author
E. (Eugène) Mage
1837–1869
A French naval officer and explorer, he is remembered for vivid first-hand accounts of West Africa in the 1860s. His writing helped introduce European readers to the Toucouleur Empire and the regions around the Senegal and Niger rivers.
1 Audiobook
Voyage dans le Soudan occidental (Sénégambie-Niger)
by E. (Eugène) Mage
About the author
Born in Paris on July 30, 1837, Eugène Abdon Mage served as a French naval officer and traveled extensively in West Africa. He became known for journeys made in the 1860s, especially in areas tied to present-day Senegal and Mali, where he observed local politics, trade, and daily life at close range.
Mage is best remembered as the author of Voyage dans le Soudan occidental (Sénégambie-Niger), a work drawn from those travels. It is often noted for giving one of the first detailed published descriptions of the Toucouleur Empire founded by El Hadj Umar Tall, making his book valuable both as travel writing and as a historical record.
His life was short: he died at sea off the coast of Brittany on December 19, 1869. Even so, his reports and books left a lasting record of a region and a period that were changing quickly.