author
Jean Tilho
1875–1956
An army officer, cartographer, and explorer, he helped map parts of Central Africa and the Sahara at a time when much of the region was still poorly known to Europeans. His books draw on years of fieldwork around Lake Chad, the Tibesti, and French Equatorial Africa.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Domme, France, on May 1, 1875, Jean Tilho built a career that combined military service with scientific exploration. He became known for surveying, mapping, and studying the Lake Chad region and surrounding territories, and his work contributed to a better geographic understanding of Central Africa in the early 20th century.
Tilho spent many years in what was then French Equatorial Africa, especially in Chad. Alongside his expeditions, he wrote books and reports on the region’s geography, history, and colonial administration, including works on Lake Chad, the Tibesti, and the Logone basin. His publications reflect both the curiosity of an explorer and the methods of a trained geodesist.
He died in Paris on April 8, 1956. Today he is remembered less as a novelist than as a soldier-scholar whose travel writing and research preserve a detailed record of the places he crossed and studied.