CONGO / ALGERIA: Congo prepares to receive remains of Italian explorer who gave his name to the capital Brazzaville

Record ID: 573859

  • Title: CONGO / ALGERIA: Congo prepares to receive remains of Italian explorer who gave his name to the capital Brazzaville
  • Date: 27th September 2006
  • Summary: CITY
  • Embargoed: 12th October 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Obituaries
  • Reuters ID: LVA57X0ERP2WCFI5MCFDDFJCUV9O
  • Story Text: The last remains of Italian explorer Pietro Savorgnan di Brazza, who the Congo capital Brazzaville was named after, will be taken from a cemetery in Algiers and interred in a marble mausoleum on Sunday (October 1).
    The explorer, unusually among European white colonialists, is still lionised in the land he once ruled.
    Originating from a wealthy Roman family, Brazza was apparently inspired to visit Africa by a map of Africa on the wall of his home with a large white space in the middle, indicating the vast area where no white person had ever set foot. His father had written "This would be an interesting place to visit," beside it.
    He first visited the heart of the continent by joining a French mission to West Africa, where he travelled by river several hundred miles into unexplored interior of what is now Congo. There he met the local King, who received him warmly.
    "It is good for us, Congolese people, to get closer to the person who made our history. We are very happy to be receiving the mortal remains of the one who built bridges between the Congolese people and Europe," said one citizen.
    His ideas on sustainable development were ignored in his day by greedy European businessmen and governments in the quest for easy profits.
    During this last visit to Africa he drew up a report for the French government denouncing the crimes committed by the colonial merchant companies which exploited Africa's wealth for the benefit of their shareholders, but its frankness about forced labour and the cruel punishments suffered by African workers in the rubber plantations meant the report was never published.
    Brazza died suddenly from a fever on the journey home after a last visit to his beloved Congo in 1905.
    The bodies of his wife and their four children will also be moved to the city that bears his name.
    Brazza's body is due to be exhumed on Saturday (September 30), and sent to Brazzaville on October 1. mt/pr/jrc
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