across the Sahara to Lake Chad, the River Benue, Timbuktu, and back again across the Sahara.
Samuel Baker (1821- 1893) was the first European to see the Murchison Falls and Lake Albert, which he did in 1864. He was actually hunting for the source of the Nile but was beaten to the prize by Speke (see below).
Richard Burton (1821-1890) was not only a great explorer but also a great scholar (he produced the first unabridged translation of The Thousand Nights and a Night, from its original Arabic. This is a collection of stories compiled over thousands of years by various authors, translators and scholars. Well known stories from The Nights include "Aladdin," "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” and "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor"). Burton’s most famous exploit was probably in 1853 when, dressed as an Arab, he visited the holy city of Mecca into which non-Muslims were forbidden to enter. In 1857 he and Speke set off from the east coast of Africa (modern day Tanzania) to find the source of the Nile. At Lake Tanganyika Burton fell seriously ill, leaving Speke to travel on alone.
John Hanning Speke (1827- 1864) spent 10 years with the Indian Army before starting his travels with Burton in Africa. Speke discovered Lake Victoria in August 1858. He initially believed it to be the source of the Nile but Burton didn't believe him and in 1860 Speke set out again, this time with James Grant. In July 1862 he did find what became accepted as the source of the Nile - the Ripon Falls north of Lake Victoria *.
David Livingstone (1813- 1873) arrived in Southern Africa as a missionary with the aim of improving the life of Africans through religion, European knowledge and trade. A qualified doctor and minister, he had worked in a cotton mill near Glasgow, Scotland, as a boy. Between 1853 and 1856 he crossed Africa from west to east, from Luanda in Angola to Quelimane in Mozambique, following the Zambezi River to the sea. On 16th November 1855 he became the first European to view what he named the Victoria Falls. Between 1858 and 1864 he explored the Shire and Ruvuma river valleys and Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi). In 1865, not accepting Speke’s claim he set off to find the source of the River Nile.
Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904) was a journalist sent in 1869 by the New York Herald to find Livingstone, who had been presumed dead for four years because no-one in Europe had heard from him in that time. Stanley found him at Uiji on the edge of Lake Tanganyika in Central Africa on 13 November 1871. Stanley's words "Dr Livingstone, I presume?" have gone down in history as one of the greatest understatements ever made. Dr Livingstone is said to have replied, "You have brought me new life." Livingstone had missed the Franco-Prussian War, the opening of the Suez Canal, and the inauguration of the transatlantic telegraph. He refused to return to Europe with Stanley and continued with his quest to find the source of the Nile. Livingstone died in May 1873 in the swamps around Lake Bangweulu. His heart and viscera were buried, and his body was carried to Zanzibar, from where it was shipped to Britain. He was buried at Westminster Abbey in London.
Unlike Livingstone, Stanley was motivated by fame and fortune. He travelled in large, well-armed expeditions. He had 200 porters on his expedition to find Livingstone, and often travelled with only a few bearers. Stanley's second expedition set off from Zanzibar towards Lake Victoria, which he sailed around in his boat, the Lady Alice, and then headed into Central Africa towards Nyangwe and the Congo (Zaire) River. He followed this for some 3,220 kilometres from its tributaries to the sea, reaching Boma in August 1877. He then returned to Central Africa to find Emin Pasha, a German explorer believed to be in danger from warring cannibals.
Mary Kingsley (1862 - 1900) was educated at home where she learned the rudiments of natural history from her adventurous and well-travelled father and his extensive library. He had spent most of his life accompanying noblemen around the world, keeping diaries and notes which he hoped to later publish. He employed a tutor to teach his daughter German so that she could help him translate scientific papers. His comparative study of sacrificial rites around the world was his major passion and it was Mary's desire to complete this work after her parents' deaths in 1892, within six weeks of each other. This task took her to West Africa. Her two journeys there were not remarkable for their geological exploration, but were remarkable for being undertaken, by her, a sheltered, middle-class, Victorian spinster in her thirties with no knowledge of African languages or French, with very little money (she arrived in West Africa with only £300) and alone. Kingsley did however collect specimens for science, including a new fish which was named after her. She died nursing prisoners of war in Simon's Town (Cape Town) during the Anglo-Boer War. (Source: BBC World Service)
* It is now generally accepted that the true source of the Nile is in fact the Rukarara River in Nyungwe Forest, Rwanda.
The Scramble for Africa
During the late 1800s, exploration was combined with conquest, and Europeans became the rulers of most of the African continent. Until the 19th century the French had played a smaller role in Africa than the British, but their defeat in the Napoleonic Wars made them look to Africa to extend their influence. North Africa became a theatre for Anglo-French rivalry that nearly brought the two countries to the brink of war in southern Sudan. There were few French explorers but there was a growing interest in using North Africa to play the Germans off against the British. It was this that triggered what became known as the "Scramble for Africa".
Britain tried not to play a part in this early scramble, being more of a trading empire rather than a colonial empire; however, it soon became clear it had to gain its own African empire to maintain the balance of power.
By the end of the century the French had conceived a type of colonial rule which was highly centralised and made little effort to involve local rulers. This contrasted with the British colonial style which, in northern Nigeria, took the form of indirect rule through the local Emirs and chiefs.
Despite the missionaries and the search for new trading outlets, Europeans in the first eighty years of the 19th century were not driven by any desire to rule and administer Africa. Leading African merchants worked on equal terms with European traders in the 1860s, and even enjoyed the attention of Queen Victoria.
In the second half of the 19th century the piecemeal patchwork of alliances, trading colonies, protectorates and understandings, yielded to sweeping changes imposed by the Europeans. No longer content with improvising as they went along, the British and the French were determined to put things in order and establish a clear administrative hierarchy with Europeans at the top and Africans below.
Meanwhile, some of the oldest trading nations in Europe abandoned Africa and new players emerged. The Dutch and Danes left the continent whereas Germany, Italy and Belgium moved in.
Elsewhere, the mineral wealth of the continent fixated and dazzled European adventurers. Soon casual commercial dealings were replaced by systematic exploitation and control. At the beginning of the 19th century the European grasp of African geography was confined mainly to the coast, but by the end of the century Europeans were straddling the continent with railways and roads. Now it was possible for them to take control - politically and commercially.
Paradoxically, Britain, the staunch advocate of free trade, emerged, prior to WW1, with not only the largest overseas empire due to its long-standing presence in India, but also the greatest gains in the "Scramble for Africa", reflecting its advantageous position at its inception. Between 1885 and 1914 Britain controlled nearly 30% of Africa's population, compared to 15% for France, 9% for Germany, 7% for Belgium and 1% for Italy.
The “Scramble for Africa” had the effect of defusing and displacing tensions between the European powers. Eventually however, the trade-offs and alliances could not disguise the fact that Imperial Germany was on a collision course with Britain and France. This interaction soon disintegrated into the chaos, death and destruction of World War I.
Although
