Toto (gorilla)

Toto (1931–1968) (a.k.a. M'Toto meaning "Little Child" in Swahili) was a gorilla that was adopted and raised very much like a human child. A. Maria Hoyt adopted the baby female gorilla orphaned by a hunt in French Equatorial Africa in 1931. Mrs. Hoyt's husband killed the baby gorilla's father for a museum piece, and his guides killed its mother for fun. Mrs. Hoyt moved to Cuba to provide a more tropical home for Toto. At the age of four or five, Toto adopted a kitten named Principe, carrying the kitten with her everywhere. When Toto became too difficult to manage for a private keeper, she was sold to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus as a potential mate for another gorilla, Gargantua, a.k.a. Buddy. Toto died in 1968. Established in 1910, the federation contained five territories : French Congo and Gabon, Oubangui-Chari, Chad and French Cameroon (after World War I), although the last was not organized as a separate entity until 1920. The Governor-General was based in Brazzaville with deputies in each territory. In 1911, France ceded parts of the territory to German Kamerun as a result of the Agadir Crisis. The territory was returned after Germany's defeat in World War I, while most of Cameroon proper became a French League of Nations mandate not integrated into the AEF. During the late 1920s and early 1930s an anti-colonial movement Societe Amicale des Originaires de l'A.E.F. was established by Andre Matsoua, seeking French citizens ip for the territory's inhabitants. During World War II, the federation rallied to the Free French Forces under Felix Eboue in August 1940, except for Gabon which was Vichy French between 16 June 1940 and 12 November 1940; the federation became the strategic centre of Free French activities in Africa. Under the Fourth Republic (1946–58), the federation was represented in the French parliament. When the territories voted in the September 1958 referendum to become autonomous within the French Community, the federation was dissolved. In 1959 the new republics formed an interim association called the Union of Central African Republics, before becoming fully independent in August 1960. The postal administrations of the four territories were separate until 1936, each issuing its own stamps. In that year, stamps of Gabon and Middle Congo were overprinted AFRIQUE / EQUATORIALE / FRANCAISE. A definitive series for the colony followed in 1937, featuring local scenes and key (French) figures in the formation of the colony, with various color and value changes each year through 1940. The 1937 series was overprinted AFRIQUE FRANCAISE / LIBRE or just LIBRE in 1940 by the Free French, and in 1941 they issued a series depicting a phoenix rising from the flames. A new definitive series, featuring local scenery and people, was issued in 1946, and another twenty-odd stamps came out during the 1950s, with the last being the omnibus Human Rights issue on 10 December 1958.