Raoul du Bisson

Count Raoul du Bisson (11 January 1812 – 27 February 1890) was a French aristocrat, adventurer and agent provocateur. He belonged to a Norman family ennobled by Louis XVIII and was a relative of Henri Conneau, a personal friend and physician of Napoleon III.

In 1863, Du Bisson recruited a band of directionless Europeans in the cafés of Egypt and marched them down to Khartoum, where he pronounced it his intention to establish a colony for the production of cotton. Crossing into the Sudan, his party had been inspected by Egyptian customs and was found to be in possession of numerous arms and even cannon. This has led to the supposition that he may have been acting on the orders of Khedive İsmail Paşa, who was planning an invasion of Ethiopia. After inquiries with the French authorities regarding his credentials, İsmail abandoned his plans and Du Bisson was on his own.

Du Bisson also intrigued with the local Beja tribesmen and the Egyptian government eventually ordered him to leave. His men left via Kassala and Sawakin, but not before helping put down the mutiny of the 4th Regiment at Kassala. He published an account of his Sudan adventure in 1868.

Works by Du Bisson Du Bisson, Raoul. Les Femmes, les eunuques et les guerriers du Soudan [The Women, Eunuchs and Warriors of the Sudan]. Paris: H. Dufton, 1868.