Louis Léon César
FAIDHERBE was born in 1818 at Lille, France.
He received his military education at the
"
Ecole Polytechnique" of
Paris and entered the Engineers ; from 1842
to 1847 he served in Algeria, in 1848 and
1849 in the French West Indies (Guadeloupe)
then again in Algeria from 1849 to 1852.
In 1852 he was transferred to Senegal and
became Governor of the Colony. The work
he achieved as Governor constitutes his
most enduring monument, in fact he was the
very architect of the foundation of the
Colony Senegal.
He undertook to pacify the country, stemmed
the
Toucouleurs
east of upper Senegal (1855-1863), drove
back the Moors to the North and annexed
the Wolof country (treaty in May 1858).
The annexation of Cayor (1861-1865) made
it possible to clear the road linking up
Saint-Louis
to the Cap-Vert Peninsula. He took interest
in local dialects, customs, and undertook
the economic development of the colony.