Eugène Maizan (September 28, 1816 in Montauban – July 1845) was a French Naval lieutenant and explorer, possibly the first European to penetrate East Africa and the first to enter tropical Africa from Zanzibar.

In 1844-1845 Maizan reaches as far as the district of Dege la Mhora, on the Uzaramo plateau about eighty to one hundred and fifty kilometers from the coast, where he is seized by Zaramo tribesmen under Hembé, the son of Chief Mazungera, and bound to a calabash tree before being tortured, mutilated and murdered.

Hembé amputates Maizan's limbs and slices off his genitals while still alive before beheading him.

Hembé will later claim to be acting on the orders of Arab ivory traders.