Darkest Africa: Question about Captain Joubert of the White Fathers

[Dr. Moebius]

Hello dear LAF'ers,

I was thinking about painting a White Men expidition for Death in the Dark Continent.
I like the idea of doing something around the French White Fathers and the character of Captain Joubert who was in charge of fortifying and defending the missions around the shores of lake Tanganyika against the arab slavers.

In one text I found it says: At Mpala Joubert fortified the mission an trained an elite force.

Has anyone an idea how these askaris might have look like? Like Force Publique Askari, French Askari, or no uniform? What should be the main colours?

Any help or pictures will help.

Many thanks.

[Plynkes]

I think we can probably rule out French uniforms. Joubert's force was formed from the Mpala garrison raised by the Belgian Émile Storms, who served King Leopold's International African Association. When Storms was recalled in 1885, he handed the garrison over to the White Fathers.

The earliest mercenary forces of the International African Association had no uniforms, the askari wore whatever was traditional to their culture (e.g. the Zanzibaris wore long white gowns with fezzes or turbans). But in the early 1880s they started to receive uniforms, similar to those of the later Force Publique. That is to say blue jerseys and breeches.

I have found no description of the Mpala garrison's appearance, so cannot say if they were ever issued uniforms. But if they were, they probably would have looked like Belgian askari, though probably pretty ragged and with some variation. Once under the White Fathers they probably would not have received replacement garments from the Belgians, so their appearance could have varied wildly, unless the White Fathers came up with a uniform of their own. And I have seen no reference to this happening.

So not much to go on, but I hope that helps a bit.

[italwars]

in the Wargame Foundry book about "Central Africa" there are one or two  line drawings concerning Askaris recruited for the Societé Anti éslavagiste...which is more or what you are asking about..for what i remenber , as Plinkes said, generic/ragged  aksari types..long gown and fez

[Dr. Moebius]

Thank you both.

I will go for a mix from Force Publique Askari and mostly uniformed Askari from the foundry range.

Thanks again
Alex

[Siaba]

Plynkes is right. If the White Fathers respected the french tradition, they would have just supplied guns, no uniforms. Of everything I have read about french military expeditions in Africa, they are no mention of uniforms. They just brought with them lot of guns and ammunition to equip auxiliaries with but I 've seen nothing about uniforms.