions …

The macabre caravan trudged through present-day Niger. According to contemporary witnesses to the right of military detachment marched about eight hundred mostly women abducted and left a huge troop of Peul and Tuareg pastoralists with their herds in charge of supplying meat to the soldiers and tribal vendettas charged against . The procession closed with swarms of voracious flies that swarmed over the heads of the enemies under, that stakes driven into the river fired the army representandoun horrible spectacle.

The testimonies and complaint emails crowded into the French Colonies Ministry., Voulet legend and Chanonne loomed as the march stretched spectral. And Kakpu, the inhabitants had been completely stripped and burned their crops. In Sassanné Houssa over a hundred women and children were killed and decapitated bayonet stroke being too weak to serve the army. Every time a carrier could not continue, he was executed with one blow and left to the vultures to save on bullets.. The French authorities chose to send a second column under Captain Klobb to see if the facts were true. As Lieutenant Willard from Apocalypse Now, Klobb experience a rapid descent into hell of the human condition during the strenuous pursuit of Voulet.

The 9 May 1899 column would make a tragic stop in the village of Birni n'Koni. Today it is a small town halfway between the cities of Maradí and Niamey, with one of the market multicolored, tourist and picturesque of the Sahel. Tube, hausas, Djermas and Tuaregs coexist in a peaceful environment that makes it difficult to imagine that its rickety streets hosted one of the bloodiest episodes in the history of West Africa.

The events were triggered by the fact that some Hausa warriors resisted armed with bows and arrows and the town was massacred and destroyed.. Five thousand prisoners were beheaded and the women raped. The next day Birni n'Koni had ceased to exist. The months following referred to as "The colony infernal", led to a spiral of horror and cruelty. Voulet Chanonne and his troops and uncontrolled spread terror in the Sahel, the torture methods challenged the imagination fueled by the disgust of the soldiers. Dismemberment, beheadings, hangings, flocks of hyenas chased the column in search of the improvised human feast and their sinister laughter sealed the soundtrack of that madness at night.

"I'm not French, consideradme a black head, with you will found an empire "

Klobb while, followed the trail of fire and bones getting closer. After more than 2000 kilometers of persecution, finally both columns are at the gates of the current Zinder in Niger. Voulet Klobb opens fire and dies 14 June 1899. The Colonel reached the apotheosis of madness proclaim these days between his troops. "I'm not French, consideradme a black head, with you will found an empire ". However Klobb column and better armed resist, consigue a matar el Voulet 16 Julio there Chanonne el 17 putting an end to the barbaric. The column was fused to the command of Joalland, Meyner and subordinate Vouled Klobb lieutenant and continued his expedition to Lake Chad, achieving the conquest of this country and the eastward extension of the French colonial empire.

The official justification for the events, was temporary insanity and Chanonne Voulet due to harsh climate and the African sun. Marchand Years later one of the most famous French colonists sent him a letter that read Meyner. "There is no better fighter than a criminal". Today the inhabitants of the villages around Niger like Birni N´Koni, Pilan cultivate millet and trying to pull some out of this land parched and hostile, most speak French, many speak fondly of colonialism, few know that a little more than a century their small towns witnessed one of the darkest pages of colonialism. A Apocalypse Now to the African.

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