Henry de Monfreid
Encyclopedia
Henry de Monfreid was a French adventurer and author. Born in Leucate
, Aude
, France, he was the son of artist painter Georges-Daniel de Monfreid
and knew Paul Gauguin as a child.
"I have lived a rich, restless, magnificent life", Monfreid declared a few days before dying in 1974 at the age of 95.
Monfreid was one of those individuals who only find their true focus in life when they stumble across it on their travels. For Monfreid it was to be the Red Sea
and the Horn of Africa
coast from Tanzania
to Aden
, Yemen
, the Arabian Peninsula
and Suez
, treacherous routes that he tirelessly sailed in his various expeditions as adventurer, smuggler and gun runner (during which he said he more than once escaped the Royal Navy
coast-guards cutters).
, Monfreid went to Djibouti
, then a French colony
, in order to trade coffee
. He built a dhow
for himself and used it to traverse the Red Sea
. He lived many adventures, eventually prospered, bought a house near the shore in Obock
cove (very useful to have signal lights hung on the terrace to warn him if the French coast-guard's cutter was waiting for him...), and had a big dhow, the Altair ( "Soaring Eagle ) , built up by a local shipyard. Between 1912 and 1940 he ran guns through the area, dove for pearls & sea slug
s, and smuggled hashish
( and even morphine
he bought in a German famous laboratory) into Egypt
, earning several stays in prison in the process. Monfreid always denied having taken part in the slave trade from Africa to Arabia.
He converted to Islam
during this period, which included undergoing a circumcision
and taking a Muslim name: "Abd-el-Haï" ("Slave of The Living One").
During the 1930s, Monfreid was persuaded by Joseph Kessel
to write about his adventures, and the stories became bestsellers.
During World War II, Monfreid, who was now more than sixty years old, was captured by the British and deported to Kenya
as he had served the Italians
and his wife, born Armgart Freudenfeld, was daughter to the former German governor of Alsace-Lorraine.
After the war Monfreid retired to a mansion in a small village of "la France profonde", in Ingrandes ("département" of the Indre), France. There he played piano
, wrote, painted, and quietly raised in his garden a plantation of opium
poppies
, and took the habit of using the local grocer's scales to wheigh his crop and divide it into daily portions. The grocer's did not heed, since Monfreid's household were good customers, and Monfreid himself bought huge amounts of honey
, which he took to drive off the costive effects of opium. Eventually Monfreid was given away to the local "gendarmerie" (field-police station) , but he escaped prosecution : at that time opium was used only by unconventional artists (like his friend Jean Cocteau
) - and besides, Monfreid boasts in his books about his ability to manipulate and dispirit by words of mouth prying law enforcers... .
Monfreid settled down to a life of writing, turning out around 70 books over the next 30 years—an astonishing number, to rival any of the great writers. Only a handful of his books have been translated into English and are difficult to find. An interesting side-light to that somewhat narcissistic huge work is the book written by his daughter Gisèle de Monfreid: her book "Mes secrets de la Mer Rouge" describes what life could be near such an egotistic and overpowering personality, addicted to action, in such an hostile world as the Horn of Africa
.
During barren periods, when writing was not bringing in enough money, Monfreid relied upon mortgaging
the family collection of Gauguin paintings. Only after his death were these discovered to be fake.
Above all, Monfreid loved to be engaged in struggle with the elements: while navigating his way through tempests at sea, his life and the lives of his crew hanging by a thread, existence itself became something pure and precious. He longed only to be with "the sea, the wind, the virgin sand of the desert, the infinity of far-off skies in which wheel the numberless hosts of the skies... and the dream that I became one with them." The works of humanity held little sway for him compared to the majesty of nature itself. The desert taught him about the futility of ambition and when he finally beheld the Pyramids he couldn't wait to leave: "The only thing that one might possibly admire is the stupendous effort it took to build them, and this admiration demands the mentality of a German
tourist."
adventure Cigars of the Pharaoh
, the hero and his dog are cast adrift in sarcophagi in the Red Sea
. They are then picked up by a passing sailing ship captained by a man who turns out to be an arms
smuggler. The captain was based on de Monfreid.
Leucate
Nestled between the Mediterranean sea and sea pond backing the Corbières mountains with an impressive view on the Canigou peak, Leucate is a community of typical villages lying among a unique natural landscape....
, Aude
Aude
Aude is a department in south-central France named after the river Aude. The local council also calls the department "Cathar Country".Aude is also a frequent feminine French given name in Francophone countries, deriving initially from Aude or Oda, a wife of Bertrand, Duke of Aquitaine, and mother...
, France, he was the son of artist painter Georges-Daniel de Monfreid
Georges-Daniel de Monfreid
George-Daniel de Monfreid was a French painter and art collector.He was born the United States, but spent his childhood in the south of France...
and knew Paul Gauguin as a child.
"I have lived a rich, restless, magnificent life", Monfreid declared a few days before dying in 1974 at the age of 95.
Monfreid was one of those individuals who only find their true focus in life when they stumble across it on their travels. For Monfreid it was to be the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
and the Horn of Africa
Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent...
coast from Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
to Aden
Aden
Aden is a seaport city in Yemen, located by the eastern approach to the Red Sea , some 170 kilometres east of Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000. Aden's ancient, natural harbour lies in the crater of an extinct volcano which now forms a peninsula, joined to the mainland by a...
, Yemen
Yemen
The Republic of Yemen , commonly known as Yemen , is a country located in the Middle East, occupying the southwestern to southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, and Oman to the east....
, the Arabian Peninsula
Arabian Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula is a land mass situated north-east of Africa. Also known as Arabia or the Arabian subcontinent, it is the world's largest peninsula and covers 3,237,500 km2...
and Suez
Suez
Suez is a seaport city in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez , near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, having the same boundaries as Suez governorate. It has three harbors, Adabya, Ain Sokhna and Port Tawfiq, and extensive port facilities...
, treacherous routes that he tirelessly sailed in his various expeditions as adventurer, smuggler and gun runner (during which he said he more than once escaped the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
coast-guards cutters).
Life
In 1911, following the tracks of Arthur RimbaudArthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
, Monfreid went to Djibouti
Djibouti
Djibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...
, then a French colony
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
, in order to trade coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
. He built a dhow
Dhow
Dhow is the generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with lateen sails used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region. Some historians believe the dhow was invented by Arabs but this is disputed by some others. Dhows typically weigh 300 to 500 tons, and have a...
for himself and used it to traverse the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
. He lived many adventures, eventually prospered, bought a house near the shore in Obock
Obock
Obock is a small port town in Djibouti. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Tadjoura, where it opens out into the Gulf of Aden. The population in 2003 was about 8,300 inhabitants....
cove (very useful to have signal lights hung on the terrace to warn him if the French coast-guard's cutter was waiting for him...), and had a big dhow, the Altair ( "Soaring Eagle ) , built up by a local shipyard. Between 1912 and 1940 he ran guns through the area, dove for pearls & sea slug
Sea slug
Sea slug is a common name used for several different groups of saltwater snails that either lack a shell or have only an internal shell, in other words this name is used for various lineages of marine gastropod mollusks that are either not conchiferous or appear not to be.The phrase "sea slug" is...
s, and smuggled hashish
Hashish
Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...
( and even morphine
Morphine
Morphine is a potent opiate analgesic medication and is considered to be the prototypical opioid. It was first isolated in 1804 by Friedrich Sertürner, first distributed by same in 1817, and first commercially sold by Merck in 1827, which at the time was a single small chemists' shop. It was more...
he bought in a German famous laboratory) into Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, earning several stays in prison in the process. Monfreid always denied having taken part in the slave trade from Africa to Arabia.
He converted to Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
during this period, which included undergoing a circumcision
Circumcision
Male circumcision is the surgical removal of some or all of the foreskin from the penis. The word "circumcision" comes from Latin and ....
and taking a Muslim name: "Abd-el-Haï" ("Slave of The Living One").
During the 1930s, Monfreid was persuaded by Joseph Kessel
Joseph Kessel
Joseph Kessel was a French journalist and novelist.He was born in Villa Clara, Entre Ríos, Argentina, because of the constant journeys of his father, a Lithuanian doctor of Jewish origin. Joseph Kessel lived the first years of his childhood in Orenburg, Russia, before the family moved to France...
to write about his adventures, and the stories became bestsellers.
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
as he had served the Italians
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and his wife, born Armgart Freudenfeld, was daughter to the former German governor of Alsace-Lorraine.
After the war Monfreid retired to a mansion in a small village of "la France profonde", in Ingrandes ("département" of the Indre), France. There he played piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, wrote, painted, and quietly raised in his garden a plantation of opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
poppies
Poppies
Poppies can refer to:*Poppy - the plant*The Poppies - multiple uses*"Poppies", a song by Patti Smith Group from their 1976 album Radio Ethiopia*"Poppies", the first track on the debut album by Marcy Playground....
, and took the habit of using the local grocer's scales to wheigh his crop and divide it into daily portions. The grocer's did not heed, since Monfreid's household were good customers, and Monfreid himself bought huge amounts of honey
Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
, which he took to drive off the costive effects of opium. Eventually Monfreid was given away to the local "gendarmerie" (field-police station) , but he escaped prosecution : at that time opium was used only by unconventional artists (like his friend Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
) - and besides, Monfreid boasts in his books about his ability to manipulate and dispirit by words of mouth prying law enforcers... .
Monfreid settled down to a life of writing, turning out around 70 books over the next 30 years—an astonishing number, to rival any of the great writers. Only a handful of his books have been translated into English and are difficult to find. An interesting side-light to that somewhat narcissistic huge work is the book written by his daughter Gisèle de Monfreid: her book "Mes secrets de la Mer Rouge" describes what life could be near such an egotistic and overpowering personality, addicted to action, in such an hostile world as the Horn of Africa
Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa is a peninsula in East Africa that juts hundreds of kilometers into the Arabian Sea and lies along the southern side of the Gulf of Aden. It is the easternmost projection of the African continent...
.
During barren periods, when writing was not bringing in enough money, Monfreid relied upon mortgaging
Chattel mortgage
Chattel mortgage, sometimes abbreviated CM, is the legal term for a type of loan contract used in some states with legal systems derived from English law....
the family collection of Gauguin paintings. Only after his death were these discovered to be fake.
Beliefs
Monfreid was far from a calculating merchant. Indeed, he affirmed himself to be "sick and disgusted with businessmen... who ruin with impunity the poor innocents who believe in the value of justice, honesty, integrity and conscience." Yet there was nothing more he feared than "to be obliged to accept the slavery of some dreary job and become a domestic animal." His business dealings were little more than a means for Monfreid to follow his star through the African skies and seas. He fully acknowledged his naïvete in the realm of business and trusted most in his intuition and Providence to sustain him on his precarious course.Above all, Monfreid loved to be engaged in struggle with the elements: while navigating his way through tempests at sea, his life and the lives of his crew hanging by a thread, existence itself became something pure and precious. He longed only to be with "the sea, the wind, the virgin sand of the desert, the infinity of far-off skies in which wheel the numberless hosts of the skies... and the dream that I became one with them." The works of humanity held little sway for him compared to the majesty of nature itself. The desert taught him about the futility of ambition and when he finally beheld the Pyramids he couldn't wait to leave: "The only thing that one might possibly admire is the stupendous effort it took to build them, and this admiration demands the mentality of a German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
tourist."
In popular culture
In the TintinThe Adventures of Tintin
The Adventures of Tintin is a series of classic comic books created by Belgian artist , who wrote under the pen name of Hergé...
adventure Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh
Cigars of the Pharaoh is one of The Adventures of Tintin, a series of classic comic-strip albums, written and illustrated by Hergé, featuring young reporter Tintin as a hero...
, the hero and his dog are cast adrift in sarcophagi in the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
. They are then picked up by a passing sailing ship captained by a man who turns out to be an arms
Güns
Güns or Guens may refer to:* Kőszeg, Hungary * Kőszeg Mountains, Hungary * Akiva Güns , birth name of Akiva Eger, a Hungarian-Polish rabbi- See also :* Guns * Gün, a surname...
smuggler. The captain was based on de Monfreid.