School with a name of an ex-president located in Gorée Island, Senegal
BUILDING
"Ecole Léopold Angrand is the elementary school on Gorée Island. Classes range from CI to CM2. Teaching follows a curriculum adapted to each level, both academically and pedagogically.
The school became communal in 1905. It was the Ecole d'Application de l'Ecole Normale Williams Ponty until 1938. In 1985, it was named Ecole Elémentaire Léopold Angrand, after the first mayor of Gorée Island (1859/1905)."
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PERSON
Léopold Angrand , born on October 16, 1859and dead the October 7, 1906 in Gorée , is a Métis notable who played an important role in the political, cultural and economic life of Gorée and the colony of Senegal .
Biography
Origin and family
He was the son of Pierre Angrand (1820-?), merchant, shipowner and large landowner, and of the signare Hélène de Saint-Jean (1826-1859 , granddaughter of Governor Blaise Estoupan de Saint-Jean and the signature Marie Thérèse Rossignol.
Léopold Angrand married Mathilde Faye, a noblewoman ( guélawar ) of the Serer ethnic group , niece of the king ( bour ) of Sine , Coumba Ndofféne Diouf . Among their descendants is Armand-Pierre Angrand , author of a book dedicated to the Lebou people and a French - Wolof dictionary . Another son of Léopold Angrand, Alexandre, served on the general council of the colony of Senegal and was a close friend of the Muslim religious leader Seydou Nourou Tall .
Training and professional beginnings
After starting school with the Frères de Ploërmel in Gorée, he was sent by his father to do secondary and then commercial studies in Bordeaux and Paris. Having obtained brilliant results, he returned to Gorée to assist his father in the family business, then to take over its management.
Having become a shipowner and trader, he owned many cutters and sailboats thanks to which he supplied the small coast, over which he had a monopoly, with foodstuffs and materials of all kinds. The main centers served are M'bour , Saly-Portudal Joal , Banjul - Carabane , Bissau , etc. He is also the representative in Gorée of the great English trading house Prichard Lloyd.
Deputy Mayor of Gorée
He was elected municipal councilor of Gorée in 1881 and became deputy mayor (the only deputy) in 1888. He held these positions until his death.
It should be noted that at that time the mayor in title being French, he was most often absent from the island, frequently going on mission to France. So the administration of the commune therefore fell to the single deputy.
Role in the education system
Léopold Angrand possesses a large bibliographic collection which he makes available to the first students of the École Normale William Ponty .
Some of the former students became heads of state during independence, such as Félix Houphouët-Boigny from Côte d'Ivoire, Hubert Maga in Benin, Hamani Diori in Niger, Sylvanus Olympio in Togo, etc.
He was president of the foundation of the sub-committee of the French alliance. In 1884, he was chairman of the School Supervisory Committee. From 1888 to 1906, he was president of the municipal commission of school examinations in charge of everything that concerned education on the island. In this capacity, he not only chaired the various commissions, but was able to organize and suggest numerous reforms in the context of education and, after they had been accepted by the government, scrupulously ensured their implementation. in order to give teaching an impetus which does honor to Gorée by the results obtained.
Role as protector of the Senegalese
Many testimonies from members of his social background, from religious personalities such as the great Serignes of Dakar, Lébous and Layène notabilities and those of the Grand Marabout El Hadj Seydou Nourou Tall , his great friend, attest during his burial in 1906 that Leopold throughout his life had defended the interests of his notable Senegalese friends against the abuses of the colonial administration.
During the festivals marking the end of Ramadan ( Korité ) or the celebration of the sacrifice of Abraham ( Tabaski ), Léopold Angrand gathered together all the religious leaders as well as the imams of Gorée and Cape Verde to distribute sheep and bundles to them. fabric so that all needy Muslims can celebrate these holidays with dignity. He therefore leaves to posterity the image of a humanist but also of a resistant to a certain colonial oppression.
Participation in "Le Village Noir" exhibitions in France
In the 1900s , Léopold Angrand facilitated the recruitment of Senegalese craftsmen such as the jeweler Jean Thiam so that they could participate in the so-called Black Village craft exhibitions which were held throughout France.
Albis & Angrand House
This famous house in Gorée was built around 1730, by the Portuguese-speaking signare Victoria Albis , then passed from mixed-race owners to mixed-race owners, until it was put up for sale by the brothers Alexandre and Armand Angrand, respectively grandfather. father and great-uncle of the Franco-Senegalese historian Jean-Luc Angrand.
Tributes
Born in 1906, Léopold Sédar Senghor received his first name in honor of Léopold Angrand, of whom his father Basile Diogoye Senghor had been a close friend and collaborator at Joal .
The Gorée primary school bears the name of Léopold Angrand."
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