Paul Bourdarie
French explorer (1864-1950)
Paul Bourdarie (19 July 1864 – 21 February 1950) was a French explorer, journalist, lecturer and professor. He became known as a specialist in colonial topics and gave lectures on subjects such as growing cotton and domesticating African elephants. He believed in a liberal policy regarding the indigenous people of the French colonies. Bourdarie was one of those responsible for founding the Grand Mosque of Paris.
Early years (1864–1894)
Paul Bourdarie was born on 19 July 1864, in Montfaucon, Lot. In 1893, he left on a study mission in the Congo. His report described the culture of the lime growers of Gabon, the need to establish experimental farms, and construction of a port at Pointe-Noire that would be the terminus of the railway from Brazzaville. To avoid using porters at a time when tractors had not yet been invented he advocated domestication of African elephants. The problems of rubber collection that he described caused the Minister of the Colonies and the Museum to import Hevea brasiliensis to Guinea, Ivory Coast and Dahomey, and Palaquium gutta to Gabon.
African Society (1894–1897)
From 1894 to 1897, Bourdarie was secretary general of the Société africaine de France (African Society of France) founded by Admiral Vallon and Doctor Verrier.
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This entry incorporates text from “Paul Bourdarie” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.