In the summer of 1939, a few weeks before the war, the Republic invited the great chiefs of its empire to Paris for the 14 July celebrations. On 10 July, the front page of the Petit Parisien announced the arrival of the delegation from French Equatorial Africa: the sultans Hetman (Oubangui-Chari) and Ourada (Chad), the delegates Oliveira (Middle Congo) and François de Paule Vané, and “Prince Adandé Rapontchombo, descendant of King Denys”.
Prince Félix Adandé Rapontchombo, whom La Dépêche de Brest introduced as “great-grandson of King Denis”, represented Gabon. For La Liberté du Sud-Ouest, he was quite simply:
“the most considerable figure in the delegation (« le personnage le plus considérable de la délégation »), Prince Félix Rapotchombo, descendant of King Denis, who was the first to sign, in 1839, a treaty with France”.
The newspapers followed the visit in detail: the delegation was photographed on the platform on arrival, received “on behalf of M. Georges Mandel, Minister of the Colonies” (Le Républicain des Hautes-Pyrénées), then invited on a first flight “aboard a Bloch 220 of Air France’s continental network” (L’Homme libre). To L’Intransigeant, the prince confided:
“This is the first time we have come to the 14 July celebrations.”
From one paper to the next, the spelling of the name wavers (Rapontchombo, Rapotchombo, Adadé, Adandé), but the rank does not: exactly a century after the treaty of 9 February 1839, the French press recalled that it was through the house of King Denis that France had established itself in Gabon, and it placed his heir in the front rank of the parade of “great chiefs”.
The review Le Monde colonial illustré published the official list of the “delegates of the Empire in Paris”. Under French Equatorial Africa, after the sultans and the delegates of the Congo and Gabon, appears « Adandé Rapontchombo, notable gabonais, descendant du roi indigène Denis qui fit avec la France, en 1839, le premier traité qui nous permit de nous installer dans le pays » (a Gabonese notable, descendant of King Denis, who made with France in 1839 the first treaty that allowed us to settle in the country). The delegates were received by the Minister for the Colonies, Georges Mandel, then at a garden party given by the President of the Republic in the gardens of the Élysée.
Why this episode matters
These cuttings constitute the public recognition, a hundred years after the treaty, of the family’s rank: “chief of Gabon”, “descendant of King Denis”, received at the ministry and celebrated by the national press. They also document dynastic continuity: Prince Félix Adandé, grandson of the king’s successor, is the direct ancestor of the branch that watches over Pointe-Denis today.
In the press of July 1939 (Gallica / BnF)
- Le Monde colonial illustré · 1939, p. 172: list of the “delegates of the Empire in Paris” and the reception by Georges Mandel.
- Le Petit Parisien · 10 July 1939: announces the make-up of the delegation, on the front page.
- L'Intransigeant · July 1939: interview with the prince: « C’est la première fois que nous venons aux fêtes du 14 Juillet ».
- Ce soir · 9 July 1939, p. 5: an account of the delegates landing at Bordeaux on 8 July from the liner Brazza; it introduces “prince Rapontchombo, descendant of the famous Déni tribe, chief of Gabon”.
- L'Homme libre · July 1939: the delegation’s first flight aboard an Air France Bloch 220.
- Le Républicain des Hautes-Pyrénées · July 1939: the reception on behalf of Georges Mandel, Minister of the Colonies.
- La Liberté du Sud-Ouest · July 1939: « le personnage le plus considérable de la délégation ».
- La Dépêche de Brest · July 1939: « arrière-petit-fils du roi Denis », come to discover Paris.
- Paris-soir, L’Écho d’Alger, Le Midi socialiste, Excelsior… · July 1939: reprinted in the Paris and regional press.
Cuttings found through the full-text search of Gallica (57 documents citing “Rapontchombo”); press published before 1946, public domain.