Charles-Marie-Nestor Duchesne (1 September 1881 – 17 November 1945) was a Belgian lawyer and colonial administrator who was governor of Équateur Province in the Belgian Congo from 1921 to 1933.
Early years
Charles-Marie-Nestor Duchesne was born in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, Belgium, on 1 September 1881. His parents were Nestor Duchesne and Catherine Wenger. He married Rachel Bagot. His father was a horticulturalist, and soon after Charles was born was put in charge of the provincial horticultural school at Huy. Charles studied humanities at the Collège Saint Quirin and studied Law at the public University of Liège. He registered at the Huy bar.
Magistrate
On 30 October 1907 Duchesne joined the service of the Congo Free State as a provisional magistrate. He embarked at Antwerp on 5 December 1907 and reached Boma on 31 December 1907, where he was appointed deputy state prosecutor at the court of first instance. On 19 May 1908 he was given the same function at the Public Prosecutor's Office of Coquilhatville. He occasionally served as a deputy judge at the court. After Belgium took over the region as the Belgian Congo he continued as an officer of the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Territorial Court of Nouvelle-Anvers and at the war councils of Mongala, Bangala and Lisala. During his many tours of judicial inspections he came to know the region that would become Équateur Province well.
At the end of his term Duchesne went down to Boma on 22 June 1910, where he served as a judge for a month before embarking for Belgium on 21 July 1910. In Belgium he presented his thesis to qualify as a permanent member of the Congo judiciary. At the end of his leave he was appointed deputy judge at the court of first instance of Coquilhatville on 14 December 1910. He reached Boma on 13 January 1911 and in rapid succession was appointed substitute for the state prosecutor at the court of first instance of Boma and the Matadi territorial court (14 January 1911), then deputy state prosecutor at the court of first instance of Boma (13 February 1911). holding these offices concurrently. He had to deal with the Arnold case, a scandal.
When the Arnold case was over, Duchesne went on to Coquilhatville, where he was deputy judge and deputy state prosecutor. He was instructed by Minister of Colonies Jules Renkin to assign the trial of the agents of the Belgian company for Commerce du Haut Congo, denounced in 1907 by Dr. Dörpinghaus, to one of his subordinates. Duchesne was recalled to Boma, where he had been appointed state prosecutor on 6 March 1912. On 20 February 1913 he was appointed deputy prosecutor general, and on 20 April 1913 was to the Kasaï region to inquire into the Cambier affair. After this had been resolved, Duchesne went on leave on 8 August 1913.
On 31 October 1913 Duchesne was appointed deputy attorney general at the Boma court of appeal. He assumed office in Boma on 25 January 1914. During this term Duceshne was sent on a mission of inspection to Haut-Congo, and in particular to Haut-Ituri, where problems included gold thefts from the state mines of Kilo and Moto, incursions from Uganda, and revolts by the local people. The tour took him through all of the Ituri mining region and a large part of the upper and lower Uele regions. Duchesne returned to Europe for statutory leave, leaving Boma on 20 September. He spent most of his leave in Bordeaux, but from time to time visited Minister Renkin in Sainte-Adresse, the administrative capital of Belgium during World War I (1914–1918).
On 11 November 1917 Renkin appointed him Assistant Secretary General to the Governor general. Duchesne returned to Boma on 17 May 1918 and served as secretary general until 28 May 1919, when he was appointed acting commissioner general, assisting the Governor of the Orientale Province while the commissioner general F. V. A. Tombeur was on leave. Soon after he acted as governor of Orientale Province while Adolphe De Meulemeester was on leave, and received Colonial Minister Louis Franck in Stanleyville on an inspection and study trip. On 17 August 1919 he was discharged from the general secretariat and named an assistant commissioner general. After de Meulemeester returned from leave, Duchesne took over the government of Équateur Province, which Alphonse Engels had just left.