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The Black Cruise : 1924-1925
Italian Poster
A great route to the "great isle"In crossing the Sahara two years earlier, Haardt and Audoin had clearly proved that the car was indeed the ideal means of locomotion for linking North Africa to West Africa. Others had already set their sights further. So it occurred that one day, French President Gaston Doumergue mentioned to André Citroën and Georges-Marie Haardt the advantages of a regular link between the African colonies and Madagascar, a French territory isolated in the Indian ocean.
A few words off the record during a conversation were the beginning of the "Black Cruise", an expedition that was to demand more than a year of preparation, stir up unheard of enthusiasm amongst both the public at large and scientific, artistic and business circles, and lead to 8 half-tracks, fitted with the Kégresse propulsion device of rubber tread, covering more than 28,000 km across Africa, starting from Colomb-Bechar.
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Toward Fort-Lamy
This is how Georges-Marie Haardt and his team crossed Algeria, the Niger, Chad, Oubangui-Chari and the Belgian Congo. In Kampala, their column split into four groups and reached the Indian ocean and Tananarive, each taking a different route (Mombasa, Dar-es-Salam, Mozambique and the Cape). They were given a rapturous welcome wherever they went.
Background
Bahr-Ligna's banks
Visiting the Harem of Moussa on their way, the members of the expedition made many a colourful encounter, none more so than that with the sultan of Maradi in Fulani country. "Serki" Moussa - that was his name - pulled up in front of the half-tracks escorted by his janissaries and musicians. Moussa had wed four, or maybe five (he wasn't too sure himself) of the 67 daughters of Barmou, the sultan of Tessaoua. The old Barmou was famous throughout the region, because he kept a harem of 100 women.
Léon Poirier, the group's film-maker, was already imagining the fabulous movie he could shoot inside the "inner sanctum". The problem was persuading Moussa to let him inside. Finaud, a sultan who understood what Léon Poirier was getting at, proposed a deal : he had a brand new car that someone had given him, but it wouldn't start. If Poirier could repair it, he could visit the women's quarters. The expedition's technicians closely examined the engine, thought for a moment then turned the starting handle. The car started. Discreetly, they explained that it was merely a matter of turning the ignition key.
Did you know ?
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In Centrafrica
... that the Citroën vehicles on the Black Cruise also had their names ?
"Golden Beetle", "Tower Elephant", "Moving Sunshine", "Winged Snail", "Silver Crescent", "Dove" (aptly named, carrying the first aid kit and food supplies), "Centaurus" and "Pegasus". Wings would indeed have come in handy to reach the other end of Africa.
... that a track of some 700 km was opened in the Belgian Congo to allow the expedition to pass more easily ?
Taking advantage of the Haardt mission passing through their territory, the Belgian administrators pressed the local population, that had gathered from every corner of the equatorial forest, into clearing a track between the tangled creepers and tree-trunks. Forty thousand natives took part in this mammoth task. What made them do it ? Quite simply, the Belgian authorities spread the rumour whereby envoys of "Boula-Matari" (the nick-name given earlier to British explorer Stanley) were due to arrive. For these people, Stanley was considered to be nothing less than a prophet, coming to announce a new age. No wonder they went about the job with such enthusiasm.