Francis W. Joaque

His work has contributed notably to the visual history of Central and West Africa during the late 19th century. Prints of Joaque's historical photographs have been collected as examples of 19th-century African photography by the British Museum, the Netherlands Photo Museum, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and the Rietberg Museum.

• Name — Francis W. Joaque • Birth Name — Francis Wilberforce Joaque • Birthplace — Freetown, Sierra Leone • Born — c. 1845 • Died — 1 November 1895 (age 50) • Place of death — Freetown, Sierra Leone • Occupation — Professional photographer • Years Active — c. 1865 • Notable Works — Portraits and documentary photography of 19th-century West and Central Africa • Spouse — Drucilla McAulay (m. 1870)

Joaque was born around 1845 in Freetown, British Sierra Leone, to Krio-speaking parents. His father, Richard Vincent Joaque, was described as "a prominent member of the offspring of Liberated Africans" and being of matrilineal Ijesha Yoruba descent. Joaque's grandfather had been taken from his native home in the Popo area of Dahomey by Spanish slavers, who put him to work as a sailor on a slave ship before he was liberated by the West Africa Squadron following the vessel's capture. After settling in Sierra Leone, Joaque's grandfather ran an auctioneering business, which was passed onto Richard. Joaque studied at the grammar school of the British Church Missionary Society in Freetown. In the early 1860s, he was trained in navigation for two years on board HMS Rattlesnake. After this, he worked as purser on the Corra Linn, a steamboat of the British governor in Sierra Leone. • Illustration — Carte de visite of English explorer in West Africa, Robert Bruce Napoleon Walker, 1886 Joaque, whose photographic career spanned several coastal regions in West and Central Africa, has been considered as one of the earliest African professional photographers. Between 1865 and 1890, he temporarily closed his photographic studio in Freetown and opened a new studio in Fernando Pó, an island in Equatorial Guinea, now called Bioko. In the 1870s, he was commissioned by Spanish governor Diego Santisteban to produce a series of fourteen photographs of Santa Isabel, the former capital of Fernando Pó. During these years, he also worked in Libreville, Gabon. Afterwards, he returned to Freetown and established his new studio in 1890. Some years later, Joaque died in Freetown on 1 November 1895.

• Illustration — Chief of Calabar, Nigeria, c.1870 • Illustration — An African chief • Illustration — African men and women, Gabon, Batanga, ca. 1870 • Illustration — Chief of Brass, Nigeria