In the middle of the 19th century, the colonists settled on the Senegalese coast commonly practised what was known as “marriages à la mode du pays”, i.e. temporary unions between Europeans and African women. Whether they were single or had left their wives behind in France, the colonists used African women to brighten their daily lives and warm their beds. The practice was perfectly accepted: these unions were lived in broad daylight and contributed to the mixing of the colony.
Governor Faidherbe was a fan of this attractive custom, which he justified in theory and appreciated in practice. He took a 15-year-old girl named Dioconda Sidibé as his ‘temporary wife’. From this affair, Faidherbe’s first son was born on 15 February 1857, named after his father Louis Léon. This did not prevent the romantic governor from getting married the following year, during a trip to France. At the age of 40, he married his niece Angèle Émilie Marie Sophie, who was only 18 years old at the time (she was the daughter of his brother Romain, who died in 1850), with whom he had three other children.
Historians have never found any trace of Dioconda Sidibé, who died prematurely. Raised by Angèle, Louis Léon junior died of yellow fever at the age of 24, in 1881.
Louis, the son of Faidherbe and Diocounda Sidibe.