André Léon Suberbie (July 3, 1854 - October 30, 1907) was a French adventurer, colonial and gold concessionaire, whose exploits in Madagascar would win him entrance to the Legion of Honour. He was the founder of Société des mines d'or de Suberbieville, a gold mining concession in north central Madagascar about which he would build a town bearing his name. He would go on to publish, with Edouard Laillet, the first modern survey of the island in 1889.

His early life is obscure. Born in Toulouse, he advanced swiftly from employment on the southern railways, to becoming commissioner on a ship of the Paquet company; in 1874 he gained employment in Madagascar by the Marseille trading house Roux de Fraissinet (the same company which would set up his brother-in-law and collaborator Edouard Laillet in that country). Suberbie spent several years in Mahanoro, then in Tamatave. By 1880 he was in charge of the company office in Tananarive, where he made a great impression with his commercial abilities as well as his command of the Malagasy language: in his correspondence he was on intimate terms with both the Merina Prime Minister and Queen, calling them 'Cher Ami' and 'Majesté et chère amie' respectively. From the Prime Minister's son, he was able to lease plantations for coffee, cotton, cocoa, sugar cane and raffia. As diplomatic relations between France and the Merina regime deteriorated, official French representatives abandoned Tananarive in fear of their lives, leaving Suberbie and his compatriots the closest thing to official representation left to France in the capital. He was active in this role, successfully foiling British attempts to gain influence with the Merina. His influence allowed him to extend protection to many of his fellow colonials: During the 1882-85 Franco-Merina War he led a 23-day march from Tananarive to Tamatave of 92 French men, women and children following their expulsion from the former city by the Hovas. (This exploit would win Suberbie the Legion of Honor; though according to reports of the event, the march was not so much led by Suberbie as it was by a troop of Hovas, who turned the French loose at Ivondoro, just south of Tamatave.) He was active in more areas than the political: by 1883 he had become one of the few Europeans to explore from coastal Madagascar to the interior at Tananarive; from Tananarive to Majunga; and from there, down the west coast to Cap. St. Vincent. Suberbie in 1885 was able to establish the Société des mines d'or de Suberbieville, a company capitalized at sixteen million Francs, to mine gold at a site southwest of Maevatanana along the Ikoka River. He was the first European to be granted a concession to do so by Imperial Merina - no doubt another facet of his warm personal relations with the regime. Between the years 1888 and 1894 the mine would produce nearly 1250 kilograms of gold. Ironiclly, During the 1895 campaign, which culminated in the 1896 French absorption of Madagascar as a colony, Suberbieville would provide the main supply and concentration center for French troops. Suburbie's company does not seem to have survived the fall of Merina for long, and with the annexation of Madagascar Suberbie's political influence seems to have disappeared. Neither seem to have survived better than did Suberbie himself, who died in Toulouse in 1907.



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