Félix Éboué

Who is Félix Éboué?

Félix Éboué was born on 26 December 1884 in Cayenne, French Guiana, the grandson of enslaved people freed after French abolition. He trained in Paris and entered the French colonial administration, serving in postings across French Equatorial Africa before becoming acting governor of Guadeloupe in 1936, making him the first Black person appointed to a senior governorship in the French colonial empire. In January 1939 he was named Governor of Chad. After the fall of France in 1940, Éboué became the first colonial governor to rally his territory to Charles de Gaulle's Free French movement, a decision that gave the Free French their first secure territorial base in Africa and helped keep organized French resistance to Nazi occupation alive from overseas. He went on to serve as Governor-General of French Equatorial Africa and helped shape the 1944 Brazzaville Conference on colonial reform. Éboué died of a pulmonary embolism on 17 May 1944. In 1949 his remains were transferred to the Panthéon in Paris, making him the first Black person honored there.

Sources: Sciences Po Mass Violence and Resistance Research Network, "Eboué (1884-1944), Félix" · Chemins de mémoire (French Ministry of Armed Forces), "Félix Eboué" · BlackPast.org, "Adolphe-Félix-Sylvestre Eboué (1884-1944)"