Anne Hugon

In addition to articles and books authored by herself, Hugon has also translated the English explorer Mary Kingsley’s account of her travels into French.

She is currently a maître de conférences at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University where she is teaching 19th–20th century African history. She is also a member of the Institut des mondes africains [fr] , a joint interdisciplinary research unit associating with the Centre national de la recherche scientifique.

A 52-minute documentary adaptation of the book titled Le mystère des sources du Nil, directed by Stéphane Bégoin, released in 2003 for Arte's documentary television programme The Human Adventure. It's a co-production by Arte, Arte France, Éditions Gallimard and La Compagnie des Taxi-Brousse [fr] . In an interview with Arte, the director explains the use of pictures in the documentary: "I sought to find the iconographic richness that made the success of these small books (from Découvertes Gallimard). Specifically for this film, this is reflected in the mixture of different visual sources. There are the 'vignettes' that we talked about earlier, which are photomontages made from coloured prints."

A 52-minute documentary adaptation with the same title released in 1999, directed by Jean-Claude Lubtchansky. It's a co-production by Arte, Trans Europe Film and Éditions Gallimard.

Her studies and research themes on Africa include colonial history of Ghana, social history, history of colonisation, history of women and gender, history of medicine and history of cultural changes. She has authored several articles and books on the subject. She wrote L'Afrique des explorateurs : Vers les sources du Nil for the “Découvertes Gallimard” collection, an illustrated pocket book published in 1991 and has been translated into ten languages, including English. The book has been adapted into a documentary film titled Le mystère des sources du Nil (“Mystery of the Sources of the Nile”) in 2003. A sequel to this book, Vers Tombouctou : L’Afrique des explorateurs II, released in 1994, has also been made into a documentary film with the same title.

Anne Hugon has worked for several years on the history of European exploration of Africa. She taught at the University of Lyon II and wrote a thesis on missionaries in Africa in the early 1990s.

Anne Hugon (born 1965) is a French historian specialising in the history of African exploration.

For the Europeans, Timbuktu was a mythical city in the heart of the Sahara. In 1795, Mungo Park acknowledged the Niger River. Thirty years later, René Caillié entered this "forbidden city", while Hugh Clapperton explored Lake Chad, Heinrich Barth crossed the Sahara… Travellers discovered the powerful dynasties of West Africa. Since 1850, the new explorers were mostly colonial officers with mission of conquest. On the eve of the World War I, despite African nationalism, Europeans managed to create genuine empires in Africa.