Document - Ernest Noirot (1850-1913) / Dr Bayol (1849-1905) - Mission d'exploration, Sénégambie. Rivières du Sud.50 impressions lithographiques reproduisant les - 1881

Dr Bayol’s (1849-1905) exploration mission in Africa with Ernest Noirot (1850-1913), painter and photographer attached to the expedition.
Senegambia. Rivers of the South.
50 lithographic prints reproducing the drawings made by Ernest Noirot during the Dr Bayol expedition, one of the inventors of the “human zoos.”
1881
a canvas-bound album in folio, handwritten title on the front cover, spine detached.
Noirot, Ernest (1851-1913). Print 26 is missing.
With the details provided by his administrative files and the papers he left behind, we can summarize the life of J.-B. Ernest Noirot as follows.
He was born in Bourbonne-les-Bains (Haute-Marne) on August 18, 1851, where his father was a timber merchant. From his education and studies we know nothing, and it is through his military record that we learn he enlisted in September 1870 for the duration of the war in the Volunteers of Côte-d’Or, and after the Battle of Dijon (October 30, 1870) where that unit was destroyed, Noirot was incorporated into the Bourbonian Legion from November 4, 1870 to March 3, 1871.
Most of his subsequent activity seems to have been devoted to theater and photography. Dr Bayol notes that he was “a comedian at the Folies Dramatiques,” the Folies-Bergère (from 1880, when he attached him as a drawing-artist and photographer to the two Niger Sources missions and to the Sahel (Upper Senegal and Niger) which he would direct from 1881 to 1884 (Naval service).
The first mission is the 1881 one which, from April to December, Dr Bayol led along the Rio Nunez to Fouta-Djalon. At Donhol-Fella a protectorate treaty was signed with almamy Ibrahima Sory, then at Timbo with almamy Hamadou. The mission returned to Saint-Louis on December 7 via the Upper Senegal. Noirot left a vivid account illustrated by his own drawings: ; and Dr Bayol another one. Through the Fouta Djallon and the Bambouc (Sudan Occidental), Travel memories.
The second mission was less favorable for Noirot. He embarked for Senegal on October 20, 1882, disembarked at Saint-Louis on October 31, went up the river on November 21, his journey nearly ended there as the unanimous decision of the Health Council meeting in Kayes declared him unable to continue serving the mission and left him at the hospital to be repatriated as soon as possible (December 26, 1882). He returned to Saint-Louis (February 1883) and then to France at Val-de-Grâce. He was released on June 12, but after his convalescence he had to cease to be part of the naval service.
In 1885-1886, he was attached to the commission of the French section of the Antwerp Colonial Exhibition.
What friends did he have intervene at the same time as Dr Bayol to enter the colonial administration? Nothing tells us, but on April 1, 1886, he was appointed circle commander of 3rd class in Senegal. He was successively in charge of the circles of Dagana (June 9–July 12, 1886), of Saldé (July 12, 1886–February 16, 1887), of Dagana. The Interior delegate of the Senegal Colony notes on May 25, 1887: “ Intelligent, active and devoted, Mr. Noirot is a very good servant. Knowing the manners of the natives and not turning away from any fatigue, he can, on occasion, be a valuable servant for the higher administration.”
Adminstrateur colonial of 4th class of the colonies (old formation) on September 8, 1887, he was sent as the Senegalese delegate to the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1889. Upon his return he was entrusted with Sine-Saloum, in Senegal, where he remained from 1890 to 1896. He was a resident at Fouta-Djalon from 1897 to 1900, then director of Native Affairs in the Government of Guinea (1901-1905). The lieutenant-governor of Guinea, Cousturier, attached great value to his collaboration: “Mr Noirot directs with much devotion and competence the very important service of Native Affairs in Guinea. In all circumstances he knows how to take to task the defense of the natives in all that constitutes their rights and their well-understood interests. It is in this very just sense that he understands his role and his duties as director of Native Affairs,” and he proposed him for appointment as administrator-in-chief 1st class (September 1, 1904).
But his steady rise, leaving him only two years in each grade, was halted by a matter that seems to have been the result of clan struggles in the Fouta-Djalon and jealousy from colleagues. He had sharp judgments, not more routine-minded than necessary to turn the administrative compliment, not too much trouble in matters of expression, a touch of whimsy. He was reproached for it. An incident was exploited where Noirot was responsible for the death of several tirailleurs and natives. The case is so complex that it remains obscure. It would have already been so to contemporaries.
In March 1905 the lieutenant-governor of Guinea, Frézouls, sent him to Kissi on the edge of Liberia to prepare the succession of civil administration occupation. The departure conditions seem like an exile. Alongside him, and often behind him, for more than ten years there was an interpreter, Boubou Penda, whom many spoke of. On June 10, 1905, Frézouls turned his annual note into a veritable act of accusation:
"By a singular effect of backfire, after his long stays in Africa, Mr Noirot identified himself with the natives whose customs and tendencies he adopted. His policy was dictated by the native chiefs of Labé and Fouta, Alpha Yaya and Baba Alimou, whose preponderant influence could become dangerous for our interests. His acts were only the reflection of the wishes of Boubou Penda, his interpreter and friend. ‘For nineteen years, Boubou Penda has lived in my most absolute intimacy. His affection for me blends with his interests’ (Noirot’s letter to the governor, November 26, 1904). But Boubou Penda is not of noble race, a serious vice among Black people, his influence on Mr Noirot has not increased in the eyes of the natives the prestige of the latter who, irreverently, they call ‘the griot’ (French street minstrel). Mr Noirot can only aspire to retirement.”
Bouba Penda, a Peul from the Fouta Toro, was of course not a small saint, or if you will, it was a saint who knew how to act. Noirot did not realize it. Moreover, while hating, as a civil administrator, military administration, Noirot liked the strong hand. Allegations around him linked together various incidents of his general administration of the Fouta. According to his papers, not all is clear. One would need to examine the Archives of the Ministry and probably those of Guinea.
From 1905 to 1908, a long investigation took place, in Guinea, then in Paris, where Noirot was summoned and kept at the disposal of the minister under grave accusations. The , from June 1906, and the se both echoed Noirot’s affair. Morning Humanity.
The accusations were poorly supported, poorly presented, or Noirot skillfully defended himself. He had not forgotten that he had political friends: C. Pelletan had to do him a favor. For his lawyer he had chosen Alfred Clemenceau. The inquiry restored him to colonial life. On March 1, 1908, he was named administrator-in-chief of first class and at the disposal of the governor-general of French West Africa. er
In 1908 and early 1909 he carried out a long administrative and economic study mission in the Upper Gambia basin, where he led the police operation against the marabout Fode Souleyman Bayaga. The lieutenant-governor Peuvres, who had before his eyes Noirot’s rather contradictory administrative notes, not all very bold, gave on June 15, 1909, the following cautiously benevolent assessment: “Mr Noirot fulfills at Dakar, to the complete satisfaction of all, the delicate function of delegate of the General Government. By the courtesy of his character toward all, by the benevolent interest he shows in the natives, Mr Noirot has won the sympathies of these two populations whose accord has not always been excellent.”
All the judgments of his superiors carry, note this, the same remark: his active sympathy for Africans.
His health began to fail. On March 29, 1910, he requested a six-month leave to enjoy in France. He had 23 years and a half of consecutive stay in Africa, including 6 in Upper Gambia and in Guinea. It was granted from June 1, 1910, with a extension that lasted until March 7, 1911.
He was appointed governor of 3rd class on June 1, 1911 and in charge of the government of Oubangui-Chari but this was only in honor of a good finish to his career. He was replaced on June 10, 1911 in the government of Oubangui-Chari-Tchad by Frédéric Estère, and admitted to claim his retirement rights. He was struck off the roll on August 18, 1911.
He came to Bourbonne-les-Bains. He was mayor there when he died, single, on December 28, 1913.

Jean-Marie Bayol is a French colonial administrator, explorer, ethnographer and politician born December 24, 1849 in Eyguières (Bouches-du-Rhône) and died October 3, 1905 in Paris. He was notably governor of Guinea, one of the founders of Conakry. He then worked in Dahomey. Back in France, he became a senator, from the Democratic Left.
Jean Bayol was the son of Jean-Baptiste Bayol, a very wealthy cloth merchant.
A medical student, he entered the army health service. Doctor in 1874, he became naval medical officer and embarked on several voyages along the African coasts.
Missions
West Africa and Guinea
In 1881, he joined the colonial administration. He was one of the founders of Conakry, for which he drew up the plan. He explored the interior of West Africa, extending French influence.
On October 12, 1883, he was named lieutenant-governor of the Rivers of the South (1883-1887); his administration was established at Gorée, Senegal, but he was most of the time traveling in the region entrusted to him. He then became governor of French Guinea (1887-1892), when this colony was detached from Senegal.
He took up post in Dahomey in 1890. At the time, Porto-Novo and the king Toffa were under French protectorate. However, they suffered successive attacks from the north, from the king of Abomey and his warriors.
Discussions with King Glélé, then his son Kondo who would become King Behanzin, were difficult. Debates concerned, among other things, customs duties at Cotonou and the boundaries of territories controlled to the east by the English and in the north and in the rest of the country by the Dahomey kingdom.
He was recalled to Paris in 1892 before the Dahomey War II.
He left in Porto Novo his name on a square.
He retired on his return to France, notably following disagreements over how military operations were conducted, but also due to illnesses.
He was elected general councillor of the Bouches-du-Rhône in 1898 and senator in 1903. Registered with the Democratic Left group, he took part in discussions on colonial questions. He died in 1905.