Africa has long been a mysterious place to explore right from the
beginning. Although the northern part of Africa was the first to be
known due to their closeness to Europe and Asia leaving other parts
unexplored. From time past, Africa has been known as a place governed by
superstitious beliefs and mythologies. There have been different
historians and Arabic scholars that have studied the culture and
traditions of Africa and many of them have documented it in their
writings which are still very viable in today's society.
Map-Making
africa-map
Early
map-making was far from an exact science. Some of the earliest maps we
have provide an interesting look into just what we thought about
unexplored lands.
The earliest map we have of the entire
continent of Africa was done by Sebastian Munster—a German scholar and
Hebrew professor—around 1554. He got his information from interviewing
German scholars and immigrants, collecting and compiling different maps
they carried into one. Before dying of the Black Plague, he was one of
the most influential mapmakers of the day, and what his map of Africa
included gives us an interesting look into just what people told him the
continent was like.
In the middle of the continent—where we
now know the Sahara Desert lies—is a massive forest. South of that, in
the area of what’s now Nigeria, is a drawing of a cyclops, meant to
represent the mythical Monoculi tribe. The sources of the Nile are lakes
in the Mountains of the Moon. Nestled in the valley of the rivers is
the kingdom of Prester John, a Christian missionary whose mythical,
magical land was the driving force behind many expeditions into Africa.
Just north of Prester John’s supposed kingdom is Meroe, which was said
to be the final resting place of ancient Nubian kings.
There
are also a handful of islands around the continent, and some of the
rivers are surprisingly accurate, even though they would disappear off
subsequent maps only to be re-discovered in the early 19th century.
Henry The Navigator
Henry-navigator
The
man who was almost single-handedly responsible for opening up
exploration into Africa, and who allowed Portugal to start staking their
claims on this newly discovered continent, never actually set sail on
an expedition in his life.
Henry the Navigator was the son of
King John I of Portugal and Phillippa of Lancaster; his first foray into
Africa happened before he was 21, when he was sent to drive the Spanish
out of the northern African city of Cetua. Seeing a massive opportunity
for Portugal to expand its territory, he organized the first school for
sailors; in 1416, adventurous souls from all over the country could go
to the School of Sagres and learn the finer points of exploration from
mathematicians, map-makers, and astronomers.
Just as important
as the expansion of Portuguese territory was Henry’s desire to find
Prester John’s mythical kingdom, which had eluded explorers for
centuries. He also had to overcome something very, very
powerful—sailors’ superstitions about what would happen to them if they
ventured into the waters of southern Africa. According to one such
superstition, sailing past Cape Bojador (in the present-day territory of
Western Sahara) would send them into waters infested with sea monsters,
where their entire ship would be eaten—but only after their skin turned
black.
Once they realized their fears were pure superstition,
explorers began bringing back a wealth of treasures from the new lands.
Ostriches, ostrich eggs, gold, and sealskin were only some of the
finds—in the decades following Portuguese construction of a fort at the
Bay of Argium, they would begin exporting African slaves to Europe.
Henry Stanley And Emin Pasha
Emin-Pasha-Relief-Expedition
Henry
Stanley is perhaps best known for his expedition into Africa to find
Dr. David Livingstone, but that’s not the only rescue mission he
undertook. In December 1886, Stanley set off into Africa on what would
be his last journey: an attempt to find and bring home a German
zoologist named Eduard Schnitzer.
Schnitzer had taken the name
“Emin Pasha,” in an attempt to be better received by those he was
living among. Pasha was cataloging a host of recently-discovered plant
and animal lifeforms when fighting broke out in the Sudan. Pasha and his
party retreated to Equatoria, at about the same time the Emin Pasha
Relief Committee (pictured above) was formed. In addition to the goal of
bringing Pasha home, Stanley was also under orders from the King of
Belgium to open up some new trade routes in the area.
The
roundabout route the Committee ended up taking meant that by the time
they finally found Pasha, many members of the expedition were dead.
Those that did survive were worn, ill, and starving by the time they
found Pasha who, in comparison, was well-dressed, clean, and—by some
accounts—smoking a three-year-old cigar when they finally found him. He
was in need of some support and supplies, but he had neither intent nor
desire to leave the area. Arguments ensued, cementing a firm hatred
between Stanley and Pasha.
Stanley finally convinced Pasha to
leave with the remains of the expedition, setting off on a grueling trip
back through Africa. They finally met up with some German explorers,
and made it back to the port town of Bagamoyo in 1889.
During
the party they threw to celebrate their return to civilization, Pasha
fell off a balcony and fractured his skull. Stanley returned to Europe
to commendations and congratulations, while Pasha slowly recovered from
his unwanted rescue.
Paul du Chaillu And The Pygmies
Paul-Belloni-du-Chaillu
Frenchman
Paul du Chaillu was born in 1835. Raised on the west coast of Africa by
his father, du Chaillu had the benefits of knowing many of the local
languages, and he put his knowledge to good use. He is thought to be the
first European to actually see a gorilla—until then, they had been
regarded as mythical creatures.
He was also the first to meet,
interact with, and document the natives now known as Pygmies. Pygmies
had existed in literature and letters for centuries but, like the
gorilla, they were viewed as existing somewhere between the real world
and the mythical one. Egyptian letters between traders dating back to
2276 B.C. call them the “dancing dwarf of the god from the land of
spirits,” and they’re also featured in the Iliad, where they wage war on
a flock of cranes.
According to du Chaillu, his first
impressions of Pygmies were of people who could move through the forest
with incredible speed, grace, and silence. They amazed him with their
perfect smallness, and he earned their trust through the presentation of
food. His guides instructed him to always be kind to them, as they had
always treated visitors with kindness and hospitality.
Sadly,
we did not hold onto that sentiment for long. By 1904, pygmies were
being exhibited at fairs in St. Louis and the Bronx Zoo.
The Hamitic Hypothesis
john-speke
The
exploration of Africa and slavery sadly go hand-in-hand, with the two
impossible to separate. But there needed to be a justification for why
enslaving the African people was perfectly acceptable. The Hamitic
Hypothesis was just such an excuse.
Even though the phrase
“Hamitic Hypothesis” was only coined in 1959, the theory is often
credited to John Hanning Speke (pictured), one of its most vocal
supporters throughout the latter half of the 19th century. The theory
said all things good and valuable in Africa had been brought there by
the Hamites, or the descendants of Ham. According to Biblical tradition,
Ham was cursed after he looked upon his naked father. The curse stated
that he and his descendants would be the brothers of slaves—those
descendants eventually made their way to Africa and became the
lighter-skinned people of the northern continent. With them, it was
thought, came education and civilization. They soon took up places of
authority over the darker, lesser native people who were put on Earth to
be slaves to the higher races.
It was this tragically
misguided hypothesis that, in large part, made it an acceptable thing to
enslave African natives. Not only was it their lot in life, but any
traces of civilization found there only existed thanks to the
lighter-skinned people who migrated into the area.
Robert Drury’s Mysterious Account Of Madagascar
Shipwreck
Madagascar
is one of the most exotic places on Earth, with natives and an
ecosystem unlike anything found anywhere else. It’s mysterious even
today, meaning it was downright scary in the early 1700s.
Robert
Drury’s tale of shipwreck, kidnap, bid for freedom, and return to
Africa is a truly amazing one, and it didn’t end when he made his
incredible escape from slavery and headed back to Europe. In 1729, Drury
released a book, Madagascar: or Robert Drury’s Journal During 15 Years
of Captivity on that Island, dramatically detailing the years he spent
enslaved by the local people. If living through it wasn’t bad enough, no
one believed it was real. It was released only a few years after
Robinson Crusoe, which undoubtedly added a “you won’t fool us twice”
factor to Drury’s tale.
Drury died in 1735 (having spent his
last years haunting coffee houses in London insisting to disbelievers
that his tale was true), and it wasn’t until almost 275 years later that
determined researchers discovered he had been telling the truth all
along. British archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson decided to retrace the
steps outlined in the book, to see if there was any truth to it. Pearson
and his crew discovered the descriptions in the book were very, very
accurate, from the locations of mountains and rivers to the towns Drury
claimed to have lived in.
There were also plenty of strangely
specific details that only someone who lived there would know, like
beekeeping techniques, ways of finding food, and cultural traditions
(like feet-licking) that have since been phased out but have left their
mark in the native lexicon. In addition, Pearson excavated villages and
homes, examined tombs, and found that many of the native peoples still
knew of ruined, extinct villages by the old names that Drury used.
Ultimately,
Pearson found the wreck of Drury’s ship, leaving only one major
question unanswered. Critics had long argued that Drury—a largely
uneducated sailor—couldn’t possibly have written the book himself, and
wondered who the mystery author was. According to Pearson and other
scholars, the likely author is the man responsible for most of the
controversy in the first place: Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson
Crusoe.
Mary Kingsley’s Study Of Witchcraft And Twin Killing
Kingsley
Mary
Kingsley was born in 1862, into an English society that was very much
about constricting women’s duties to nothing more than care of the
household. At age 30, Kingsley lost both her parents to sudden illness.
With nobody to care for, Kingsley decided she wanted to see the world
she’d read so much about. So, she set off on a journey to West Africa.
Her
trip wasn’t just a sightseeing holiday, as she wanted to study the
native people, their beliefs, and their religion—termed “fetish,” or
“juju.” Amid her treks up and down mountains, through swamps, and down
rivers, Kingsley recorded massive amounts of detail and data on the
native people.
While many of her observances sound savage and
critical today, there’s one thing that stands out among the practices
she was both amazed and horrified by: twin-killing. In some places, it
was thought that a woman who gave birth to twins had been marked as
having had intercourse with a demon or spirits, an offense that meant
death for the mother and the babies. In other areas, twins were viewed
as magical, and were to be kept alive and handled carefully. If one was
to die, they would return for the souls of others.
Kingsley
bore witness to a horrific case of the former, where a slave-woman had
given birth to twins and was quickly driven out of her village. The
natives stuffed the poor children in a wooden chest and threw them to
the mother. Unfortunately, one child died in the process, while the
other made it out of town and to safety, thanks to a well-meaning
missionary who took pity on the mother.
When Kingsley returned
to England to publish papers on those she had met and the things she
had seen, she faced overwhelming resistance from polite society. Many
places didn’t even allow her to speak in public, allowing her work to be
presented only if it was read by a man. Eventually she returned to
Africa, acting as a nurse during the Second Boer War. She died in 1900
from typhoid, but not before she brought a new level of enlightenment to
European society.
Diamonds, DeBeers, And A Secret Society
Rhodes
A
single discovery by a 15-year-old South African boy playing with the
rocks on his family farm in 1867 changed the face of his country
forever. Erasmus Jacobs picked up a particularly shiny rock, and it
caught the eye of a neighbor. That neighbor knew a traveling man who
knew a little bit about everything, who took the rock to Hopetown.
Someone there then passed it on to the Colonial Secretary, who sold it
to the Governor of the Cape. It was the Eureka Diamond, a massive,
yellowish diamond determined to be 21.19 carats.
Enter Cecil
Rhodes (pictured), both one of the most hated and most celebrated of all
British statesmen. Rhodes (who would later found the Rhodes
Scholarships), headed to South Africa and started buying diamond mines
on the cheap, after the miners that had been working them thought their
claims to the diamonds had run out. Rhodes then consolidated all the
mines he owned—and those that he didn’t—into the Rhodes DeBeers
Consolidated Mines. By the time he was done, he owned or controlled
about 90 percent of the world’s diamond mines.
He did this not
just for personal wealth, but to help realize his dream of absolute
British rule. Years before, he had written works outlining his goals of
uniting the entire world under the eye of his Queen. While in South
Africa, he took it upon himself to try and instigate rebellions that
would lead to the installation of an English government.
When
he died, it took several wills to distribute his massive fortune. Many
of his writings direct his fortune—amassed by kicking down the door of
South Africa’s diamond mines—to be spent toward the development of a
secret society. This society would be comprised of Britain’s richest and
most powerful people, about whom he was often quoted as saying could do
for England what Jesus did for the Catholics. Thus, his true intentions
were made perfectly clear: He wanted his money to ultimately go toward
advancing the British race, one he claimed was the greatest on Earth
(the Americans and Germans could tag along, too.)
Rene Caillie Enters Timbuktu
Rene-Caillie
Timbuktu
had long been surrounded by a certain mystique. Sitting on the edge of
the Sahara Desert, this Muslim capital was long off-limits to
non-Muslims. Because mankind hasn’t really changed that much over the
centuries, that made it the place that Europeans absolutely wanted to
see.
Britain’s Gordon Laing was the first person to enter the
city in 1826, but he was killed before he could make it far out again.
After five weeks in the city, he was given permission to leave, but he
was attacked, strangled, and decapitated on his way out (his personal
servant lived to tell the story).
Four years later, Rene
Caillie, the son of a French baker, decided to give Timbuktu a go. He
chose to do so without the typical retinue of soldiers, guards, and
servants most explorers traveled with. Instead, he read and studied the
Quran, learned Arabic, wore traditional dress, followed traditions and
cultural norms, and went undercover as an Egyptian-born Arab.
We
can’t help but think that actually arriving in Timbuktu had to have
been the biggest disappointment ever. Instead of an exotic city filled
with strange people, beautiful animals, exotic spices, and archetypal
walls made of solid gold, he encountered a small, muddy, desolate world.
If he had made it there several centuries earlier, when the city was at
its cultural peak, then his observations of the magical, mystical city
might have been on par with his expectations (aside from the golden
walls thing, obviously). Instead, he came away thinking everything there
felt rather sad.
He lived with a man named Sheikh Al Bekay
while in the city, always keeping up his disguise even while being shown
the house his predecessor lived in. His hosts were ultimately loath to
let him leave the city, but eventually he did so, with more success than
Laing.
As disappointing a place as Timbuktu had been, making
it back home still earned him the 10,000 francs promised by the French
government to the first person to visit the city and make it back. Yet,
Caillie still battled naysayers for the rest of his life, who argued
that he never truly made it to the city. Perhaps they simply refused to
believe that the beautiful golden city of legend was just a dreary place
where people slept in doorways.
Nathaniel Isaacs And The Wrongful Condemnation Of Shaka Zulu
Shaka
Nathaniel
Isaacs was born in Canterbury, England in 1808. By all accounts, he was
destined for a life working in an office. He found the work stuffy and
boring though, and ultimately ended up accepting a position on a ship
called the Mary, captained by a man he’d made friends with. Upon finding
out that another friend had journeyed into the uncharted territories of
East Africa, they decided to go looking for him.
The Mary was
wrecked near Port Natal, and while she was salvageable, it would take
three years to make her seaworthy again. During those three years,
Isaacs and a handful of crew members made their way inland, where they
were received by the Zulu warrior chief Shaka. The chief was not only
friendly and welcoming to Isaacs and his companions, but after the
Europeans joined with the Zulus during a raid and demonstrated the
effectiveness of muskets, Shaka granted Isaacs a land claim.
Later,
Isaacs would publish his writings about his experiences and observances
of the Zulu camps, in Travels and Adventures in Eastern Africa,
published in 1836. For a long time, it was one of the most complete
works written on Shaka and his successor, and it was considered one of
the most authoritative sources on life in Eastern Africa.
Only,
it wasn’t all that true. Letters between Isaacs and one of his
companions, Henry Francis Fynn (who was also writing a book about the
Zulu), advised that embellishments be added in order to make their books
more popular and sell more copies. While not all of the stories and
legends of Shaka Zulu have been debunked, researchers from Rhodes
University suggest that many of the bloodier stories about Shaka served
another purpose: to popularize the idea that European settlers and
explorers had the right to carve up the barbaric Africa into colonies.
Stories
were told of Shaka cutting apart pregnant women, murdering
indiscriminately, and inventing new, brutal battle tactics. It’s since
been shown that these “new” tactics were really hunting strategies that
had been used for generations, and it’s unknown if Shaka ever had a
formal army at all. Researchers know he was largely responsible for the
Zulu rise to power in South Africa, but beyond that, Shaka Zulu is
remaining stubbornly in the shadows of mystery.
