Lot n° 304
Estimation :
800 - 1000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 1 792EUR
BLACK AFRICA. François CROZAT (1858-1893),... - Lot 304 - Ader
BLACK AFRICA. François CROZAT (1858-1893), physician and explorer. Manuscript (period copy), Kinian [Mali] December 1890-January 1891; 95 fol. pages in 3 quires (some flaws and tears; upper edges chipped).
Account of his exploratory journey through Mossi country to Ouagadougou, 600 kilometers east of Sikasso (southern Mali), where he was based. Departing with five porters on August 1, 1890, he traveled to Bobo-Dioulasso on the Black Volta, down the river through Ouoroukoy and Lanfiera, then managed to outwit the threats of the Islamic populations and arrived in Ouagadougou, the capital of the Mossi, where he was well received by the Naba Bocary, with whom he signed a treaty of friendship. He returned to Sikasso on November 20. Excerpts:
"My staff, since Souri, had remained intact; however, one of the porters, named Thiédian, showed the first symptoms of Guinea worm on the very day of departure. I had to entrust him to my host in Sattiri the next day. I found him cured on my return. The animals, a little tired on arrival at Bobo-Dioulassou, had recovered, except for one of the last two oxen that I had to abandon. I replaced it by three porters that I hired until Ouoroukhoy. Among these carriers was a man of Mossi, named Abdul Laï whom I had had the good fortune to meet and to be able to determine to follow me. He made me great services, on the road, by his knowledge of the ways, and to Mossi by his knowledge of the language. One speaks hardly, indeed, over there, that the Mossi language. His services would have been even greater, if I had been able to make him renounce an excessive shyness which made him afraid of everything and which did not let several times that to create me troubles. [...] In Bassora I was to meet Fama Mahmadou Sanou, chief of the whole country of the Bobo-Diulas & whom Guimbi called his brother. Guimbi is not indeed a pure ouattara; his mother was a sanou. Mahmadou would then direct me to Onoronko. It took me four days to walk from Bobo-Dioulasso to Bassora, and five days to reach Ouorouko from Bassora [...] Bobos, Sambélaws and Toussias are commonly naked. The men have only a few ornaments in their hair, on their arms, knees or ankles. The women's only costume is a clump of freshly picked leaves that are tied to a string around their loins and hang between their upper thighs. Most have two bunches, one in front and one behind. Dressing up is very frowned upon among them and a Bobo would be dishonored by eating couscous prepared by a woman wearing a loincloth. A woman who dresses," they say with a curious logic, "has something to hide and what one wants to hide can only be an infirmity or an ugliness. All the coquetry that the custom allows them consists in anointing their bodies with shea butter colored in red by hematite and wearing a large cylinder of white quartz embedded in the lower lip. The weight of the cylinder makes them keep their mouths continually half-open and their lips hang down miserably"...
This account seems to have remained unpublished; it is mentioned by Monteil in De Saint-Louis à Tripoli par le lac Tchad, voyage au travers du Soudan et du Sahara: "Crozat finished his report and his itinerary at that moment. With the most perfect disinterestedness, he communicated his work to me in its entirety, adding to it a lot of information which was to be of the greatest use to me in the future. Men who came with him from Mossi agreed to serve as my guides and interpreters; they were to return with me. Death has taken the life of this valiant man with a generous, simple and upright heart.
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