Tag: French Guiana stamp

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French Guiana 1947, Wondering what goes on in the interior

In the French region of Guiana there was a trading post on the coast at Cayenne and more famously a penal colony off shore on Devil’s Island. The French territory extended far inland though into an area named Inini after a river. Many years into the colony it was decided to make more use of the interior. Interesting what that effort looked like in this time frame. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp displays a riverside scene, one assumes the French riverside, of the Moroni River that forms the border between French Guiana and Dutch Guyana,(now Suriname). Traveling the rivers was the only way to get into the jungle interior to make any sort of survey of what was possible there.

Todays stamp is issue A24, a one and a half Franc stamp issued by the French Overseas Department in Guiana on June 2nd, 1947. Becoming and overseas department ended the seperate administration of the interior. This was a 17 stamp issue in various denominations that mainly emphasized the interior. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 85 cents unused.

The interior of Guiana was very sparsely populated with only about 5000 residents in this time frame that were mostly indigenous. The French presence was miniscule with 7 French Army officers as administrators and nine military police. The administration consisted of three offices, forest management, water management and mines. An established gold mine was the only productivity beyond subsistence hunting, fishing, and farming. The French had the idea to open up the interior to colonization so they set up Inini as a separate colony and drew up plans for a road and railway into the interior. Anyone who has seen “Bridge on the River Kwai” knows what the Japanese did with a similar challenge in Burma. What would the French do in Inini/Guiana?

Well their effort was pretty similar. 535 Vietnamese prisoners of war from an uprising in French Indo China were brought in. Unlike the Japanese, guarding them was also outsourced. A unit Senegalese Trirailleurs from French West Africa were brought in to guard the Vietnamese. By 1936, the colonial Governor was expressing confidence that the railroad and road would soon be finished.

Senegalese Trailleur French soldier. All West Africans were referred to as Senegalese

It was not to be. Cholera and intestinal parasites were plaguing the Vietnamese workers and they rebelled against the Senegalese guards at work camp Crique Anguille in 1937. The rebellion was put down but it was decided to abandon the construction project. It was decided to condemn the remaining Vietnamese prisoners to Devil’s Island. Some were held in custody until 1953.

Camp Crique Anguille 68 years after the Vietnamese rebelled there. The jungle is gradually taking it back

In 1940, initially the colonies of Guiana sided with the Vichy Government after the fall of France. This became a difficult situation as Suriname was temporarily administered by the USA during the occupation of Holland and Brazil to the south declared war on the Axis in 1942. By this point the tiny French presence in Inini was concerned most with border control. In 1943 Inini changed allegiance to the Free French. In the 1944 Brazzaville Conference, it was promised that all citizens of French colonies would become French citizens and this was followed through in 1946 with all of Guiana including Inini becoming an overseas department of France. The interior has since been divided into communes for administration.

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait till tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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French Guinea, We are just not getting rich enough on palm oil

The colonies of France in Africa were just not that profitable. The slave trade was over as far as colonials and the easy gold was no longer easy to find. Palm oil trade had many intermediaries and much competition from neighbor trade post. The obvious question is then why not just leave? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

These early French colonial offerings do not appeal as much to me as the equivalent British colonies. They are better than the Portuguese who usually just show the King or De Gamma’s ship, or the Germans that often just show the Kaiser’s yacht. The French stamps usually show a native scene, here fording a river. How the British did them better was to show them as part of a greater whole with a common purpose. The British were sometimes kidding themselves as to whether that was really happening, but the other colonials often didn’t even bother.

Todays stamp is issue A6, a one Cent stamp issued by the French colony of Guinea in 1913. It was part of a whopping 42 stamp issue in various denominations that lasted for many years. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents unused. The folks on the stamp weren’t fording the river to get to the post office. There is an imperforate version of this stamp worth $75.

The west African coast was littered with trading posts. Most started as Portuguese, but the end of the slave trade saw most of theirs abandoned. The word Guinea comes from the Portuguese word for black people. There are now three independant, black run countries in Africa with that name so it had real staying power. The three, now two, Guyanas in South America come from the same root word. The English, French, and Germans began to have some luck with the palm oil trade. Palm oil was an ingredient in soap, so at that level of development, the natives had no need for it themselves. Diola tribal merchants brought the palm oil to the coastal trade stations including Conakry that became the capital of the colony and later the independent country. These outposts also had to function as forts as there were often native raids from the nearby Fouta Jallon highlands that contained warlike, nomadic, and Islamic Fulani tribe.

To avoid war between Europeans, A congress in Berlin in 1884 mapped out Africa as to which country had rights in which area. The tragedy of it was the spheres of influence extended far beyond existing trading posts. France had been in an anti colonial mood after reverses in the French colony in Indo-China. If the trading posts continued to not create wealth the posts would likely have been abandoned as with the Portuguese. The colony up to then was not even called Guinea but Southern Rivers showing that they were just trading posts at the mouth of rivers. Instead the French sent expeditions inland to bypass the Diola merchants and conquer Fouta Jallon. The last Imamate of Fouta Jallon leader, Boko Biro was defeated by the French at the Battle of Poredaka in 1896. Boko Biro escaped but was then captured by a Fulani rival and beheaded. Apparently no love for the loser.

Needless to say all this did not make the colony more profitable. In the late 1950s, the French tried to find a face saving way out and offered the African colonies a vote on staying in the French community with ever more self rule. Guinea was the only country that voted for the clean break and the French duly left. Interestingly, with France gone the trading post cities did not die with natives returning to the highlands. Even has the first President for life styled himself Touré’ after an earlier African anti colonial. There is no meaningful trade any more but the country relies on food aid which is more easily accessible on the coastal cities. Conakry had 60,000 people when independence came in 1958, the city now has more than two million. That is an estimate, how would you count?

Well my drink is empty. So sad. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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French Guiana 1947, falling short of the motto work brings wealth

Is it better to leave some places uninhabited? Columbus labeled the place the land of pariahs and moved on. Perhaps France would have been wise to do the same. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp is over 70 years old. It shows an African man relaxing in a hammock. By then the plantations and slavery were gone and even the notorious prison was winding down. What was left. Cayenne, the capital and central settlement stresses the motto that “work brings wealth”. It hasn’t so far though and maybe  relaxing in the hammock and collecting subsidies is more attractive anyway.

Todays stamp is issue A23, a 10 Centimes issued by the overseas French department of Guiana on June 2nd 1947. This 17 stamp issue in various denominations was the last stamp issue of Guiana as a French colony. However colony status actually ended the year before. The stamps were probably already in process and went ahead. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents mint.

Columbus spotted Guiana on his third voyage. The Caribe Indians he found there were not friendly and he labeled the place the land of pariahs and moved on. Europeans followed but perhaps they wish they had also moved on. A settlement was started by the French at Cayenne and passed through Dutch and British hands before returning to the French. It was the last French territory on the mainland of the Western Hemisphere. As such several thousand French colonists were sent from France. They had hoped to strike gold and quick wealth but what they found were hostile Indians, harsh weather and tropical diseases. After three years, 90 percent were dead and the rest waited to be rescued from an offshore island. The importance of Empire prevailed and the French gave it another shot. Sugar cane plantations were started and large numbers of African slaves from Guinee were brought in to work them. The end of slavery in 1847 saw the now former slaves disappear into the bush, abandoning the plantations and forming communities resembling the Africa left behind. Several shiploads of Indians, Malays, and Chinese were brought in to work the plantations but most just became merchants in Cayenne and the plantations ended.

A farm provided an interesting legal case for France. A freed African slave women named Suzanne Amomba Paille married a white French soldier. They remained childless but over time built a large farm and a home in the town and over 60 slaves. When her husband died, Suzanne inherited the substantial estate. She was elderly and illiterate and was beset by hucksters and marriage proposals. The colonial Authority used her case to ban interracial marriage and appointed a custodian of her assets. She appealed demanding that her wishes be followed. She wanted to give the farm, city house and slaves to an educational charity who would then allow her to live in the city house for the rest of her years. The court sided with her and today a street in Cayenne is named for her.

Devils Island became the next draw but as a penal colony. In addition to political prisoners the French sent anyone convicted of thievery 4 times to prison exile on Devil’s Island. It was only to be a six month sentence after which they were freed in the colony. They were stuck there and most quickly died from tropical disease and poverty. The prison closed in 1951 except for one wing that contained prisoners too crazy to release. The book and movie “Papillion” made Devil’s Island famous.

The colony in 1946 became an overseas department of France. They are therefore citizens of France and Euroland whatever their ethnic background. It is the only Euroland territory in the Western Hemisphere. A site in Guiana was chosen for the European space center due to it’s remoteness and proximity to the equator. This is the largest part of the local economy after French subsidies. In 2011, Guiana voted against autonomy from France.

Well my drink is empty and I will open the conversation in the below comment section. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.