ON OCTOBER 2, 2006, A charter plane carrying the skeletal remains of the 19th-century Italian explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, as well as those of his wife and four children, took off from Algeria and landed at Maya-Maya airport in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo.
De Brazza’s bones were met at the airport by three African presidents, who escorted them to their new resting place, a $10 million marble and glass mausoleum built at a major intersection in downtown Brazzaville, the city that De Brazza helped found.
Many Congolese have refused to enter the mausoleum. At first, the rejection was merely a protest against the heroic veneration of a colonialist. But soon, ominous rumors started to circulate about the memorial. Talk to anyone on the street in downtown Brazzaville, and you will hear the same thing: the mausoleum is a center of kindoki, or “black magic.”
Indeed, in a country where politics is often intertwined with traditional beliefs about sorcery, the building is believed to be a kind of Skull and Bones of Equatorial Africa, a place where a shadowy African elite meets to plot the future of the continent. Anyone who enters risks coming under the spell of powerful leaders—and may not emerge alive. Hence the empty building at the heart of the city.
Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazzà, later known as Pierre Paul François Camille Savorgnan de Brazza; 26 January 1852 – 14 September 1905[1]), was an Italian-born, naturalized French explorer.
With his family’s financial help, he explored the Ogooué region of Central Africa, and later with the backing of the Société de Géographie de Paris, he reached far into the interior along the right bank of the Congo. His friendly manner, great charm and peaceful approach made him popular among Africans. Under French colonial rule, the capital of the Republic of the Congo was named Brazzaville after him and the name was retained by the post-colonial rulers, the only African nation to do so.
Born in Rome, Pietro Savorgnan di Brazzà was the seventh of thirteen children. His father Ascanio Savorgnan di Brazzà, was a nobleman and well known artist, from a family with ancient Friulian origins and many French connections. His mother Giacinta Simonetti, from an old Roman family with Venetian roots, was 24 years younger than his father. From an early age, Pietro was interested in explorations, particularly in West Africa, and he won entry to the French naval school Academy of Borda at Brest. In 1870, he graduated and sailed aboard the French ship Jeanne d’Arc to Algeria, where he witnessed the bloody crushing of the Mokrani Revolt. This committed him to a philosophy of non-violence throughout his life.
