Charles Voisin (governor)

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Charles-Henri-Joseph Voisin (29 October 1887 – 20 November 1942) was a Belgian lawyer and colonial administrator. He served as Attorney General of the Belgian Congo from 1926 to 1929 and then as Governor of Ruanda-Urundi from 1930 to 1932, based in Usumbura.

Voisin started his Congo career in 1910 as a magistrate and held several legal roles before becoming Attorney General in Boma. As governor, his reforms, known as the Voisin reforms, aimed to revive the economy after the 1928–29 famine. He pushed road-building and the growth of cash crops like cotton, coffee, palm, tobacco, cassava, and sweet potatoes. He changed the local chieftaincy system with help from Catholic Bishop Léon Classe, consolidating three chiefs under one Tutsi chief in each area. In 1931 he dismissed the Ruanda king Musinga and installed Musinga’s son Rudahigwa as the new king, with the ceremony conducted by Belgian authorities. Rudahigwa and many notables soon converted to Christianity. Voisin left Ruanda-Urundi in 1932 and returned to Belgium, where he later served on the Colonial Council. He died in Tournai, Belgium, in 1942.