Augustin Prosper Hacquard (18 September 1860 – 4 April 1901) was a French missionary who became Apostolic Vicar of Sahara and Sudan in 1898.

After several years in Algeria, including a short period as head of the Armed Brothers of the Sahara, he was appointed to the French Sudan, the newly acquired territories along the Niger River to the east of Senegal, where he established several mission stations.

In September 1881 Hacquard was appointed a teacher at the Collège de Carthage and taught there for two years before resuming his theological studies in 1883.

In 1886 Cardinal Charles Lavigerie put him in charge of the baccalaureate class and told him to prepare himself for his university entrance exam, which he passed first of 47 candidates in September 1886.

He wanted to go with the next caravan to the Great Lakes led by Bishop John Joseph Hirth, but was told by the Cardinal that it would be a good test for him to wait a few years.

On 28 July 1887 he obtained his degree from the faculty of Aix-en-Provence and was told by the Cardinal to prepare his doctorate on the ancient Christian Africa.

[4] A barrack was built in Biskra for the brotherhood, who wore a uniform with elements from the garb of the crusaders and the French North African cavalry.

[1] On 10 September 1893 Hacquard and François Ménoret of the White Fathers were appointed to serve on a mission of exploration to Tuareg country led by Gaston Méry.

[1] The other European members were Albert Bonnel de Mézières(fr) and Antoine Bernard d'Attanoux, a former officer who had become editor of Le Temps.

[10] On his return to Biskra Hacquard was offered command of the mission, but refused, and Antoine Bernard d'Attanoux took the position.

[8] He left Toulouse in January 1894 with a companion named Moulai and followed the trail of the Attanoux mission which he rejoined at Ain-Taieba.

[11] The mission returned to Algiers on 17 April 1894, and later that month Hacquard participated in a General Chapter of the White Fathers at Maison-Carrée.

Hacquard offered to look after the freed slaves and to give them huts, clothes, tools, seed and grain until the next harvest.

[13] Hacquard was invited by Émile Auguste Léon Hourst(fr), commander of the French flotilla of the Niger, on a mission to investigate the hydrology of the river.

The mission reached Say on 7 April 1896, and established a fortified base on a wooded island while waiting for the water levels to rise enough for them to proceed.

"[13] Hacquard described the effect of famine years in the region, Masters turn loose their slaves so they will not have to feed them (reserving the right to resume possession at the end of the crisis); many families pawn their children—this consists of delivering children capable of work in exchange for a sum between 15 and 50 francs; the parent can withdraw them by paying back the sum.

[14] On 31 March 1897 Hacquard told the Anti-Slavery Society in Paris, "... we have sought to follow the footsteps of our predecessors the Fathers of the Holy Spirit.

He returned to France, arrived in Marseille on 17 July 1898 and received his episcopal consecration on 28 August 1898 in the chapel of the Dames de Sion, in Paris.

[1] Hacquard left Marseille for the last time on 25 October 1898 with three new priests, two brothers and three sisters, and reached Ségou on 10 January 1899.

Between 24 February 1899 and 12 April 1899 he visited the Bobo, Samo and Mossi countries south of the river and spent a few days in Ouagadougou.

He contacted the British authorities, and gained their permission to start a mission station in the north of the Gold Coast (now Ghana).

The missions were useful to the authorities since they educated the local people to become clerks, minor officials and teachers, ran orphanages and supplied nurses and chaplains for the hospitals.

The missionaries maintained their independence from the state, often taught in local languages rather than French and could not accept the relaxed attitudes of the military to sex and slavery.