Romolo Gessi

Romolo Gessi (30 April 1831 – 1 May 1881), also called Gessi Pasha, was an Italian soldier and an explorer of north-east Africa, especially Sudan and the Nile River.

Romolo Gessi

Gessi was born to an Italian father and Armenian mother from Istanbul in Ravenna, in Romagna.[1] He acquired his military experience serving in the volunteer corps of Garibaldi in 1859 and 1860. He was one of numerous Garibaldi volunteers who went on to be regular soldiers, not only in the new Italian army, but in several others.

He also fought with the British forces in the Crimean War (1854–55), where he first met General Charles George Gordon. Gordon later described him as "Italian subject, aged 49 (in 1881). Short, compact figure; cool, most determined man. Born genius for practical ingenuity in mechanics. Ought to have been born in 1560, not 1832. Same disposition as Francis Drake. Had been engaged in many petty political affairs. Was interpreter to Her Majesty's Forces in the Crimea, and attached to the headquarters of the Royal Artillery."[2]

In 1876, while serving for General Gordon, he explored the course of the upper Nile (Bahr El Jebel) and mapped its descent from Lake Albert. He then ventured in the territory of the Oromo people, later becoming governor of the Egyptian Bahr-el-Ghazal province, where he struggled against Sebehr and the slave trade and also started the deployment of natural gum. Gordon regarded him, perhaps unfairly, as a brilliant mercenary - perhaps he did not come up to Gordon's standards of Noncomformist rectitude.

In 1880, while returning to Khartoum, he found the Nile obstructed and was held up for three months, becoming ill. This illness led to his death, shortly after his return to Suez. In 1881 Muhammad Rauf Pasha, Gordon's successor at Khartoum, appointed Frank Lupton governor of the Bahr el Ghazal in place of Gessi.[3]

After his death, his son Felice published his father's memoirs in the book, Sette anni nel Sudan egiziano (Milano, 1891).