Africa

AFRICA AFRICA, the name of a continent representing the largest of the three
great southward projections from the main mass of the earth’s surface. It
includes within its remarkably regular outline an area, according to the
most recent computations, of 11,262,000 sq. m., excluding the islands.1
Separated from Europe by the Mediterranean Sea, it is joined to Asia at its
N.E. extremity by the Isthmus of Suez, 80 m. wide. From the most northerly
point, Ras ben Sakka, a little west of Cape Blanc, in 37 deg. 21′ N., to
the most southerly point, Cape Agulhas, 34 deg. 51′ 15” S., is a distance
approximately of 5000 m.; from Cape Verde, 17 deg. 33′ 22” W., the
westernmost point, to Ras Hafun, 51 deg. 27′ 52” E., the most easterly
projection, is a distance (also approximately) of 4600 m. The length of
coast-line is 16,100 m. and the absence of deep indentations of the shore
is shown by the fact that Europe, which covers only 3,760,000 sq. m., has a
coast-line of 19,800 m.
I. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY The main structural lines of the continent show both the east-to-west
direction characteristic, at least in the eastern hemisphere, of the more
northern parts of the world, and the north-to-south direction seen in the
southern peninsulas. Africa is thus composed of two segments at right
angles, the northern running from east to west, the southern from north to
south, the subordinate lines corresponding in the main to these two
directions. Main Geographical Features.—The mean elevation of the continent
approximates closely to 2000 ft., which is roughly the elevation of both
North and South America, but is considerably less than that of Asia (3117
ft.). In contrast with the other continents it is marked by the
comparatively small area both of very high and of very low ground, lands
under 600 ft. occupying an unusually small part of the surface; while not
only are the highest elevations inferior to those of Asia and South
America, but the area of land over 10,000 ft. is also quite insignificant,
being represented almost entirely by individual peaks and mountain ranges.
Moderately elevated tablelands are thus the characteristic feature of the
continent, though the surface of these is broken by higher peaks and
ridges. (So prevalent are these isolated peaks and ridges that a special
term [Inselberg-landschaft] has been adopted in Germany to describe this
kind of country, which is thought to be in great part the result of wind
action.) As a general rule, the higher tablelands lie to the east and
south, while a progressive diminution in altitude towards the west and
north is observable. Apart from the lowlands and the Atlas range, the
continent may be divided into two regions of higher and lower plateaus, the
dividing line (somewhat concave to the north-west) running from the middle
of the Red Sea to about 6 deg. S. on the west coast. We thus obtain the
following four main divisions of the continent:—-(1) The coast plains—-
often fringed seawards by mangrove swamps—never stretching far from the
coast, except on the lower courses of streams. Recent alluvial flats are
found chiefly in the delta of the more important rivers. Elsewhere the
coast lowlands merely form the lowest steps of the system of terraces which
constitutes the ascent to the inner plateaus. (2) The Atlas range, which,
orographically, is distinct from the rest of the continent, being
unconnected with any other area of high ground, and separated from the rest
of the continent on the south by a depressed and desert area (the Sahara),
in places below sea-level. (3) The high southern and eastern plateaus,
rarely falling below 2000 ft., and having a mean elevation of about 3500
ft. (4) The north and west African plains, bordered and traversed by bands
of higher ground, but generally below 2000 ft. This division includes the
great desert of the Sahara. The third and fourth divisions may be again subdivided. Thus the high
plateaus include:—(a) The South African plateau as far as about 12 deg. S.,
bounded east, west and south by bands of high ground which fall steeply to
the coasts. On this account South Africa has a general resemblance to an
inverted saucer. Due south the plateau rim is formed by three parallel
steps with level ground between them. The largest of these level areas, the
Great Karroo, is a dry, barren region, and a large tract of the plateau
proper is of a still more arid character and is known as the Kalahari
Desert. The South African plateau is connected towards the north-east with
(b) the East African plateau, with probably a slightly greater average
elevation, and marked by some distinct features. It is formed by a widening
out of the eastern axis of high ground, which becomes subdivided into a
number of zones running north and south and consisting in turn of ranges,
tablelands and depressions. The most striking feature is the existence of
two great lines of depression, due largely to the subsidence of whole
segments of the earth’s crust, the lowest parts of which are occupied by
vast lakes. Towards the south the two lines converge and give place to one
great valley (occupied by Lake Nyasa), the southern part of which is less
distinctly due to rifting and subsidence than the rest of the system.
Farther north the western depression, sometimes known as the Central
African trough or Albertine rift-valley, is occupied for more than half its
length by water, forming the four lakes of Tanganyika, Kivu, Albert Edward
and Albert, the first-named over 400 m. long and the longest freshwater
lake in the world. Associated with these great valleys are a number of
volcanic peaks, the greatest of which occur on a meridional line east of
the eastern trough. The eastern depression, known as the East African
trough or rift-valley, contains much smaller lakes, many of them brackish
and without outlet, the only one comparable to those of the western trough
being Lake Rudolf or Basso Norok. At no great distance east of this rift-
valley are Kilimanjaro—with its two peaks Kibo and Mawenzi, the former
19,321 ft., and the culminating point of the whole continent—and Kenya
(17,007 ft.). Hardly less important is the Ruwenzori range (over 16,600
ft.), which lies east of the western trough. Other volcanic peaks rise from
the floor of the valleys, some of the Kirunga (Mfumbiro) group, north of
Lake Kivu, being still partially active. (c) The third division of the
higher region of Africa is formed by the Abyssinian highlands, a rugged
mass of mountains forming the largest continuous area of its altitude in
the whole continent, little of its surface falling below 5000 ft., while
the summits reach heights of 15,000 to 16,000 ft. This block of country
lies just west of the line of the great East African trough, the northern
continuation of which passes along its eastern escarpment as it runs up to
join the Red Sea. There is, however, in the centre a circular basin
occupied by Lake Tsana. Both in the east and west of the continent the bordering highlands are
continued as strips of plateau parallel to the coast, the Abyssinian
mountains being continued northwards along the Red Sea coast by a series of
ridges reaching in places a height of 7000 ft. In the west the zone of high
land is broader but somewhat lower. The most mountainous districts lie
inland from the head of the Gulf of Guinea (Adamawa, &c.), where heights of
6000 to 8000 ft. are reached. Exactly at the head of the gulf the great
peak of the Cameroon, on a line of Volcanic action continued by the islands
to the south-west, has a height of 13,370 ft., while Clarence Peak, in
Fernando Po, the first of the line of islands, rises to over 9000. Towards
the extreme west the Futa Jallon highlands form an important diverging
point of rivers, but beyond this, as far as the Atlas chain, the elevated
rim of the continent is almost wanting. The area between the east and west coast highlands, which north of 17
deg. N. is mainly desert, is divided into separate basins by other bands of
high ground, one of which runs nearly centrally through North Africa in a
line corresponding roughly with the curved axis of the continent as a
whole. The best marked of the basins so formed (the Congo basin) occupies a
circular area bisected by the equator, once probably the site of an inland
sea. The arid region, the Sahara—the largest desert in the world, covering
3,500,000 sq. m.—extends from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. Though generally
of slight elevation it contains mountain ranges with peaks rising to 8000
ft. Bordered N.W. by the Atlas range, to the N.E. a rocky plateau separates
it from the Mediterranean; this plateau gives place at the extreme east to
the delta of the Nile. That river (see below) pierces the desert without
modifying its character. The Atlas range, the north-westerly part of the
continent, between its seaward and landward heights encloses elevated
steppes in places 100 m. broad. From the inner slopes of the plateau
numerous wadis take a direction towards the Sahara. The greater part of
that now desert region is, indeed, furrowed by old water-channels. The following table gives the approximate altitudes of the chief
mountains and lakes of the continent:—
Mountains. Ft. Lakes. Ft. Rungwe (Nyasa) . 10,400 Chad . . . . 8502 Drakensberg . . 10,7002 Leopold II . . 1100 Lereko or Sattima . 13,2143 Rudolf . . . 1250
(Aberdare Range) Nyasa . . . 16453 Cameroon . . 13,370 Albert Nyanza . 20282 Elgon . . . 14,1523 Tanganyika . . 26243 Karissimbi . . Ngami . . . . 2950
(Mfumbiro) . 14,6833 Mweru . . . . 3000 Meru . . . 14,9553 Albert Edward . 30043 Taggharat (Atlas) . 15,0002 Bangweulu. . . 3700 Simen Mountains, . 15,1602 Victoria Nyanza. 37203
Abyssinia Abai . . . . 4200 Ruwenzori . . 16,6193 Kivu . . . . 48293 Kenya . . . 17,0073 Tsana . . . . 5690 Kilimanjaro . . 19,3213 Naivasha . . . 61353 The Hydrographic Systems.—-From the outer margin of the African plateaus
a large number of streams run to the sea with comparatively short courses,
while the larger rivers flow for long distances on the interior highlands
before breaking through the outer ranges. The main drainage of the
continent is to the north and west, or towards the basin of the Atlantic
Ocean. The high lake plateau of East Africa contains the head-waters of the
Nile and Congo: the former the longest, the latter the largest river of the
continent. The upper Nile receives its chief supplies from the mountainous
region adjoining the Central African trough in the neighbourhood of the
equator. Thence streams pour east to the Victoria Nyanza, the largest
African lake (covering over 26,000 sq. m.), and west and north to the
Albert Edward and Albert Nyanzas, to the latter of which the effluents of
the other two lakes add their waters. Issuing from it the Nile flows north,
and between 7 deg. and 10 deg. N. traverses a vast marshy level during
which its course is liable to blocking by floating vegetation. After
receiving the Bahr-el-Ghazal from the west and the Sobat, Blue Nile and
Atbara from the Abyssinian highlands (the chief gathering ground of the
flood-water), it crosses the great desert and enters the Mediterranean by a
vast delta. The most remote head-stream of the Congo is the Chambezi, which
flows south-west into the marshy Lake Bangweulu. From this lake issues the
Congo, known in its upper course by various names. Flowing first south, it
afterwards turns north through Lake Mweru and descends to the forest-clad
basin of west equatorial Africa. Traversing this in a majestic northward
curve and receiving vast supplies of water from many great tributaries, it
finally turns south-west and cuts a way to the Atlantic Ocean through the
western highlands. North of the Congo basin and separated from it by a
broad undulation of the surface is the basin of Lake Chad—-a flat-shored,
shallow lake filled principally by the Shad coming from the south-east.
West of this is the basin of the Niger, the third river of Africa, which,
though flowing to the Atlantic, has its principal source in the far west,
and reverses the direction of flow exhibited by the Nile and Congo. An
important branch, however—the Benue—comes from the south-east. These four
river-basins occupy the greater part of the lower plateaus of North and
West Africa, the remainder consisting of arid regions watered only by
intermittent streams which do not reach the sea. Of the remaining rivers of
the Atlantic basin the Orange, in the extreme south, brings the drainage
from the Drakensberg on the opposite side of the continent, while the
Kunene, Kwanza, Ogowe and Sanaga drain the west corst highlands of the
southern limb; the Volta, Komoe, Bandama, Gambia and Senegal the highlands
of the western limb. North of the Senegal for over 1000 m. of coast the
arid region reaches to the Atlantic. Farther north are the streams, with
comparatively short courses, which reach the Atlantic and Mediterranean
from the Atlas mountains. Of the rivers flowing to the Indian Ocean the only one draining any large
part of the interior plateaus is the Zambezi, whose western branches rise
in the west coast highlands. The main stream has its rise in 11 deg. 21′
3” S. 24 deg. 22′ E. at an elevation of 5000 ft. It flows west and south
for a considerable distance before turning to the east. All the largest
tributaries, including the Shire, the outflow of Lake Nyasa, flow down the
southern slopes of the band of high ground which stretches across the
conbnent in 10 deg. to 12 deg. S. In the south-west the Zambezi system
interlaces with that of the Taukhe (or Tioghe), from which it at times
receives surplus water. The rest of the water of the Taukhe, known in its
middle course as the Okavango, is lost in a system of swamps and saltpans
which formerly centred in Lake Ngami, now dried up. Farther south the
Limpopo drains a portion of the interior plateau but breaks through the
bounding highlands on the side of the continent nearest its source. The
Rovuma, Rufiji, Tana, Juba and Webi Shebeli principally drain the outer
slopes of the East African highlands, the last named losing itself in the
sands in close proximity to the sea. Another large stream, the Hawash,
rising in the Abyssinian mountains, is lost in a saline depression near the
Gulf of Aden. Lastly, between the basins of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans
there is an area of inland drainage along the centre of the East African
plateau, directed chiefly into the lakes in the great rift-valley. The
largest river is the Omo, which, fed by the rains of the Abyssinian
highlands, carries down a large body of water into Lake Rudolf. The rivers
of Africa are generally obstructed either by bars at their mouths or by
cataracts at no great distance up-stream. But when these obstacles have
been overcome the rivers and lakes afford a network of navigable waters of
vast extent. The calculation of the areas of African drainage systems, made by Dr A.
Bludau (Petermanns Mitteilungen, 43, 1897, pp. 184-186) gives the following
general results:—
Basin of the Atlantic . . . . . 4,070,000 sq. m. ” ” Mediterranean . . . 1,680,000 ” ” ” Indian Ocean . . . . 2,086,000 ” Inland drainage area . . . . . 3,452,000 ” The areas of individual river-basins are:—
Congo (length over 3000 m.) . . 1,425,000 sq. m. Nile ( ” fully 4000 m.) . . 1,082,0004 ” Niger ( ” about 2600 m.) . . 808,0005 ” Zambezi ( ” ” 2000 m.) . . 513,500 ” Lake Chad . . . . . . . . . 394,000 ” Orange (length about 1300 m.) . . 370,505 ”
” (actual drainage area) . . 172,500 ”
The area of the Congo basin is greater than that of any other river
except the Amazon, while the African inland drainage area is greater than
that of any continent but Asia, in which the corresponding area is
4,000,000 sq. m. The principal African lakes have been mentioned in the description of the
East African plateau, but some of the phenomena connected with them may be
spoken of more particularly here. As a rule the lakes which occupy portions
of the great rift-valleys have steep sides and are very deep. This is the
case with the two largest of the type, Tanganyika and Nyasa, the latter of
which has depths of 430 fathoms. Others, however, are shallow, and hardly,
reach the steep sides of the valleys in the dry season. Such are Lake
Rukwa, in a subsidiary depression north of Nyasa, and Eiassi and Manyara in
the system of the eastern rift-valley. Lakes of the broad type are of
moderate depth, the deepest sounding in Victoria Nyanza being under 50
fathoms. Apart from the seasonal variations of level, most of the lakes
show periodic fluctuations, while a progressive desiccation of the whole
region is said to be traceable, tending to the ultimate disappearance of
the lakes. Such a drying up has been in progress during long geologic ages,
but doubt exists as to its practical importance at the present time. The
periodic fluctuations in the level of Lake Tanganyika are such that its
outllow is intermittent. Besides the East African lakes the principal are:—-
Lake Chad, in the northern area of inland drainage; Bangweulu and Mweru,
traversed by the head-stream of the Congo; and Leopold II. and Ntomba
(Mantumba), within the great bend of that river. All, exceot possibly
Mweru, are more or less shallow, and Chad appears to by drying up. The
altitudes of the African lakes have already been stated. Divergent opinions have been beld as to the mode of origin of the East
African lakes, especially Tanganyika, which some geologists have considered
to represent an old arm of the sea, dating from a time when the whole
central Congo basin was under water; others holding that the lake water has
accumulated in a depression caused by subsidence. The former view is based
on the existence in the lake of organisms of a decidedly marine type. They
include a jelly-fish, molluscs, prawns, crabs, &c., and were at first
considered to form an isolated group found in no other of the African
lakes; but this supposition has been proved to be erroneous. Islands.—With one exception—-Madagascar—the African islands are small.
Madagascar, with an area of 229,820 sq. m., is, after New Guinea and
Borneo, the largest island of the world. It lies off the S.E. coast of the continent, from which it is separated
by the deep Mozambique channel, 250 m. wide at its narrowest point.
Madagascar in its general structure, as in flora and fauna, forms a
connecting link between Africa and southern Asia. East of Madagascar are
the small islands of Mauritius and Reunion. Sokotra lies E.N.E. of Cape
Guardafui. Off the north-west coast are the Canary and Cape Verde
archipelagoes. which, like some small islands in the Gulf of Guinea, are of
volcanic origin. Climate and Health.—-Lying almost entirely within the tropics, and
equally to north and south of the equator, Africa does not show excessive
variations of temperature. Great heat is experienced in the lower plains
and desert regions of North Africa, removed by the great width of the
continent from the influence of the ocean, and here, too, the contrast
between day and night, and between summer and winter, is greatest. (The
rarity of the air and the great radiation during the night cause the
temperature in the Sahara to fall occasionally to freezing point.) Farther
south, the heat is to some extent modified by the moisture brought from the
ocean, and by the greater elevation of a large part of the surface,
especially in East Africa, where the range of temperature is wider than in
the Congo basin or on the Guinea coast. In the extreme north and south the
climate is a warm temperate one, the northern countries being on the whole
hotter and drier than those in the southern zone; the south of the
continent being narrower than the north, the influence of the surrounding
ocean is more felt. The most important climatic differences are due to
variations in the amount of rainfall. The wide heated plains of the Sahara,
and in a lesser degree the corresponding zone of the Kalahari in the south,
have an exceedingly scanty rainfall, the winds which blow over them from
the ocean losing part of their moisture as they pass over the outer
highlands, and becoming constantly drier owing to the heating effects of
the burning soil of the interior; while the scarcity of mountain ranges in
the more central parts likewise tends to prevent condensation. In the inter-
tropical zone of summer precipitation, the rainfall is greatest when the
sun is vertical or soon after. It is therefore greatest of all near the
equator, where the sun is twice vertical, and less in the direction of both
tropics. The rainfall zones are, however, somewhat deflected from a due
west-to-east direction, the drier northern conditions extending southwards
along the east coast, and those of the south northwards along the west.
Within the equatorial zone certain areas, especially on the shores of the
Gulf of Guinea and in the upper Nile basin, have an intensified rainfall,
but this rarely approaches that of the rainiest regions of the world. The
rainiest district in all Africa is a strip of coastland west of Mount
Cameroon, where there is a mean annual rainfall of about 390 in. as
compared with a mean of 458 in. at Cherrapunji, in Assam. The two distinct
rainy seasons of the equatorial zone, where the sun is vertical at half-
yearly intervals, become gradually merged into one in the direction of the
tropics, where the sun is overhead but once. Snow falls on all the higher
mountain ranges, and on the highest the climate is thoroughly Alpine. The
countries bordering the Sahara are much exposed to a very dry wind, full of
fine particles of sand, blowing from the desert towards the sea. Known in
Egypt as the khamsin, on the Mediterranean as the sirocco, it is called on
the Guinea coast the harmattan. This wind is not invariably hot; its great
dryness causes so much evaporation that cold is not infrequently the
result. Similar dry winds blow from the Kalahari in the south. On the
eastern coast the monsoons of the Indian Ocean are regularly felt, and on
the south-east hurricanes are occasionally experienced. While the climate of the north and south, especially the south, is
eminently healthy, and even the intensely heated Sahara is salubrious by
reason of its dryness, the tropical zone as a whole is, for European races,
the most unhealthy portion of the world. This is especially the case in the
lower and moister regions, such as the west coast, where malarial fever is
very prevalent and deadly; the most unfavourable factors being humidity
with absence of climatic variation (daily or seasonal). The higher
plateaus, where not only is the average temperature lower, but such
variations are more extensive, are more healthy; and in certain localities
(e.g. Abyssinia and parts of British East Africa) Europeans find the
climate suitable for permanent residence. On tablelands over 6500 ft. above
the sea, frost is not uncommon at night, even in places directly under the
equator. The acclimatization of white men in tropical Africa generally is
dependent largely on the successful treatment of tropical diseases.
Districts which had been notoriously deadly to Europeans were rendered
comparatively healthy after the discovery, in 1899, of the species of
mosquito which propagates malarial fever, and the measures thereafter taken
for its destruction and the filling up of swamps. The rate of mortality
among the natives from tropical diseases is also high, one of the most
fatal being that known as sleeping sickness. (The ravages of this disease,
which also attacks Europeans, reached alarming proportions between 1893 and
1907, and in the last-named year an international conference was held in
London to consider measures to combat it.) When removed to colder regions
natives of the equatorial districts suffer greatly from chest complaints.
Smallpox also makes great ravages among the negro population. Flora.—The vegetation of Africa follows very closely the distribution of
heat and moisture. The northern and southern temperate zones have a flora
distinct from that of the continent generally, which is tropical. In the
countries bordering the Mediterranean are groves of oranges and olive
trees, evergreen oaks, cork trees and pines, intermixed with cypresses,
myrtles, arbutus and fragrant tree-heaths. South of the Atlas range the
conditions alter. The zones of minimum rainfall have a very scanty flora,
consisting of plants adapted to resist the great dryness. Characteristic of
the Sahara is the date-palm, which flourishes where other vegetation can
scarcely maintain existence, while in the semidesert regions the acacia
(whence is obtained gum-arabic) is abundant. The more humid regions have a
richer vegetation —dense forest where the rainfall is greatest and
variations of temperature least, conditions found chiefly on the tropical
coasts, and in the west African equatorial basin with its extension towards
the upper Nile; and savanna interspersed with trees on the greater part of
the plateaus, passing as the desert regions are approached into a scrub
vegetation consisting of thorny acacias, &c. Forests also occur on the
humid slopes of mountain ranges up to a certain elevation. In the coast
regions the typical tree is the mangrove, which flourishes wherever the
soil is of a swamp character. The dense forests of West Africa contain, in
addition to a great variety of dicotyledonous trees, two palms, the Elaeis
guincensis (oil-palm) and Raphia vinifera (bamboo-palm), not found,
generally speaking, in the savanna regions. The bombax or silk-cotton tree
attains gigantic proportions in the forests, which are the home of the
indiarubber-producing plants and of many valuable kinds of timber trees,
such as odum (Chlorophora excelsa), ebony, mahogany (Khaya senegalensis),
African teak or oak (Oldfieldia africana) and camwood (Baphia nitida.) The
climbing plants in the tropical forests are exceedingly luxuriant and the
undergrowth or “bush” is extremely dense. In the savannas the most
characteristic trees are the monkey bread tree or baobab (Adanisonia
digitata), doom palm (Hyphaene) and euphorbias. The coffee plant grows wild
in such widely separated places as Liberia and southern Abyssinia. The
higher mountains have a special flora showing close agreement over wide
intervals of space, as well as affinities with the mountain flora of the
eastern Mediterranean, the Himalayas and Indo-China (cf. A. Engler, Uber
die Hochgebirgsflora des tropischen Afrika, 1892). In the swamp regions of north-east Africa the papyrus and associated
plants, including the soft-wooded ambach, flourish in immense quantities—-
and little else is found in the way of vegetation. South Africa is largely
destitute of forest save in the lower valleys and coast regions. Tropical
flora disappears, and in the semi-desert plains the fleshy, leafless,
contorted species of kapsias, mesembryanthemums, aloes and other succulent
plants make their appearance. There are, too, valuable timber trees, such
as the yellow pine (Podocarpus elongatus), stinkwood (Ocotea), sneezewood
or Cape ebony (Pteroxylon utile) and ironwood. Extensive miniature woods of
heaths are found in almost endless variety and covered throughout the
greater part of the year with innumerable blossoms in which red is very
prevalent. Of the grasses of Africa alfa is very abundant in the plateaus
of the Atlas range. Fauna.—The fauna again shows the effect of the characteristics of the
vegetation. The open savannas are the home of large ungulates, especially
antelopes, the giraffe (peculiar to Africa), zebra, buffalo, wild ass and
four species of rhinoceros; and of carnivores, such as the lion, leopard,
hyaena, &c. The okapi (a genus restricted to Africa) is found only in the
dense forests of the Congo basin. Bears are confined to the Atlas region,
wolves and foxes to North Africa. The elephant (though its range has become
restricted through the attacks of hunters) is found both in the savannas
and forest regions, the latter being otherwise poor in large game, though
the special habitat of the chimpanzee and gorilla. Baboons and mandrills,
with few exceptions, are peculiar to Africa. The single-humped camel—as a
domestic animal—is especially characteristic of the northern deserts and
steppes. The rivers in the tropical zone abound with hippopotami and crocodiles,
the former entirely confined to Africa. The vast herds of game, formerly so
characteristic of many parts of Africa, have much diminished with the
increase of intercourse with the interior. Game reserves have, however,
been established in South Africa, British Central Africa, British East
Africa, Somahland, &c., while measures for the protection of wild animals
were laid down in an international convention signed in May 1900. The ornithology of northern Affica presents a close resemblance to that
of southern Europe, scarcely a species being found which does not also
occur in the other countries bordering the Mediterranean. Among the birds
most characteristic of Africa are the ostrich and the secretary-bird. The
ostrich is widely dispersed, but is found chiefly in the desert and steppe
regions. The secretary-bird is common in the south. The weaver birds and
their allies, including the long-tailed whydahs, are abundant, as are,
among game-birds, the francolin and guinea-fowl. Nany of the smaller birds,
such as the sun-birds, bee-eaters, the parrots and halcyons, as well as the
larger plantain-eaters, are noted for the brilliance of their plumage. Of
reptiles the lizard and chameleon are common, and there are a number of
venomous serpents, though these are not so numerous as in other tropical
countries. The scorpion is abundant. Of insects Africa has many thousand
different kinds; of these the locust is the proverbial scourge of the
continent, and the ravages of the termites or white ants are almost
incredible. The spread of malaria by means of mosquitoes has already been
mentioned. The tsetse fly, whose bite is fatal to all domestic animals, is
common in many districts of South and East Africa. Fortunately it is found
nowhere outside Africa. (E. HE.; F. R. C.) 1 With the islands, 11,498,000 sq. m. 2 Estimated. 3 See the calculations of Capt. T. T. Behrens, Geog. Journal, vol. xxix.
(1907). 4 The estimate of Capt. H. G. Lyons in 1905 was 1,107,227 sq. mi. 5 including waterless tracts naturally belonging to the river-basin.
II. GEOLOGY In shape and general geological structure Africa bears a close
resemblance to India. Both possess a meridional extension with a broad east
and west folded region in the north. In both a successive series of
continental deposits, ranging from the Carboniferous to the Rhaetic, rests
on an older base of crystalline rocks. In the words of Professor Suess,
“India and Africa are true plateau countries.” Of the primitive axes of Africa few traces remain. Both on the east and
west a broad zone of crystalline rochs extends parallel with the coast-line
to form the margin of the elevated plateau of the interior. Occasionally
the crystalline belt comes to the coast, but it is usually reached by two
steps known as the coastal belt and foot-plateau. On the flanks of the
primitive western axis certain ancient sedimentary strata are thrown into
folds which were completed before the commencement of the mesozoic period.
In the south, the later palaeozoic rocks are also thrown into acute folds
by a movement acting from the south, and which ceased towards the close of
the mesozoic period. In northern Africa the folded region of the Atlas
belongs to the comparatively recent date of the Alpine system. None of
these earth movements affected the interior, for here the continental
mesozoic deposits rest, undisturbed by folding, on the primary sedimentary
and crystalline rocks. The crystalline massif, therefore, presents a solid
block which has remained elevated since early palaeozoic times, and against
which earth waves of several geological periods have broken. The formations older than the mesozoic are remarkably unfossiliferous, so
that the determination of their age is frequently a matter of speculation,
and in the following table the European equivalents of the pre-Karroo
formations in many regions must be regarded as subject to considerable
revision. Rocks of Archean age cover wide areas in the interior, in West and East
Africa and across the Sahara. Along the coastal margins they underlie the
newer formations and appear in the deep valleys and kloofs wherever
denudation has laid them bare. The prevailing types are granites, gneisses
and schists. In the central regions the predominant strike of the fohae is
north and south. The rocks, for convenience classed as pre-Cambrian, occur
as several unconformable groups, chiefly developed in the south where alone
their stratigraphy has been determined. They are unfossiliferous, and in
the absence of undoubted Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian strata in Africa
they may be regarded as of older date than any of these formations. The
general occurrence of jasper-bearing rocks is of interest, as these are
always present in the ancient pressure-altered sedimentary formations of
America and Europe. Some unfossiliferous conglomerates, sandstones and
dolomites in South Africa and on the west coast are considered to belong to
the Cambrian, Ordovician and Silurian formations, but merely from their
occurrence beneath strata yielding Devonian fossils. In Cape Colony the
Silurian age of the Table Mountain Sandstone is based on such evidence. The Devonian and Carboniferous formations are well represented in the
north and south and in northern Angola. Up to the close of the palaeozoic period the relative positions of the
ancient land masses and oceans remain unsolved; but the absence of marine
strata of early palaeozoic age from Central Africa points to there being
land in this direction. In late Carboniferous times Africa and India were
undoubtedly united to form a large continent, called by Suess Gondwana
Land. In each country the same succession of the rocks is met with; over
both the same specialized orders of reptiles roamed and were entombed. The interior of the African portion of Gondwana Land was occupied by
several large lakes in which an immense thickness—amounting to over 18,000
ft. in South Africa—-of sandstones and marls, forming the Karroo system,
was laid down. This is par excellence the African formation, and covers
immense areas in South Africa and the Congo basin, with detached portions
in East Africa. During the whole of the time—-Carboniferous to Rhaetic—that
this great accumulation of freshwater beds was taking place, the interior
of the continent must have been undergoing depression. The commencement of
the period was marked by one of the most wonderful episodes in the
geological history of Africa. Preserved in the formation known as the Dwyka
Conglomerate, are evidences that at this time the greater portion of South
Africa was undergoing extreme glaciation, while the same conditions appear
to have prevailed in India
TABLE OF FORMATIONS
Sedimentary. Igneous. Recent Alluvium; travertine; coral; sand dunes; continental } Some volcanic
islands; dunes. Generally distributed } rift-valley
volcanoes. Pleistocene. Ancient alluviums and } gravels; travertine. }
Generally distributed. } A long-continued Pliocene. N. Africa; Madagascar. } succession in the
} central and
northern Miocene. N. Africa. } regions and among
} the island
groups. Oligocene. N. Africa. } Doubtfully represented
} south of the
Zambezi. Eocene. N. Africa, along east and } west coasts; Madagascar. } Cretaceous Extensively developed in } Diamond pipes of S.
N. Africa; along coast } Africa; Kaptian and foot-plateaus in east } fissure
eruptions; and west; Madagascar. } Ashangi traps of
} Abyssinia
{Jurassic N. Africa; E. Africa; K{ Madagascar; Stormberg } Chief volcanic
period a{ period (Rhaeric) in S. } in S. Africa r{ Africa } r{Trias. Beaufort Series in S. } o{ Africa; Congo basin; } o{ Central Africa; Algeria; }
{ Tunis. }
{Permian. Ecca Series in S. Africa. } Feebly, if anywhere
} developed. Carboniferous. N. Africa; Sabaki Shales } in E. Africa; Dwyka } and Wittebery Series in }
South Africa } Devonian. N. Africa; Angola; Bokkeveld } Not recorded.
Series in S. Africa } Silurian. {Table Mountain Sandstone }
{ in S. Africa, Silurian(?). } Ordovician. { Doubtfully represented } Klipriversberg and
{ in N. Africa, French } and Ventersdorp
Series Cambrian { Congo, Angola. and by } of the Transvaal (?).
{ Vaal River and Waterberg }
{ Series in S. Africa } Pre-Cambrian. Quartzites, conglomerates } phyllites, jasper-bearing } S. Africa and
generally. rocks and schists. }
Generally distributed. } Archeaan. Gneisses and schists of the } Igneous complex of continental platform. } sheared igneous
} rocks;granites.
and Australia. At the close of the Karroo period there was a remarkable
manifestation of volcanic activity which again has its parallel in the
Deccan traps of India. How far the Karroo formation extended beyond its present confines has not
been determined. To the east it reached India. In the south all that can be
said is that it extended to the south of Worcester in Cape Colony. The
Crystal Mountains of Angola may represent its western boundary; while the
absence of mesozoic strata beneath the Cretaceous rocks of the mid-Sahara
indicates that the system of Karroo lakeland had here reached its most
northerly extension. Towards the close of the Karroo period, possibly about
the middle, the southern rim of the great central depression became ridged
up to form the folded regions of the Zwaarteberg, Cedarberg and Langeberg
mountains in Cape Colony. This folded belt gives Africa its abrupt southern
termination, and may be regarded as an embryonic indication of its present
outline. The exact date of the maximum development of this folding is
unknown, but it had done its work and some 10,000 ft. of strata had been
removed before the commencement of the Cretaceous period. It appears to
approximate in time to the similar earth movement and denudation at the
close of the palaeozoic period in Europe. It was doubtless connected with
the disruption of Gondwana Land, since it is known that this great
alteration of geographical outline commenced in Jurassic times. The breaking up of Gondwana Land is usually considered to have been
caused by a series of blocks of country being let down by faulting with the
consequent formation of the Indian Ocean. Other blocks, termed horsts,
remained unmoved, the island of Madagascar affording a striking example. In
the African portion Ruwenzori is regarded by some geologists to be a block
mountain or horst. In Jurassic times 1he sea gained access to East Africa north of
Mozambique, but does not appear to have reached far beyond the foot-plateau
except in Abyssinia. The Cretaceous seas appear to have extended into the central Saharan
regions, for fossils of this age have been discovered in the interior. On
the west coast Cretaceous rocks extend continuously from Mogador to Cape
Blanco. From here they are absent up to the Gabun river, where they
commence to form a narrow fringe as far as the Kunene river, though often
overlain by recent deposits. They are again absent up to the Sunday river
in Cape Colony, where Lower Cretaceous rocks (for long considered to be of
Oolitic age) of an inshore character are met with. Strata of Upper
Cretaceous age occur in Pondoland and Natal, and are of exceptional
interest since the fossils show an intermingling of Pacific types with
other forms having European affinities. In Mozambique and in German East
Africa, Cretaceous rocks extend from the coast to a distance inland of over
100 m. Except in northern Africa, the Tertiary formations only occur in a few
isolated patches on the east and west coasts. In northern Africa they are
well developed and of much interest. They contain the well-known nummulitic
limestone of Eocene age, which has been traced from Egypt across Asia to
China. The Upper Eocene rocks of Egypt have also yielded primeval types of
the Proboscidea and other mammalia. Evidences for the greater extension of
the Eocene seas than was formerly considered to be the case have been
discovered around Sokoto. During Miocene times Passarge considers that the
region of the Zambezi underwent extreme desiccation. The effect of the Glacial epoch in Europe is shown in northern Africa by
the moraines of the higher Atlas, and the wider extension of the glaciers
on Kilimanjaro, Kenya and Ruwenzori, and by the extensive accumulations of
gravel over the Sahara. The earliest signs of igneous activity in Africa are to be found in the
granites, intrusive into the older rocks of the Cape peninsula, into those
of the Transvaal, and into the gneisses and schists of Central Africa. The
Ventersdorp boulder beds of the Transvaal may be of early palaeozoic age;
but as a whole the palaeozoic period in Africa was remarkably free from
volcanic and igneous disturbances. The close of the Stormberg period
(Rhaetic) was one of great volcanic activity in South Africa. Whilst the
later Secondary and Tertiary formations were being laid down in North
Africa and around the margins of the rest of the continent, Africa received
its last great accumulation of strata and at the same time underwent a
consecutive series of earth-movements. The additional strata consist of the
immense quantities of volcanic material on the plateau of East Africa, the
basalt flows of West Africa and possibly those of the Zambezi basin. The
exact period of the commencement of volcanic activity is unknown. In
Abyssinia the Ashangi traps are certainly post-Oolitic. In East Africa the
fissure eruptions are considered to belong to the Cretaceous. These early
eruptions were followed by those of Kenya, Mawenzi, Elgon, Chibcharagnani,
and these by the eruptions of Kibo, Longonot, Suswa and the Kyulu
Mountains. The last phase of vulcanicity took place along the great
meridional rifts of East Africa, and though feebly manifested has not
entirely passed away. In northern Africa a continuous sequence of volcanic
events has taken place from Eocene times to latest Tertiary; but in South
Africa it is doubtful if there have been any intrusions later then
Cretaceous. During this long continuance of vulcanicity, earth-movements were in
progress. In the north the chief movements gave rise to the system of
latitudinal folding and faulting of the Moroccan and Algerian Atlas, the
last stages being represented by the formation of the Algerian and Moroccan
coast-outline and the sundering of Europe from Africa at the Straits of
Gibraltar. Whilst northern Africa was being folded, the East African
plateau was broken up by a series of longitudinal rifts extending from
Nyasaland to Egypt. The depressed areas contain the long, narrow,
precipitously walled lakes of East Africa. The Red Sea also occupies a
meridional trough. Lastly there are the recent elevations of the northern coastal regions,
the Barbary coast and along the east coast. (W. G.*)
III. ETHNOLOGY In attempting a review of the races and tribes which
inhabit Africa, their distribution, movements and culture, it is advisable
that three points be borne in mind. The first of these is the comparative
absence of natural barriers in the interior, owing to which
intercommunication between tribes, the dissemination of culture and tribal
migration have been considerably facilitated. Hence the student must be
prepared to find that, for the most part, there are no sharp divisions to
mark the extent of the various races composing the population, but that the
number of what may be termed “transitional” peoples is unusually large.
The second point is that Africa, with the exception of the lower Nile
valley and what is known as Roman Africa (see AFRICA, ROMAN), is, so far as
its native inhabitants are concerned, a continent practically without a
history, and possessing no records from which such a history might be
reconstructed. The early movements of tribes, the routes by which they
reached their present abodes, and the origin of such forms of culture as
may be distinguished in the general mass of customs, beliefs, &c., are
largely matters of conjecture. The negro is essentially the child of the
moment; and his memory, both tribal and individual, is very short. The
third point is that many theories which have been formulated with respect
to such matters are unsatisfactory owing to the small amount of information
concerning many of the tribes in the interior.
The chief African races. Excluding the Europeans who have found a home in various parts of Africa,
and the Asiatics, Chinese and natives of India introduced by them (see
section History below), the population of Africa consists of the following
elements: —the Bushman, the Negro, the Eastern Hamite, the Libyan and the
Semite, from the intermingling of which in various proportions a vast
number of “transitional” tribes has arisen. The Bushmen (q.v.), a race of
short yellowish-brown nomad hunters, inhabited, in the earliest times of
which there is historic knowledge, the land adjoining the southern and
eastern borders of the Kalahari desert, into which they were gradually
being forced by the encroachment of the Hottentots and Bantu tribes. But
signs of their former presence are not wanting as far north as Lake
Tanganyika, and even, it is rumoured, still farther north. With them may be
classed provisionally the Hottentots, a pastoral people of medium stature
and yellowish-brown complexion. who in early times shared with the Bushmen
the whole of what is now Cape Colony. Though the racial affinities of the
Hottentots have been disputed, the most satisfactory view on the whole is
that they represent a blend of Bushman, Negroid and Hamitic elements.
Practically the rest of Africa, from the southern fringe of the Sahara and
the upper valley of the Nile to the Cape, with the exception of Abyssinia
and Galla and Somali-lands, is peopled by Negroes and the “transitional”
tribes to which their admixture with Libyans on the north, and Semites
(Arabs) and Hamites on the north-east and east, has given rise. A slight
qualification of the last statement is necessary, in so far as, among the
Fula in the western Sudan, and the Ba-Hima, &c., of the Victoria Nyanza,
Libyan and Hamitic elements are respectively stronger than the Negroid. Of
the tracts excepted, Abyssinia is inhabited mainly by Semito-Hamites
(though a fairly strong negroid element can be found), and Somali and Galla-
lands by Hamites. North of the Sahara in Algeria and Morocco are the
Libyans (Berbers, q.v.), a distinctively white people, who have in certain
respects (e.g. religion) fallen under Arab influence. In the north-east the
brown-skinned Hamite and the Semite mingle in varied proportions. The
Negroid peoples, which inhabit the vast tracts of forest and savanna
between the areas held by Bushmen to the south and the Hamites, Semites and
Libyans to the north, fall into two groups divided by a line running from
the Cameroon (Rio del Rey) crossing the Ubangi river below the bend and
passing between the Ituri and the Semliki rivers, to Lake Albert and thence
with a slight southerly trend to the coast. North of this line are the
Negroes proper, south are the Bantu. The division is primarily
philological. Among the true Negroes the greatest linguistic confusion
prevails; for instance, in certain parts of Nigeria it is possible to find
half-a-dozen villages within a comparatively small area speaking, not
different dialects, but different languages, a fact which adds greatly to
the difficulty of political administration. To the south of the line the
condition of affairs is entirely different; here the entire population
speaks one or another dialect of the Bantu Languages (q.v..) As said
before, the division is primarily linguistic and, especially upon the
border line, does not always correspond with the variations of physical
type. At the same time it is extremely convenient and to a certain extent
justifiable on physical and psychological grounds; and it may be said
roughly that while the linguistic uniformity of the Bantu is accompanied by
great variation of physical type, the converse is in the main true of the
Negro proper, especially where least affected by Libyan and Hamitic
admixture, e.g. on the Guinea coast. The variation of type among the Bantu
is due probably to a varying admixture of alien blood, which is more
apparent as the east coast is approached. This foreign element cannot be
identified with certainty, but since the Bantu seem to approach the Hamites
in those points where they differ from the Negro proper, and since the
physical characteristics of Hamites and Semites are very similar, it seems
probable that the last two races have entered into the composition of the
Bantu, though it is highly improbable that Semitic influence should have
permeated any distance from the east coast. An extremely interesting
section of the population not hitherto mentioned is constituted by the
Pygmy tribes inhabiting the densely forested regions along the equator from
Uganda to the Gabun and living the life of nomadic hunters. The affinities
of this little people are undecided, owing to the small amount of knowledge
concerning them. The theories which connected them with the Bushmen do not
seem to be correct. It is more probable that they are to be classed among
the Negroids, with whom they appear to have intermingled to a certain
extent in the upper basin of the Ituri, and perhaps elsewhere. As far as is
known they speak no language peculiar to themselves but adopt that of the
nearest agricultural tribe. They are of a dark brown complexion, with very
broad noses, lips but slightly everted, and small but usually sturdy
physique, though often considerably emaciated owing to insufficiency of
food. Another peculiar tribe, also of short stature, are the Vaalpens of
the steppe region of the north Transvaal. Practically nothing is known of
them except that they are said to be very dark in colour and live in holes
in the ground, and under rock shelters.
Principal ethnological zones. Having indicated the chief races of which in various degrees of purity
and intermixture the population of Africa is formed, it remains to consider
them in greater detail, particularly from the cultural standpoint. This is
hardly possible without drawing attention to the main physical characters
of the continent, as far as they affect the inhabitants. For ethnological
purposes three principal zones may be distinguished; the first two are
respectively a large region of steppes and desert in the north, and a
smaller region of steppes and desert in the south. These two zones are
connected by a vertical strip of grassy highland lying mainly to the east
of the chain of great lakes. The third zone is a vast region of forest and
rivers in the west centre, comprising the greater part of the basin of the
Congo and the Guinea coast. The rainfall, which also has an important
bearing upon the culture of peoples, will be found on the whole to be
greatest in the third zone and also in the eastern highlands, and of course
least in the desert, the steppes and savannas standing midway between the
two. As might be expected these variations are accompanied by certain
variations in culture. In the best-watered districts agriculture is
naturally of the greatest importance, except where the density of the
forest renders the work of clearing too arduous. The main portion therefore
of the inhabitants of the forest zone are agriculturists, save only the
nomad Pygmies, who live in the inmost recesses of the forest and support
themselves by hunting the game with which it abounds. Agriculture, too,
flourishes in the eastern highlands, and throughout the greater part of the
steppe and savanna region of the northern and southern zones, especially
the latter. In fact the only Bantu tribes who are not agriculturists are
the Ova-Herero of German South-West Africa, whose purely pastoral habits
are the natural outcome of the barren country they inhabit. But the wide
open plains and slopes surrounding the forest area are eminently suited to
cattle-breeding, and there are few tribes who do not take advantage of the
fact. At the same time a natural check is imposed upon the desire for
cattle, which is so characteristic of the Bantu peoples. This is
constituted by the tsetse fly, which renders a pastoral life absolutely
impossible throughout large tracts in central and southern Africa. In the
northern zone this check is absent, and the number of more essentially
pastoral peoples, such as the eastern Hamites, Masai, Dinka, Fula, &c.,
correspondingly greater. The desert regions yield support only to nomadic
peoples, such as the Tuareg, Tibbu, Bedouins and Bushmen, though the
presence of numerous oases in the north renders the condition of life
easier for the inhabitants. Upon geographical conditions likewise depend to
a large extent the political conditions prevailing among the various
tribes. Thus among the wandering tribes of the desert and of the heart of
the forests, where large communities are impossible, a patriarchal system
prevails with the family as the unit. Where the forest is less dense and
small agricultural communities begin to make their appearance, the unit
expands to the village with its headman. Where the forest thins to the
savanna and steppe, and communication is easier, are found the larger
kingdoms and “empires” such as, in the north those established by the
Songhai, Hausa, Fula, Bagirmi, Ba-Hima, &c., and in the south the states of
Lunda, Kazembe, the Ba-Rotse, &c. But if ease of communication is favourable to the rise of large states
and the cultural progress that usually accompanies it, it is, nevertheless,
often fatal to the very culture which, at first, it fostered, in so far as
the absence of natural boundaries renders invasion easy. A good example of
this is furnished by the history of the western Sudan and particularly of
East and South-East Africa. From its geographical position Africa looks
naturally to the east, and it is on this side that it has been most
affected by external culture both by land (across the Sinaitic peninsula)
and by sea. Though a certain amount of Indonesian and even aboriginal
Indian influence has been traced in African ethnography, the people who
have produced the most serious ethnic disturbances (apart from modern
Europeans) are the Arabs. This is particularly the case in East Africa,
where the systematic slave raids organized by them and carried out with the
assistance of various warlike tribes reduced vast regions to a state of
desolation. In the north and west of Africa, however, the Arab has had a
less destructive but more extensive and permanent influence in spreading
the Mahommedan religion throughout the whole of the Sudan.
The characteristic African culture. The fact that the physical geography of Africa affords fewer natural
obstacles to racial movements on the side most exposed to foreign
influence, renders it obvious that the culture most characteristically
African must be sought on the other side. It is therefore in the forests of
the Congo, and among the lagoons and estuaries of the Guinea coast, that
this earlier culture will most probably be found. That there is a culture
distinctive of this area, irrespective of the linguistic line dividing the
Bantu from the Negro proper, has now been recognized. Its main features may
be summed as follows:—-a purely agricultural life, with the plantain, yam
and manioc (the last two of American origin) as the staple food;
cannibalism common; rectangular houses with ridged roofs; scar-tattooing;
clothing of bark-cloth or palm-fibre; occasional chipping or extraction of
upper incisors; bows with strings of cane, as the, principal weapons,
shields of wood or wickerwork; religion, a primitive form of fetishism with
the belief that death is due to witchcraft; ordeals, secret societies, the
use of masks and anthropomorphic figures, and wooden gongs. With this may
be contrasted the culture of the Bantu peoples to the south and east, also
agriculturists, but in addition, where possible, great cattle-breeders,
whose staple food is millet and milk. These are distinguished by circular
huts with domed or conical roofs; clothing of skin or leather; occasional
chipping or extraction of lower incisors; spears as the principal weapons,
bows, where found, with a sinew cord, shields of hide or leather; religion,
ancestor-worship with belief in the power of the magicians as rain-makers.
Though this difference in culture may well be explained on the supposition
that the first is the older and more representative of Africa, this theory
must not be pushed too far. Many of the distinguishing characteristics of
the two regions are doubtless due simply to environment, even the
difference in religion. Ancestor-worship occurs most naturally among a
people where tribal organization has reached a fairly advanced stage, and
is the natural outcome of patriotic reverence for a successful chief and
his councillors. Rain-making, too, is of little importance in a well-
watered region, but a matter of vital interest to an agricultural people
where the rainfall is slight and irregular. Within the eastern and southern Bantu area certain cultural variations
occur; beehive huts are found among the Zulu-Xosa and Herero, giving place
among the Bechuana to the cylindrical variety with conical roof, a type
which, with few exceptions, extends north to Abyssinia. The tanged
spearhead characteristic of the south is replaced by the socketed variety
towards the north. Circumcision, characteristic of the Zulu-Xosa and
Bechuana, is not practised by many tribes farther north; tooth-mutilation,
on the contrary, is absent among the more southern tribes. The lip-plug is
found in the eastern area, especially among the Nyasa tribes, but not in
the south. The head-rest common in the south-east and the southern fringe
of the forest area is not found far north of Tanganyika until the Horn of
Africa is reached. In the regions outside the western area occupied by the Negro proper,
exclusive of the upper Nile, the similarities of culture outweigh the
differences. Here the cylindrical type of hut prevails; clothing is of skin
or leather but is very scanty; iron ornaments are worn in profusion; arrows
are not feathered; shields of hide, spears with leather sheaths are found
and also fighting bracelets. Certain small differences appear between the
eastern and western portions, the dividing line being formed by the
boundary between Bornu and Hausaland. Characteristic of the east are the
harp and the throwing-club and throwing-knife, the last of which has
penetrated into the forest area. Typical of the west are the bow and the
dagger with the ring hilt. The tribes of the upper Nile are somewhat
specialized, though here, too, are found the cylindrical hut, iron
ornaments, fighting bracelets, &c., characteristic of the Sudanese tribes.
Here the removal of the lower incisors is common, and circumcision entirely
absent. Throughout the rest of the Sudan is found Semitic culture
introduced by the Arabized Libyan. Circumcision, as is usual among
Mahommedan tribes, is universal, and tooth-mutilation absent; of other
characteristics, the use of the sword has penetrated to the northern
portion of the forest area. The culture prevailing in the Horn of Africa
is, naturally, mainly Hamito-Semitic; here are found both cyhnddcal and bee-
hive huts, the sword (which has been adopted by the Masai to the south),
the lyre (which has found its way to some of the Nilotic tribes) and the
head-rest. Circumcision is practically universal. As has been said earlier, the history of Africa reaches back but a short
distance, except, of course, as far as the lower Nile valley and Roman
Africa is concerned; elsewhere no records exist, save tribal traditions,
and these only relate to very recent events. Even archaeology, which can
often sketch the main outlines of a people’s history, is here practically
powerless, owing to the insufficiency of data. It is true that stone imple.
ments of palaeolithic and neolithic types are found sporadically in the
Nile valley, Somaliland, on the Zambezi, in Cape Colony and the northern
portions of the Congo Free State, as well as in Algeria and Tunisia; but
the localities are far too few and too widely separated to warrant the
inference that they are to be in any way connected. Moreover, where stone
implements are found they are, as a rule, very near, even actually on, the
surface of the earth; nothing occurs resembling the regular stratification
of Europe, and consequently no argument based on geological grounds is
possible. The lower Nile valley, however, forms an exception; flint implements of a
palaeolithic type have been found near Thebes. not only on the surface of
the ground, which for several thousand years has been desert owing to the
contraction of the river-bed, but also in stratified gravel of an older
date. References to a number of papers bearing on the discussion to which
then discovery has given rise may be found in an article by Mr H. R. Hall
in Man, 1905, No. 19. The Egyptian and also the Somali land finds appear to
be true palaeoliths in type and remarkably similar to those found in
Europe. But evidence bearing on the Stone age in Africa, if the latter
existed apart from the localities mentioned, is so slight that little can
be said save that from the available evidence the palaeoliths of the Nile
valley alone can with any degree of certainty be assigned to a remote
period of antiquity, and that the chips scattered over Mashonaland and the
regions occupied within historic times by Bushmen are the most recent;
since it has been shown that the stone flakes were used by the medieval
Makalanga to engrave their hard pottery and the Bushmen were still using
stone implements in the 19th century. Other early remains, but of equally
uncertain date, are the stone circles of Algeria, the Cross river and the
Gambia. The large system of ruined forts and “cities” in Mashonaland, at
Zimbabwe and elsewhere, concerning which so many ingenious theories have
been woven, have been proved to date from medieval times.
Origin and spread of the racial stocks. Thus while in Europe there is a Stone age. divided into periods according
to various types of implement disposed in geological strata, and followed
in orderly succession by the ages of Bronze and Iron, in Africa can be
found no true Stone age and practically no Bronze at all. The reason is not
far to seek; Africa is a country of iron, which is found distributed widely
throughout the continent in ores so rich that the metal can be extracted
with very little trouble and by the simplest methods. Iron has been worked
from time immemorial by the Negroid peoples, and whole tribes are found
whose chief industry is the smelting and forging of the metal. Under such
conditions, questions relating to the origin and spread of the racial
stocks which form the population of Africa cannot be answered with any
certainty; at best only a certain amount of probability can be attained. Five of these racial stocks have been mentioned: Bushman, Negro, Hamite,
Semite, Libyan, the last three probably related through some common
ancestor. Of these the honour of being considered the most truly African
belongs to the two first. It is true that people of Negroid type are found
elsewhere, principally in Melanesia, but as yet their possible connexion
with the African Negro is little more than theoretical, and for the present
purposes it need not be considered. The origin of the Bushman is lost in obscurity, but he may be conceived
as the original inhabitant of the southern portion of the continent. The
original home of the Negro, at first an agriculturist, is most probably to
be found in the neighbourhood of the great lakes, whence he penetrated
along the fringe of the Sahara to the west and across the eastern highlands
southward. Northerly expansion was prevented by the early occupation of the
Nile valley, the only easy route to the Mediterranean, but there seems no
doubt that the population of ancient Egypt contained a distinct Negroid
element. The question as to the ethnic affinities of the pre-dynastic
Egyptians is still unsolved; but they may be regarded as, in the main,
Hamitic, though it is a question how far it is just to apply a name which
implies a definite specialization in what may be comparatively modern times
to a people of such antiquity. The Horn of Africa appears to have been the centre from which the Hamites
spread, and the pressure they seem to have applied to the Negro tribes,
themselves also in process of expansion, sent forth larger waves of
emigrants from the latter. These emigrants, already affected by the Hamitic
pastoral culture, and with a strain of Hamitic blood in their veins, passed
rapidly down the open tract in the east, doubtless exterminating their
predecessors, except such few as took refuge in the mountains and swamps.
The advance-guard of this wave of pastoral Negroids, in fact primitive
Bantu, mingled with the Bushmen and produced the Hottentots. The
penetration of the forest area must certainly have taken longer and was
probably accomplished as much from the south-east, up the Zambezi valley,
as from any other quarter. It was a more peaceful process, since natural
obstacles are unfavourable to rapid movements of large bodies of
immigrants, though not so serious as to prevent the spread of language and
culture. A modern parallel to the spread of Bantu speech is found in the
rise of the Hausa language, which is gradually enlarging its sphere of
influence in the western and central Sudan. Thus those qualities, physical
and otherwise, in which the Bantu approach the Hamites gradually fade as we
proceed westward through the Congo basin, while in the east, among the
tribes to the west of Tanganyika and on the upper Zambezi, “transitional”
forms of culture are found. In later times this gradual pressure from the
south-east became greater, and resulted, at a comparatively recent date, in
the irruption of the Fang into the Gabun. The earlier stages of the southern movement must have been accompanied by
a similar movement westward between the Sahara and the forest; and,
probably, at the same time, or even earlier, the Libyans crossing the
desert had begun to press upon the primitive Negroes from the north. In
this way were produced the Fula, who mingled further with the Negro to give
birth to the Mandingo, Wolof and Tukulor. It would appear that either
Libyan (Fula) or, less probably, Hamitic, blood enters into the composition
of the Zandeh peoples on the Nile-Congo watershed. These Libyans or
Berbers, included by G. Sergi in his “Mediterranean Race,” were active on
the north coast of Africa in very early times, and had relations with the
Egyptians from a prehistoric period. For long these movements continued,
always in the same direction, from north to south and from east to west;
though, of course, more rapid changes took place in the open country,
especially in the great eastern highway from north to south, than in the
forest area. Large states arose in the western Sudan; Ghana flourished in
the 7th century A.D., Melle in the 11th, Songhai in the 14th, and Bornu in
the 16th. Meanwhile in the east began the southerly movement of the Bechuana, which
was probably,spread over a considerable period. Later than they, hut
proceeding faster, came the Zulu-Xosa (“Kaffir”) peoples, who followed a
line nearer the coast and outflanked them, surrounding them on the south.
Then followed a time of great ethnical confusion in South Africa, during
which tribes flourished, split up and disappeared; but ere this the culture
represented by the ruins in Rhodesia had waxed and waned. It is uncertain
who were the builders of the forts and “cities,” but it is not improbable
that they may be found to have been early Bechuana. The Zulu-Xosa, Bechuana
and Herero together form a group which may conveniently be termed
“Southern Bantu.’, Finally began a movement hitherto unparalleled in the history of African
migration; certain peoples of Zulu blood began to press north, spreading
destruction in their wake. Of these the principal were the Matabele and
Angoni. The movement continued as far as the Victoria Nyanza. Here, on the
border-line of Negro, Bantu and Hamite, important changes had taken place.
Certain of the Negro tribes had retired to the swamps of the Nile, and had
become somewhat specialized, both physically and culturally (Shilluk,
Dinka, Alur, Acholi, &c.). These had blended with the Hamites to produce
such races as the Masai and kindred tribes. The old Kitwara empire, which
comprised the plateau land between the Ruwenzori range and Kavirondo, had
broken up into small states, usually governed by a Hamitic (Ba-Hima)
aristocracy. The more extensive Zang (Zenj) empire, of which. the name
Zanzibar (Zanguebar) is a lasting memorial, extending along the sea-board
from Somaliland to the Zambezi, was also extinct. The Arabs had established
themselves firmly on the coast, and thence made continual slave-raids into
the interior, penetrating later to the Congo. The Swahili, inhabiting the
coast-line from the equator to about 16 deg. S., are a somewhat
heterogeneous mixture of Bantu with a tinge of Arab blood. In the neighbourhood of Victoria Nyanza, where Hamite, Bantu, Nilotic
Negro and Pygmy are found in close contact, the ethnic relations of tribes
are often puzzling, but the Bantu not under a Hamitic domination have been
divided by F. Stuhlmann into the Older Bantu (Wanyamwezi, Wasukuma,
Wasambara, Waseguha, Wasagara, Wasaramo, &c.) and the Bantu of Later
Immigration (Wakikuyu, Wakamba, Wapokomo, Wataita, Wachaga, &c.), who are
more strongly Hamitized and in many cases have adopted Masai customs. These
peoples, from the Victoria Nyanza to the Zambezi, may conveniently be
termed the “Eastern Bantu.” Turning to the Congo basin in the south, the great Luba and Lunda peoples
are found stretching nearly across the continent, the latter, from at any
rate the end of the 16th century until the close of the 19th century, more
or less united under a single ruler, styled Muata Yanvo. These seem to have
been the most recent immigrants from the south-east, and to exhibit certain
affinities with the Barotse on the upper Zambezi. Among the western Baluba,
or Bashilange, a remarkable politico-religious revolution took place at a
comparatively recent date, initiated by a secret society termed Bena Riamba
or “Sons of Hemp,” and resulted in the subordination of the old fetishism
to a cult of hemp, in accordance with which all hemp-smokers consider
themselves brothers, and the duty of mutual hospitality, &c., is
acknowledged. North of these, in the great bend of the Congo, are the
Balolo, &c., the Balolo a nation of iron-workers; and westward, on the
Kasai, the Bakuba, and a large number of tribes as yet imperfectly known.
Farther west are the tribes of Angola, many of whom were included within
the old “Congo empire,” of which the kingdom of Loango was an offshoot.
North of the latter lies the Gabun, with a large number of small tribes
dominated by the Fang who are recent arrivals from the Congo. Farther to
the north are the Bali and other tribes of the Cameroon, among whom many
primitive Negroid elements begin to appear. Eastward are the Zandeh peoples
of the Welle district (primitive Negroids with a Hamitic or, more probably,
Libyan strain), with whom the Dor trine of Nilotes on their eastern border
show certain affinities; while to the west along the coast are the Guinea
Negroes of primitive type. Here, amidst great linguistic confusion, may be
distinguished the tribes of Yoruba speech in the Niger delta and the east
portion of the Slave Coast; those of Ewe speech, in the western portion of
the latter; and those of Ga and Tshi speech, on the Gold Coast. Among the
last two groups respectively may be mentioned the Dahomi and Ashanti.
Similar tribes are found along the coast to the Bissagos Islands, though
the introduction in Sierra Leone and Liberia of settlements of repatriated
slaves from the American plantations has in those places modified the
original ethnic distribution. Leaving the forest zone and entering the more
open country there are, on the north from the Niger to the Nile, a number
of Negroids strongly tinged with Libyan blood and professing the Mahommedan
religion. Such are the Mandingo, the Songhai, the Fula, Hausa, Kanuri,
Bagirmi, Kanembu, and the peoples of Wadai and Darfur; the few aborigines
who persist, on the southern fringe of the Chad basin, are imperfectly
known.
Peculiar conditions in Madagascar. The island of Madagascar, belonging to the African continent, still
remains for discussion. Here the ethnological conditions are people were
the Hova, a Malayo-Indonesian people who must have come from the Malay
Peninsula or the adjacent islands. The date of their immigration has been
line subject of a good deal of dispute, but it may be argued that their
arrival must have taken place in early times, since Malagasy speech, which
is the language of the island, is principally Malayo-Polynesian in origin,
and contains no traces of Sanskrit. Such traces, introduced with Hinduism,
are present in all the cultivated languages of Malaysia at the present
day.The Hova occupy the table-land of Imerina and form the first of the
three main groups into which the population of Madagascar may be divided.
They are short, of an olive-yellow complexion and have straight or faintly
wavy hair. On the east coast are the Malagasy, who in physical
characteristics stand halfway between the Hova and the Sakalava, the last
occupying the remaining portion of the island and displaying almost pure
Negroid characteristics. Though the Hova belong to a race naturally addicted to seafaring, the
contrary is the case respecting the Negroid population, and the presence of
the latter in the island has been explained by the supposition that they
were imported by the Hova. Other authorities assign less antiquity to the
Hova immigration and believe that they found the Negroid tribes already in
occupation of the island. As might be expected, the culture found in Madagascar contains two
elements, Negroid and Malayo-Indonesian. The first of these two shows
certain affinities with the culture characteristic of the western area of
Africa, such as rectangular huts, clothing of bark and palm-fibre,
fetishism, &c., but cattle-breeding is found as well as agriculture.
However, the Negroid tribes are more and more adopting the customs and mode
of life of the Hova, among whom are found pile-houses, the sarong, yadi or
tabu applied to food, a non-African form of bellows, &c., all
characteristic of their original home. The Hova, during the 19th century,
embraced Christianity, but retain, nevertheless, many of their old
animistic beliefs; their original social organization in three classes,
andriana or nobles, hova or freemen, and andevo or slaves, has been
modified by the French, who have abolished kingship and slavery. An Arab
infusion is also to be noticed, especially on the north-east and south-east
coasts. It is impossible to give a complete list of the tribes inhabiting Africa,
owing to the fact that the country is not fully explored. Even where the
names of the tribes are known their ethnic relations are still a matter of
uncertainty in many localities. The following list, therefore, must be regarded as purely tentative, and
liable to correction in the light of fuller information:-
AFRICAN TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION
LIBYANS
(North Africa, excluding Egypt)
Berbers, including – Kabyles, Mzab, Shawia, Tuareg
LIBYO-NEGROID TRANSITIONAL
Fula (West Sudan)
Tibbu (Central Sudan)
HAMITES
(East Sudan and Horn of Africa)
Beja, including – Ababda, Hadendoa, Bisharin, Beni-Amer, Hamran, Galla,
Somali, Danakil (Afar)
Ba-Hima, including — Wa-Tussi, Wa-Hha, Wa-Rundi, Wa-Ruanda
HAMITO-SEMITES
Fellahin (Egypt)
Abyssinians (with Negroid admixture)
HAMITO-NEGROID TRANSITIONAL
Masai
Wa-Kuafi
NEGROID TRIBES
West Sudan Central Sudan Eastern Tukulor Songhai Fur Kargo Wolof Hausa Dago Kulfan Serer Bagirmi Kunjara Kolaji Leybu Kanembu Tegele Tumali Mandingo, including— Kanuri Nuba
Kassonke Tama
Yallonke Maba Zandeh Tribes
Soninke Birkit (Akin to Nilotics,
but
Bambara Massalit probably with
Fula
Vei Korunga element)
Susu Kabbaga Azandeh (Niam
Niam)
Solima &c. Makaraka
Malinke Mundu
Mangbettu Probably also— Ababwa
Mossi Mege
Borgu Abisanga Tombo } Mabode{ probably Gurma } Momfu { with Pygmy Gurunga } { element Dagomba } Probably with Mandingan element Allied are— Mampursi } Banziri Languassi Gonja } Ndris Wia-Wia &c. } Togbo Awaka
&c.
NEGROES
West African Tribes
Tribes of Tshi and Ga Tribes of Yeruba speech, including—- speech, including— Khabunke Balanta Ashanti Yoruba Bagnori Safwi Ibadan Bagnum Denkera Ketu Felup, including— Bekwai Egba
Ayamat Nkoranza Jebu
Jola Adansi Remo
Jigush Assin Ode
Vaca Wassaw Illorin
Joat Ahanta Ijesa
Karon Fanti Ondo
Banyum Angona Mahin
Banjar Akwapim Bini
Fulum Akim Kakanda
Bayot Akwamu Wari
&c. Kwao Ibo Bujagos Ga Efik Biafare Andoni Landuman Tribes of Ewe speech, Kwa Nalu including— Ibibio Baga Ekoi Sape Dahomi Inokun Bulam Eweawo Akunakuim Mendi Agotine Munshi Limba Krepi Ikwe Gallina Avenor Timni Awuna Pessi Agbosomi Gola Aflao Kondo Ataklu Bassa Krikor Kru Geng Grebo Attaldoami Awekwom Aja Agni Ewemi Oshiu Appa
Central Negroes Eastern Negroes Bolo Pure Nilotics Yako Shilluk Tangala Nuer Kali Dinka Mishi Jur (Diur) Doma Mittu Mosgu, including— Jibbeh
Mandara Madi
Margi Lendu
Logon Alur (Lur)
Gamergu Acholi
Keribina Abaka
Kuri Golo
&c.
Nilotics with affinity Nilotics with Affinity with Masai with Zandeh tribes Latuka
Dor (Bongo) Bari
NEGRO-BANTU NILOTIC-BANTU
TRANSITIONAL TRANSITIONAL Bali Ba-Kwiri Ja-Luo Ba-Kossi Abo Ba-Ngwa Dualla Ba-Nyang Bassa PYGMY TRIBES Ngolo Ba-Noko Central Arica Ba-Fo Ba-Puko Akka Ba-Kundu Ba-Koko Ja-Mbute Isubu Ba-Bongo
Ashango
&c.
BANTU NEGROIDS
Western Central Eastern Ogowe Luba-Lunda Group Lacustrians Ashira Ba-Luba, including— Ba-Nyoro Ishogo Ba-Songe Ba-Toro Ashango Wa-Rua Wa-Siba Bakalai Wa-Guha Wa-Sinja Nkomi Katanga Wa-Kerewe Orungu Ba-Shilange (with Wa-Shashi Mpongwe Ba-Kete element) Wa-Rundi Oshekiani Ba-Iro Benga Ba-Lunda Ba-Ganda Ininga Probably connected Ba-Soga Galao are— Ba-Kavirondo, Apingi Manyema including— Okanda Ba-Kumu Awaware Osaka Wa-Regga Awarimi Aduma Ba-Rotse, including— Awakisii Mbamba Ma-Mbunda &c. Umbete Ma-Supia Bule Ma-Shukulumbwe Bane Ba-Tonga Bantu of Recent Yaunde and probably Immigration Maka Va-Lovale Bomone Wa-Kikuyu Kunabembe Tribes of the Congo Wa-Kamba Fang (recent immigrants bend Wa-Pokomo from the Congo group) Ba-Kessu Wa-Duruma
Ba-Tetela Wa-Digo
Ba-Songo Mino Wa-Giriama
Ba-Kuba Wa-Taita Ba-Kongo, Ba-Lolo Wa-Nyatura including— Ba-Kuti Wa-Iramba
Mushi-Kongo Ba-Mbala Wa-Mbugwe
Mussorongo Ba-Huana Wa-Kaguru
Kabinda Ba-Yaka Wa-Gogo {
possible
Ka-Kongo Ba-Pindi Wa-Chaga { Masai
Ba-Vili Ba-Kwese { element
Ma-Yumbe &c.
Ba-Lumbo Older Bantu
Ba-Sundi Tribes of the Congo Wa-Nyamwezi,
Ba-Bwende bank including—
Ba-Lali Wa-Genia Wa-Sukuma
}Trans-
Ba-Kunya Ba-Soko Wa-Sumbwa
}itional
Ba-Poto Wa-Nyanyembe }to
Mobali Wa-Jui
}Bantu
Mogwandi Wa-Kimbu }of
Na-Ngala{ Connected Wa-Kanongo
}recent
Ba-Bangi{ with Zandeh Wa-Wende
}immi-
{ group
}gration
Wa-Buma
Ba-Nunu Wa-Gunda
Ba-Loi Wa-Guru
Ba-Teke Wa-Galla
Wa-Pfuru Wa-Sambara
Wa-Mbundu Wa-Seguha
Wa-Mfumu Wa-Nguru
Ba-Nsinik Wa-Sagara
Ma-Wumba Wa-Doe
Ma-Yakalia Wa-Khutu
&c Wa-Sarmo
Wa-Hehe TRANSITIONAL Wa-Bena FROM CENTRAL Wa-Sanga TO SOUTHERN Wa-Swahili (with Arab
BANTU elements) Amoela Connected are— Ganguela Wa-Kisi Kioko Wa-Mpoto } Minungo Ba-Tonga } Imbangala Ba-Tumbuka } Ba-Achinji Wa-Nyika } Golo Wa-Nyamwanga }
Akin to Hollo A-Mambwe }
Luba-
&c. Wa-Fipa }
Lunda Mbunda peoples, Wa-Rungu }
group including— A-Wemba }
Bihe A-Chewa }
Dembo A-Maravi }
Mbaka Ba-Senga }
Ngola Ba-Bisa }
Bondo A-Jawa (Yaos)
Ba-Ngala Wa-Mwera
Songo Wa-Gindo
Haku Ma-Konde
Lubolo Ma-Wia
Kisama Ma-Nganja
&c. Ma-Kua
SOUTHERN BANTU
(South and South-East Africa) Ba-Nyai } Ama-Zulu, including— Ma-Kalanga, } Affinity Ama-Swazi including } with Ama-Tonga
Mashona } Bechuana Matabele Ba-Ronga } Angoni Ba-Chuana, Ma-Gwangwara including— Ma-Huhu
Ba-Tlapin Ma-Viti
Ba-Rolong Ma-Situ
Ba-Ratlou Ma-Henge
Ba-Taung &c.
Ba-Rapulana Ama-Xosa, including—
Ba-Seleka Ama-Gcaleka
Ba-Hurutsi Ama-Hahebe
Ba-Tlaru Ama-Ngqika
Ba-Mangwato Ama-Tembu
Ba-Tauana Ama-Pondo
Ba-Ngwaketse &c.
Ba-Kuena Ova-Herero
&c. Ova-Mpo HAMITO-BANTU BUSHMEN
BUSHMEN TRANSITIONAL Hottentots, } including— } S. W.
Namaqua } Africa
Koranna }
TRIBES IN MADAGASCAR MALAYO-INDONESIANS BANTU-NEGROIDS Hova Sakalava, including— Betsileo (slight Bantu admixture) Menabe
Milaka
HOVA-BANTU Ronandra
TRANSITIONAL Mahafali
&c. Malagasy, including—
Bestimisaraka Antanosi
Antambahoaka Antsihanaka
Antaimoro Antanala
Antaifasina Antaisara
Antaisaka &c.
IV. HISTORY The origin and meaning of the name of the continent are discussed
elsewhere (see AFRICA, ROMAN.) The word Africa was applied originally to
the country in the immediate neighbourhood of Carthage, that part of the
continent first known to the Romans, and it was subsequently extended with
their increasing knowledge, till it came at last to include all that they
knew of the continent. The Arabs still confine the name Ifrikia to the
territory of Tunisia.
Phoenician and Greek colonization. The valley of the lower Nile was the home in remotest antiquity of a
civilized race. Egyptian culture had, however, remarkably little direct
influence on the rest of the continent, a result due in large measure to
the fact that Egypt is shut off landwards by immense deserts. If ancient
Egypt and Ethiopia (q.v.) be excluded, the story of Africa is largely a
record of the doings of its Asiatic and European conquerors and colonizers,
Abyssinia being the only state which throughout historic times has
maintained its independence. The countries bordering the Mediterranean were
first exploited by the Phoenicians, whose earliest settlements were made
before 1000 B.C. Carthage, founded about 800 B.C., speedily grew into a
city without rival in the Mediterranean, and the Phoenicians, subduing the
Berber tribes, who then as now formed the bulk of the population, became
masters of all the habitable region of North Africa west of the Great
Syrtis, and found in commerce a source of immense prosperity. Both
Egyptians and Carthaginians made attempts to reach the unknown parts of the
continent by sea. Herodotus relates that an expedition under Phoenician
navigators, employed by Necho, king of Egypt, c. 600 B.C., circumnavigated
Africa from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean, a voyage stated to have been
accomplished in three years. Apart from the reported circumnavigation of
the continent, the west coast was well known to the Phoenicians as far as
Cape Nun, and c. 520 B.C. Hanno, a Carthaginian, explored the coast as far,
perhaps, as the Bight of Benin, certainly as far as Sierra Leone. A vague
knowledge of the Niger regions was also possessed by the Phoenicians. Meantime the first European colonists had planted themselves in Africa.
At the point where the continent approaches nearest the Greek islands,
Greeks founded the city of Cyrene (c. 631 B.C..) Cyrenaica became a
flourishing colony, though being hemmed in on all sides by absolute desert
it had little or no influence on inner Africa. The Greeks, however, exerted
a powerful influence in Egypt. To Alexander the Great the city of
Alexandria owes its foundation (332 B.C.), and under the Hellenistic
dynasty of the Ptolemies attempts were made to penetrate southward, and in
this way was obtained some knowledge of Abyssinia. Neither Cyrenaica nor
Egypt was a serious rival to the Carthaginians, but all three powers were
eventually supplanted by the Romans. After centuries of rivalry for
supremacy1 the struggle was ended by the fall of Carthage in 146 B.C.
Within little more than a century from that date Egypt and Cyrene had
become incorporated in the Roman empire. Under Rome the settled portions of
the country were very prosperous, and a Latin strain was introduced into
the land. Though Fezzan was occupied by them, the Romans elsewhere found
the Sahara an impassable barrier. Nubia and Abyssinia were reached, but an
expedition sent by the emperor Nero to discover the source of the Nile
ended in failure. The utmost extent of geographical knowledge of the
continent is shown in the writings of Ptolemy (2nd century A.D.), who knew
of or guessed the existence of the great lake reservoirs of the Nile and
had heard of the river Niger. Still Africa for the civilized world remained
simply the countries bordering the Mediterranean. The continual struggle
between Rome and the Berber tribes; the introduction of Christianity and
the glories and sufferings of the Egyptian and African Churches; the
invasion and conquest of the African provinces by the Vandals in the 5th
century; the passing of the supreme power in the following century to the
Byzantine empire—all these events are told fully elsewhere. In the 7th century of the Christian era occurred an event destined to
have a permanent influence on the whole continent.
North Africa conquered by the Arabs. Invading first Egypt, an Arab host, fanatical believers in the new faith
of Mahomet, conquered the whole country from the Red Sea to the Atlantic
and carried the Crescent into Spain. Throughout North Africa Christianity
well-nigh disappeared, save in Egypt (where the Coptic Church was suffered
to exist), and Upper Nubia and Abyssinia, which were not subdued by the
Moslems. In the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries the Arabs in Africa were
numerically weak; they held the countries they had conquered by the sword
only, but in the 11th century there was a great Arab immigration, resulting
in a large absorption of Berber blood. Even before this the Berbers had
very generally adopted the speech and religion of their conquerors. Arab
influence and the Mahommedan religion thus became indelibly stamped on
northern Africa. Together they spread southward across the Sahara. They
also became firmly established along the eastern sea-board, where Arabs,
Persians and Indians planted flourishing colonies, such as Mombasa, Malindi
and Sofala, playing a role, maritime and commercial, analogous to that
filled in earlier centuries by the Carthaginians on the northern sea-board.
Of these eastern cities and states both Europe and the Arabs of North
Africa were long ignorant. The first Arab invaders had recognized the authority of the caliphs of
Bagdad, and the Aghlabite dynasty—founded by Aghlab, one of Haroun al
Raschid’s generals, at the close of the 8th century—ruled as vassals of the
caliphate. However, early in the 10th century the Fatimite dynasty
established itself in Egypt, where Cairo had been founded A.D. 968, and
from there ruled as far west as the Atlantic. Later still arose other
dynasties
Appearance of the Turks.
such as the Almoravides and Almohades. Eventually the Turks, who had
conquered Constantinople in 1453, and had seized Egypt in 1517, established
the regencies of Algeria, Tunisia and Tripoli (between 1519 and 1551),
Morocco remaining an independent Arabized Berber state under the Sharifan
dynasty, which had its beginnings at the end of the 13th century. Under the
earlier dynasties Arabian or Moorish culture had attained a high degree of
excellence, while the spirit of adventure and the proselytizing zeal of the
followers of Islam led to a considerable extension of the knowledge of the
continent. This was rendered more easy by their use of the camel (first
introduced into Africa by the Persian conquerors of Egypt), which enabled
the Arabs to traverse the desert. In this way Senegambia and the middle
Niger regions fell under the influence of the Arabs and Berbers, but it was
not until 1591 that Timbuktu—a city founded in the 11th century—became
Moslem. That city had been reached in 1352 by the great Arab traveller Ibn
Batuta, to whose journey to Mombasa and Quiloa (Kilwa) was due the first
accurate knowledge of those flourishing Moslem cities on the east African
sea-boards. Except along this sea-board, which was colonized directly from
Asia, Arab progress southward was stopped by the broad belt of dense forest
which, stretching almost across the continent somewhat south of 10 deg. N.,
barred their advance as effectually as had the Sahara that of their
predecessors, and cut them off from knowledge of the Guinea coast and of
all Africa beyond. One of the regions which came latest under Arab control
was that of Nubia, where a Christian civilization and state existed up to
the 14th century. For a time the Moslem conquests in South Europe had virtually made of the
Mediterranean an Arab lake, but the expulsion in the 11th century of the
Saracens from Sicily and southern Italy by the Normans was followed by
descents of the conquerors on Tunisia and Tripoli. Somewhat later a busy
trade with the African coast-lands, and especially with Egypt, was
developed by Venice, Pisa, Genoa and other cities of North Italy. By the
end of the 15th century Spain had completely thrown off the Moslem yoke,
but even while the Moors were still in Granada, Portugal was strong enough
to carry the war into Africa. In 1415 a Portuguese force captured the
citadel of Ceuta on the Moorish coast. From that time onward Portugal
repeatedly
Spain and Portugal invade the Barbary States.
interfered in the affairs of Morocco, while Spain acquired many ports in
Algeria and Tunisia. Portugal, however, suffered a crushing defeat in 1578
at al Kasr al Kebir, the Moors being led by Abd el Malek I. of the then
recently established Sharifan dynasty. By that time the Spaniards had lost
almost all their African possessions. The Barbary states, primarily from
the example of the Moors expelled from Spain, degenerated into mere
communities of pirates, and under Turkish influence civilization and
commerce declined. The story of these states from the beginning of the 16th
century to the third decade of the 19th century is largely made up of
piratical exploits on the one hand and of ineffectual reprisals on the
other. In Algiers, Tunis and other cities were thousands of Christian
slaves. But with the battle of Ceuta Africa had ceased to belong solely to the
Mediterranean world. Among those who fought there was
Discovery of the Guinea coast—Rise of the slave trade.
one. Prince Henry “the Navigator,” son of King John I., who was fired
with the ambition to acquire for Portugal the unknown parts of Africa.
Under his inspiration and direction was begun that series of voyages of
exploration which resulted in the circumnavigation of Africa and the
establishment of Portuguese sovereignty over large areas of the coast-
lands. Cape Bojador was doubled in 1434, Cape Verde in 1445, and by 1480
the whole Guinea coast was known. In 1482 Diogo Cam or Cao discovered the
mouth of the Congo, the Cape of Good Hope was doubled by Bartholomew Diaz
in 1488, and in 1498 Vasco da Gama, after having rounded the Cape, sailed
up the east coast, touched at Sofala and Malindi, and went thence to India.
Over all the countries discovered by their navigators Portugal claimed
sovereign rights, but these were not exercised in the extreme south of the
continent. The Guinea coast, as the first discovered and the nearest to
Europe, was first exploited. Numerous forts and trading stations were
established, the earliest being Sao Jorge da Mina (Elmina), begun in 1482.
The chief commodities dealt in were slaves, gold, ivory and spices. The
discovery of America (1492) was followed by a great development of the
slave trade, which, before the Portuguese era, had been an overland trade
almost exclusively confined to Mahommedan Africa. The lucrative nature of
this trade and the large quantities of alluvial gold obtained by the
Portuguese drew other nations to the Guinea coast. English mariners went
thither as early as 1553, and they were followed by Spaniards, Dutch,
French, Danish and other adventurers. Much of Senegambia was made known as
a result of quests during the 16th century for the “hills of gold” in
Bambuk and the fabled wealth of Timbuktu, but the middle Niger was not
reached. The supremacy along the coast passed in the 17th century from
Portugal to Holland and from Holland in the 18th and 19th centuries to
France and England. The whole coast from Senegal to Lagos was dotted with
forts and “factories” of rival powers, and this international patchwork
persists though all the hinterland has become either French or British
territory. Southward from the mouth of the Congo2 to the inhospitable region of
Damaraland, the Portuguese, from 1491 onward, acquired influence over the
Bantu-Negro inhabitants, and in the early part of the 16th century through
their efforts Christianity was largely adopted in the native kingtom of
Congo. An irruption of cannibals from the interior later in the same
century broke the power of this semi-Christian state, and Portuguese
activity was transferred to a great extent farther south, Sao Paulo de
Loanda being founded in 1576. The sovereignty of Portugal over this coast
region, except for the mouth of the Congo, has been once only challenged by
a European power, and that was in 1640-1648, when the Dutch held the
seaports. Neglecting the comparatively poor and thinly inhabited regions of South
Africa, the Portuguese no sooner discovered than they coveted the
flourishing cities held by Arabized peoples between Sofala and Cape
Guardafui. By 1520 all these Moslem
The Portuguese in East Africa and Abyssinia.
sultanates had been seized by Portugal, Mozambique being chosen as the
chief city of her East African possessions. Nor was Portuguese activity
confined to the coast-lands. The lower and middle Zambezi valley was
explored (16th and 17th centuries), and here the Portuguese found semi-
civilized Bantu-Negro tribes, who had been for many years in contact with
the coast Arabs. Strenuous efforts were made to obtain possession of the
country (modern Rhodesia) known to them as the kingdom or empire of
Monomotapa, where gold had been worked by the natives from about the 12th
century A.D., and whence the Arabs, whom the Portuguese dispossessed, were
still obtaining supplies in the 16th century. Several expeditions were
despatched inland from 1569 onward and considerable quantities of gold were
obtained. Portugal’s hold on the interior, never very effective, weakened
during the 17th century, and in the middle of the 18th century ceased with
the abandonment of the forts in the Manica district. At the period of her greatest power Portugal exercised a strong influence
in Abyssinia also. In the ruler of Abyssinia (to whose dominions a
Portuguese traveller had penetrated before Vasco da Gama’s memorable
voyage) the Portuguese imagined they had found the legendary Christian
king, Prester John, and when the complete overthrow of the native dynasty
and the Christian religion was imminent by the victories of Mahommedan
invaders, the exploits of a band of 400 Portuguese under Christopher da
Gama during 1541-1543 turned the scale in favour of Abyssinia and had thus
an enduring result on the future of North-East Africa. After da Gama’s time
Portuguese Jesuits resorted to Abyssinia. While they failed in their
efforts to convert the Abyssinians to Roman Catholicism they acquired an
extensive knowledge of the country. Pedro Paez in 1615, and, ten years
later, Jeronimo Lobo, both visited the sources of the Blue Nile. In 1663
the Portuguese, who had outstayed their welcome, were expelled from the
Abyssinian dominions. At this time Portuguese influence on the Zanzibar
coast was waning before the power of the Arabs of Muscat, and by 1730 no
point on the east coast north of Cape Delgado was held by Portugal. It has been seen that Portugal took no steps to acquire the southern part
of the continent. To the Portuguese the Cape of
English and Dutch at Table Bay—Cape Colony founded.
Good Hope was simply a landmark on the road to India, and mariners of other
nations who followed in their wake used Table Bay only as a convenient spot
wherein to refit on their voyage to the East. By the beginning of the 17th
century the bay was much resorted to for this purpose, chiefly by English
and Dutch vessels. In 1620, with the object of forestalling the Dutch, two
officers of the East India Company, on their own initiative, took
possession of Table Bay in the name of King James, fearing otherwise that
English ships would be “frustrated of watering but by license.” Their
action was not approved in London and the proclamation they issued remained
without effect. The Netherlands profited by the apathy of the English. On
the advice of sailors who had been shipwrecked in Table Bay the Netherlands
East India Company, in 1651, sent out a fleet of three small vessels under
Jan van Riebeek which reached Table Bay on the 6th of April 1652, when,
164 years after its discovery, the first permanent white settlement was
made in South Africa. The Portuguese, whose power in Africa was already
waning, were not in a position to interfere with the Dutch plans, and
England was content to seize the island of St Helena as her half-way house
to the East3. In its inception the settlement at the Cape was not intended
to become an African colony, but was regarded as the most westerly outpost
of the Dutch East Indies. Nevertheless, despite the paucity of ports and
the absence of navigable rivers, the Dutch colonists, freed from any
apprehension of European trouble by the friendship between Great Britain
and Holland, and leavened by Huguenot blood, gradually spread northward,
stamping their language, law and religion indelibly upon South Africa. This
process, however, was exceedingly slow. During the 18th century there is little to record in the history of
Africa. The nations of Europe, engaged in the later half of the
Waning and revival of interest in Africa.
century in almost constant warfare, and struggling for supremacy in America
and the East, to a large extent lost their interest in the continent. Only
on the west coast was there keen rivalry, and here the motive was securance
of trade rather than territorial acquisitions. In this century the slave
trade reached its highest development, the trade in gold, ivory, gum and
spices being small in comparison. In the interior of the
continent—Portugal’s energy being expended—no interest was shown, the
nations with establishments on the coast “taking no further notice of the
inhabitants or their land than to obtain at the easiest rate what they
procure with as little trouble as possible, or to carry them off for slaves
to their plantations in America” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 3rd ed.,
1797). Even the scanty knowledge acquired by the ancients and the Arabs was
in the main forgotten or disbelieved. It was the period when — Geographers,
in Afric maps, With savage pictures filled their gaps, And o’er unhabitable
downs Placed elephants for want of towns.
(Poetry, a Rhapsody. By Jonathan Swift.) The prevailing ignorance may be gauged by the statement in the third
edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica that “the Gambia and Senegal
rivers are only branches of the Niger.” But the closing years of the 18th
century, which witnessed the partial awakening of the public conscience of
Europe to the iniquities of the slave trade, were also notable for the
revival of interest in inner Africa. A society, the African Association,4
was formed in London in 1788 for the exploration of the interior of the
continent. The era of great discoveries had begun a little earlier in the
famous journey (1770-1772) of James Bruce through Abyssinia and Sennar,
during which he determined the course of the Blue Nile. But it was through
the agents of the African Association that knowledge was gained of the
Niger regions. The Niger itself was first reached by Mungo Park, who
travelled by way of the Gambia, in 1795. Park, on a second journey in 1805,
passed Timbuktu and descended the Niger to Bussa, where he lost his life,
having just failed to solve the question as to where the river reached the
ocean. (This problem was ultimately solved by Richard Lander and his
brother in 1830.) The first scientific explorer of South-East Africa, Dr
Francisco de Lacerda, a Portuguese, also lost his life in that country.
Lacerda travelled up the Zambezi to Tete, going thence towards Lake Mweru,
near which he died in 1798. The first recorded crossing of Africa was
accomplished between the years 1802 and 1811 by two half-caste Portuguese
traders, Pedro Baptista and A. Jose, who passed from Angola eastward to the
Zambezi. Although the Napoleonic wars distracted the attention of Europe from
exploratory work in Africa, those wars nevertheless
Effects of the Napoleonic wars—Britain seizes the Cape.
exercised great influence on the future of the continent, both in Egypt and
South Africa. The occupation of Egypt (1798-1803) first by France and then
by Great Britain resulted in an effort by Turkey to regain direct control
over that country,5 followed in 1811 by the establishment under Mehemet Ali
of an almost independent state, and the extension of Egyptian rule over the
eastern Sudan (from 1820 onward). In South Africa the struggle with
Napoleon caused Great Britain to take possession of the Dutch settlements
at the Cape, and in 1814 Cape Colony, which had been continuously occupied
by British troops since 1806, was formally ceded to the British crown. The close of the European conflicts with the battle of Waterloo was
followed by vigorous efforts on the part of the British government to
become better acquainted with Africa, and to substitute colonization and
legitimate trade for the slave traffic, declared illegal for British
subjects in 1807 and abolished by all other European powers by 1836. To
West Africa Britain devoted much attention. The slave trade abolitionists
had already, in 1788, formed a settlement at Sierra Leone, on the Guinea
coast, for freed slaves, and from this establishment grew the colony of
Sierra Leone, long notorious, by reason of its deadly climate, as “The
White Man’s Grave.”6 Farther east the establishments on the Gold Coast
began to take a part in the politics of the interior, and the first British
mission to Kumasi, despatched in 1817, led to the assumption of a
protectorate over the maritime tribes heretofore governed by the Ashanti. An expedition sent in 1816 to explore the Congo from its mouth did not
succeed in getting beyond the rapids which bar the way to the interior, but
in the central Sudan much better results were obtained. In 1823 three
English travellers, Walter Oudney, Dixon Denham and Hugh Clapperton,
reached Lake Chad from Tripoli—the first white men to reach that lake. The
partial exploration of Bornu and the Hausa states by Clapperton, which
followed, revealed the existence of large and flourishing cities and a semi-
civilized people in a region hitherto unknown. The discovery in 1830 of the
mouth of the Niger by Clapperton’s servant Lander, already mentioned, had
been preceded by the journeys of Major A.G. Laing (1826) and Rene Caillie
(1827) to Timbuktu, and was followed (1832-1833) by the partial ascent of
the Benue affluent of the Niger by Macgregor Laird. In 1841 a disastrous
attempt was made to plant a white colony on the lower Niger, an expedition
(largely philanthropic and antislavery in its inception) which ended in
utter failure. Nevertheless from that time British traders remained on the
lower Niger, their continued presence leading ultimately to the acquisition
of political rights over the delta and the Hausa states by Great Britain.7
Another endeavour by the British government to open up commercial relations
with the Niger countries resulted in the addition of a vast amount of
information concerning the countries between Timbuktu and Lake Chad, owing
to the labours of Heinrich Barth (1850-1855), originally a subordinate, but
the only surviving member of the expedition sent out. Meantime considerable changes had been made in other parts of the
continent, the most notable being—the occupation of Algiers by France in
1830, an end being thereby put to the piratical proceedings of the Barbary
states; the continued expansion southward of Egyptian authority with the
consequent additions to the knowledge of the Nile; and the establishment of
independent states ((Orange Free State and the Transvaal) by Dutch farmers
(Boers) dissatisfied with British rule in Cape Colony. Natal, so named by
Vasco da Gama, had been made a British colony (1843), the attempt of the
Boers to acquire it being frustrated. The city of Zanzibar, on the island
of that name, founded in 1832 by Seyyid Said of Muscat, rapidly attained
importance, and Arabs began to penetrate to the great lakes of East
Africa,8 concerning which little more was known (and less believed) than in
the time of Ptolemy. Accounts of a vast inland sea, and the discovery in
1848-1840, by the missionaries Ludwig Krapf and J.Rebmann, of the snow-clad
mountains of Kilimanjaro and Kenya, stimulated in Europe the desire for
further knowledge. At this period, the middle of the 19th century, Protestant missions were
carrying on active propaganda on the Guinea
The era of great explorers.
coast, in South Africa and in the Zanzibar dominions. Their work, largely
beneficent, was being conducted in regions and among peoples little known,
and in many instances missionaries turned explorers and became pioneers of
trade and empire. One of the first to attempt to fill up the remaining
blank spaces in the map was David Livings tone, who had been engaged since
1840 in missionary work north of the Orange. In 1849 Livingstone crossed
the Kalahari Desert from south to north and reached Lake Ngami, and between
1851 and 1856 he traversed the continent from west to east, making known
the great waterways of the upper Zambezi. During these journeyings
Livingstone discovered, November 1855, the famous Victoria Falls, so named
after the queen of England. In 1858-1864 the lower Zambezi, the Shire and
Lake Nyasa were explored by Livingstone, Nyasa having been first reached by
the confidential slave of Antonio da Silva Porto, a Portuguese trader
established at Bihe in Angola, who crossed Africa during 1853-1856 from
Benguella to the mouth of the Rovuma. While Livingstone circumnavigated
Nyasa, the more northerly lake, Tanganyika, had been visited (1858) by
Richard Burton and J. H. Speke, and the last named had sighted Victoria
Nyanza. Returning to East Africa with J. A. Grant, Speke reached, in 1862,
the river which flowed from Victoria Nyanza, and following it (in the main)
down to Egypt, had the distinction of being the first man to read the
riddle of the Nile. In 1864 another Nile explorer, Samuel Baker, discovered
the Albert Nyanza, the chief western reservoir of the river. In 1866
Livingstone began his last great journey, in which he made known Lakes
Mweru and Bangweulu and discovered the Lualaba (the upper part of the
Congo), but died (1873) before he had been able to demonstrate its ultimate
course, believing indeed that the Lualaba belonged to the Nile system.
Livingstone’s lonely death in the heart of Africa evoked a keener desire
than ever to complete the work he left undone. H. M. Stanley, who had in
1871 succeeded in finding and succouring Livingstone, started again for
Zanzibar in 1874, and in the most memorable of all exploring expeditions in
Africa circumnavigated Victoria Nyanza and Tanganyika, and, striking
farther inland to the Lualaba, followed that river down to the Atlantic
Ocean—reached in August 1877—and proved it to be the Congo. Stanley had
been preceded, in 1874, at Nyangwe, Livingstone’s farthest point on the
Lualaba, by Lovett Cameron, who was, however, unable farther to explore its
course, making his way to the west coast by a route south of the Congo. While the great mystery of Central Africa was being solved explorers were
also active in other parts of the continent. Southern Morocco, the Sahara
and the Sudan were traversed in many directions between 1860 and 1875 by
Gerhard Rohlfs, Georg Schweinfurth and Gustav Nachtigal. These travellers
not only added considerably to geographical knowledge, but obtained
invaluable information concerning the people, languages and natural history
of the countries in which they sojourned.9 Among the discoveries of
Schweinfurth was one that confirmed the Greek legends of the existence
beyond Egypt of a pygmy race. But the first discoverer of the dwarf races
of Central Africa was Paul du Chaillu, who found them in the Ogowe district
of the west coast in 1865, five years before Schweinfurth’s first meeting
with the Pygmies; du Chaillu having previously, as the result of journeys
in the Gabun country between 1855 and 1859, made popular in Europe the
knowledge of the existence of the gorilla, perhaps the gigantic ape seen by
Hanno the Carthaginian, and whose existence, up to the middle of the 19th
century, was thought to be as legendary as that of the Pygmies of
Aristotle. In South Africa the filling up of the map also proceeded apace. The
finding, in 1869, of rich diamond fields in the valley of the Vaal river,
near its confluence with the Orange, caused a rush of emigrants to that
district, and led to conflicts between the Dutch and British authorities
and the extension of British authority northward. In 1871 the ruins of the
great Zimbabwe in Mashonaland, the chief fortress and distributing centre
of the race which in medieval times worked the goldfields of South-East
Africa, were explored by Karl Mauch. In the following year F. C. Selous
began his journeys over South Central Africa, which continued for more than
twenty years and extended over every part of Mashonaland and Matabeleland.
(F. R. C.)
V. PARTITION AMONG EUROPEAN POWERS In the last quarter of the 19th century the map of Africa was
transformed. After the discovery of the Congo the story of exploration
takes second place; the continent becomes the theatre of European
expansion. Lines of partition, drawn often through trackless wildernesses,
marked out the possessions of Germany, France, Great Britain and other
powers. Railways penetrated the interior, vast areas were opened up to
civilized occupation, and from ancient Egypt to the Zambezi the continent
was startled into new life. Before 1875 the only powers with any considerable interest in Africa were
Britain, Portugal and France. Between 1815 and 1850, as has been shown
above, the British government devoted much energy, not always informed by
knowledge, to western and southern Africa. In both directions Great Britain
had met with much discouragement; on the west coast, disease, death,
decaying trade and useless conflicts with savage foes had been the normal
experience; in the south recalcitrant Boers and hostile Kaffirs caused
almost endless trouble. The visions once entertained of vigorous negro
communities at once civilized and Christian faded away; to the hot fit of
philanthropy succeeded the cold fit of indifference and a disinclination to
bear the burden of empire. The low-water mark of British interest in South
Africa was reached in 1854 when independence was forced on the Orange River
Boers, while in 1865 the mind of the nation was fairly reflected by the
unanimous resolution of a representative House of Commons committee:10
“that all further extension of territory or assumption of government, or
new treaty offering any protection to native tribes, would be
inexpedient.” For nearly twenty years the spirit of that resolution
paralysed British action in Africa, although many circumstances—the absence
of any serious European rival, the inevitable border disputes with
uncivilized races, and the activity of missionary and trader—conspired to
make British influence dominant in large areas of the continent over which
the government exercised no definite authority. The freedom with which
blood and treasure were spent to enforce respect for the British flag or to
succour British subjects in distress, as in the Abyssinian campaign of 1867-
68 and the Ashanti war of 1873, tended further to enhance the reputation of
Great Britain among African races, while, as an inevitable result of the
possession of India, British officials exercised considerable power at the
court of Zanzibar, which indeed owed its separate existence to a decision
of Lord Canning, the governor-general of India, in 1861 recognizing the
division of the Arabian and African dominions of the imam of Muscat. It has been said that Great Britain was without serious rival. On the
Gold Coast she had bought the Danish forts in 1850 and acquired the Dutch,
1871-1872, in exchange for establishments in Sumatra. But Portugal still
held, both in the east and west of Africa, considerable stretches of the
tropical coast-lands, and it was in 1875 that she obtained, as a result of
the arbitration of Marshal MacMahon, possession of the whole of Delagoa
Bay, to the southern part of which England also laid claim by virtue of a
treaty of cession concluded with native chiefs in 1823. The only other
European power which at the period under consideration had considerable
possessions in Africa was France. Besides Algeria, France had settlements
on the Senegal, where in 1854 the appointment of General Faidherbe as
governor marked the beginning of a policy of expansion; she had also
various posts on the upper Guinea coast, had taken the estuary of the Gabun
as a station for her navy, and had acquired (1862) Obok at the southern
entrance to the Red Sea. In North Africa the Turks had (in 1835) assumed direct control of
Tripoli, while Morocco had fallen into a state of decay though retaining
its independence. The most remarkable change was in Egypt, where the
Khedive Ismail had introduced a somewhat fantastic imitation of European
civilization. In addition Ismail had conquered Darfur, annexed Harrar and
the Somali ports on the Gulf of Aden, was extending his power southward to
the equatorial lakes, and even contemplated reaching the Indian Ocean. The
Suez Canal, opened in 1869, had a great influence on the future of Africa,
as it again made Egypt the highway to the East, to the detriment of the
Cape route. Any estimate of the area of African territory held by European nations in
1875 is necessarily but approximate, and varies chiefly
The division of the continent in 1875.
as the compiler of statistics rejects or accepts the vague claims of
Portugal to sovereignty over the hinterland of her coast possessions. At
that period other European nations—with the occasional exception of Great
Britain—were indifferent to Portugal’s pretensions, and her estimate of her
African empire as covering over 700,000 sq. m. was not challenged.11 But
the area under effective control of Portugal at that time did not exceed
40,000 sq. m. Great Britain then held some 250,000 sq. m., France about
170,000 sq. m. and Spain 1000 sq.m. The area of the independent Dutch
republics (the Transvaal and Orange Free State) was some 150,000 sq. m., so
that the total area of Africa ruled by Europeans did not exceed 1,271,000
sq. m.; roughly one-tenth of the continent. This estimate, as it admits the
full extent of Portuguese claims and does not include Madagascar, in
reality considerably overstates the case. Egypt and the Egyptian Sudan, Tunisia and Tripoli were subject in
differing ways to the overlordship of the sultan of Turkey, and with these
may be ranked, in the scale of organized governments, the three principal
independent states, Morocco, Abyssinia and Zanzibar, as also the negro
republic of Liberia. There remained, apart from the Sahara, roughly one
half of Africa, lying mostly within the tropics, inhabited by a multitude
of tribes and peoples living under various forms of government and subject
to frequent changes in respect of political organization. In this region
were the negro states of Ashanti, Dahomey and Benin on the west coast, the
Mahommedan sultanates of the central Sudan, and a number of negro kingdoms
in the east central and south central regions. Of these Uganda on the north-
west shores of Victoria Nyanza, Cazembe and Muata Hianvo (or Yanvo) may be
mentioned. The two last-named kingdoms occupied respectively the south-
eastern and south-western parts of the Congo basin. In all this vast region
the Negro and Negro-Bantu races predominated, for the most part untouched
by Mahommedanism or Christian influences. They lacked political cohesion,
and possessed neither the means nor the inclination to extend their
influence beyond their own borders. The exploitation of Africa continued to
be entirely the work of alien races. The causes which led to the partition of Africa may now be considered.
They are to be found in the economic and political
Causes which led to partition.
state of western Europe at the time. Germany, strong and united as the
result of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, was seeking new outlets for her
energies —new markets for her growing industries, and with the markets,
colonies. Yet the idea of colonial expansion was of slow growth in Germany,
and when Prince Bismarck at length acted Africa was the only field left to
exploit, South America being protected from interference by the known
determination of the United States to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, while
Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain already held
most of the other regions of the world where colonization was possible. For
different reasons the war of 1870 was also the starting-point for France in
the building up of a new colonial empire. In her endeavour to regain the
position lost in that war France had to look beyond Europe. To the two
causes mentioned must be added others. Great Britain and Portugal, when
they found their interests threatened, bestirred themselves, while Italy
also conceived it necessary to become an African power. Great Britain awoke
to the need for action too late to secure predominance in all the regions
where formerly hers was the only European influence. She had to contend not
only with the economic forces which urged her rivals to action, but had
also to combat the jealous opposition of almost every European nation to
the further growth of British power. Italy alone acted throughout in
cordial co-operation with Great Britain. It was not, however, the action of any of the great powers of Europe
which precipitated the struggle. This was brought about by the ambitious
projects of Leopold II, king of the Belgians. The discoveries of
Livingstone, Stanley and others had aroused especial interest among two
classes of men in western Europe, one the manufacturing and trading class,
which saw in Central Africa possibilities of commercial development, the
other the philanthropic and missionary class, which beheld in the newly
discovered lands millions of savages to Christianize and civilize. The
possibility of utilizing both these classes in the creation of a vast
state, of which he should be the chief, formed itself in the mind of
Leopold II. even before Stanley had navigated the Congo. The king’s action
was immediate; it proved successful; but no sooner was the nature of his
project understood in Europe than it provoked the rivalry of France and
Germany, and thus the international struggle was begun.
Conflicting ambitions of the European powers. At this point it is expedient, in the light of subsequent events, to set
forth the designs then entertained by the European powers that participated
in the struggle for Africa. Portugal was striving to retain as large a
share as possible of her shadowy empire, and particularly to establish her
claims to the Zambezi region, so as to secure a belt of territory across
Africa from Mozambique to Angola. Great Britain, once aroused to the
imminence of danger, put forth vigorous efforts in East Africa and on the
Niger, but her most ambitious dream was the establishment of an unbroken
line of British possessions and spheres of influence from south to north of
the continent, from Cape Colony to Egypt. Germany’s ambition can be easily
described. It was to secure as much as possible, so as to make up for lost
opportunities. Italy coveted Tripoli, but that province could not be seized
without risking war. For the rest Italy’s territorial ambitions were
confined to North-East Africa, where she hoped to acquire a dominating,
influence over Abyssinia. French ambitions, apart from Madagascar, were
confined to the northern and central portions of the continent. To extend
her possessions on the Mediterranean littoral, and to connect them with her
colonies in West Africa, the western Sudan, and on the Congo, by
establishing her influence over the vast intermediate regions, was France’s
first ambition. But the defeat of the Italians in Abyssinia and the
impending downfall of the khalifa’s power in the valley of the upper Nile
suggested a still more daring project to the French government—none other
than the establishment of French influence over a broad belt of territory
stretching across the continent from west to east, from Senegal on the
Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Aden. The fact that France possessed a small
part of the Red Sea coast gave point to this design. But these conflicting
ambitions could not all be realized and Germany succeeded in preventing
Great Britain obtaining a continuous band of British territory from south
to north,while Great Britain, by excluding France from the upper Nile
valley, dispelled the French dream of an empire from west to east. King
Leopold’s ambitions have already been indicated. The part of the continent
to which from the first he directed his energies was the equatorial region.
In September 1876 he took what may be described as the first definite step
in the modern partition of the continent. He summoned to a conference at
Brussels representatives of Great Britain, Belgium, France, Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Italy and Russia, to deliberate on the best methods to be
adopted for the exploration and civilization of Africa, and the opening up
of the interior of the continent to commerce and industry. The conference
was entirely unofficial. The delegates who attended neither represented nor
pledged their respective governments. Their deliberations lasted three days
and resulted in the foundation of “The International African
Association,” with its headquarters at Brussels. It was further resolved
to establish national committees in the various countries represented,
which should collect funds and appoint delegates to the International
Association. The central idea appears to have been to put the exploration
and development of Africa upon an international footing. But it quickly
became apparent that this was an unattainable ideal. The national
committees were soon working independently of the International
Association, and the Association itself passed through a succession of
stages until it became purely Belgian in character, and at last developed
into the Congo Free State, under the personal sovereignty of King Leopold.
At first the Association devoted itself to sending expeditions to the great
central lakes from the east coast; but failure, more or less complete
attended its efforts in this direction, and it was not until the return of
Stanley, in January 1878, from his great journey down the Congo, that its
ruling spirit, King Leopold, definitely turned his thoughts towards the
Congo. In June of that year, Stanley visited the king at Brussels, and in
the following November a private conference was held, and a committee was
appointed for the investigation of the upper Congo. Stanley’s remarkable discovery had stirred ambition in other capitals
than Brussels. France had always taken a keen interest
The struggle for the Congo.
in West Africa, and in the years 1875 to 1878 Savorgnan de Brazza had
carried out a successful exploration of the Ogowe river to the south of the
Gabun. De Brazza determined that the Ogowe did not offer that great
waterway into the interior of which he was in search, and he returned to
Europe without having heard of the discoveries of Stanley farther south.
Naturally, however, Stanley’s discoveries were keenly followed in France.
In Portugal, too, the discovery of the Congo, with its magnificent unbroken
waterway of more than a thousand miles into the heart of the continent
served to revive the languid energies of the Portuguese, who promptly began
to furbish up claims whose age was in inverse ratio to their validity.
Claims, annexations and occupations were in the air, and when in January
1879 Stanley left Europe as the accredited agent of King Leopold and the
Congo committee, the strictest secrecy was observed as to his real aims and
intentions. The expedition was, it was alleged, proceeding up the Congo to
assist the Belgian expedition which had entered from the east coast, and
Stanley himself went first to Zanzibar. But in August 1879 Stanley found
himself again at Banana Point, at the mouth of the Congo, with, as he
himself has written, “the novel mission of sowing along its banks
civilized settlements to peacefully conquer and subdue it, to remould it in
harmony with modern ideas into national states, within whose limits the
European merchant shall go hand in hand with the dark African trader, and
justice and law and order shall prevail, and murder and lawlessness and the
cruel barter of slaves shall be overcome.” The irony of human aspirations
was never perhaps more plainly demonstrated than in the contrast between
the ideal thus set before themselves by those who employed Stanley, and the
actual results of their intervention in Africa. Stanley founded his first
station at Vivi, between the mouth of the Congo and the rapids that
obstruct its course where it breaks over the western edge of the central
continental plateau. Above the rapids he established a station on Stanley
Pool and named it Leopoldville, founding other stations on the main stream
in the direction of the falls that bear his name. Meanwhile de Brazza was far from idle. He had returned to Africa at the
beginning of 1880, and while the agents of King Leopold were making
treaties and founding stations along the southern bank of the river, de
Brazza and other French agents were equally busy on the northern bank. De
Brazza was sent out to Africa by the French committee of the International
African Association, which provided him with the funds for the expedition.
His avowed object was to explore the region between the Gabun and Lake
Chad. But his real object was to anticipate Stanley on the Congo. The
international character of the association founded by King Leopold was
never more than a polite fiction, and the rivalry between the French and
the Belgians on the Congo was soon open, if not avowed. In October 1880 de
Brazza made a solemn treaty with a chief on the north bank of the Congo,
who claimed that his authority extended over a large area, including
territory on the southern bank of the river. As soon as this chief had
accepted French protection, de Brazza crossed over to the south of the
river, and founded a station close to the present site of Leopoldville. The
discovery by Stanley of the French station annoyed King Leopold’s agent,
and he promptly challenged the rights of the chief who purported to have
placed the country under French protection, and himself founded a Belgian
station close to the site selected by de Brazza. In the result, the French
station was withdrawn to the northern side of Stanley Pool, where it is now
known as Brazzaville. The activity of French and Belgian agents on the Congo had not passed
unnoticed in Lisbon, and the Portuguese government saw that no time was to
be lost if the claims it had never ceased to put forward on the west coast
were not to go by default. At varying periods during the 19th century
Portugal had put forward claims to the whole of the West African coast,
between 5 deg. 12′ and 8 deg. south. North of the Congo mouth she claimed
the territories of Kabinda and Molemba, alleging that they had been in her
possession since 1484. Great Britain had never, however, admitted this
claim, and south of the Congo had declined to recognize Portuguese
possessions as extending north of Ambriz. In 1856 orders were given to
British cruisers to prevent by force any attempt to extend Portuguese
dominion north of that place. But the Portuguese had been persistent in
urging their claims, and in 1882 negotiations were again opened with the
British government for recognition of Portuguese rights over both banks of
the Congo on the coast, and for some distance inland. Into the details of
the negotiations, which were conducted for Great Britain by the 2nd Earl
Granville, who was then secretary for foreign affairs, it is unnecessary to
enter; they resulted in the signing on the 26th of February 1884 of a
treaty, by which Great Britain recognized the sovereignty of the king of
Portugal “over that part of the west coast of Africa, situated between 8
deg. and 5 deg. 12′ south latitude,” and inland as far as Noki, on the
south bank of the Congo, below Vivi. The navigation of the Congo was to be
controlled by an Anglo-Portuguese commission. The publication of this
treaty evoked immediate protests, not only on the continent but in Great
Britain. In face of the disapproval aroused by the treaty, Lord Granville
found himself unable to ratify it. The protests had not been confined to
France and the king of the Belgians. Germany had not yet acquired formal
footing in Africa, but she was crouching for the spring prior to taking her
part in the scramble, and Prince Bismarck had expressed, in vigorous
language, the objections entertained by Germany to the Anglo-Portuguese
treaty. For some time before 1884 there had been growing up a general conviction
that it would be desirable for the powers who were interesting themselves
in Africa to come to some agreement as to “the rules of the game,” and to
define their respective interests so far as that was practicable. Lord
Granville’s ill-fated treaty brought this sentiment to a head, and it was
agreed to hold an international conference on African affairs. But before
discussing the Berlin conference of 1884-1885, it will be well to see what
was the position, on the eve of the conference, in other parts of the
African continent. In the southern section of Africa, south of the Zambezi,
important events had been happening. In 1876 Great Britain had concluded an
agreement
British influence consolidated in South Africa.
with the Orange Free State for an adjustment of frontiers, the result of
which was to leave the Kimberley diamond fields in British territory, in
exchange for a payment of L. 90,000 to the Orange Free State. On the 12th
of April 1877 Sir Theophilus Shepstone had issued a proclamation declaring
the Transvaal— the South African Republic, as it was officially
designated—to be British territory (see TRANSVAAL.) In December 1880 war
broke out and lasted until March 1881, when a treaty of peace was signed.
This treaty of peace was followed by a convention, signed in August of the
same year, under which complete self-government was guaranteed to the
inhabitants of the Transvaal, subject to the suzerainty of Great Britain,
upon certain terms and conditions and subject to certain reservations and
limitations. No sooner was the convention signed than it became the object
of the Boers to obtain a modification of the conditions and limitations
imposed, and in February 1884 a fresh convention was signed, amending the
convention of 1881. Article IV. of the new convention provided that “The
South African Republic will conclude no treaty or engagement with any state
or nation other than the Orange Free State, nor with any native tribe to
the eastward or westward of the Republic, until the same has been approved
by Her Majesty the Queen.” The precise effect of the two conventions has
been the occasion for interminable discussions, but as the subject is now
one of merely academic interest, it is sufficient to say that when the
Berlin conference held its first meeting in 1884 the Transvaal was
practically independent, so far as its internal administration was
concerned, while its foreign relations were subject to the control just
quoted. But although the Transvaal had thus, between the years 1875 and 1884,
become and ceased to be British territory, British influence in other parts
of Africa south of the Zambezi had been steadily extended. To the west of
the Orange Free State, Griqualand West was annexed to the Cape in 1880,
while to the east the territories beyond the Kei river were included in
Cape Colony between 1877 and 1884, so that in the latter year, with the
exception of Pondoland, the whole of South-East Africa was in one form or
another under British control. North of Natal, Zululand was not actually
annexed until 1887, although since 1879, when the military power of the
Zulus was broken up, British influence had been admittedly supreme. In
December 1884 St Lucia Bay—upon which Germany was casting covetous eyes—had
been taken possession of in virtue of its cession to Great Britain by the
Zulu king in 1843, and three years later an agreement of non-cession to
foreign powers made by Great Britain with the regent and paramount chief of
Tongaland completed the chain of British possessions on the coast of South
Africa, from the mouth of the Orange river on the west to Kosi Bay and the
Portuguese frontier on the east. In the interior of South Africa the year
1884 witnessed the beginning of that final stage of the British advance
towards the north which was to extend British influence from the Cape to
the southern shores of Lake Tanganyika. The activity of the Germans on the
west, and of the Boer republic on the east, had brought home to both the
imperial and colonial authorities the impossibility of relying on vague
traditional claims. In May 1884 treaties were made with native chiefs by
which the whole of the country north of Cape Colony, west of the Transvaal,
south of 22 deg. S. and east of 20 deg. E., was placed under British
protection, though a protectorate was not formally declared until the
following January. Meanwhile some very interesting events had been taking place or: the west
coast, north of the Orange river and south of the Portuguese province of
Mossamaede. It must be sufficient here to touch very briefly on the events
that preceded the foundation of the colony of German South-West Africa. For
many years before 1884 German missionaries had settled among the Damaras
(Herero) and Namaquas, often combining small trading operations with their
missionary work. From time to time trouble arose between the missionaries
and the native chiefs, and appeals
Germany enters the field.
were made to the German government for protection. The German government in
its turn begged the British government to say whether it assumed
responsibility for the protection of Europeans in Damaraland and
Namaqualand. The position of the British government was intelligible, if
not very intelligent. It did not desire to see any other European power in
these countries, and it did not want to assume the responsibility and incur
the expense of protecting the few Europeans settled there. Sir Bartle
Frere, when governor of the Cape (1877-1880), had foreseen that this
attitude portended trouble, and had urged that the whole of the unoccupied
coastline, up to the Portuguese frontier, should be declared under British
protection. But he preached to deaf ears, and it was as something of a
concession to him that in March 1878 the British flag was hoisted at
Walfish Bay, and a small part of the adjacent land declared to be British.
The fact appears to be that British statesmen failed to understand the
change that had come over Germany. They believed that Prince Bismarck would
never give his sanction to the creation of a colonial empire, and, to the
German inquiries as to what rights Great Britain claimed in Damaraland and
Namaqualand, procrastinating replies were sent. Meanwhile the various
colonial societies established in Germany had effected a revolution in
public opinion, and, more important still, they had convinced the great
chancellor. Accordingly when, in November 1882, F. A. E. Luderitz, a Bremen
merchant, informed the German government of his intention to establish a
factory on the coast between the Orange river and the Little Fish river,
and asked if he might rely on the protection of his government in case of
need, he met with no discouragement from Prince Bismarck. In February 1883
the German ambassador in London informed Lord Granville of Luderitz’s
design, and asked “whether Her Majesty’s government exercise any authority
in that locality.” It was intimated that if Her Majesty’s government did
not, the German government would extend to Luderitz’s factory “the same
measure of protection which they give to their subjects in remote parts of
the world, but without having the least design to establish any footing in
South Africa.” An inconclusive reply was sent, and on the 9th of April
Luderitz’s agent landed at Angra Pequena, and after a short delay concluded
a treaty with the local chief, by which some 215 square miles around Angra
Pequena were ceded to Luderitz. In England and at the Cape irritation at
the news was mingled with incredulity, and it was fully anticipated that
Luderitz would be disavowed by his government. But for this belief it can
scarcely be doubted that the rest of the unoccupied coast-line would have
been promptly declared under British protection. Still Prince Bismarck was
slow to act. In November the German ambassador again inquired if Great
Britain made any claim over this coast, and Lord Granville replied that Her
Majesty exercised sovereignty only over certain parts of the coast, as at
Walfish Bay, and suggested that arrangements might be made by which Germany
might assist in the settlement of Angra Pequena. By this time Luderitz had
extended his acquisitions southwards to the Orange river, which had been
declared by the British government to be the northern frontier of Cape
Colony. Both at the Cape and in England it was now realized that Germany
had broken away from her former purely continental policy, and, when too
late, the Cape parliament showed great eagerness to acquire the territory
which had lain so long at its very doors, to be had for the taking. It is
not necessary to follow the course-of the subsequent negotiations. On the
15th of August 1884 an official note was addressed by the German consul at
Capetown to the high commissioner, intimating that the German emperor had
by proclamation taken “the territory belonging to Mr A. Luderitz on the
west coast of Africa under the direct protection of His Majesty.” This
proclamation covered the coast-line from the north bank of the Orange river
to 26 deg. S. latitude, and 20 geographical miles inland, including “the
islands belonging thereto by the law of nations.” On the 8th of September
1884 the German government intimated to Her Majesty’s government “that the
west coast of Africa from 26 deg. S. latitude to Cape Frio, excepting
Walfish Bay, had been placed under the protection of the German emperor.”
Thus, before the end of the year 1884, the foundations of Germany’s
colonial empire had been laid in South-West Africa. In April of that year Prince Bismarck intimated to the British
government, through the German charge d’affaires in London,
Nachtigal’s mission to West Africa.
that “the imperial consul-general, Dr Nachtigal, has been commissioned by
my government to visit the west coast of Africa in the course of the next
few months, in order to complete the information now in the possession of
the Foreign Office at Berlin, on the state of German commerce on that
coast. With this object Dr Nachtigal will shortly embark at Lisbon, on
board the gunboat `Mowe.’ He will put himself into communication with the
authorities in the British possessions on the said coast, and is authorized
to conduct, on behalf of the imperial government, negotiations connected
with certain questions. I venture,” the official communication proceeds,
“in accordance with my instructions, to beg your excellency to be so good
as to cause the authorities in the British possessions in West Africa to be
furnished with suitable recommendations.” Although at the date of this
communication it must have been apparent, from what was happening in South
Africa, that Germany was prepared to enter on a policy of colonial
expansion, and although the wording of the letter was studiously vague, it
does not seem to have occurred to the British government that the real
object of Gustav Nachtigal’s journey was to make other annexations on the
west coast. Yet such was indeed his mission. German traders and
missionaries had been particularly active of late years on the coast of the
Gulf of Guinea. German factories were dotted all along the coast in
districts under British protection, under French protection and under the
definite protection of no European power at all. It was to these latter
places that Nachtigal turned his attention. The net result of his
operations was that on the 5th of July 1884 a treaty was signed with the
king of Togo, placing his country under German protection, and that just
one week later a German protectorate was proclaimed over the Cameroon
district. Before either of these events had occurred Great Britain had
become alive to the fact that she could no longer dally with the subject,
if she desired to consolidate her possessions in West Africa. The British
government had again and again refused to accord native chiefs the
protection they demanded. The Cameroon chiefs had several times asked for
British protection, and always in vain. But at last it became apparent,
even to the official mind, that rapid changes were being effected in
Africa, and on the 16th of May Edward Hyde Hewett, British consul, received
instructions to return to the west coast and to make arrangements for
extending British protection over certain regions. He arrived too late to
save either Togoland or Cameroon, in the latter case arriving five days
after King Bell and the other chiefs on the river had signed treaties with
Nachtigal. But the British consul was in time to secure the delta of the
river Niger and the Oil Rivers District, extending from Rio del Rey to the
Lagos frontier, where for a long period British traders had held almost a
monopoly of the trade. Meanwhile France, too, had been busy treaty-making. While the British
government still remained under the spell of the
French and British rivalry in West Africa.
fatal resolution of 1865, the French government was strenuously
endeavouring to extend France’s influence in West Africa, in the countries
lying behind the coastline. During the year 1884 no fewer than forty-two
treaties were concluded with native chiefs, an even larger number having
been concluded in the previous twelve months. In this fashion France was
pushing on towards Timbuktu, in steady pursuance of the policy which
resulted in surrounding all the old British possessions in West Africa with
a continuous band of French territory. There was, however, one region on
the west coast where, notwithstanding the lethargy of the British
government, British interests were being vigorously pushed, protected and
consolidated. This was on the lower Niger, and the leading spirit in the
enterprise was Mr Goldie Taubman (afterwards Sir George Taubman Goldie). In
1877 Sir George Goldie visited the Niger and conceived the idea of
establishing a settled government in that region. Through his efforts the
various trading firms on the lower Niger formed themselves in 1879 into the
“United African Company,” and the foundations were laid of something like
settled administration. An application was made to the British government
for a charter in 1881, and the capital of the company increased to a
million sterling. Henceforth the company was known as the “National
African Company,” and it was acknowledged that its object was not only to
develop the trade of the lower Niger, but to extend its operations to the
middle reaches of the river, and to open up direct relations with the great
Fula empire of Sokoto and the smaller states associated with Sokoto under a
somewhat loosely defined suzerainty. The great development of trade which
followed the combination of British interests carried out under Goldie’s
skilful guidance did not pass unnoticed in France, and, encouraged by
Gambetta, French traders made a bold bid for a position on the river. Two
French companies, with ample capital, were formed, and various stations
were established on the lower Niger. Goldie realized at once the
seriousness of the situation, and lost no time in declaring commercial war
on the newcomers. His bold tactics were entirely successful, and a few days
before the meeting of the Berlin conference he had the satisfaction of
announcing that he had bought out the whole of the French interests on the
river, and that Great Britain alone possessed any interests on the lower
Niger. To complete the survey of the political situation in Africa at the time
the plenipotentiaries met at Berlin, it is necessary to
The position in Tunisia and Egypt.
refer briefly to the course of events in North and East Africa since 1875.
In 1881 a French army entered Tunisia, and compelled the bey to sign a
treaty placing that country under French protection. The sultan of Turkey
formally protested against this invasion of Ottoman rights, but the great
powers took no action, and France was left in undisturbed possession of her
newly acquired territory. In Egypt the extravagance of Ismail Pasha had led
to the establishment in 1879, in the interests of European bondholders, of
a Dual Control exercised by France and Great Britain. France had, however,
in 1882 refused to take part in the suppression of a revolt under Arabi
Pasha, which England accomplished unaided. As a consequence the Dual
Control had been abolished in January 1883, since when Great Britain, with
an army quartered in the country, had assumed a predominant position in
Egyptian affairs (see EGYPT.) In East Africa, north of the Portuguese
possessions, where the sultan of Zanzibar was the most considerable native
potentate, Germany was secretly preparing the foundations of her present
colony of German East Africa. But no overt act had warned Europe of what
was impending. The story of the foundation of German East Africa is one of
the romances of the continent. Early in 1884 the Society for German
Colonization was founded, with the avowed object of furthering the newly
awakened colonial aspirations of the German people.12 It was a society
inspired and controlled by young men, and on the 4th of November 1884,
eleven days before the conference assembled at Berlin, three young Germans
arrived as deck passengers at Zanzibar. They were disguised as mechanics,
but were in fact Dr Karl Peters, the president of the Colonization Society,
Joachim Count Pfeil, and Dr Juhlke, and their stock-in-trade consisted of a
number of German flags and a supply of blank treaty forms. They proposed to
land on the mainland opposite Zanzibar, and
The German flag raised in East Africa.
to conclude treaties in the back country with native chiefs placing their
territories under German protection. The enterprise was frowned upon by the
German government; but, encouraged by German residents at Zanzibar, the
three young pioneers crossed to the mainland, and on the 19th of November,
while the diplomatists assembled at Berlin were solemnly discussing the
rules which were to govern the game of partition, the first “treaty” was
signed at Mbuzini, and the German flag raised for the first time in East
Africa. Italy had also obtained a footing on the African continent before the
meeting of the Berlin conference. The Rubattino Steamship Company as far
back as 1870 had bought the port of Assab as a coaling station, but it was
not until 1882 that it was declared an Italian colony. This was followed by
the conclusion of a treaty with the sultan of Assab, chief of the Danakil,
signed on the 15th of March 1883, and subsequently approved by the king of
Shoa, whereby Italy obtained the cession of part of Ablis (Aussa) on the
Red Sea, Italy undertaking to protect with her fleet the Danakil littoral. One other event must be recorded as happening before the meeting of the
Berlin conference. The king of the Belgians had
Recognition of the International Association.
been driven to the conclusion that, if his African enterprise was to obtain
any measure of permanent success, its international status must be
recognized. To this end negotiations were opened with various governments.
The first government to “recognize the flag of the International
Association of the Congo as the flag of a friendly government” was that of
the United States, its declaration to that effect bearing date the 22nd of
April 1884. There were, however, difficulties in the way of obtaining the
recognition of the European powers, and in order to obtain that of France,
King Leopold, on the 23rd of April 1884, while labouring under the feelings
of annoyance which had been aroused by the Anglo-Portuguese treaty
concluded by Lord Granville in February, authorized Colonel Strauch,
president of the International Association, to engage to give France “the
right of preference if, through unforeseen circumstances, the Association
were compelled to sell its possessions.” France’s formal recognition of
the Association as a government was, however, delayed by the discussion of
boundary questions until the following February, and in the meantime
Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Holland and Spain had all
recognized the Association; though Germany alone had done so—on the 8th of
November—before the assembling of the conference. The conference assembled at Berlin on the 15th of November 1884, and
after protracted deliberations the “General Act of
The Berlin Conference of 1884-85.
the Berlin Conference” was signed by the representatives of all the powers
attending the conference, on the 26th of February 1885. The powers
represented were Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, the
United States, France, Great Britain, Italy, Holland, Portugal, Russia,
Sweden and Norway, and Turkey, to name them in the alphabetical order
adopted in the preamble to the French text of the General Act.
Ratifications were deposited by all the signatory powers with the exception
of the United States. It is unnecessary to examine in detail the results of
the labours of the conference. The General Act dealt with six specific
subjects: (1) freedom of trade in the basin of the Congo, (2) the slave
trade, (3) neutrality of territories in the basin of the Congo, (4)
navigation of the Congo, (5) navigation of the Niger, (6) rules for future
occupation on the coasts of the African continent. It will be seen that the
act dealt with other matters than the political partition of Africa; but,
so far as they concern the present purpose, the results effected by the
Berlin Act may be summed up as follows. The signatory powers undertook that
any fresh act of taking possession on any portion of the African coast must
be notified by the power taking possession, or assuming a protectorate, to
the other signatory powers. It was further provided that any such
occupation to be valid must be effective. It is also noteworthy that the
first reference in an international act to the obligations attaching to
“spheres of influence” is contained in the Berlin Act. It will be remembered that when the conference assembled, the
International Association of the Congo had only been
Constitution of the Congo State.
recognized as a sovereign state by the United States and Germany. But King
Leopold and his agents had taken full advantage of the opportunity which
the conference afforded, and before the General Act was signed the
Association had been recognized by all the signatory powers, with the not
very important exception of Turkey, and the fact communicated to the
conference by Colonel Strauch. It was not, however, until two months later,
in April 1885, that King Leopold, with the sanction of the Belgian
legislature, formally assumed the headship of the new state; and on the 1st
of August in the same year His Majesty notified the powers that from that
date the “Independent State of the Congo” declared that “it shall be
perpetually neutral” in conformity with the provisions of the Berlin Act.
Thus was finally constituted the Congo Free State, under the sovereignty of
King Leopold, though the boundaries claimed for it at that time were
considerably modified by subsequent agreements. From 1885 the scramble among the powers went on with renewed vigour, and
in the fifteen years that remained of the
The chief partition treaties.
century the work of partition, so far as international agreements were
concerned, was practically completed. To attempt to follow the process of
acquisition year by year would involve a constant shifting of attention
from one part of the continent to another, inasmuch as the scramble was
proceeding simultaneously all over Africa. It will therefore be the most
convenient plan to deal with the continent in sections. Before doing so,
however, the international agreements which determined in the main the
limits of the possessions of the various powers may be set forth. They
are:— I. The agreement of the 1st of July 1890 between Great Britain and
Germany defining their spheres of influence in East, West and South-West
Africa. This agreement was the most comprehensive of all the “deals” in
African territory, and included in return for the recognition of a British
protectorate over Zanzibar the cession of Heligoland to Germany.
II. The Anglo-French declaration of the 5th of August 1890, which recognized a French protectorate over Madagascar, French influence in the Sahara, and British influence between the Niger and Lake Chad.
III. The Anglo-Portuguese treaty of the 11th of June 1891, whereby the
Portuguese possessions on the west and east coasts were separated by a broad belt of British territory, extending north to Lake Tanganyika.
IV. The Franco-German convention of the 15th of March 1894, by which the
Central Sudan was left to France (this region by an Anglo-German agreement of the 15th of November 1893 having been recognized as in the
German sphere). By this convention France was able to effect a territorial )unction of her possessions in North and West Africa with those in the Congo region. V. Protocols of the 24th of March and the 15th of April 1891, for the demarcation of the Anglo-Italian spheres in East Africa.
VI. The Anglo-French convention of the 14th of June 1898, for the delimitation of the possessions of the two countries west of Lake Chad, with the supplementary declaration of the 21st of March 1899 whereby
France recognized the upper Nile valley as in the British sphere of influence. Coming now to a more detailed consideration of the operations of the
powers, the growth of the Congo Free State, which
The growth of the Congo State.
occupied, geographically, a central position, may serve as the starting-
point for the story of the partition after the Berlin conference. In the
notification to the powers of the 1st of August 1885, the boundaries of the
Free State were set out in considerable detail. The limits thus determined
resulted partly from agreements made with France, Germany and Portugal, and
partly from treaties with native chiefs. The state acquired the north bank
of the Congo from its mouth to a point in the unnavigable reaches, and in
the interior the major part of the Congo basin. In the north-east the
northern limit was 4 deg. N. up to 30 deg. E., which formed the eastern
boundary of, the state. The south-eastern frontier claimed by King Leopold
extended to Lakes Tanganyika, Mweru and Bangweulu, but it was not until
some years later that it was recognized and defined by the agreement of May
1894 with Great Britain. The international character of King Leopold’s
enterprise had not long been maintained, and his recognition as sovereign
of the Free State confirmed the distinctive character which the Association
had assumed, even before that event. In April 1887 France was informed that the right of pre-emption accorded
to her in 1884 had not been intended by King Leopold to prejudice Belgium’s
right to acquire the Congo State, and in reply the French minister at
Brussels took note of the explanation, “in so far as this interpretation
is not contrary to pre-existing international engagements.” By his will,
dated the 2nd of August 1889, King Leopold made Belgium formally heir to
the sovereign rights of the Congo Free State. In 1895 an annexation bill
was introduced into the Belgian parliament, but at that time Belgium had no
desire to assume responsibility for the Congo State, and the bill was
withdrawn. In 1901, by the terms of a loan granted in 1890, Belgium had
again an opportunity of annexing the Congo State, but a bill in favour of
annexation was opposed by the government and was withdrawn after King
Leopold had declared that the time was not ripe for the transfer.
Concessionaire companies and a Domaine de la Couronne had been created in
the state, from which the sovereign derived considerable revenues—facts
which helped to explain the altered attitude of Leopold II. The agitation
in Great Britain and America against the Congo system of government, and
the admissions of an official commission of inquiry concerning its
maladministration, strengthened, however, the movement in favour of
transfer. Nevertheless in June 1906 the king again declared himself opposed
to immediate annexation. But under pressure of public opinion the Congo
government concluded, 28th of November 1907, a new annexation treaty. As it
stipulated for the continued existence of the crown domain the treaty
provoked vehement opposition. Leopold II. was forced to yield, and an
additional act was signed, 5th of March 1908, providing for the suppression
of the domain in return for financial subsidies. The treaty, as amended,
was approved by the Belgian parliament in the session of 1908. Thus the
Congo state, after an existence of 24 years as an independent power, became
a Belgian colony. (See CONGO FREE STATE.) The area of the Free State, vast as it was, did not suffice to satisfy
the ambition of its sovereign. King Leopold maintained that the Free State
enjoyed equally with any other state the right to extend its frontiers. His
ambition involved the state in the struggle between Great Britain and
France for the upper Nile. To understand the situation it is necessary to
remember the condition of the Egyptian Sudan at that time. The mahdi,
Mahommed Ahmed, had preached a holy war against the Egyptians, and, after
the capture of Khartum and the death of General C. G. Gordon, the Sudan was
abandoned to the dervishes. The Egyptian frontier was withdrawn to Wadi
Haifa, and the vast provinces of Kordofan, Darfur and the Bahr-el-Ghazal
were given over to dervish tyranny and misrule. It was obvious that Egypt
would sooner or later seek to recover her position in the Sudan, as the
command of the upper Nile was recognized as essential to her continued
prosperity. But the international position of the abandoned provinces was
by no means clear. The British government, by the Anglo-German agreement of
July 1890, had secured the assent of Germany to the statement that the
British sphere of influence in East Africa was bounded on the west by the
Congo Free State and by “the western watershed of the basin of the upper
Nile”; but this claim was not recognized either by France or by the Congo
Free State. From her base on the Congo, France was busily engaged pushing
forward along the northern tributaries of the great river. On the 27th of
April 1887 an agreement was signed with the Congo Free State by which the
right bank of the Ubangi river was secured to French influence, and the
left bank to the Congo Free State. The desire of France to secure a footing
in the upper Nile valley was partly due, as has been seen, to her anxiety
to extend a French zone across Africa, but it was also and to a large
The contest for the upper Nile.
extent attributable to the belief, widely entertained in France, that by
establishing herself on the upper Nile France could regain the position in
Egyptian affairs which she had sacrificed in 1882. With these strong
inducements France set steadily to work to consolidate her position on the
tributary streams of the upper Congo basin, preparatory to crossing into
the valley of the upper Nile. Meanwhile a similar advance was being made
from the Congo Free State northwards and eastwards. King Leopold had two
objects in view—-to obtain control of the rich province of the Bahr-el-
Ghazal and to secure an outlet on the Nile. Stations were established on
the Welle river, and in February 1891 Captain van Kerckhoven left
Leopoldville for the upper Welle with the most powerful expedition which
had, up to that time, been organized by the Free State. After some heavy
fighting the expedition reached the Nile in September 1892, and opened up
communications with the remains of the old Egyptian garrison at Wadelai.
Other expeditions under Belgian officers penetrated into the Bahr-el-
Ghazal, and it was apparent that King Leopold proposed to rely on effective
occupation as an answer to any claims which might be advanced by either
Great Britain or France. The news of what was happening in this remote
region Of Africa filtered through to Europe very slowly, but King Leopold
was warned on several occasions that Great Britain would not recognize any
claims by the Congo Free State on the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The difficulty was,
however, that neither from Egypt, whence the road was barred by the khalifa
(the successor of the mahdi), nor from Uganda, which was far too remote
from the coast to serve as the base of a large expedition, could a British
force be despatched to take effective occupation of the upper Nile valley.
There was, therefore, danger lest the French should succeed in establishing
themselves on the upper Nile before the preparations which were being made
in Egypt for “smashing” the khalifa were completed. In these circumstances Lord Rosebery, who was then British foreign
minister, began, and his successor, the 1st earl of
The Anglo-Congolese agreement of 1894.
Kimberley, completed, negotiations with King Leopold which resulted in the
conclusion of the Anglo-Congolese agreement of 12th May 1894. By this
agreement King Leopold recognized the British sphere of influence as laid
down in the Anglo-German agreement of July 1890, and Great Britain granted
a lease to King Leopold of certain territories in the western basin of the
upper Nile, extending on the Nile from a point on Lake Albert to Fashoda,
and westwards to the Congo-Nile watershed. The practical effect of this
agreement was to give the Congo Free State a lease, during its sovereign’s
lifetime, of the old Bahr-el-Ghazal province, and to secure after His
Majesty’s death as much of that territory as lay west of the 30th meridian,
together with access to a port on Lake Albert, to his successor. At the
same time the Congo Free State leased to Great Britain a strip of
territory, 15 1/2 m. in breadth, between the north end of Lake Tanganyika
and the south end of Lake Albert Edward. This agreement was hailed as a
notable triumph for British diplomacy. But the triumph was short-lived. By
the agreement of July 1890 with Germany, Great Britain had been reluctantly
compelled to abandon her hopes of through communication between the British
spheres in the northern and southern parts of the continent, and to Consent
to the boundary of German East Africa marching with the eastern frontier of
the Congo Free State. Germany frankly avowed that she did not wish to have
a powerful neighbour interposed between herself and the Congo Free State.
It was obvious that the new agreement would effect precisely what Germany
had declined to agree to in 1890. Accordingly Germany protested in such
vigorous terms that, on the 22nd of June 1894, the offending article was
withdrawn by an exchange of notes between Great Britain and the Congo Free
State. Opinion in France was equally excited by the new agreement. It was
obvious that the lease to the Congo Free State was intended to exclude
France from the Nile by placing the Congo Free State as a barrier across
her path. Pressure was brought to bear on King Leopold, from Paris, to
renounce the rights acquired under the agreement, and on the 14th of August
1894 King Leopold signed an agreement with France by which, in exchange for
France’s acknowledgment of the Mbomu river as his northern frontier, His
Majesty renounced all occupation and all exercise of political influence
west of 30 deg. E., and north of a line drawn from that meridian to the
Nile along 5 deg. 30′ N. This left the way still open for France to the Nile, and in June 1896
Captain J. Marchand left France with secret instructions to lead an
expedition into the Nile valley. On the 1st of March in the following year
he left Brazzaville, and began a journey which all but plunged Great
Britain and France into war. The difficulties which Captain Marchand had to
overcome were mainly those connected with transport. In October 1897 the
expedition reached the banks of the Sue, the waters of which eventually
flow into the Nile. Here a post was established and the “Faidherbe,” a
steamer which had been carried across the Congo-Nile watershed in sections,
was put together and launched. On the 1st of May 1898 Marchand started on
the final stage of his journey, and reached Fashoda on the 10th of July,
having established a chain of posts en route. At Fashoda the French flag
was at once raised, and a “treaty” made with the local chief. Meanwhile
other expeditions had been concentrating on
The French at Fashoda.
Fashoda—a mud-flat situated in a swamp, round which for many months raged
the angry passions of two great peoples. French expeditions, with a certain
amount of assistance from the emperor Menelek of Abyssinia, had been
striving to reach the Nile from the east, so as to join hands with Marchand
and complete the line of posts into the Abyssinian frontier. In this,
however, they were unsuccessful. No better success attended the expedition
under Colonel (afterwards Sir) Ronald Macdonald, R.E., sent by the British
government from Uganda to anticipate the French in the occupation of the
upper Nile. It was from the north that claimants arrived to dispute with
the French their right to Fashoda, and all that the occupation of that
dismal post implied. In 1896 an Anglo-Egyptian army, under the direction of
Sir Herbert (afterwards Lord) Kitchener, had begun to advance southwards
for the reconquest of the Egyptian Sudan. On the 2nd of September 1898
Khartum was captured, and the khalifa’s army dispersed. It was then that
news reached the Anglo-Egyptian commander, from native sources, that there
were white men flying a strange flag at Fashoda. The sirdar at once
proceeded in a steamer up the Nile, and courteously but firmly requested
Captain Marchand to remove the French flag. On his refusal the Egyptian
flag was raised close to the French flag, and the dispute was referred to
Europe for adjustment between the British and French governments. A
critical situation ensued. Neither government was inclined to give way, and
for a time war seemed imminent. Happily Lord Salisbury was able to
announce, on the 4th of November, that France was willing to recognize the
British claims, and the incident was finally closed on the 21st of March
1899, when an Anglo-French declaration was signed, by the terms of which
France withdrew from the Nile valley and accepted a boundary line which
satisfied her earlier ambition by uniting the whole of her territories in
North, West and Central Africa into a homogeneous whole, while effectually
preventing the realization of her dream of a transcontinental empire from
west to east. By this declaration it was agreed that the dividing line
between the British and French spheres, north of the Congo Free State,
should follow the Congo-Nile water-parting up to its intersection with the
11th parallel of north latitude, from which point it was to be “drawn as
far as the 15th parallel in such a manner as to separate in principle the
kingdom of Wadai from what constituted in 1882 the province of Darfur,”
but in no case was it to be drawn west of the 21st degree of east
longitude, or east of the 23rd degree. From the 15th parallel the line was
continued north and north-west to the intersection of the Tropic of Cancer
with 16 deg. E. French influence was to prevail west of this line, British
influence to the east. Wadai was thus definitely assigned to France. When, by the declaration of the 21st of March 1899, France renounced all
territorial ambitions in the upper Nile basin, King
Fate of the Bar-el-Ghazal.
Leopold revived his claims to the Bahr-el-Ghazal province under the terms
of the lease granted by Article 2 of the Anglo-Congolese agreement of 1894.
This step he was encouraged to take by the assertion of Lord Salisbury, in
his capacity as secretary of state for foreign affairs during the
negotiations with France concerning Fashoda, that the lease to King Leopold
was still in full force. But the assertion was made simply as a declaration
of British right to dispose of the territory, and the sovereign of the
Congo State found that there was no disposition in Great Britain to allow
the Bahr-el-Ghazal to fall into his hands. Long and fruitless negotiations
ensued. The king at length (1904) sought to force a settlement by sending
armed forces into the province. Diplomatic representations having failed to
secure the withdrawal of these forces, the Sudan government issued a
proclamation which had the effect of cutting off the Congo stations from
communication with the Nile, and finally King Leopold consented to an
agreement, signed in London on the 9th of May 1906, whereby the 1894 lease
was formally annulled. The Bahr-el-Ghazal thenceforth became undisputedly
an integral part of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. King Leopold had, however, by
virtue of the 1894 agreement administered the comparatively small portion
of the leased area in which his presence was not resented by France. This
territory, including part of the west bank of the Nile and known as the
Lado Enclave, the 1906 agreement allowed King Leopold to “continue during
his reign to occupy.” Provision was made that within six months of the
termination of His Majesty’s reign the enclave should be handed over to the
Sudan government (see CONGO FREE STATE.) In this manner ended the long
struggle for supremacy on the upper Nile, Great Britain securing the
withdrawal of all European rivals. The course of events in the southern half of the continent may now be
traced. By the convention of the 14th of February
Portugal’s trans-African schemes.
1885, in which Portugal recognized the sovereignty of the Congo Free State,
and by a further convention concluded with France in 1886, Portugal secured
recognition of her claim to the territory known as the Kabinda enclave,
lying north of the Congo, but not to the northern bank of the river. By the
same convention of 1885 Portugal’s claim to the southern bank of the river
as far as Noki (the limit of navigation from the sea) had been admitted.
Thus Portuguese possessions on the west coast extended from the Congo to
the mouth of the Kunene river. In the interior the boundary with the Free
State was settled as far as the Kwango river, but disputes arose as to the
right to the country of Lunda, otherwise known as the territory of the
Muato Yanvo. On the 25th of May 1891 a treaty was signed at Lisbon, by
which this large territory was divided between Portugal and the Free State.
The interior limits of the Portuguese possessions in Africa south of the
equator gave rise, however, to much more serious discussions than were
involved in the dispute as to the Muato Yanvo’s kingdom. Portugal, as has
been stated, claimed all the territories between Angola and Mozambique, and
she succeeded in inducing both France and Germany, in 1886, to recognize
the king of Portugal’s “right to exercise his sovereign and civilizing
influence in the territories which separate the Portuguese possessions or
Angola and Mozambique.” The publication of the treaties containing this
declaration, together with a map showing Portuguese claims extending over
the whole of the Zambezi valley, and over Matabeleland to the south and the
greater part of Lake Nyasa to the north, immediately provoked a formal
protest from the British government. On the 13th of August 1887 the British
charge d’affaires at Lisbon transmitted to the Portuguese minister for
foreign affairs a memorandum from Lord Salisbury, in which the latter
formally protested “against any claims not founded on occupation,” and
contended that the doctrine of effective occupation had been admitted in
principle by all the parties to the Act of Berlin. Lord Salisbury further
stated that “Her Majesty’s government cannot recognize Portuguese
sovereignty in territory not occupied by her in sufficient strength to
enable her to maintain order, protect foreigners and control the natives.”
To this Portugal replied that the doctrine of effective occupation was
expressly confined by the Berlin Act to the African coast, but at the same
time expeditions were hastily despatched up the Zambezi and some of its
tributaries to discover traces of former Portuguese occupation.
Matabeleland and the districts of Lake Nyasa werespecially mentioned in the
British protest as countries in which Her Majesty’s government took a
special interest. As a matter of fact the extension of British influence
northwards to the Zambezi had engaged the attention of the British
authorities ever since the appearance of Germany in South-West Africa and
the declaration of a British protectorate over Bechuanaland. There were
rumours of German activity in Matabeleland, and
Rhodesia secured for Great Britain.
of a Boer trek north of the Limpopo. Hunters and explorers had reported in
eulogistic terms on the rich goldfields and healthy plateau lands of
Matabeleland and Mashonaland, over both of which countries a powerful
chief, Lobengula, claimed authority. There were many suitors for
Lobengula’s favours; but on the 11th of February 1888 he signed a treaty
with J. S. Moffat, the assistant commissioner in Bechuanaland, the effect
of which was to place all his territory under British protection. Both the
Portuguese and the Transvaal Boers were chagrined at this extension of
British influence. A number of Boers attempted unsuccessfully to trek into
the country, and Portugal opposed her ancient claims to the new treaty. She
contended that Lobengula’s authority did not extend over Mashonaland, which
she claimed as part of the Portuguese province of Sofala. Meanwhile preparations were being actively made by British capitalists
for the exploitation of the mineral and other resources of Lobengula’s
territories. Two rival syndicates obtained, or claimed to have obtained,
concessions from Lobengula; but in the summer of 1889 Cecil Rhodes
succeeded in amalgamating the conflicting interests, and on the 29th of
October of that year the British government granted a charter to the
British South Africa Company (see RHODESIA.) The first article of the
charter declared that “the principal field of the operations” of the
company “shall be the region of South Africa lying immediately to the
north of British Bechuanaland, and to the north and west of the South
African Republic, and to the west of the Portuguese dominions.” No time
was lost in making preparations for effective occupation. On the advice of
F. C. Selous it was determined to despatch an expedition to eastern
Mashonaland by a new route, which would avoid the Matabele country. This
plan was carried out in the summer of 1890, and, thanks to the rapidity
with which the column moved and Selous’s intimate knowledge of the country,
the British flag was, on the 11th of September, hoisted at a spot on the
Makubusi river, where the town of Salisbury now stands, and the country
taken possession of in the name of Queen Victoria. Disputes with the
Portuguese ensued, and there were several frontier incidents which for a
time embittered the relations between the two countries. Meanwhile, north of the Zambezi, the Portuguese were making desperate but
futile attempts to repair the neglect
Anglo-Portuguese disputes in Central Africa.
of centuries by hastily organized expeditions and the hoisting of flags. In
1888 an attempt to close the Zambezi to British vessels was frustrated by
the firmness of Lord Salisbury. In a despatch to the British minister at
Lisbon, dated the 25th of June 1888, Lord Salisbury, after brushing aside
the Portuguese claims founded on doubtful discoveries three centuries old,
stated the British case in a few sentences:— It is (he wrote) an undisputed point that the recent discoveries of the
English traveller, Livingstone, were followed by organized attempts on the
part of English religious and commercial bodies to open up and civilize the
districts surrounding and adjoining the lake. Many British settlements have
been established, the access to which from the sea is by the rivers Zambezi
and Shire. Her Majesty’s government and the British public are much
interested in the welfare of these settlements. Portugal does not occupy,
and has never occupied, any portion of the lake, nor of the Shire; she has
neither authority nor influence beyond the confluence of the Shire and
Zambezi, where her interior custom-house, now withdrawn, was placed by the
terms of the Mozambique Tariff of 1877. In 1889 it became known to the British government that a considerable
Portuguese expedition was being organized under the command of Major Serpa
Pinto, for operating in the Zambezi region. In answer to inquiries
addressed to the Portuguese government, the foreign minister stated that
the object of the expedition was to visit the Portuguese settlements on the
upper Zambezi. The British government was, even so late as 1889, averse
from declaring a formal protectorate over the Nyasa region; but early in
that year H. H. (afterwards Sir Harry) Johnston was sent out to Mozambique
as British consul, with instructions to travel in the interior and report
on the troubles that had arisen with the Arabs on Lake Nyasa and with the
Portuguese. The discovery by D. J. Rankin in 1889 of a navigable mouth of
the Zambezi—the Chinde—and the offer by Cecil Rhodes of a subsidy of L.
10,000 a year from the British South Africa Company, removed some of the
objections to a protectorate entertained by the British government; but
Johnston’s instructions were not to proclaim a protectorate unless
circumstances compelled him to take that course. To his surprise Johnston
learnt on his arrival at the Zambezi that Major Serpa Pinto’s expedition
had been suddenly deflected to the north. Hurrying forward, Johnston
overtook the Portuguese expedition and warned its leader that any attempt
to establish political influence north of the Ruo river would compel him to
take steps to protect British interests. On arrival at the Ruo, Major Serpa
Pinto returned to Mozambique for instructions, and in his absence
Lieutenant Coutinho crossed the river, attacked the Makololo chiefs and
sought to obtain possession of the Shire highlands by a coup de main. John
Buchanan, the British vice-consul, lost no time in declaring the country
under British protection, and his action was subsequently confirmed by
Johnston on his return from a treaty-making expedition on Lake Nyasa. On
the news of these events reaching Europe the British government addressed
an ultimatum to Portugal, as the result of which Lieutenant Coutinho’s
action was disavowed, and he was ordered to withdraw the Portuguese forces
south of the Ruo. After prolonged negotiations, a convention was signed
between Great Britain and Portugal on the 20th of August 1890, by which
Great Britain obtained a broad belt of territory north of the Zambezi,
stretching from Lake Nyasa on the east, the southern end of Tanganyika on
the north, and the Kabompo tributary of the Zambezi on the west; while
south of the Zambezi Portugal retained the right bank of the river from a
point ten miles above Zumbo, and the western boundary of her territory
south of the river was made to coincide roughly with the 33rd degree of
east longitude. The publication of the convention aroused deep resentment
in Portugal, and the government, unable to obtain its ratification by the
chamber of deputies, resigned. In October the abandonment of the convention
was accepted by the new Portuguese ministry as a fait accompli; but on the
14th of November the two governments signed an agreement for a modus
vivendi, by which they engaged to recognize the territorial limits
indicated in the convention of 20th August “in so far that from the date
of the present agreement
British and Portuguese spheres defined.
to the termination thereof neither Power will make treaties, accept
protectorates, nor exercise any act of sovereignty within the spheres of
influence assigned to the other party by the said convention.” The
breathing-space thus gained enabled feeling in Portugal to cool down, and
on the 11th of June 1891 another treaty was signed, the ratifications being
exchanged on the 3rd of July, As already stated, this is the main treaty
defining the British and Portuguese spheres both south and north of the
Zambezi. It contained many other provisions relating to trade and
navigation, providing, inter alia, a maximum transit duty of 3% on imports
and exports crossing Portuguese territories on the east coast to the
British sphere, freedom of navigation of the Zambezi and Shire for the
ships of all nations, and stipulations as to the making of railways, roads
and telegraphs. The territorial readjustment effected was slightly more
favourable to Portugal than that agreed upon by the 1890 convention.
Portugal was given both banks of the Zambezi to a point ten miles west of
Zumbo—the farthest settlement of the Portuguese on the river. South of the
Zambezi the frontier takes a south and then an east course till it reaches
the edge of the continental plateau, thence running, roughly, along the
line of 33 deg. E. southward to the north-eastern frontier of the
Transvaal. Thus by this treaty Portugal was left in the possession of the
coast-lands, while Great Britain maintained her right to Matabele and
Mashona lands. The boundary between the Portuguese sphere of influence on
the west coast and the British sphere of influence north of the Zambezi was
only vaguely indicated; but it was to be drawn in such a manner as to leave
the Barotse country within the British sphere, Lewanika, the paramount
chief of the Marotse, claiming that his territory extended much farther to
the west than was admitted by the Portuguese. In August 1903 the question
what were the limits of the Barotse kingdom was referred to the arbitration
of the king of Italy. By his award, delivered in June 1905, the western
limit of the British sphere runs from the northern frontier of German South-
West Africa up the Kwando river to 22 deg. E., follows that meridian north
to 13 deg. S., then runs due east to 24 deg. E., and then north again to
the frontier of the Congo State. Before the conclusion of the treaty of June 1891 with Portugal, the
British government had made certain arrangements for the administration of
the large area north of the Zambezi reserved to British influence. On the
1st of February Sir Harry Johnston was appointed imperial commissioner in
Nyasaland, and a fortnight later the British South Africa Company intimated
a desire to extend its operations north of the Zambezi. Negotiations
followed, and the field of operations of the Chartered Company was, on the
2nd of April 1891, extended so as to cover (with the exception of
Nyasaland) the whole of the British sphere of influence north of the
Zambezi (now known as Northern Rhodesia). On the 14th of May a formal
protectorate was declared over Nyasaland, including the Shire highlands and
a belt of territory extending along the whole of the western shore of Lake
Nyasa. The name was changed in 1893 to that of the British Central Africa
Protectorate, for which designation was substituted in 1907 the more
appropriate title of Nyasaland Protectorate. At the date of the assembling of the Berlin conference the German
government had notified that the coast-line on the
Germany’s share of South Africa.
south-west of the continent, from the Orange river to Cape Frio, had been
placed under German protection. On the 13th of April 1885 the German South-
West Africa Company was constituted under an order of the imperial cabinet
with the rights of state sovereignty, including mining royalties and
rights, and a railway and telegraph monopoly. In that and the following
years the Germans vigorously pursued the business of treaty-making with the
native chiefs in the interior; and when, in July 1890, the British and
German governments came to an agreement as to the limits of their
respective spheres of influence in various parts of Africa, the boundaries
of German South-West Africa were fixed in their present position. By
Article III. of this agreement the north bank of the Orange river up to the
point of its intersection by the 20th degree of east longitude was made the
southern boundary of the German sphere of influence. The eastern boundary
followed the 20th degree of east longitude to its intersection by the 22nd
parallelof south latitude, then ran eastwards along that parallel to the
point of its intersection by the 21st degree of east longitude. From that
point it ran northwards along the last-named meridian to the point of its
intersection by the 18th parallel of south latitude, thence eastwards along
that parallel to the river Chobe or Kwando, and along the main channel of
that river to its junction with the Zambezi, where it terminated. The
northern frontier marched with the southern boundary of Portuguese West
Africa. The object of deflecting the eastern boundary near its northern
termination was to give Germany access by her own territory to the upper
waters of the Zambezi, and it was declared that this strip of territory was
at no part to be less than 20 English miles in width. To complete the survey of the political partition of Africa south of the
Zambezi, it is necessary briefly to refer to the events
Fate of the Dutch Republics.
connected with the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. In
October 1885 the British government made an agreement with the New
Republic, a small community of Boer farmers who had in 1884-85 seized part
of Zululand and set up a government of their own, defining the frontier
between the New Republic and Zululand; but in July 1888 the New Republic
was incorporated in the South African Republic. In a convention of July-
August 1890 the British government and the government of the South African
Republic confirmed the independence of Swaziland, and on the 8th of
November 1893 another convention was signed with the same object; but on
the 19th of December 1894 the British government agreed to the South
African Republic exercising “all rights and powers of protection,
legislation, jurisdiction and administration over Swaziland and the
inhabitants thereof,” subject to certain conditions and provisions, and to
the non-incorporation of Swaziland in the Republic. In the previous
September Pondoland had been annexed to Cape Colony; on the 23rd of April
1895 Tongaland was declared by proclamation to be added to the dominions of
Queen Victoria, and in December 1897 Zululand and Tongaland, or
Amatongaland, were incorporated with the colony of Natal. The history of
the events that led up to the Boer War of 1899-1902 cannot be recounted
here (see TRANSVAAL, History), but in October 1899 the South African
Republic and the Orange Free State addressed an ultimatum to Great Britain
and invaded Natal and Cape Colony. As a result of the military operations
that followed, the Orange Free State was, on the 28th of May 1900,
proclaimed by Lord Roberts a British colony under the name “Orange River
Colony,” and the South African Republic was on the 25th of October 1900
incorporated in the British empire as the “Transvaal Colony.” In January
1903 the districts of Vryheid (formerly the New Republic), Utrecht and part
of the Wakkerstroom district, a tract of territory comprising in all about
7000 sq. m., were transferred from the Transvaal colony to Natal. In 1907
both the Transvaal and Orange River Colony were granted responsible
government. On the east coast the two great rivals were Germany and Great Britain.
Germany on the 30th of December 1886, and Great
Anglo-German rivalry in East Africa. Britain on the 11th of June 1891, formally recognized the Rovuma river as
the northern boundary of the Portuguese sphere of influence on that coast;
but it was to the north of that river, over the vast area of East or East
Central Africa in which the sultan of Zanzibar claimed to exercise
suzerainty, that the struggle between the two rival powers was most acute.
The independence of the sultans of Zanzibar had been recognized by the
governments of Great Britain and France in 1862, and the sultan’s authority
extended almost uninterruptedly along the coast of the mainland, from Cape
Delgado in the south to Warsheik on the north—a stretch of coast more than
a thousand miles long—though to the north the sultan’s authority was
confined to certain ports. In Zanzibar itself, where Sir John Kirk,
Livingstone’s companion in his second expedition, was British consul-
general, British influence was, when the Berlin conference met, practically
supreme, though German traders had established themselves on the island and
created considerable commercial interests. Away from the coasts the limits
and extent of the sultan’s authority were far from being clearly defined.
The sultanhimself claimed that it extended as far as Lake Tanganyika, but
the claim did not rest on any very solid ground of effective occupation.
The little-known region of the Great Lakes had for some time attracted the
attention of the men who were directing the colonial movement in Germany;
and, as has been stated, a small band of pioneers actually landed on the
mainland opposite Zanzibar in November 1884, and made their first
“treaty” with the chief of Mbuzini on the 19th of that month Pushing up
the Wami river the three adventurers reached the Usagara country, and
concluded more “treaties,” the net result being that when, in the middle
of December, Karl Peters returned to the coast he brought back with him
documents which were claimed to concede some 60,000 sq. m. of country to
the German Colonization Society. Peters hurried back to Berlin, and on the
17th of February 1885 the German emperor issued a “Charter of Protection”
by which His Majesty accepted the suzerainty of the newly-acquired
territory, and “placed under our Imperial protection the territories in
question.” The conclusion of these treaties was, on the 6th of March,
notified to the British government and to the sultan of Zanzibar.
Immediately on receipt of the notification the sultan telegraphed an
energetic protest to Berlin, alleging that the places placed under German
protection had belonged to the sultanate of Zanzibar from the time of his
fathers. The German consul-general refused to admit the sultan’s claims,
and meanwhile agents of the German society were energetically pursuing the
task of treaty-making. The sultan (Seyyid Bargash) despatched a small force
to the disputed territory, which was subsequently withdrawn, and in May
sent a more imposing expedition under the command of General Lloyd Mathews,
the commander-in-chief of the Zanzibar army, to the Kilimanjaro district,
in order to anticipate the action of German agents. Meanwhile Lord
Granville, then at the British Foreign Office, had
Lord Granville’s complaisance towards Germany.
taken up an extremely friendly attitude towards the German claims. Before
these events the sultan of Zanzibar had, on more than one occasion,
practically invited Great Britain to assume a protectorate over his
dominions. But the invitations had been declined. Egyptian affairs were, in
the year 1885, causing considerable anxiety to the British government, and
the fact was not without influence on the attitude of the British foreign
secretary. On the 25th of May 1885, in a despatch to the British ambassador
at Berlin, Lord Granville instructed Sir E. Malet to communicate the views
of the British cabinet to Prince Bismarck:— I have to request your Excellency to state that the supposition that Her
Majesty’s Government have no intention of opposing the German scheme of
colonization in the neighbourhood of Zanzibar is absolutely correct. Her
Majesty’s Government, on the contrary, view with favour these schemes, the
realization of which will entail the civilization of large tracts over
which hitherto no European influence has been exercised, the co-operation
of Germany with Great Britain in the work of the suppression of the slave
gangs, and the encouragement of the efforts of the Sultan both in the
extinction of the slave trade and in the commercial development of his
dominions. In the same despatch Lord Granville instructed Sir E. Malet to intimate
to the German government that some prominent capitalists had originated a
plan for a British settlement in the country between the coast and the
lakes, which are the sources of the White Nile, “and for its connexion
with the coast by a railway.” But Her Majesty’s government would not
accord to these prominent capitalists the support they had called for,
“unless they were fully satisfied that every precaution was taken to
ensure that it should in no way conflict with the interests of the
territory that has been taken under German protectorate,” and Prince
Bismarck was practically invited to say whether British capitalists were or
were not to receive the protection of the British government. The reference
in Lord Granville’s despatch was to a proposal made by a number of British
merchants and others who had long been interested in Zanzibar, and who saw
in the rapid advance of Germany a menace to the interests which had
hitherto been regarded as paramount in the sultanate. In 1884 H. H.
Johnston had concluded treaties with the chief of Taveta in the Kilimanjaro
district, and had transferred these treaties to John Hutton of Manchester.
Hutton, with Mr (afterwards Sir William) Mackinnon, was one of the founders
of what subsequently became the Imperial British East Africa Company. But
in the early stages the champions of British interests in East Africa
received no support from their own government, while Germany was pushing
her advantage with the energy of a recent convert to colonial expansion,
and had even, on the coast, opened negotiations with the sultan of Witu, a
small territory situated north of the Tana river, whose ruler claimed to be
independent of Zanzibar. On the 5th of May 1885 the sultan of Witu executed
a deed of sale and cession to a German subject of certain tracts of land on
the coast, and later in the same year other treaties or sales of territory
were effected, by which German subjects acquired rights on the coast-line
claimed by the sultan. Inland, treaties had been concluded on behalf of
Germany with the chiefs of the Kilimanjaro region, and an intimation to
that effect made to the British government. But before this occurred the
German government had succeeded in extracting an acknowledgment of the
validity of the earlier treaties from the sultan of Zanzibar. Early in
August a powerful German squadron appeared off Zanzibar, and on the 14th of
that month the sultan yielded to the inevitable, acknowledged the German
protectorate over Usagara and Witu, and undertook to withdraw his soldiers. Meanwhile negotiations had been opened for the appointment of an
international commission, “for the purpose of inquiring
Partition of the sultanate of Zanzibar.
into the claims of the sultans of Zanzibar to sovereignty over certain
territories on the east coast of Africa, and of ascertaining their precise
limits.” The governments to be represented were Great Britain, France and
Germany, and towards the end of 1885 commissioners were appointed. The
commissioners reported on the 9th of June 1886, and assigned to the sultan
the islands of Zanzibar, Pemba, Lamu, Mafia and a number of other small
islands. On the mainland they recognized as belonging to the sultan a
continuous strip of territory, 10 sea-miles in depth, from the south bank
of the Minengani river, a stream a short distance south of the Rovuma, to
Kipini, at the mouth of the Tana river, some 600 m. in length. North of
Kipini the commissioners recognized as belonging to the sultan the stations
of Kismayu, Brava, Marka and Mukdishu, with radii landwards of 10 sea-
miles, and of Warsheik with a radius of 5 sea-miles. By an exchange of
notes in October—November 1886 the governments of Great Britain and Germany
accepted the reports of the delimitation commissioners, to which the sultan
adhered on the 4th of the following December. But the British and German
governments did more than determine what territories were to be assigned to
the sultanate of Zanzibar. They agreed to a delimitation of their
respective spheres of influence in East Africa. The territory to be
affected by this arrangement was to be bounded on the south by the Rovuma
river, “and on the north by a line which, starting from the mouth of the
Tana river, follows the course of that river or its affluents to the point
of intersection of the equator and the 38th degree of east longitude,
thence strikes direct to the point of intersection of the 1st degree of
north latitude with the 37th degree of east longitude, where the line
terminates.” The line of demarcation between the British and the German
spheres of influence was to start from the mouth of the river Wanga or Umba
(which enters the ocean opposite Pemba Island to the north of Zanzibar),
and running north-west was to skirt the northern base of the Kilimanjaro
range, and thence to be drawn direct to the point on the eastern side of
Victoria Nyanza intersected by the 1st degree of south latitude. South of
this line German influence was to prevail; north of the line was the
British sphere. The sultan’s dominions having been thus truncated, Germany
associated herself with the recognition of the “independence” of Zanzibar
in which France and Great Britain had joined in 1862. The effect of this
agreement was to define the spheres of influence of the two countries as
far as Victoria Nyanza, but it provided no limit westwards, and left the
country north of the Tana river, in which Germany had already acquired some
interests near the coast, open for fresh annexations. The conclusion of the
agreement immediately stimulated the enterprise both of the German East
African Company, to which Peters’s earlier treaties had been transferred,
and of the British capitalists to whom reference had been made in Lord
Granville’s despatch. The German East African Company was incorporated by
imperial charter in March 1887, and the British capitalists formed
themselves into the British East Africa Association, and on the 24th of May
1887 obtained, through the good offices of Sir William Mackinnon, a
concession of the 10-miles strip of coast from the Umba river in the south
to Kipini in the north. The British association further sought to extend
its rights in the sphere reserved to British influence by making treaties
with the native chiefs behind the coast strip, and for this purpose various
expeditions were sent into the interior. When they had obtained concessions
over the country for some 200 m. inland the associated
Formation of British East Africa.
capitalists applied to the British government for a charter, which was
granted on the 3rd of September 1888, and the association became the
Imperial British East Africa Company (see BRITISH EAST AFRICA). The example set by the British company in obtaining a lease of the coast
strip between the British sphere of influence and the sea was quickly
followed by the German association, which, on the 28th of April 1888,
concluded an agreement with the sultan Khalifa, who had succeeded his
brother Bargash, by which the association leased the strip of Zanzibar
territory between the German sphere and the sea. It was not,however, until
August that the German officials took over the administration, and their
want of tact and ignorance of native administration almost immediately
provoked a rebellion of so serious a character that it was not suppressed
until the imperial authorities had taken the matter in hand. Shortly after
its suppression the administration was entrusted to an imperial officer,
and the sultan’s rights on the mainland strip were bought outright by
Germany for four millions of marks. Events of great importance had been happening, meanwhile, in the country
to the west and north of the British sphere of influence. The British
company had sent caravans into the interior to survey the country, to make
treaties with the native chiefs and to report on the commercial and
agricultural possibilities. One of these had gone up the Tana river. But
another and a rival expedition was proceeding along the northern bank of
this same river. Karl Peters, whose energy cannot be denied, whatever may
be thought of his methods, set out with an armed caravan up the Tana on the
pretext of leading an expedition to the relief of Emin Pasha, the governor
of the equatorial province of the Egyptian Sudan, then reported to be
hemmed in by the dervishes at Wadelai. His expedition was not sanctioned by
the German government, and the British naval commander had orders to
prevent his landing. But Peters succeeded in evading the British vessels
and proceeded up the river, planting German flags and fighting the natives
who opposed his progress. Early in 1890 he reached Kavirondo, and there
found letters from Mwanga, king of Uganda, addressed to F. J. Jackson, the
leader of an expedition sent out by the British East Africa
Uganda secured by Great Britain.
Company, imploring the company’s representative to come to his assistance
and offering to accept the British flag. To previous letters, less plainly
couched. from the king, Jackson had returned the answer that his
instructions were not to enter Uganda, but that he would do so in case of
need. The letters that fell into Peters’s hands were in reply to those from
Jackson. Peters did not hesitate to open the letters, and on reading them
he at once proceeded to Uganda, where, with the assistance of the French
Roman Catholic priests, he succeeded in inducing Mwanga to sign a loosely
worded treaty intended to place him under German protection. On hearing of
this Jackson at once set out for Uganda, but Peters did not wait for his
arrival, leaving for the south of Victoria Nyanza some days before Jackson
arrived at Mengo, Mwanga’s capital. As Mwanga would not agree to Jackson’s
proposals, Jackson returned to the coast, leaving a representative at Mengo
to protect the company’s interests. Captain (afterwards Sir) F. D. Lugard,
who had recently entered the company’s employment, was at once ordered to
proceed to Uganda. But in the meantime an event of great importance had
taken place, the conclusion of the agreement between Great Britain and
Germany with reference to their different spheres of influence in various
parts of Africa. The Anglo-German agreement of the 1st of July 1890 has already been
referred to and its importance insisted upon. Here we have to deal with the
provisions in reference to East Africa. In return for the cession of
Heligoland, Lord Salisbury obtained from Germany the recognition of a
British protectorate over the dominions of the sultan of Zanzibar,
including the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, but excluding the strip leased
to Germany, which was subsequently ceded absolutely to Germany. Germany
further agreed to withdraw the protectorate declared over Witu and the
adjoining coast up to Kismayu in favour of Great Britain, and to recognize
as within the British sphere of influence the vast area bounded, on the
south by the frontier line laid down in the agreement of 1886, which was to
be extended along the first parallel of south latitude across Victoria
Nyanza to the frontiers of the Congo Free State, on the west by the Congo
Free State and the western watershed of the Nile, and on the north by a
line commencing on the coast at the north bank of the mouth of the river
Juba, then ascending that bank of the river until it reached the territory
at that time regarded as reserved to the influence of Italy13 in Gallaland
and Abyssinia, when it followed the frontier of the Italian sphere to the
confines of Egypt. To the south-west of the German sphere in East Africa
the boundary was formed by the eastern and northern shore of Lake Nyasa,
and round the western shore to the mouth of the Songwe river, from which
point it crossed the Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau to the southern end of the
last-named lake,
Limits of German East Africa defined.
leaving the Stevenson Road on the British side of the boundary. The effect
of this treaty was to remove all serious causes of dispute about territory
between Germany and Great Britain in East Africa. It rendered quite
valueless Peters’s treaty with Mwanga and his promenade along the Tana; it
freed Great Britain from any fear of German competition to the northwards,
and recognized that her influence extended to the western limits of the
Nile valley. But, on the other hand, Great Britain had to relinquish the
ambition of connecting her sphere of influence in the Nile valley with her
possessions in Central and South Africa. On this point Germany was quite
obdurate; and, as already stated, an attempt subsequently made (May 1894)
to secure this object by the lease of a strip of territory from the Congo
Free State was frustrated by German opposition. Uganda having thus been assigned to the British sphere of influence by
the only European power in a position to contest its possession with her,
the subsequent history of that region, and of the country between the
Victoria Nyanza and the coast, must be traced in the articles on BRITISH
EAST AFRICA and UGANDA, but it may be well briefly to record here the
following facts:—The Imperial British East Africa Company, finding the
burden of administration too heavy for its financial resources, and not
receiving the assistance it felt itself entitled to receive from the
imperial authorities, intimated that it would be compelled to withdraw at
the end of the year 1892. Funds were raised to enable the company to
continue its administration until the end of March 1893, and a strong
public protest against evacuation compelled the government to determine in
favour of the retention of the country. In January 1893 Sir Gerald Portal
left the coast as a special commissioner to inquire into the “best means
of dealing with the country, whether through Zanzibar or otherwise.” On
the 31st of March the union jack was raised, and on the 29th of May a fresh
treaty was concluded with King Mwanga placing his country under British
protection. A formal protectorate was declared over Uganda proper on the
19th of June 1894, which was subsequently extended so as to include the
countries westwards towards the Congo Free State, eastwards to the British
East Africa protectorate and Abyssinia, and northwards to the Anglo-
Egyptian Sudan. The British East Africa protectorate was constituted in
June 1895, when the Imperial British East Africa Company relinquished all
its rights in exchange for a money payment, and the administration was
assumed by the imperial authorities. On the 1st of April 1902 the eastern
province of the Uganda protectorate was transferred to the British East
Africa protectorate, which thus secured control of the whole length of the
so-called Uganda railway, and at the same time obtained access to the
Victoria Nyanza. Early in the ‘eighties, as already seen, Italy had obtained her first
formal footing on the African coast at the Bay of Assab
Italy in East Africa.
(Aussa) on the Red Sea. In 1885 the troubles in which Egypt found herself
involved compelled the khedive and his advisers to loosen their hold on the
Red Sea littoral, and, with the tacit approval of Great Britain, Italy took
possession of Massawa and other ports on that coast. By 1888 Italian
influence had been extended from Ras Kasar on the north to the northern
frontier of the French colony of Obok on the south, a distance of some 650
m. The interior limits of Italian influence were but ill defined, and the
negus Johannes (King John) of Abyssinia viewed with anything but a
favourable eye the approach of the Italians towards the Abyssinian
highlands. In January 1887 an Italian force was almost annihilated at
Dogali, but the check only served to spur on the Italian government to
fresh efforts. The Italians occupied Keren and Asmara in the highlands, and eventually,
in May 1889, concluded a treaty of peace and friendship with the negus
Menelek, who had seized the throne on the death of Johannes, killed in
battle with the dervishes in March of the same year. This agreement, known
as the treaty of Uccialli, settled the frontiers between Abyssinia and the
Italian sphere, and contained the following article:— XVII. His Majesty the King of Kings of Ethiopia consents to avail himself
of the Italian government for any negotiations which he may enter into with
the other powers or governments. In Italy and by other European governments this article was generally
regarded as establishing an Italian protectorate over Abyssinia; but this
interpretation was never accepted by the emperor Menelek, and at no time
did Italy succeed in establishing any very effective control over
Abyssinian affairs. North of the Italian coast sphere the Red Sea littoral
was still under Egyptian rule, while immediately to the south a small
stretch of coast on the Gulf of Tajura constituted the sole French
possession on the East African mainland (see SOMALILAND.) Moreover, when
Egyptian claims to the Somali coast were withdrawn, Great Britain took the
opportunity to establish her influence on the northern Somali coast,
opposite Aden. Between the 1st of May 1884 and the 15th of March 1886 ten
treaties were concluded, placing under British influence the northern
Somali coast from Ras Jibuti on the west to Bandar Ziada on the east. In
the meantime Italy, not content with her acquisitions on the Red Sea, had
been concluding treaties with the Somali chiefs on the east coast. The
first treaty was made with the sultan of Obbia on the 8th of February 1889.
Later in the same year the British East Africa Company transferred to
Italy—the transference being subsequently approved by the sultan of
Zanzibar—the ports of Brava, Marka, Mukdishu and Warsheik, leased from
Zanzibar. On the 24th of March 1891 an agreement between Italy and Great
Britain fixed the northern bank of the Juba up to latitude 6 deg. N. as the
southern boundary of Italian influence in Somaliland, the boundary being
provisionally prolonged along lines of latitude and longitude to the
intersection of the Blue Nile with 35 deg. E. longitude. On the 15th of
April 1891 a further agreement fixed the northern limit of the Italian
sphere from Ras Kasar on the Red Sea to the point on the Blue Nile just
mentioned. By this agreement Italy was to have the right temporarily to
occupy Kassala, which was left in the Anglo-Egyptian sphere, in trust for
Egypt—a right of which she availed herself in 1894. To complete the work of
delimitation the British and Italian governments, on the 5th of May 1894,
fixed the boundary of the British sphere of influence in Somaliland from
the Anglo-French boundary, which had been settled in February 1888. But while Great Britain was thus lending her sanction to Italy’s
ambitious schemes, the Abyssinian emperor was becoming more and more
incensed at Italy’s pretensions to exercise a protectorate over Ethiopia.
In 1893 Menelek denounced the treaty of Uccialli, and eventually, in a
great battle, fought at Adowa on the 1st of March 1896, the Italians were
disastrously defeated. By the subsequent treaty of Adis Ababa, concluded on
the 26th of October 1896, the whole of the country to the
The independence of Abyssinia recognized.
south of the Mareb, Belesa and Muna rivers was restored to Abyssinia, and
Italy acknowledged the absolute independence of Abyssinia. The effect of
this was practically to destroy the value of the Anglo-Italian agreement as
to the boundaries to the south and west of Abyssinia; and negotiations were
afterwards set on foot between the emperor Menelek and his European
neighbours with the object of determining the Abyssinian frontiers. Italian
Somaliland, bordering on the south-eastern frontier of Abyssinia, became
limited to a belt of territory with a depth inland from the Indian Ocean of
from 180 to 250 m. The negotiations concerning the frontier lasted until
1908, being protracted over the question as to the possession of Lugh, a
town on the Juba, which eventually fell to Italy. After the battle of Adowa
the Italian government handed over he administration of the southern part
of the country to the enadir Company, but in January 1905 the government
resumed control and at the same time transformed the leasehold rights it
held from the sultan of Zanzibar into sovereign rights by the payment to
the sultan of L. 144,000. To facilitate her communications with the
interior, Italy also secured from the British government the lease of a
small area of land immediately to the north of Kismayu. In British
Somaliland the frontier fixed by agreement with Italy in 1894 was modified,
in so far as it marched with Abyssinian territory, by an agreement which
Sir Rennell Rodd concluded with the emperor Menelek in 1897. The effect of
this agreement was to reduce the area of British Somaliland from 75,000 to
68,000 sq. m. In the same year France concluded an agreement with the
emperor, which is known to have fixed the frontier of the French Somali
Coast protectorate at a distance of 90 kilometres (56 m.) from the coast.
The determination of the northern, western and southern limits of Abyssinia
proved a more difficult matter. A treaty of July 1900 followed by an
agreement of November 1901 defined the boundaries of Eritrea on the side of
Abyssinia and the Sudan respectively. In certain details the boundaries
thus laid down were modified by an Anglo-Italian-Abyssinian treaty signed
at Adis Ababa on the 15th of May 1902. On the same day another treaty was
signed at the Abyssinian capital by Sir John Harrington, the British
minister plenipotentiary, and the emperor Menelek, whereby the western, or
Sudan-Abyssinian, frontier was defined as far south as the intersection of
6 deg. N. and 35 deg. E. Within the British sphere were left the Atbara up
to Gallabat, the Blue Nile up to Famaka and the Sobat up to the junction of
the Baro and Pibor. While not satisfying Abyssinian claims to their full
extent, the frontier laid down was on the whole more favourable to
Abyssinia than was the line fixed in the Anglo-Italian agreement of 1891.
On the other hand, Menelek gave important economic guarantees and
concessions to the Sudan government. In Egypt the result of the abolition of the Dual Control was to make
British influence virtually predominant, though theoretically Turkey
remained the suzerain power; and after the reconquest of the Sudan by the
Anglo-Egyptian army a convention between the British and Egyptian
governments was signed at Cairo on the 19th of January 1899, which, inter
alia, provided for the joint use of the British and Egyptian flags in the
territories south of the 22nd parallel of north latitude. From the
international point of view the British position in Egypt was strengthened
by the Anglo-French declaration of the 8th of April 1904. For some time
previously there had been
The Anglo-French agreements of April 1904.
a movement on both sides of the Channel in favour of the settlement of a
number of important questions in which British and French interests were
involved. The movement was no doubt strengthened by the desire to reduce to
their least dimensions the possible causes of trouble between the two
countries at a time when the outbreak of hostilities between Russia (the
ally of France) and Japan (the ally of Great Britain) rendered the European
situation peculiarly delicate. On the 8th of April 1904 there was signed in
London by the British foreign secretary, the marquess of Lansdowne, and the
French ambassador, M. Paul Cambon, a series of agreements relating to
several parts of the globe. Here we are concerned only with the joint
declaration respecting Egypt and Morocco and a convention relating, in
part, to British and French frontiers in West Africa. The latter we shall
have occasion to refer to later. The former, notwithstanding the
declarations embodied in it that there was “no intention of altering the
political status” either of Egypt or of Morocco, cannot be ignored in any
account of the partition in Africa. With regard to Egypt the French
government declared “that they will not obstruct the action of Great
Britain in that country by asking that a limit of time be fixed for the
British occupation or in any other manner.” France also assented—as did
subsequently the other powers interested—to a khedivial decree simplifying
the international control exercised by the Caisse de la Dette over the
finances of Egypt. In order to appreciate aright that portion of the declaration relating to
Morocco it is necessary to say a few words about the course of French
policy in North-West Africa. In Tunisia the work of strengthening the
protectorate established in 1881 had gone steadily forward; but it was in
Algeria that the extension of French influence had been most marked. The
movement of expansion southwards was inevitable. With the progress of
exploration it became increasingly evident that the Sahara constituted no
insurmountable barrier between the French possessions in North and West
Central Africa. But France had not only the hope of placing Algeria in
touch with the Sudan to spur her forward. To consolidate her position in
North-West Africa she desired to make French influence supreme in Morocco.
The relations between the two countries did not favour the realization of
that ambition. The advance southwards of the French forces of occupation
evoked loud protests from the Moorish government, particularly with regard
to the occupation in 1900-1901 of the Tuat Oases. Under the Franco-Moorish
treaty of 1845 the frontier between Algeria and Morocco was defined from
the Mediterranean coast as far south as the pass of Teniet el Sassi, in
about 34 deg. N.; beyond that came a zone in which no frontier was defined,
but in which the tribes and desert villages (ksurs) belonging to the
respective spheres of influence were named; while south of the desert
villages the treaty stated that in view of the character of the country
“the delimitation of it would be superfluous.” Though the frontier was
thus left undefined, the sultan maintained that in her advance southwards
France had trespassed on territories that unmistakably belonged to Morocco.
After some negotiation, however, a protocol was signed in Paris on
France’s privileged position in Morocco.
the 20th of July 1901, and commissioners appointed to devise measures for
the co-operation of the French and Moorish authorities in the maintenance
of peaceful conditions in the frontier region. It was reported that in
April 1902 the commissioners signed an agreement whereby the Sharifan
government undertook to consolidate its authority on the Moorish side of
the frontier as far south as Figig. The agreement continued: “Le
Gouvernement francais, en raison de son voisinage, lui pretera son appui,
en cas de besoin. Le Gouvernement francais etablira son autorite et la paix
dans les regions du Sahara, et le Gouvernement marocain, son voisin, lui
aidera de tout son pouvoir.” Meanwhile in the northern districts of
Morocco the conditions of unrest under the rule of the young sultan, Abd el
Aziz IV., were attracting an increasing amount of attention in Europe and
were calling forth demands for their suppression. It was in these
circumstances that in the Anglo-French declaration of April 1904 the
British government recognized “that it appertains to France, more
particularly as a power whose dominions are conterminous for a great
distance with those of Morocco, to preserve order in that country, and to
provide assistance for the purpose of all administrative, economic,
financial and military reforms which it may require.” Both parties to the
declaration, “inspired by their feeling of sincere friendship for Spain,
take into special consideration the interests which that country derives
from her geographical position and from her territorial possessions on the
Moorish coast of the Mediterranean. In regard to these interests the French
government will come to an understanding with the Spanish government.” The
understanding thus foreshadowed was reached later in the same year, Spain
securing a sphere of interest on the Mediterranean coast. In pursuance of
the policy marked out in the Anglo-French declaration, France was seeking
to strengthen her influence in Morocco when in 1905 the attitude of Germany
seriously affected her position. On the 8th of July France secured from the
German government formal “recognition of the situation created for France
in Morocco by the contiguity of a vast extent of territory of Algeria and
the Sharifan empire, and by the special relations resulting therefrom
between the two adjacent countries, as well as by the special interest for
France, due to this fact, that order should reign in the Sharifan Empire.”
Finally, in January-April 1906, a conference of the powers was held at
Algeciras to devise, by invitation of the sultan, a scheme of reforms to be
introduced into Morocco (q.v..) French capital was allotted a larger share
than that of any other power in the Moorish state bank which it was decided
to institute, and French and Spanish officers were entrusted with the
organization of a police force for the maintenance of order in the
principal coast towns. The new regime had not been fully inaugurated,
however, when a series of outrages led, in 1907, to the military occupation
by France of Udja, a town near the Algerian frontier, and of the port of
Casablanca on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. It only remains to be noted, in connexion with the story of French
activity in North-West Africa, that with such energy was the penetration of
the Sahara pursued that in April 1904 flying columns from Insalah and
Timbuktu met by arrangement in mid-desert, and in the following year it was
deemed advisable to indicate on the maps the boundary between the Algerian
and French West African territories. Brief reference must be made to the position of Tripoli. While Egypt was
brought under British control and Tunisia became a French protectorate,
Tripoli remained a province of the Turkish empire with undefined frontiers
in the hinterland, a state of affairs which more than once threatened to
lead to trouble with France during the expansion of the latter’s influence
in the Sahara. As already stated, Italy early gave evidence that it was her
ambition to succeed to the province, and, not only by the sultan of Turkey
but in Italy also, the Anglo-French declaration of March 1899, respecting
the limits of the British and French spheres of influence in north Central
Africa, was viewed with some concern. By means of a series of public
utterances on the part of French and Italian statesmen in the winter 1901-
1902 it
Italy’s interest in Tripoli.
was made known that the two powers had come to an understanding with regard
to their interests in North Africa, and in May 1902 Signor Prinetti, then
Italian minister for foreign affairs, speaking in parliament in reply to an
interpellation on the subject of Tripoli, declared that if “the status quo
in the Mediterranean were ever disturbed, Italy would be sure of finding no
one to bar the way to her legitimate aspirations.” At the opening of the Berlin conference Spain had established no formal
claim to any part of the coast to the south of Morocco; but while the
conference was sitting, on the 9th of January 1885, the Spanish government
intimated that in view of the importance of the Spanish settlements on the
Rio de Oro, at Angra de Cintra,
Spanish colonies.
and at Western Bay (Cape Blanco), and of the documents signed with the
independent tribes on that coast, the king of Spain had taken under his
protection “the territories of the western coast of Africa comprised
between the fore-mentioned Western Bay and Cape Bojador.” The interior
limits of the Spanish sphere were defined by an agreement concluded in 1900
with France. By this document some 70,000 sq. m. of the western Sahara were
recognized as Spanish. The same agreement settled a long-standing dispute between Spain and
France as to the ownership of the district around the Muni river to be
south of Cameroon, Spain securing a block of territory with a coast-line
from the Campo river on the north to the Muni river on the south. The
northern frontier is formed by the German Cameroon colony, the eastern by
11 deg. 20′ E., and the southern by the first parallel of north latitude to
its point of intersection with the Muni river. Apart from this small block of Spanish territory south of Cameroon, the
stretch of coast between Cape Blanco and the
Division of the Guinea coast.
mouth of the Congo is partitioned among four European powers—Great Britain,
France, Germany and Portugal —and the negro republic of Liberia. Following
the coast southwards from Cape Blanco is first the French colony of
Senegal, which is indented, along the Gambia river, by the small British
colony of that name, and then the comparatively small territory of
Portuguese Guinea, all that remains on this Coast to represent Portugal’s
share in the scramble in a region where she once played so conspicuous a
part. To the south of Portuguese Guinea is the French Guinea colony, and
still going south and east are the British colony of Sierra Leone, the
republic of Liberia, the French colony of the Ivory coast, the British Gold
Coast, German Togoland, French Dahomey, the British colony (formerly known
as the Lagos colony) and protectorate of Southern Nigeria, the German
colony of Cameroon, the Spanish settlements on the Muni river, the French
Congo colony, and the small Portuguese enclave north of the Congo to which
reference has already been made, which is administratively part of the
Angola colony. When the General Act of the Berlin conference was signed the
whole of this coast-line had not been formally claimed; but no time was
lost by the powers interested in notifying claims to the unappropriated
sections, and the conflicting claims put forward necessitated frequent
adjustments by international agreements. By a Franco-Portuguese agreement
of the 12th of May 1886 the limits of Portuguese Guinea—surrounded
landwards by French territory—were defined, and by agreements with Great
Britain in 1885 and France in 1892 and 1907 the Liberian republic was
Confined to an area of about 43,000 sq. m. The real struggle in West Africa was between France and Great Britain,
and France played the dominant part, the exhaustion of Portugal, the apathy
of the British government and the late appearance of Germany in the field
being all elements that favoured the success of French policy. Before
tracing the steps in the historic contest between France and Great Britain
it is necessary, however, to deal briefly with the part played by Germany.
She naturally could not be disposed of by the chief rivals as easily as
were Portugal and Liberia. It will be remembered that Dr Nachtigal, while
the proposals for the Berlin conference were under discussion, had planted
the German flag on the coast of Togo and in Cameroon in the month of July
1884. In Cameroon Germany found herself with Great Britain for a neighbour
to the north, and with France as her southern neighbour on the Gabun river.
The utmost activity was displayed in making treaties with native chiefs,
and in securing as wide a range of coast for German enterprise as was
possible. After various provisional agreements had been concluded between
Great Britain and Germany, a “provisional line of demarcation” was
adopted in the famous agreement of the 1st of July 1890, starting from the
head of the Rio del Rey creek and going to the point, about 9 deg. 8′ E.,
marked “rapids” on the British Admiralty chart. By a further agreement of
the 14th of April 1893, the right bank of the Rio del Rey was made the
boundary between the Oil Rivers Protectorate (now Southern Nigeria) and
Cameroon. In the following November (1893) the boundary was continued from
the “rapids” before mentioned, on the Calabar or Cross river, in a
straight line towards the centre of the town of Yola, on the Benue river.
Yola itself, with a radius
Germany in West Central Africa.
of some 3 m., was left in the British sphere, and the German boundary
followed the circle eastwards from the point of intersection as it neared
Yola until it met the Benue river. From that point it crossed the river to
the intersection of the 13th degree of longitude with the 10th degree of
north latitude, and then made direct for a point on the southern shore of
Lake Chad “situated 35 minutes east of the meridian of Kuka.” By this
agreement the British government withdrew from a considerable section of
the upper waters of the Benue with which the Royal Niger Company had
entered into relations. The limit of Germany’s possible extension eastwards
was fixed at the basin of the river Shari, and Darfur, Kordofan and the
Bahr-el-Ghazal were to be excluded from her sphere of influence. The object
of Great Britain in making the sacrifice she did was two-fold. By
satisfying Germany’s desire for a part of Lake Chad a check was put on
French designs on the Benue region, while by recognizing the central Sudan
(Wadai, &c.) in the German sphere, a barrier was interposed to the advance
of France from the Congo to the Nile. This last object was not attained,
inasmuch as Germany in coming to terms with France as to the southern and
eastern limits of Cameroon abandoned her claims to the central Sudan. She
had already, on the 24th of December 1885, signed a protocol with France
fixing her southern frontier, where it was coterminous with the French
Congo colony. But to the east German explorers were crossing the track of
French explorers from the northern bank of the Ubangi, and the need for an
agreement was obvious. Accordingly, on the 4th of February 1894, a
protocol—which, some weeks later, was confirmed by a convention— was signed
at Berlin, by which France accepted the presence of Germany on Lake Chad as
a fait accompli and effected the best bargain she could by making the left
bank of the Shari river, from its outlet into Lake Chad to the 10th
parallel of north latitude, the eastern limit of German extension. From
this point the boundary line went due west some 230 m., then turned south,
and with various indentations joined the south-eastern frontier, which had
been slightly extended so as to give Germany access to the Sanga river— a
tributary of the Congo. Thus, early in 1894, the German Cameroon colony had
reached fairly definite limits. In 1908 another convention, modifying the
frontier, gave Germany a larger share of the Sanga, while France, among
other advantages, gained the left bank of the Shari to 10 deg. 40′ N. The German Togoland settlements occupy a narrow strip of the Guinea
coast, some 35 m. only in length, wedged in between the British Gold Coast
and French Dahomey. At first France was inclined to dispute Germany’s
claims to Little Popo and Porto Seguro; but in December 1885 the French
government acknowledged the German protectorate over these
Exclusion of Germany from the Niger.
places, and the boundary between French and German territory, which runs
north from the coast to the 11th decree of latitude, was laid down by the
Franco-German convention of the 12th of July 1897. The fixing of the 11th
parallel as the northern boundary of German expansion towards the interior
was not accomplished without some sacrifice of German ambitions. Having
secured an opening on Lake Chad for her Cameroon colony, Germany was
anxious to obtain a footing on the middle Niger for Togoland. German
expeditions reached Gando, one of the tributary states of the Sokoto empire
on the middle Niger, and, notwithstanding the existence of prior treaties
with Great Britain, sought to conclude agreements with the sultan of that
country. But this German ambition conflicted both with the British and the
French designs in West Africa, and eventually Germany had to be content
with the 11th parallel as her northern frontier. On the west the Togoland
frontier on the coast was fixed in July 1886 by British and German
commissioners at 1 deg. 10′ E. longitude, and its extension towards the
interior laid down for a short distance. A curious feature in the history
of its prolongation was the establishment in 1888 of a neutral zone wherein
neither power was to seek to acquire protectorates nor exclusive influence.
It was not until November 1899 that, as part of the Samoa settlement, this
neutral zone was partitioned between the two powers and the frontier
extended to the 11th parallel. The story of the struggle between France and Great Britain in West Africa
may roughly be divided into two sections, the
Anglo-French rivalry in West Africa.
first dealing with the Coast colonies, the second dealing with the struggle
for the middle Niger and Lake Chad. As regards the Coast colonies, France
was wholly successful in her design of isolating all Great Britain’s
separate possessions in that region, and of securing for herself undisputed
possession of the upper Niger and of the countries lying within the great
bend of that river. When the British government awoke to the consciousness
of what was at stake France had obtained too great a start. French
governors of the Senegal had succeeded, before the Berlin Conference, in
establishing forts on the upper Niger, and the advantage thus gained was
steadily pursued. Every winter season French posts were pushed farther and
farther along the river, or in the vast regions watered by the southern
tributaries of the Senegal and Niger rivers. This ceaseless activity met
with its reward. Great Britain found herself compelled to acknowledge
accomplished facts and to conclude agreements with France, which left her
colonies mere coast patches, with a very limited extension towards the
interior. On the 10th of August 1889 an agreement was signed by which the
Gambia colony and protectorate was confined to a narrow strip of territory
on both banks of the river for about 200 m. from the sea. In June 1882 and
in August 1889 provisional agreements were made with France fixing the
western and northern limits of Sierra Leone, and commissioners were
appointed to trace the line of demarcation agreed upon by the two
governments. But the commissioners failed to agree, and on the 21st of
January 1895 a fresh agreement was made, the boundary being subsequently
traced by a mixed commission. Sierra Leone, as now definitely constituted,
has a coast-line of about 180 m. and a maximum extension towards the
interior of some 200 m. At the date of the Berlin conference the present colonies of Southern
Nigeria and the Gold Coast constituted a single colony under the title of
the Gold Coast colony, but on the 13th of January 1886 the territory
comprised under that title was erected into two separate colonies—Lagos and
the Gold Coast (the name of the former being changed in February 1906 to
the colony of Southern Nigeria). The coast limits of the new Gold Coast
colony were declared to extend from 5 deg. W. to 2 deg. E., but these
limits were subsequently curtailed by agreements with France and Germany.
The arrangements that fixed the eastern frontier of the Gold Coast colony
and its hinterland have already been stated in connexion with German
Togoland. On the western frontier it marches with the French colony of the
Ivory Coast, and in July 1893, after an unsuccessful attempt to achieve the
same end by an agreement concluded in 1889, the frontier was defined from
the neighbourhood of the Tano lagoon and river of the same name, to the 9th
degree of north latitude. In August 1896, following the destruction of the
Ashanti power and the deportation of King Prempeh, as a result of the
second Ashanti campaign, a British protectorate was declared over the whole
of the Ashanti territories and a resident was installed at Kumasi. But no
northern limit had been fixed by the 1893 agreement beyond the 9th
parallel, and the countries to the north—Gurunsi (Grusi), Mossi and Gurma—-
were entered from all sides by rival British, French and German
expeditions. The conflicting claims established by these rival expeditions
may, however, best be considered in connexion with the struggle for
supremacy on the middle Niger and in the Chad region, to which it is now
necessary to turn. A few days before the meeting of the Berlin conference Sir George Goldie
had succeeded in buying up all the French interests on the lower Niger. The
British company’s influence had at that date been extended by treaties with
the native chiefs up the main Niger stream to its junction with the Benue,
and some distance along this latter river But the great Fula states of the
central Sudan were still outside European influence, and this fact did not
escape attention in Germany. German merchants had been settled for some
years on the coast, and one of them, E. R. Flegel, had displayed great
interest in, and activity on, the river. He recognized that in the densely
populated states of the middle Niger, Sokoto and Gando, and in Bornu to the
west of Lake Chad, there was a magnificent field for Germany’s new-born
colonizing zeal. The German African Company14 and the German Colonial
Society listened eagerly to Flegel’s proposals, and in April 1885 he left
Berlin on a mission to the Fula states of Sokoto and Gando. But it was
impossible to keep his intentions entirely secret, and the (British)
National African Company had no desire to see the French rivals, whom they
had with so much difficulty dislodged from the river, replaced by the even
more troublesome German. Accordingly Joseph Thomson, the young Scottish
explorer, was sent out to the Niger, and had the satisfaction of concluding
on the 1st of June 1885 a treaty with “Umoru, King of the Mussulmans of
the Sudan and Sultan of Sokoto,” which practically secured the whole of
the trading rights and the control of the sultan’s foreign relations to the
British company. Thomson concluded a similar treaty with the sultan of
Gando, so as to provide against the possibility of its being alleged that
Gando was an independent state and not subject to the suzerainty of the
sultan of Sokoto. As Thomson descended the river with his treaties, he met
Flegel going up the river, with bundles of German flags and presents for
the chiefs. The German government continued its efforts to secure a footing
on the lower Niger until the fall of Prince Bismarck from power in March
1890, when opposition ceased, and on the failure of the half-hearted
attempt made later to establish relations with Gando from Togoland, Germany
dropped out of the competition for the
The Niger Company granted a charter.
western Sudan and left the field to France and Great Britain. After its
first great success the National African Company renewed its efforts to
obtain a charter from the British government, and on the 10th of July 1886
the charter was granted, and the company became “The Royal Niger Company,
chartered and limited.” In June of the previous year a British
protectorate had been proclaimed Over the whole of the coast from the Rio
del Rey to the Lagos frontier, and as already stated, on the 13th of
January 1886 the Lagos settlements had been separated from the Gold Coast
and erected into a separate colony. It may be convenient to state here that
the western boundary of Lagos with French territory (Dahomey) was
determined in the Anglo-French agreement of the 10th of August 1889, “as
far as the 9th degree of north latitude, where it shall stop.” Thus both
in the Gold Coast hinterland and in the Lagos hinterland a door was left
wide open to the north of the 9th parallel. Notwithstanding her strenuous efforts, France, in her advance down the
Niger from Senegal, did not succeed in reaching Sego on the upper Niger, a
considerable distance above Timbuktu, until the winter of 1890-1891, and
the rapid advance of British influence up the river raised serious fears
lest the Royal Niger Company should reach Timbuktu before France could
forestall her. It was, no doubt, this consideration that induced the French
government to consent to the insertion in the agreement of the 5th of
August 1890, by which Great Britain recognized France’s protectorate over
Madagascar, of the following article: The Government of Her Britannic Majesty recognizes the sphere of
influence of France to the south of her Mediterranean possessions up to a
line from Say on the Niger to Barrua on Lake Chad, drawn m such a manner as
to comprise in the sphere of action of the Niger Company all that fairly
belongs to the kingdom of Sokoto; the line to be determined by the
commissioners to be appointed. The commissioners never were in fact appointed, and the proper meaning to
be attached to this article subsequently became a subject of bitter
controversy between the two countries. An examination of the map of West
Africa will show what possibilities of trouble were left open at the end of
1890 by the various agreements concluded up to that date. From Say on the
Niger to where the Lagos frontier came to an abrupt stop in 9 deg. N. there
was no boundary line between the French and British spheres of influence.
To the north of the Gold Coast and of the French Ivory Coast colony the way
was equally open to Great Britain and to France, while the vagueness of the
Say-Barrua line left an opening of which France was quick to avail herself.
Captain P. L. Monteil, who was despatched by the French government to West
Africa in 1890, immediately after the conclusion of the August agreement,
did not hesitate to pass well to the south of the Say-Barrua line, and to
attempt to conclude treaties with chiefs who were, beyond all question,
within the British sphere. Still farther south, on the Benue river, the two
expeditions of Lieutenant Mizon—in 1890 and 1892—failed to do any real harm
to British interests. In 1892 an event happened which had an important
bearing on the future course of the dispute.
French advance Timbuktu. After a troublesome war with Behanzin king of to the native state of
Dahomey, France annexed some portion of Dahomeyan territory on the coast,
and declared a protectorate over the rest of the kingdom. Thus was removed
the barrier which had up to that time prevented France from pushing her way
Nigerwards from her possessions on the Slave Coast, as well as from the
upper Niger and the Ivory Coast. Henceforth her progress from all these
directions was rapid, and in particular Timbuktu was occupied in the last
days of 1893. In 1894 it appears to have been suddenly realized in France that, for the
development of the vast regions which she was placing under her protection
in West Africa, it was extremely desirable that she should obtain free
access to the navigable portions of the Niger, if not on the left bank,
from which she was excluded by the Say-Barrua agreement, then on the right
bank, where the frontier had still to be fixed by international agreement.
In the neighbourhood of Bussa there is a long stretch of the river so
impeded by rapids that navigation is practically impossible, except in
small boats and at considerable risk. Below these rapids France had no
foothold on the river, both banks from Bussa to the sea being within the
British sphere. In 1890 the Royal Niger Company had concluded a treaty with
the emir and chiefs of Bussa (or Borgu); but the French declared that the
real paramount chief of Borgu was not the king of Bussa, but the king of
Nikki, and three expeditions were despatched in hot haste to Nikki to take
the king under French protection. Sir George Goldie, however, was not to be
baffled. While maintaining the validity of the earlier treaty with Bussa,
he despatched Captain (afterwards General Sir) F.D. Lugard to Nikki, and
Lugard was successful in distancing all his French competitors by several
days, reaching Nikki on the 5th of November 1894 and concluding a treaty
with the king and chiefs. The French expeditions, which were in great
strength, did not hesitate on their arrival to compel the king to execute
fresh treaties with France, and with these in their possession they
returned to Dahomey. Shortly afterwards a fresh act of aggression was
committed. On the 13th of February 1895 a French officer, Commandant
Toutee, arrived on the right bank of the Niger opposite Bajibo and built a
fort. His presence there was notified to the Royal Niger Company, who
protested to the British government against this invasion of their
territory. Lord Rosebery, who was then foreign minister, at once made
inquiries in Paris, and received the assurance that Commandant Toutee was
“a private traveller.” Eventually Commandant Toutee was ordered to
withdraw, and the fort was occupied by the Royal Niger Company’s troops.
Commandant Toutee subsequently published the official instructions from the
French government under which he had acted. It was thought that the
recognition of the British claims, involved in the withdrawal of Commandant
Toutee, had marked the final abandonment by France of the attempt to
establish herself on the navigable portions of the Niger below Bussa, but
in 1897 the attempt was renewed in the most determined manner. In February
of that year a French force suddenly occupied Bussa, and this act was
quickly followed by the occupation of Gomba and Illo higher up the river.
In November 1897 Nikki was occupied. The situation on the Niger had so
obviously been outgrowing the capacity of a chartered company that for some
time before these occurrences the assumption of responsibility for the
whole of the Niger region
The Franco-British settlement of 1898.
by the imperial authorities had been practically decided on; and early in
1898 Lugard was sent out to the Niger with a number of imperial officers to
raise a local force in preparation for the contemplated change. The advance
of the French forces from the south and west was the signal for an advance
of British troops from the Niger, from Lagos and from the Gold Coast
protectorate. The situation thus created was extremely serious. The British
and French flags were flying in close proximity, in some cases in the same
village. Meanwhile the diplomatists were busy in London and in Paris, and
in the latter capital a commission sat for many months to adjust the
conflicting claims. Fortunately, by the tact and forbearance of the
officers on both sides, no local incident occurred to precipitate a
collision, and on the 14th of June 1898 a convention was signed by Sir
Edmund Monson and M. G. Hanotaux which practically completed the partition
of this part of the continent. The settlement effected was in the nature of a compromise. France
withdrew from Bussa, Gomba and Illo, the frontier line west of the Niger
being drawn from the 9th parallel to a point ten miles, as the crow flies,
above Giri, the port of Illo. France was thus shut out from the navigable
portion of the middle and lower Niger; but for purely commercial purposes
Great Britain agreed to lease to France two small plots of land on the
river-the one on the right bank between Leaba and the mouth of the Moshi
river, the other at one of the mouths of the Niger. By accepting this line
Great Britain abandoned Nikki and a great part of Borgu as well as some
part of Gando to France. East of the Niger the Say-Barrua line was modified
in favour of France, which gained parts of both Sokoto and Bornu where they
meet the southern edge of the Sahara. In the Gold Coast hinterland the
French withdrew from Wa, and Great Britain abandoned all claim to Mossi,
though the capital of the latter country, together with a further extensive
area in the territory assigned to both powers, was declared to be equally
free, so far as trade and navigation were concerned, to the subjects and
protected persons of both nationalities. The western boundary of the Gold
Coast was prolonged along the Black Volta as far as latitude 11 deg. N.,
and this parallel was followed with slight deflexions to the Togoland
frontier. In consequence of the acute crisis which shortly afterwards
occurred between France and Great Britain on the upper Nile, the
ratification of this agreement was delayed until after the conclusion of
the Fashoda agreement of March 1899 already referred to. In 1900 the two
patches on the Niger leased to France were selected by commissioners
representing the two countries, and in the same year the Anglo-French
frontier from Lagos to the west bank of the Niger was delimited. East of the Niger the frontier, even as modified in 1898, failed to
satisfy the French need for a practicable route to Lake Chad, and in the
convention of the 8th of April 1904, to which reference has been made under
Egypt and Morocco, it was
Further concessions to France.
agreed, as part of the settlement of the French shore question in
Newfoundland, to deflect the frontier line more to the south. The new
boundary was described at some length, but provision was made for its
modification in points of detail on the return of the commissioners engaged
in surveying the frontier region. In 1906 an agreement was reached on all
points, and the frontier at last definitely settled, sixteen years after
the Say-Barrua line had been fixed. This revision of the Niger-Chad
frontier did not, however, represent the only territorial compensation
received by France in West Africa in connexion with the settlement of the
Newfoundland question. By the same convention of April 1904 the British
government consented to modify the frontier between Senegal and the Gambia
colony “so as to give to France Yarbutenda and the lands and landing-
places belonging to that locality,” and further agreed to cede to France
the tiny group of islands off the coast of French Guinea known as the Los
Islands. Meantime the conclusion of the 1898 convention had left both the British
and the French governments free to devote increased attention to the
subdivision and control of their West African possessions. On the 1st of
January 1900 the imperial authorities assumed direct responsibility for the
whole of the territories of the Royal Niger Company, which became
henceforth a purely commercial undertaking. The Lagos protectorate was
extended northwards; the Niger Coast protectorate, likewise with extended
frontiers, became Southern Nigeria; while the greater part of the
territories formerly administered by the company were constituted into the
protectorate of Northern Nigeria—all three administrations being directly
under the Colonial Office In February 1906 the administration of the
Southern Nigerian protectorate was placed under that of Lagos at the same
time as the name of the latter was changed to the Colony of Southern
Nigeria, this being a step towards the eventual
Organization of the British and French protectorates.
amalgamation of all three dependencies under one governor or governor-
general. In French West Africa changes in the internal frontiers have been
numerous and important. The coast colonies have all been increased in size
at the expense of the French Sudan, which has vanished from the maps as an
administrative entity. There are carved out of the territories comprised in
what is officially known as French West Africa five colonies—Senegal,
French Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Dahomey and the Upper Senegal and Niger,
this last being entirely cut off from the sea—and the civil territory of
Mauritania. To the colony of the Upper Senegal and Niger is attached the
military territory of the Niger, embracing the French Sahara up to the
limit of the Algerian sphere of influence. Not only are all these divisions
of French West Africa connected territorially, but administratively they
are united under a governor-general. Similarly the French Congo territories
have been divided into three colonies—the Gabun, the Middle Congo and the
Ubangi-Shari-Chad—all united administratively under a commissioner-general. There are, around the coast, numerous islands or groups of islands, which
are regarded by geographers as outliers of the
Ownership of the African Islands.
African mainland. The majority of these African islands were occupied by
one or other of the European powers long before the period of continental
partition. The Madeira Islands to the west of Morocco, the Bissagos
Islands, off the Guinea coast, and Prince’s Island and St Thomas’ Island,
in the Gulf of Guinea, are Portuguese possessions of old standing; while in
the Canary Islands and Fernando Po Spain possesses remnants of her ancient
colonial empire which are a more valuable asset than any she has acquired
in recent times on the mainland. St Helena in the Atlantic, Mauritius and
some small groups north of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, are British
possessions acquired long before the opening of the last quarter of the
19th century. Zanzibar, Pemba and some smaller islands which the sultan was
allowed to retain were, as has already been stated, placed under British
protection in 1890, and the island of Sokotra was placed under the
“gracious favour and protection” of Great Britain on the 23rd of April
1886. France’s ownership of Reunion dates back to the 17th century, but the
Comoro archipelago was not placed under French protection until April 1886.
None of these islands, with the exception of the Zanzibar group, have,
however, materially affected the partition of the continent, and they need
not be enumerated in the table which follows. But the important island of
Madagascar stands in a different category, both on account of its size and
because it was during the period under review that it passed through the
various stages which led to its becoming a French colony. The first step
was the placing of the foreign relations of the island under French
control, which was effected by the treaty of the 17th of December 1885,
after the Franco-Malagasy war that had broken out in 1883. In 1890 Great
Britain and Germany recognized a French protectorate over the island, but
the Hova government declined to acquiesce in this view, and in May 1895
France sent an expedition to enforce her claims. The capital was occupied
on the 30th of September in the same year, and on the day following Queen
Ranavalona signed a convention recognizing the French protectorate. In
January 1896 the island was declared a French possession, and on the 6th of
August was declared to be a French colony. In February 1897 the last
vestige of ancient rule was swept away by the deportation of the queen. Thus in its broad outlines the partition of Africa was begun and ended in
the short space of a quarter of a century. There are still many finishing
touches to be put to the structure. The southern frontiers of Morocco and
Tripoli remain undefined, while the mathematical lines by which the spheres
of influence of the powers were separated one from the other are being
variously modified on the do ut des principle as they come to be surveyed
and as the effective occupation of the continent progresses. Much labour is
necessary before the actual area of Africa and its subdivisions can be
accurately determined, but in the following table the figures are at least
approximately correct. Large areas of the spheres assigned to different
European powers have still to be brought under European control; but this
work is advancing by rapid strides.
BRITISH— Sq. m.
Cape Colony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276,995
Natal and Zululand . . . . . . . . . . . 35,371
Basutoland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,293
Bechuanaland Protectorate . . . . . . . 225,000
Transvaal and Swaziland . . . . . . . . 117,732
Orange River Colony . . . . . . . . . . 50,392
Rhodesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450,000
Nyasaland Protectorate . . . . . . . . . 43,608
British East Africa Protectorate . . . . 240,000
Uganda Protectorate . . . . . . . . . . 125,000
Zanzibar Protectorate . . . . . . . . . 1,020
Somaliland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68,000
Northern Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . 258,000
Southern Nigeria (colony and protectorate) 80,000
Gold Coast and hinterland . . . . . 82,000
Sierre Leone (colony and protectorate) . 34,000
Gambia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,000
Total British Africa . . . . . . . 2,101,411
Egypt and Libyan Desert . . . . . . . . 650,000
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan . . . . . . . . . . 950,000
1,600,000
FRENCH—
Algeria and Algerian Sahara . . . . . . 945,000
Tunisia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51,000
French West Africa—
Senegal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74,000
French Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . 107,000
Ivory Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129,000
Dahomey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40,000
Upper Senegal and Niger, and
Mauritania (including French West
African Sahara) . . . . 1,581,000 1,931,000
French Congo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700,000
French Somaliland . . . . . . . . . . . 12,000
Madagascar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227,950
Total French Africa . . . . . . . 3,866,950
GERMAN—
East Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364,000
South.West Africa . . . . . . . . . . . 322,450
Cameroon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190,000
Togoland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33,700
Total German Africa . . . . . . . . 910,150
ITALIAN—
Eritrea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60,000
Somaliland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140,000
Total Italian Africa . . . . . . . . 200,000
PORTUGUESE—
Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,000
West Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 480,000
East Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293,500
Total Portuguese Africa . . . . . . 787,500
SPANISH—
Rio de Oro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70,000
Muni River Settlements . . . . . . . . . . 9,800
Total Spanish Africa . . . . . . . . 79,800
BELGIAN—
Congo State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900,000
TURKISH—
Tripoli and Benghazi . . . . . . . . . . 400,000
SEPARATE STATES—
Liberia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43,000
Morocco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220,000
Abyssinia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 350,000
Total Independent Africa . . . . . . 613,000
Thus, collecting the totals, the result of the “scramble” has been to
divide Africa among the powers as follows:—
Sq. m.
British Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,101,411
Egyptian Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,600,000
French Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,866,950
German Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 910,150
Italian Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200,000
Portuguese Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . 787,500
Spanish Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79,800
Belgian Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 900,000
Turkish Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400,000
Independent Africa . . . . . . . . . . . 613,000
11,458,811
(J. S. K.)
1. Commercial treaties between Carthage and Rome were made in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.. The first armed conflict between the rival powers, begun in 264 B.C., was a contest for the possession of Sicily.
2. This river was called by the Portuguese the Zaire. They appear to have made no attempt to trace its course beyond the rapids which stop navigation from the sea.
3. France acquired, as stations for her ships on the voyage to and from India, settlements in Madagascar and the neighbouring islands. The first settlement was made in 1642.
4. The Association, in 1831, was merged in the Royal Geographical Society.
5. The Mamelukes, whom the Turks had overthrown in the 16th century, had regained practically independent power.
6. In imitation of the British example, an American society founded in 1822 the negro colony (now republic) of Liberia.
7. The first territorial acquisition made by Great Britain in this region was in 1851, when Lagos Island was annexed.
8. As early as 1848 an Arab from Zanzibar journeying across the continent had arrived at Benguella.
9. Another great traveller of this stamp was Wilhelm Junker, who spent the greater part of the period 1875-1886 in the east central Sudan.
10. Specially appointed to consider West African affairs.
11. See the tables in Behm and Wagner’s Bevolkerung der Erde (Gotha, 1872).
12. in 1887 this society united with the German Colonial Society, an organization founded in 1882. The united society took the title of the German Colonial Company.
13. At this period negotiations between Great Britain and Italy had begun but were not concluded.
14. This association, formed in 1878 by a union of associations primarily intended for the exploration of Africa, ceased to exist in 1891.
VI. EXPLORATION AND SURVEY SINCE 1875 In giving the history of the partition of the continent, the later work
of exploration, except where, as in the case of de Brazza’s expeditions, it
had direct political consequences, has of necessity not been told. The
results achieved during and after the period of partition may now be
indicated. Stanley’s great journey down the Congo in 1875-1876 initiated a
new era in African exploration. The numbers of travellers soon became so
great that the once marvellous feat of crossing the continent from sea to
sea became common. With increased knowledge and much ampler means of
communication trans-African travel now presents few difficulties. While
d’Anville and other cartographers of the 18th century, by omitting all that
was uncertain, had left a great blank on the map, the work accomplished
since 1875 has filled it with authentic topographical details. Moreover
surveys of high accuracy have been made at several points. As the work of
exploration and survey progressed journeys of startling novelty became
impossible—save in the eastern Sahara, where the absence of water and
boundless wastes of sand render exploration more difficult, perhaps, than
in any other region of the globe. Within their respective spheres of
influence each power undertook detailed surveys, and the most solid of the
latest accessions to knowledge have resulted from the labours of hard-
working colonial officials toiling individually in obscurity. Their work it
is impossible here to recognize adequately; the following lines record only
the more obvious achievements. The relation of the Congo basin to the
neighbouring river systems was brought out by the journeys of many
travellers. In 1877 an important expedition was sent out by the Portuguese
government under Serpa Pinto, Brito Capello and Roberto
Work in the Congo.
Ivens for the exploration of the interior of Angola. The first named made
his way by the head-streams of the Kubango to the upper Zambezi, which he
descended to the Victoria Falls, proceeding thence to Pretoria and Durban.
Capello and Ivens confined their attention to the south-west Congo basin,
where they disproved the existence of Lake Aquilunda, which had figured on
the maps of that region since the 16th century. In a later journey (1884-
1885) Capello and Ivens crossed the continent from Mossamedes to the mouth
of the Zambezi, adding considerably to the knowledge of the borderlands
between the upper Congo and the upper Zambezi. More important results were
obtained by the German travellers Paul Pogge and Hermann von Wissmann, who
(1880-1882) passed through previously unknown regions beyond Muata Yanvo’s
kingdom, and reached the upper Congo at Nyangwe, whence Wissmann made his
way to the east coast. In 1884-1885 a German expedition under Wissmann
solved the most important geographical problem relating to the southern
Congo basin by descending the Kasai, the largest southern tributary, which,
contrary to expectation, proved to unite with the Kwango and other streams
before joining the main river. Further additions to the knowledge of the
Congo tributaries were made at the same time by the Rev. George Grenfell, a
Baptist missionary, who (accompanied in 1885 by K. von Francois) made
several voyages in the steamer “Peace,” especially up the great Ubangi,
ultimately proved to be the lower course of the Welle, discovered in 1870
by Schweinfurth. In East as in West Africa operations were started by agents of the
Belgian committee, but with less success than on the Congo.
Opening up East Africa. The first new journey of importance on this side was made (1878-1880) on
behalf of the British African Exploration Committee by Joseph Thomson, who
after the death of his leader, Keith Johnston, made his way from the coast
to the north end of Nyasa, thence to Tanganyika, on both sides of which he
broke new ground, sighting the north end of Lake Rukwa on the east. In 1882-
1884 the French naval lieutenant Victor Giraud proceeded by the north of
Nyasa to Lake Bangweulu, of which he made the first fairly correct map.
North of the Zanzibar-Tanganyika route a large area of new ground was
opened in 1883-1884 by Joseph Thomson, who traversed the whole length of
the Masai country to Lake Baringo and Victoria Nyanza, shedding the first
clear light on the great East African rift-valley and neighbouring
highlands, including Mounts Kenya and Elgon. A great advance in the region
between Victoria Nyanza and Abyssinia was made in 1887-1889 by the
Austrians, Count Samuel Teleki and Lieut. Ludwig von Hohnel, who discovered
the large Basso Norok, now known as Lake Rudolf, till then only vaguely
indicated on the map as Samburu. At this time Somaliland was being opened
up by English and Italian travellers. In 1883 the brothers F. L. and W. D.
James penetrated from Berbera to the Webi Shebeli; in 1892 Vittorio Bottego
(afterwards murdered in the Abyssinian highlands) started from Berbera and
reached the upper Juba, which he explored to its source. The first person,
however, to cross from the Gulf of Aden to the Indian Ocean was an
American, A. Donaldson Smith, who in 1894-1895 explored the headstreams of
the Webi Shebeli and also explored the Omo, the feeder of Lake Rudolf. In the region north-west of Victoria Nyanza the greatest additions to
geographical knowledge were made by H. M. Stanley in his last expedition,
undertaken for the relief of Emin Pasha. The expedition set out in 1887 by
way of the Congo to carry supplies to the governor of the old Egyptian
Equatorial province. The route lay up the Aruwimi, the principal tributary
of the Congo from the north-east, by which the expedition made its way,
encountering immense difficulties, through the great equatorial forest, the
character and extent of which were thus for the first time brought to
light. The return was made to the east coast, and resulted in the discovery
of the great snowy range of Ruwenzori or Runsoro, and the confirmation of
the existence of a third Nile lake discharging its waters into the Albert
Nyanza by the Semliki river. A further discovery was that of a large bay,
hitherto unsuspected, forming the south-west corner of the Victoria Nyanza. Great activity was also displayed in completing the work of earlier
explorers in North and West Africa. Morocco was in
Expeditions in North and West Africa.
1883-1884 the scene of important explorations by de Foucauld, a Frenchman
who, disguised as a Jew, crossed and re-crossed the Atlas and supplied the
first trustworthy information as to the orography of many parts of the
chain. In 1887-1889 Louis Gustave Binger, a French officer, made a great
journey through the countries enclosed in the Niger bend, and in 1890-1892
Col. P. F. Monteil went from St Louis to Say, on the Niger, thence through
Sokoto to Bornu and Lake Chad, whence he crossed the Sahara to Tripoli.
Meantime explorers had been busy in the region between Lake Chad, the Gulf
of Guinea and the Congo. The Sanga, one of the principal northern
tributaries of the Congo, was reached from the north by Lieut. Louis Mizon,
a French naval officer, who drew the first line of communication between
the Benue and the Congo (1890-1892). In 1890 Paul Crampel, who in the
previous year had explored north of the Ogowe, undertook a great expedition
from the Ubangi to the Shari, but was attacked and killed, with several of
his companions, on the borders of the Bagirmi. Several other expeditions
followed, and in 1806 Emile Gentil reached the Shari, launched a steamer on
its waters and pushed on to Lake Chad. Early in 1900 Lake Chad was also
reached by F. Foureau, a French traveller, who had already devoted twelve
years to the exploration of the Sahara and who on this occasion had crossed
the desert from Algeria and had reached the lake via Air and Zinder. The last ten years of the 19th century also witnessed many interesting
expeditions in east Central Africa. In 1891 Emin
Lakes and mountains of Equatorial Africa.
Pasha, accompanied by Dr F. Stuhlmann, made his way south of Victoria
Nyanza to the western Nile lakes, visiting for the first time the southern
and western shores of Albert Edward. Stuhlmann also ascended the Ruwenzori
range to a height of over 13,000 ft. In the same year Dr O. Baumann, who
had already done good work in Usambara, near the coast, started on a more
extended journey through the region of steppes between Kilimanjaro and
Victoria Nyanza, afterwards exploring the headstreams of the Kagera, the
ultimate sources of the Nile. In the steppe region referred to he
discovered two new lakes, Manyara and Eiassi, occupying parts of the East
African valley system. This region was again traversed in 1893-1894 by
Count von Gotzen, who continued his route westwards to Lake Kivu, north of
Tanganyika, which, though heard of by Speke over thirty years before, had
never yet been visited. He also reached for the first time the line of
volcanic peaks north of Kivu, one of which he ascended, afterwards crossing
the great equatorial forest by a new route to the Congo and the west coast.
Valuable scientific work was done in 1893 by Dr J.W. Gregory, who ascended
Mount Kenya to a height of 16,000 ft. In 1893-1894 Scott Elliot reached
Ruwenzori by way of Uganda, returning by Tanganyika and Nyasa, and in 1896
C. W. Hobley made the circuit of the great mountain Elgon, north-east of
Victoria Nyanza. In 1899 Mount Kenya was ascended to its summit by a party
under H. J. Mackinder. The exploration of Mount Kilimanjaro has been the
special work of Dr Hans Meyer, who first directed his attention to it in
1887. The region south of Abyssinia proper and north of Lake Rudolf, being
largely the basin of the Sobat tributary of the Nile, was traversed by
several explorers, among whom may be mentioned Capt. M. S. Wellby, who in
1898-1899 explored the chain of small lakes in south-east Abyssinia, pushed
on to Lake Rudolf, and thence traversed hitherto unknown country to the
lower Sobat. Donaldson Smith crossed from Berbera to the Nile by Lake
Rudolf in 1899-1900, and Major H. H. Austin commanded two survey parties
between the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and Lake Rudolf during 1899-1901. Meantime
in south Central Africa the Barotse country had been partly made known by
the missionary F. Coillard, who settled there in 1884, while the middle and
upper Zambezi basin were scientifically explored and mapped by Major A. St
H. Gibbons and his assistants in 1895-1896 and 1898-1900. In the same
period the Congo-Zambezi watershed was traced by a Belgian officer, Capt.
C. Lemaire, who had ascended one of the upper tributaries of the Kasai. In the early years of the 19th century the first recorded crossing of
Africa took place. That crossing and all subsequent crossings had been made
either from west to east or east to west. The first journey through the
whole length of the continent was accomplished in the two last years of the
century when a young Englishman, E. S. Grogan, starting from Cape Town
reached the Mediterranean by way of the Zambezi, the central line of lakes
and the Nile. Other travellers followed in Grogan’s footsteps, among the
first, Major Gibbons. Additions to topographical knowledge were made from about 1890 onwards by
the international commissions which traced
Work of international commissions and surveying parties.
the frontiers of the protectorates of the European powers. On several
occasions the labours of the commissions disclosed errors of importance in
the maps upon which international agreements had been based. Among those
which yielded valuable results were the Anglo-French commission which in
1903 traced the Nigerian frontier from the Niger to Lake Chad, and the
Anglo-German commission which in 1903-1904 fixed the Cameroon boundary
between Yola, on the Benue, and Lake Chad. These expeditions and French
surveys in the same region during 1902-1903 resulted in the discovery that
Lake Chad had greatly decreased in area since the middle of the 19th
century. In 1903 a French officer, Capt. E. Lenfant, succeeded in
establishing the fact of a connexion between the Niger and Chad basins.
Subsequently Lenfant explored the western basin of the Shari, determining
(1907) the true upper branch of that river. In East Africa a German-Congolese commission surveyed (1901-1902) Lake
Kivu and the volcanic region north of the lake, R. Kandt making a special
study of Kivu and the Kagera sources, while the Anglo-German boundary
commission of 1902-1904 surveyed the valley of the lower Kagera, and fixed
the exact position of Albert Edward Nyanza. Much new information concerning
the border-lands of British East Africa and Abyssinia between Lake Rudolf
and the lower Juba was obtained by the survey executed in 1902-1903 by a
British officer, Captain P. Maud. While political requirements led to the exact determination of frontiers,
administrative needs forced the governments concerned to take in hand the
survey of the countries under their protection. Before the close of the
first decade of the 20th century tolerably accurate maps had been made of
the German colonies, of a considerable part of West Africa, the Algerian
Sahara and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, mainly by military officers. A British
naval officer, Commander B. Whitehouse, mapped the entire coastdine of
Victoria Nyanza. Government and railway surveys apart, the chief points of
interest for explorers during 1904-1906 were the Ruwenzori range and the
connexion of the basin of Lake Chad with the Niger and Congo systems.
Lieut. Boyd Alexander was the leader of a party which during the years
named surveyed Lake Chad and a considerable part of eastern Nigeria,
returning to England via the Shari, the Ubangi and the Nile. Two members of
the party, Capt. Claud Alexander and Capt. G. B. Gosling, died during the
expedition. The Ruwenzori Mountains proved a great source of attraction.
Sir H. H. Johnston had in 1900 ascended beyond the snow-line to 14,800 ft.;
in 1903 Dr J. J. David had reached from the west to a height he believed to
exceed 16,000 ft.; and in the same year Capt. T. T. Behrens, of the Anglo-
German Uganda boundary commission, fixed the highest summit at 16,619 ft.
During 1904-1906 some half-dozen expeditions were at work in the region.
That of the duke of the Abruzzi was the most successful. In the summer of
1906 the duke or members of his party climbed all the highest peaks, none
of which reaches 17,000 ft., and determined the main lines of the
watershed. Major Powell-Cotton, a British officer who had previously done
good work in Abyssinia and British East Africa, spent 1905-1906 in a
detailed examination of the Lado enclave and the country west of Ruwenzori
and Albert and Albert Edward lakes. This expedition was specially fruitful
in additions to zoological knowledge. Archaeological research, stimulated by the reports of Thomas Shaw,
British consular chaplain at Algiers in 1719- 1731, by James Bruce’s
exploration, 1765-1767, of the ruins in Barbary, and by the French conquest
of Egypt in 1798, has been systematically carried out in North Africa since
the middle of the 19th century (see EGYPT and AFRICA, ROMAN.) In South
Africa the first thorough examination of the ruins in Rhodesia was made in
1905, when Randall-MacIver demonstrated that the great Zimbabwe and similar
buildings were of medieval or post-medieval origin. (F. R. C.)
VII. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS The eagerness with which the nations of western Europe partitioned Africa
between them was due, as has been seen, more to the necessities of commerce
than to mere land hunger. Yet, except in the north and south temperate
regions, the commercial intercourse of the continent with the rest of the
world had been until the closing years of the 19th century of insignificant
proportions. In addition to slaves, furnished by the continent from the
earliest times, a certain amount of gold and ivory was exported from the
tropical regions, but no other product supplied the material for a
flourishing trade with those parts. To their Asiatic and European invaders
the Africans indeed owed many creature comforts—the introduction of maize,
rice, the sugar cane, the orange, the lemon and the lime, cloves, tobacco
and many other vegetable products, the camel, the horse and other
animals—but invaluable to Africa as were these gifts they led to little
development of commerce. The continent continued in virtual isolation from
the great trade movements of the
Causes of isolation.
world, an isolation due not so much to its poverty in natural resources, as
to the special circumstances which likewise caused so large a part of the
continent to remain so long a terra incognita. The principal drawbacks may
be summarized as: (1) the absence of means of communication with the
interior; (2) the unhealthiness of the coast-lands; (3) the small
productive activity of the natives; (4) the effects of the slave trade in
discouraging legitimate commerce. None of these causes is necessarily
permanent, that most difficult to remove being the third; the negro races
finding the means of existence easy have little incentive to toil. The
first drawback has almost disappeared, and the building of railways and the
placing of steamers on the rivers and lakes—a work continually progressing
—renders it year by year easier for producer and consumer to come together.
As to the second drawback, while the coast-lands in the tropics will
always remain comparatively unhealthy, improved sanitation and the
destruction of the malarial mosquito have rendered tolerable to Europeans
regions formerly notorious for their deadly climate. At various periods since the partition of the continent began, united
action has been taken by the powers of Europe in the interests of African
trade. The Berlin conference of 1884-1885 decreed freedom of navigation and
trade on the Congo and the Niger, and the Anglo-Portuguese treaty of 1891
secured like privileges for the Zambezi. The Berlin conference likewise
enacted that over a wide area of Central Africa—the conventional basin of
the Congo—there should be complete freedom of trade, a freedom which later
on was held to be infringed in the Congo State and French Congo by the
granting to various companies proprietary rights in the disposal of the
product of the soil. More important in their effect on the economic
condition of the continent than the steps taken to ensure freedom of trade
were the measures concerted by the powers for the suppression of the slave
trade. The British government had for long borne the greater part of the
burden of combating the slave trade on the east coast of Africa and in the
Indian Ocean, but the changed conditions which resulted from the appearance
of other European powers in Africa induced Lord Salisbury, then foreign
secretary, to address, in the autumn of 1888, an invitation to the king of
the Belgians to take the initiative in inviting a conference of the powers
at Brussels to concert measures for “the gradual suppression of the
Suppression of the slave trade.
slave trade on the continent of Africa, and the immediate closing of all
the external markets which it still supplies.” The conference assembled in
November 1889, and on the 2nd of July 1890 a general act was signed subject
to the ratification of the various governments represented, ratification
taking place subsequently at different dates, and in the case of France
with certain reservations. The general act began with a declaration of the
means which the powers were of opinion might be most effectually adopted
for “putting an end to the crimes and devastations engendered by the
traffic in African slaves, protecting effectively the aboriginal
populations of Africa, and ensuring for that vast continent the benefits of
peace and civilization.” It proceeded to lay down certain rules and
regulations of a practical character on the lines suggested. The act covers
a wide field, and includes no fewer than a hundred separate articles. It
established a zone “between the 20th parallel of north latitude, and the
22nd parallel of south latitude, and extending westward to the Atlantic and
eastward to the Indian Ocean and its dependencies, comprising the islands
adjacent to the coast as far as 100 nautical miles from the shore,” within
which the importation of firearms and ammunition was forbidden except in
certain specified cases, and within which also the powers undertook either
to prohibit altogether the importation and manufacture of spirituous
liquors, or to impose duties not below an agreed-on minimum.1 An elaborate
series of rules was framed for the prevention of the transit of slaves by
sea, the conditions on which European powers were to grant to natives the
right to fly the flag of the protecting power, and regulating the procedure
connected with the right of search on vessels flying a foreign flag. The
Brussels Act was in effect a joint declaration by the signatory powers of
their joint and several responsibility towards the African native, and
notwithstanding the fact that many of its articles have proved difficult,
if not impossible, of enforcement, the solemn engagement taken by Europe in
the face of the world has undoubtedly exercised a material influence on the
action of several of the powers. Moreover, with the increase of means of
communication and the extension of effective European control, slave-
raiding in the interior was largely checked and inter-tribal wars
prevented, the natives being thus given security in the pursuit of trade
and agriculture. Other important factors in the economic as well as the social conditions
of Africa are the advance in civilization made by the natives in several
regions and the increase of the areas found suitable for white
colonization. The advance in civilization among the natives, exemplified by
the granting to them of political rights in such countries as Algeria and
Cape Colony, leads directly to increased commercial activity; and commerce
increases in a much greater degree when new countries— e.g. Rhodesia and
British East Africa—become the homes of Europeans. Finally, in reviewing
the chief factors which govern the commercial development of the continent,
note must be taken of the sparsity of the population over the greater part
of Africa, and the efforts made to supplement the insufficient and often
ineffective native labour by the introduction of Asiatic labourers in
various districts—of Indian coolies in Natal and elsewhere, and of Chinese
for the gold mines of the Transvaal. The resources of Africa may be considered under the head of: (1) jungle
products; (2) cultivated products; (3) animal
Chief economic resources.
products; (4) minerals. Of the first named the most important are india-
rubber and palm-oil. which in tropical Africa supply by far the largest
items in the export list. The rubber-producing plants are found throughout
the whole tropical belt, and the most important are creepers of the order
Apocynaceae, especially various species of Landolphia (with which genus
Vahea is now united). In East Africa Landolphia kirkii (Dyer) supplies the
largest amount, though various other species are known Forms of apparently
wider distribution are L. hendelotii, which is found in the Bahr-el-Ghazal,
and extends right across the continent to Senegambia; and L. (formerly
Vahea) comorensis, which, including its variety L. florida, has the widest
distribution of all the species, occurring in Upper and Lower Guinea, the
whole of Central Africa, the east coast, the Comoro Islands and Madagascar.
In parts of East Africa Clitandra orienitalis is a valuable rubber vine. In
Lagos and elsewhere rubber is produced by the apocynaceous tree, Funtumia
elastica, and in West Africa generally by various species of Ficus, some
species of which are also found in East Africa. The rubber produced is
somewhat inferior to that of South America, but this is largely due to
careless methods of preparation. The great destruction of vines brought
about by native methods of collection much reduced the supply in some
districts, and rendered it necessary to take steps to preserve and
cultivate the rubber-yielding plants. This has been done in many districts
with usually encouraging results. Experiments have been made in the
introduction of South American rubber plants, but opinions differ as to the
prospects of success, as the plants in question seem to demand very
definite conditions of soil and climate. The second product, palm-oil, is
derived from a much more limited area than rubber, for although the oil
palm is found throughout the greater part of West Africa, from 10 deg. N.
to 10 deg. S., the great bulk of the export comes from the coast districts
at the head of the Gulf of Guinea. A larger supply, equal to any market
demand, could easily be obtained. A third valuable product is the timber
supplied by the forest regions, principally in West Africa. It includes
African teak or oak (Oldfieldia africana), excellent for shipbuilding; the
durable odum of the Gold Coast (Chlorophora excelsa); African mahogany
(Khaya senegalensis); ebony (Diospyros ebenum); camwood (Baphia nitida);
and many other ornamental and dye woods. The timber industry on the west
coast was long neglected, but since 1898 there have been large exports to
Europe. In parts of East Africa the Podocarpus milanjianus, a conifer, is
economically important. Valuable timber grows too in South Africa,
including the yellow wood (Podocarpus), stinkwood (Ocotea), sneezewood or
Cape ebony (Euclea) and ironwood. Other vegetable products of importance are: Gum arabic, obtained from
various species of acacia (especially A. senegal), the chief supplies of
which are obtained from Senegambia and the steppe regions of North Africa
(Kordofan, &c.); gum copal, a valuable resin produced by trees of the
leguminous order, the best, known as Zanzibar or Mozambique copal, coming
from the East African Trachylobium hornemannianum, and also found in a
fossil state under the soil; kola nuts, produced chiefly in the coast-lands
of Upper Guinea by a tree of the order Sterculiaceae (Kola acuminata);
archil or orchilla, a dye-yielding lichen (Rocella tinctoria and
triciformis) growing on trees and rocks in East Africa, the Congo basin,
&c.; cork, the bark of the cork oak, which flourishes in Algeria; and alfa,
a grass used in paper manufacture (Machrochloa tenacissima), growing in
great abundance on the dry steppes of Algeria, Tripoli, &c. A product to
which attention has been paid in Angola is the Almeidina gum or resin,
derived from the juice of Euphorbia tirucalli. The cultivated products include those of the tropical and warm temperate
zones. Of the former, coffee is perhaps the most valuable indigenous plant.
It grows wild in many parts, the home of one species being in Kaffa and
other Galla countries south of Abyssinia, and of another in Liberia. The
Abyssinian coffee is equal to the best produced in any other part of the
world. Cultivation is, however, necessary to ensure the best results, and
attention has been given to this in various European colonies. Plantations
have been established in Angola, Nyasaland, German East Africa, Cameroon,
the Congo Free State, &c. Copra, the produce of the cocoa-nut palm, is supplied chiefly by Zanzibar
and neighbouring parts of the east coast. Groundnuts, produced by the
leguminous plant, Arachis hypogaea, are grown chiefly in West Africa, and
the largest export is from Senegal and the Gambia; while Bambarra ground-
nuts (Voandzeia subterranea) are very generally cultivated from Guinea to
Natal. Cloves are extensively grown on Zanzibar and Pemba islands, Pemba
being the chief source of the world’s supply of cloves. The chief drawbacks
to the industry are the fluctuations of the yield of the trees, and the
risk of over-production in good seasons. Cotton grows wild in many parts of tropical Africa, and is exported in
small quantities in the raw state; but the main export is from Egypt, which
comes third among the world’s sources of supply of the article. It is also
cultivated in West Africa—the industry in the Guinea coast colonies having
been developed since the beginning of the 20th century—and in the Anglo-
Egyptian Sudan, whence came the plants from which Egyptian cotton is
grown. Sugar, which is the staple crop of Mauritius, and in a lesser degree
of Reunion, is also produced in Natal, Egypt, and, to a certain extent, in
Mozambique. Dates are grown in Tunisia and the Saharan oases, especially
Tafilet; maize in Egypt, South Africa and parts of the tropical zone; wheat
in Egypt, Algeria and the higher regions of Abyssinia; rice in Madagascar.
Wine is largely exported from Algeria, and in a much smaller quantity from
Cape Colony; fruit and vegetables from Algeria. Tobacco is widely grown on
a small scale, but, except perhaps from Algeria, has not become an
important article of export, though plantations have been established in
various tropical colonies. The cultivation of cocoa has proved successful
in the Gold Coast, Cameroon and other colonies, and in various districts
the tea plant is cultivated. Indigo, though not originally an African
product, has become naturalized and grows wild in many parts, while it is
also cultivated on a small scale. The main difficulty in the way of
tropical cultivation is the labour question, which has already been
referred to. Of animal products one of the most important is ivory, the largest export
of which is from the Congo Free State. The diminution in the number of
elephants with the opening up of the remoter districts must in time cause a
falling-off in this export. Beeswax is obtained from various parts of the
interior of West Africa, and from Madagascar. Raw hides are exported in
large quantities from South Africa, as are also the wool and hair of the
merino sheep and Angora goat. Both hides and wool are also exported from
Algeria and Morocco, and hides from Abyssinia and Somaliland. Ostrich
feathers are produced chiefly by the ostrich farms of Cape Colony, but some
are also obtained from the steppes to the north of the Central Sudan. Live
stock, principally sheep, is exported from Algeria and cattle from Morocco. The exploited minerals of Africa are confined to a few districts, the
resources of the continent in this respect being largely
Mineral Wealth.
undeveloped. Since the discovery of gold in the Transvaal, particularly in
the district known as the Rand (1885), the output has grown enormously, so
that in 1898 the output of gold from South Africa was greater than from any
other gold-field in the world. The Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 lost the
Rand the leading position, but by 1905 the output—in that year over L.
20,800,000—was greater than it had ever been. The supply of gold from South
Africa is roughly 25% of the world’s output. The gold-yielding formations
extend northwards through Rhodesia. The Gold Coast is so named from the
quantity of gold obtained there, and since the close of the 19th century
the industry has developed largely in the hands of Europeans. In the Galla
countries gold has long been an article of native commerce. It is also
found in various parts of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and along the western
shore of the Red Sea. Diamonds are found in large quantities in a series of
beds known as the Kimberley shales, the principal mines being at Kimberley,
Cape Colony. Diamonds are also found in Orange River Colony, while one of
the richest diamond mines in the world—the Premier—is situated in the
Transvaal near Pretoria. Some 80% of the world’s production of diamonds
comes from South Africa. Copper is found in the west of Cape Colony, in
German South-West Africa, and in the Katanga country in the southern Congo
basin, where vast beds of copper ore exist. There are also extensive
deposits of copper in the Broken Hill district of Northern Rhodesia. It
also occurs in Morocco, Algeria, the Bahr-el-Ghazal, &c. Rich tin deposits
have been found in the southern Congo basin and in Northern Rhodesia. Iron
is found in Morocco, Algeria (whence there is an export trade), and is
widely diffused, and worked by the natives, in the tropical zone. But the
deposits aregenerally not rich. Coal is worked, principally for home
consumption, in Cape Colony, Natal, the Transvaal, Orange River Colony, and
in Rhodesia in the neighbourhood of the Zambezi. Coal deposits also exist
in the German territory north of Lake Nyasa. Phosphates are exported from
Algeria and Tunisia. Of other minerals which occur, but are little worked,
zinc, lead and antimony are found in Algeria, lead and manganese in Cape
Colony, plumbago in Sierra Leone. The imports from foreign countries into Africa consist chiefly of
manufactured goods, varying in character according to the development of
the different countries in civilization. In Egypt, Algeria and South Africa
they include most of the necessaries and luxuries of civilized life,
manufactured cotton and woollen goods, especially the former, taking the
first place, but various food stuffs, metal goods, coal and miscellaneous
articles being also included. In tropical Africa, and generally where few
Europeans have settled, the great bulk of the imports consists as a rule of
cotton goods, articles for which there is a constant native demand. No continent has in the past been so lacking in means of communication as
Africa, and it was only in the last decade
Development of means of communication.
of the 19th century that decided steps were taken to remedy these defects.
The African rivers, with the exception of the middle Congo and its
affluents, and the middle course of the three other chief rivers, are
generally unfavourable to navigation, and throughout the tropical region
almost the sole routes have been native footpaths, admitting the passage of
a single file of porters, on whose heads all goods have been carried from
place to place. Certain of these native trade routes are, however, much
frequented, and lead for hundreds of miles from the coast to the interior.
In the desert regions of the north transport is by caravans of camels, and
in the south ox-wagons,before the advent of railways, supplied the general
means of locomotion. The native trade routes led generally from the centres
of greatest population or production to the seaports by the nearest route,
but to this rule there was a striking exception. The dense forests of Upper
Guinea and the upper Congo proved a barrier which kept the peoples of the
Sudan from direct access to the sea, and from Timbuktu to Darfur the great
trade routes were either west to east or south to north across the Sahara.
The principal caravan routes across the desert lead from different points
in Morocco and Algeria to Timbuktu; from Tripoli to Timbuktu, Kano and
other great marts of the western and central Sudan; from Bengazi to Wadai;
and from Assiut on the Nile through the Great Oasis and the Libyan desert
to Darfur. South of the equator the principal long-established routes are
those from Loanda to the Lunda and Baluba countries; from Benguella via
Bihe to Urua and the upper Zambezi; from Mossamedes across the Kunene to
the upper Zambezi; and from Bagamoyo, opposite Zanzibar, to Tanganyika.
Many of the native routes have been superseded by the improved
communications introduced by Europeans in the utilization of waterways and
the construction of roads and railways. Steamers have been conveyed
overland in sections and launched on the interior waterways above the
obstructions to navigation. On the upper Nile and Albert Nyanza their
introduction was due to Sir S. Baker and General C. G. Gordon (1871-1876);
on the middle Congo and its affluents to Sir H.M. Stanley and the officials
of the Congo Free State, as well as to the Baptist missionaries on the
river; and on Lake Nyasa to the supporters of the Scottish mission. A small
vessel was launched on Victoria Nyanza 1896 by a British mercantile firm,
and a British government steamer made its first trip in November 1900. On
the other great lakes and on most of the navigable rivers steamers were
plying regularly before the close of the 19th century. However, the
shallowness of the water in the Niger and Zambezi renders their navigation
possible only to light-draught steamers. Roads suitable for wheeled traffic
are few. The first attempt at road-making in Central Africa on a large
scale was that of Sir T. Fowell Buxton and Mr (afterwards Sir W.)
Mackinnon, who completed the first section of a track leading into the
interior fromDar-es-Salaam (1879). A still more important undertaking was
the “Stevenson road,” begun in 1881 from the head of Lake Nyasa to the
south end of Tanganyika, and constructed mainly at the expense of Mr James
Stevenson, a director of theAfrican Lakes Company—a company which helped
materially in the opening up of Nyasaland. The Stevenson road forms a link
in the “Lakes route” into the heart of the continent. In British East
Africa a road connecting Mombasa with Victoria Nyanza was completed in
1897, but has since been in great measure superseded by the railway. Good
roads have also been made in German East Africa and Cameroon and in
Madagascar. Railways, the chief means of affording easy access to the interior of the
continent, were for many years after their first introduction to Africa
almost entirely confined to the extreme north and south (Egypt, Algeria,
Cape Colony and Natal). Apart from short lines in Senegal, Angola and at
Lourenco Marques, the rest of the continent was in 1890 without a railway
system. In Egypt the Alexandria and Cairo railway dates from 1855, while in
1877 the lines open reached about 1100 miles, and in 1890, in addition to
the lines traversing the delta, the Nile had been ascended to Assiut. In
Algeria the construction of an inter-provincial railway was decreed in
1857, but was still incomplete twenty years later, when the total length of
the lines open hardly exceeded 300 miles. Before 1890 an extension to Tunis
had been opened, while the plateau had been crossed by the lines to Ain
Sefra in the west and Biskra in the east. In Senegal the railway from Dakar
to St Louis had been commenced and completed during the ‘eighties, while
the first section of the Senegal-Niger railway, that from Kayes to
Bafulabe, was also constructed during the same decade. In Cape Colony,
where in about 1880 the railways were limited to the neighbourhood of Cape
Town, Port Elizabeth and East London, the next decade saw the completion of
the trunk-line from Cape Town to Kimberley, with a junction at De Aar with
that from Port Elizabeth. The northern frontier had, however, nowhere been
crossed. In Natal, also, the main line had not advanced beyond Ladysmith.
The settlement, c. 1890, of the main lines of the partition of the
continent was followed by many projects for the opening up of the
possessions and spheres of influence of the various powers by the building
of railways; several of these schemes being carried through in a
comparatively short time. The building of railways was undertaken by the
governments concerned, nearly all the African lines being state-owned. In
the Congo Free State a railway, which took some ten years to build,
connecting the navigable waters of the lower and middle Congo, was
completed in 1898, while in 1906 the middle and upper courses of the river
were linked by the opening of a line past Stanley Falls. Thus the vast
basin of the Congo was rendered easily accessible to commercial enterprise.
In North Africa the Algerian and Tunisian railways were largely extended,
and proposals were made for a great trunk-line from Tangier to Alexandria.
The railway from Ain Sefra was continued southward towards Tuat, the
project of a trans-Saharan line having occupied the attention of French
engineers since 1880. In French West Africa railway communication between
the upper Senegal and the upper Niger was completed in 1904; from the
Guinea coast at Konakry another line runs north-east to the upper Niger,
while from Dahomey a third line goes to the Niger at Garu. In the British
colonies on the same coast the building of railways was begun in 1896. A
line to Kumasi was completed in 1903, and the line from Lagos to the lower
Niger had reached Illorin in 1908. Thence the railway was continued to the
Niger at Jebba. From Baro, a port on the lower Niger which can be reached
by steamers all the year round, another railway, begun in 1907, goes via
Bida, Zungeru and Zaria to Kano, a total distance of 400 miles. A line from
Jebba to Zungeru affords connexion with the Lagos railway. But the greatest development of the railway systems was in the south and
east of the continent. In British East Africa a survey for a railway from
Mombasa to Victoria Nyanza was made in 1892. The first rails were laid in
1896 and the line reached the lake in December 1901. Meanwhile, there had
been a great extension of railways in South Africa. Lines from Cape Town,
Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban and Delagoa Bay all converged on the
newly risen city of Johannesburg, the centre of the Rand gold mines. A more
ambitious project was that identified with the name of Cecil Rhodes,
namely, the extension northward of the railway from Kimberley with the
object of effecting a continuous railway connexion from Cape Town to Cairo.
The line from Kimberley reached Bulawayo in 1897. (Bulawayo is also reached
from Beira on the east coast by another line, completed in 1902, which goes
through Portuguese territory and Mashonaland.) The extension of the line
northward from Bulawayo was begun in 1899, the Zambezi being bridged,
immediately below the Victoria Falls, in 1905. From this point the railway
goes north to the Katanga district of the Congo State. In the north of the
continent a step towards the completion of the Cape to Cairo route was
taken in the opening in 1899 of the railway from Wadi Haifa to Khartum. A
line of greater economic importance than the lastnamed is the railway
(completed in 1905) from Port Sudan on the Red Sea to the Nile a little
south of Berber, thus placing the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan within easy reach of
the markets of the world. A west to east connexion across the continent by
rail and steamer, from the mouth of the Congo to Port Sudan, was arranged
in 1906 when an agreement was entered into by the Congo and Sudan
governments for the building of a railway from Lado, on the Nile, to the
Congo frontier, there to meet a railway starting from the river Congo near
Stanley Falls. A railway of considerable importance is that from Jibuti in
the Gulf of Aden to Harrar, giving access to the markets of southern
Abyssinia. Besides the railways mentioned there are several others of less
importance. Lines run from Loanda and other ports of Angola towards the
Congo State frontier, and from Tanga and Dar-es-Salaam on the coast of
German East Africa towards the great lakes. In British Central Africa a
railway connects Lake Nyasa with the navigable waters of the Shire, and
various lines have been built by the French in Madagascar. All the main railways in South Africa, the lines in British West Africa,
in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and in Egypt south of Luxor are of 3 ft. 6 in.
gauge. The main lines in Lower Egypt and in Algeria and Tunisia are of 4
ft. 8 1/2 in. gauge. Elsewhere as in French West and British East Africa
the lines are of metre (3.28 ft.) gauge. The telegraphic system of Africa is on the whole older than that of the
railways, the newer European possessions having in most cases been provided
with telegraph lines before railway projects had been set on foot. In
Algeria, Egypt and Cape Colony the systems date back to the middle of the
19th century, before the end of which the lines had in each country reached
some thousands of miles. In tropical Africa the systems of French West
Africa, where the line from Dakar to St Louis was begun in 1862, were the
first to be fully developed, lines having been carried from different
points on the coast of Senegal and Guinea towards the Niger, the main line
being prolonged north-west to Timbuktu, and west and south to the coast of
Dahomey. The route for a telegraph line to connect Timbuktu with Algeria
was surveyed in 1905. The Congo region is furnished with several
telegraphic systems, the longest going from the mouth of the river to Lake
Tanganyika. From Ujiji on the east coast of that lake there is telegraphic
communication via Tabora with Dar-es-Salaam and via Nyasa and Rhodesia with
Cape Town. The last-named line is the longest link in the trans-continental
line first suggested in 1876 by Sir (then Mr) Edwin Arnold and afterwards
taken up by Cecil Rhodes. The northern link from Egypt to Khartum has been
continued southward to Uganda, while another line connects Uganda with
Mombasa. At the principal seaports the inland systems are connected with
submarine cables which place Africa in telegraphic communication with the
rest of the world. Numerous steamship lines run from Great Britain, Germany, France and
other countries to the African seaports, the journey from any place in
western Europe to any port on the African coast occupying, by the shortest
route, not more than three weeks. (E. HE., F. R. C.) 1 Further conferences respecting the liquor traffic in Africa were held
in Brussels in 1899 and 1906. In both instances conventions were signed by
the powers, raising the minimum duty on imported spirituous liquors.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.—Authoritative works dealing with Africa as a whole in any
of its aspects are comparatively rare. Besides such volumes the following
list includes therefore books containing valuable information concerning
large or typical sections of the continent:—
sec. I. General Descriptions.—(a) Ancient and Medieval. Herodotus, ed. G.
Rawlinson, 4 vols.1 (1880); Ptolemy’s Geographia, ed. C. Muller, vol. i.
(Paris, 1883-1901); Ibn Haukal, “Description de l’Afrique (transl. McG. de
Slane), Nouv. Journal asiatique, 1842; Edrisi, “Geographie” (transl.
Jaubert), Rec. de voyages . . . Soc. De Geogr. vol. v. (Paris, 1836);
Abulfeda, Geographie (transl. Reinaud and Guyard, Paris, 1848-1883); M. A.
P.d’Avezac, Description de l’Afrique ancienne (Paris, 1845); L. de Marmol,
Description general de Africa (Granada, 1573); L. Sanuto, Geografia dell’
Africa (Venice, 1588); F. Pigafetta, A Report of the Kingdom of Congo, &c.
(1597); Leo Africanus, The History and Description of Africa (transl. J.
Pory, ed. R. Brown), 3 vols. (1896); O. Dapper, Naukeurige beschrijvinge
der afrikaensche gewesten, &c. (Amsterdam, 1668) (also English version by
Ogilvy, 1670, and French version, Amsterdam, 1686); B. Tellez, “Travels of
the Jesuits in Ethiopia,” A New Collection of Voyages, vol. vii. (1710);
G. A. Cavazzi da Montecuccolo, Istorica Descrittione de tre Regni Congo,
Matamba, et Angola (Milan, 1690) (account of the labours of the Capuchin
missionaries and their observations on the country and people); J. Barbot,
“Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea and of Ethiopia
Inferior,’, Churchill’s Voyages, vol. v. (1707); W. Bosman, A New . . .
Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea, &c., 2nd ed. (1721);
J. B. Labat, Nouvelle relation de l’Afrique occidentale, 5 vols. (Paris,
1728); Idem, Relation historique de l’Ethiopie occidentale, 5 vols. (Paris,
1732). (b) Modern. B. d’Anville, Memoire conc. les rivieres de l’interieur
de l’Afrique (Paris, n.d.); M. Vollkommer, Die Quellen B. d’Anville’s fur
seine kritische Karte von Afrika Munich, 1904); C. Ritter, Die Erdkunde, i.
Theil, 1. Buch, “Afrika” (Berlin, 1822); l. M`Queen, Geographical and
Commercial View of Northern and Central Africa (Edinburgh, 1821 ); Idem,
Geographical Survey of Africa ( 1840); W. D. Cooley, Inner Africa laid open
(1852); E. Reclus, Nouvelle geographie universelle, vols. x.-xiii. (1885-
1888); A. H. Keane, Africa (in Stanford’s Compendium), 2 vols., 2nd ed.
(1904-1907); F. Hahn and W. Sievers, Afrika, 2. Aufl. (Leipzig, 1901); M.
Fallex and A.Mairey, L’Afrique au debut du XXe siecle (Paris, 1906); Sir C.
P. Lucas, Historical Geography of the British Colonies, vols. iii. and iv.
(Oxford, 1894, 1904); F. D. and A. J. Herbertson, Descriptive Geographies
from Original Sources: Africa (1902); British Africa (The British Empire
Series, vol. ii., 1899); Journal of the African Society; Comite de
l’Afrique francaise, Bulletin, Paris; Mutteilungen der afrikan.
Gesellschaft in Deutschland (Berlin, 1879-1889); Mitteilungen . . . aus den
deutschen Schutzegebieten (Berlin); H. Schirmer, Le Sahara (Paris, 1893);
Mary H.Kingsley, West African Studies, 2nd ed. (1901); J. Bryce,
Impressions of South Africa (1897); Sir Harry Johnston, The Uganda
Protectorate, 2 vols. (1902) (vol ii. is devoted to anthropology); E. D.
Morel, Affairs of West Africa (1902).
sec. II. Geography (Physical), Geology, Climate, Flora and Fauna. — (For
Descriptive Geogr. see sec. I.)—G. Gurich, “Uberblick uber den geolog. Bau
des afr. Kontinents,” Peterm. Mitt., 1887; A. Knox, Notes on the Geology
of the Continent of Africa (1906) (includes a bibliography); L. von Hohnel,
A. Rosiwal, F. Toula and E. Suess, B eitrage zur geologischen Kenntniss des
omstlichcn Afrika (Vienna, 1891);
E. Stromer, Die Geologie der deutschen Schutzgebieten in Afrika (Munich,
1896); J. Chavanne, Afrika im Lichte uniserer Tage: Bodengestalt, &c.
(Vienna, 1881); F.Heidrich, “Die mittlere Hohe Afrikas,” Peterm. Mitt.,
1888; J. W. Gregory, The Great Rift-Valley (1896); H. G.Lyons, The
Physiography of the River Nile and its Basin (Cairo, 1906); S. Passarage,
Die Kalahari: Versuch einer physischgeogr. Darstellung . . . des sudafr.
Beckens (Berlin, 1904); Idem, “Inselberglandschaften im tropischen
Afrika,” Naturw. Wochenschrift, 1904. 654-665; J. E. S. Moore, The
Tanganyika, Problem (1903); W. H. Hudleston, “On the Origin of the Marine
(Halolimnic) Fauna of Lake Tanganyika,” Journ. Of Trans. Victoria Inst.,
1904, 300-351 (discusses the whole question of the geological history of
equatorial Africa); E.Stromer, “Ist der Tanganyika ein Rellikten-See?”
Peterm. Mitt., 1901, 275-278; E. Kohlschutter, “Die . . . Arbeiten der
Pendelexpedition . . . in Deutsch-Ost-Afrika,” Verh. Deuts.
Geographentages Breslau, 1901, 133-153; J. Cornet, “La geologie du bassin
du Congo,” Bull. Soc. Beige geol., 1898; E. G. Ravenstein, “The
Climatology of Africa” (ten reports), Reports Brit. Association, 1892-
1901; Idem, “Climatological Observations . . . I. Tropical Africa”
(1904); H. G. Lyons, “On the Relations between Variations of Atmospheric
Pressure . . . and the Nile Flood,” Proc. Roy. Soc., Ser. A, vol. lxxvi.,
1905; P. Reichard, “Zur Frage der Austrocknung Afrikas,” Geogr.
Zeitschrift, 1895; J. Hoffmann, “Die tiefsten Temperaturen auf den
Hochlandern,” &c., Peterm. Mitt., 1905; G. Fraunberger, “Studien uber die
jahrlichen Niederschlagsmengen des afrik. Kontinents,” Peterm. Mitt.,
1906; D. Oliver and Sir W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, Flora of) Tropical Africa, 10
vols. (1888-1906); K. Oschatz, Anordnung der Vegetation in Afrika
(Erlangen, 1900); A. Engler, Hochgebirgs-flora des tropischen Afrika
(Berlin, 1892); Idem, Die Pflanzenwelt Ostaftikras und der Nachbargebiete,
3 vols. (Berlin, 1895); Idem, Beitrage zur Flora von Afrika (Engler’s
Botan. Jahrbucher, 14 vols. &c.); W. P. Hiern, Catalogue of the African
Plants Collected by Dr Friedrich Welwitsch in 1853-1861, 2 vols. (1896-
1901); R. Schlechter, Westafrikanische Kautschuk-Expedition (Berlin, 1903);
H. Baum, Kunene-Sambesi-Expedition (Berlin, 1903) (largely concerned with
botany); W. L. Sclater, “Geography of Mammals, No. iv. The Ethiopian
Region,” Geog. Journal, March 1896; H. A. Bryden and others, Great and
Small Game of Africa (1899); F. C. Selous, African Nature Notes and
Reminiscences (1908); E. N. Buxton, Two African Trips: with Notes and
Suggestions on Big-Game Preservation in Africa (1902) (contains photographs
of living animals); G. Schillings, With Flash-light and Rifle in Equatorial
East Africa (1906); Idem, In Wildest Africa (1907) (striking collection of
photographs of living wild animals); Exploration scientifique de l’Algerie:
Histoire naturelle, 14 vols. and 4 atlases, Paris (1846-1850); Annales du
Musee du Congo: Botanique, Zoologie (Brussels, 1898, &c.). The latest
results of geographical research and a bibliography of current literature
are given in the Geographical Journal, published monthly by the Royal
Geographical Society.
sec. III. Ethnology.—H. Hartmann, Die Volker Afrikas (Leipzig, 1879); B.
Ankermann, “Kulturkreise in Afrika,” Zeit. f. Eth. vol. xxxvii. p. 34;
Idem, “Uber den gegenwartigen Stand der Ethnographie der Sudhalfte
Afrikas,” Arch. f. Anth. n.f. iv. p. 24;G.Sergi, Antropologia della stirpe
camitica (Turin, 1897); J. Deniker, “Distribution geogr. et caracteres
physiques des Pygmees africains,” La Geographie, Paris, vol. viii. pp. 213-
220; G. W. Stow and G. M. Theal, The Native Races of South Africa (1905);
K. Barthel, Volkerbewegungen auf der Sudhalfte des afrik. Kontinents
(Leipzig, 1893); A. B. Ellis, The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast
(1887); Idem, The Ewe-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast (1890); Idem, The
Yoruba-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast (1894); H. Ling Roth, Great
Benin, its Customs, &c. (Halifax, 1903); H. Frobenius, Die Heiden-Neger des
agyptischen Sudan (Berlin, 1893); Herbert Spencer and D. Duncan,
Descriptive Sociology, vol. iv. African Races (1875); A. de Preville, Les
Societes africaines (Paris, 1894); D. Macdonald, Africana or, the Heart of
Heathen Africa, 2 vols. (1882); L. Frobenius, Der Ursprung der
afrikanischen Kulturen (Der Ursprung der Kultur, Band i.) (Berlin, 1898);
Idem, “Die Masken und Geheimbunde Afrikas,” Abhandl. Kaiserl. Leopoldin.-
Carolin. Deuts. Akad. Naturforscher, 1899, 1-278; G. Schweinfurth, Artes
africanae Illustrations and Descriptions of . . . industrial Arts, &c. (in
German and English) (Leipzig, 1875); F. Ratzel, Die afsikanischen Bogen . .
. eine anthrop. geographische Studie (Leipzig, 1891); K. Weule, . Der
afrikanische Pfeil (Leipzig, 1899); H. Frobenius, Afrikanische Bautypen
(Dauchau bei Munchen, 1894); H. Schurtz, Die afrikan. Gewerbe (Leipzig,
1900); E. W. Blyden, Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race (1887); James
Stewart, Dawn in the Dark Continent, or Africa and its Missions (Edinburgh
and London, 1903); W. H. J. Bleek, Comparative Grammar of South African
Languages, 2 parts (1862-1869); Idem, Vocabularies of the Districts of
Lourenzo Marques, &c., &c. (1900); R. N. Cust, Sketch of the Modern
Languages of Africa, 2 vols. (1993): F. W. Kolbe, A Language Study based on
Bantu (1888); J. T. Last, Polyglotta Africana orientalis (1885); J.
Torrend, Comparative Grammar of the South African Bantu Languages (1891);
S. W. Koelle, Polyglotta Africana (1854); C. Velten, Schilderungen der
Suaheli von Expeditionen v. Wissmanns, &c., &c. (1900) (narratives taken
down from the mouths of natives); A. Vierkandt, Volksgedichte im westlichen
Central-Afrika (Leipzig, 1895). For latest information the following
periodicals should be consulted:— Journal of the Anthropological Institute
of Great Britain and Ireland; Man (same publishers); Zeitschrift f.
Ethnologie; Archiv f. Anthropologie; L’Anthropologie.
sec. IV. Archaeology and Art.— Publications of the Egyptian Exploration
Fund; A. Mariette-Bey, The Monuments of Upper Egypt (1890); H. Brugsch, Die
Agyptologie (Leipzig, 1891); G. Maspero, L’ Archeologie egyptienne (Paris,
1890?); R. Lepsius, Denkmaler aus Agypten und Athiopien . . ., 6 vols.
(Berlin, 1849-1859); G. A. Hoskins, Travels in Ethiopia . . . illustrating
the Antiquities of the Ancient Kingdom of Meroe (1835); Records of the
Past: being English Translations of . . . Egyptian Monuments, vols. 2, 4,
6, 8, 10, 12 (1873-1881); Ditto, new series, 6 vols. (1890-1892); D.
Randall-MacIver and A. Wilkin, Libyan Notes (1901) (archaeology and
ethnology of North Africa); G. Boissier, L’Afrique romaine Promenades
archeologiques en Algerie et en Tunisie, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1901); H. Randall-
MacIver, Mediaeval Rhodesia (1906); Prisse d’Avennes, Histoire de l’art
egyptien d’apres les monuments, &c. with atlas (Paris, 1879; G. Perrot and
C. Chipiez, History of Art in Ancient Egypt, 2 vols. (1993); H. Wallis,
Egyptian Ceramic Art (1900); C. H. Read and O. M. Dalton, Antiquities from
the City of Benin and from other parts of West Africa (1899).
sec. V. Travel and Exploration.—Dean W. Vincent, The Commerce and
Navigation of the Ancients, vol. 2, The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea
(1807); G. E. de Azurara, Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of Guinea
(Eng. trans., 2 vols., 1896, 1899); R. H. Major, Life of Prince Henry the
Navigator (1868); E. G. Ravenstein, “The Voyages of Diogo Cao and Barth.
Diaz,” Geogr. Journ., Dec. 1900; O. Hartig, “Altere Entdeckungsgeschichte
und Kartographie Afrikas,” Mitt. Geogr. Gesells. Wien, 1905; J. Leyden and
H. Murray, Historical Account of Discoveries, &c., 2 vols., 2nd ed. (1818);
T. E. Bowditch, Account of the Discoveries of the Portuguese in the
Interior of Angola and Mozambique (1824); P. Paulitschke, Die geogr.
Forschung des afrikan. Continents (Vienna, 1880); A. Supan, “Ein
Jahrhundert der Afrika-Forschung,” Peterm. Mitt., 1888; R. Brown, The
Story of Africa and its Explorers, 4 vols. (1892-1895); Sir Harry Johnston,
The Nile Quest (1903); James Bruce, Travels to discover the Source of the
Nile in 1768-1773, 5 vols., Edinburgh (1790); Proceedings of the
Association for . . . Discovery of!the Interior Parts of Africa, 1790-1810;
Mungo Park, Travels into the Interior Districts of Africa (1799); Idem,
Journal of a Mission, &c. (1815); Capt. J. K. Tuckey, Narrative of an
Expedition to explore the River Zaire or Congo in 1816 (1818): D. Denham
and H. Clapperton, Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in N. and Cent.
Africa (1826); R. Caillie, Journal d’un voyage a Temboctu et a Jenne, 3
vols., Paris (1830); D. Livingstone, Missionary Travels . . . in South
Africa (1857); The Last Journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa,
ed. H. Waller (1874); H. Barth, Travels and Discoveries in North and
Central Africa, 5 vols. (1857); J. L. Krapf, Travels, Researches, &c., in
Eastern Africa (1860); Sir R. F. Burton, The Lake Regions of Central
Africa, 2 vols. (1860); J. H. Speke, Journal of the Discovery of the Source
of the Nile (1863).: Sir S. W. Baker, The Albert Nyanza, 2 vols. (1866); G.
Schweinfurth, The Heart of Africa, 2 vols. (1873); V. L. Cameron, Across
Africa, 2 vols. (1877); T. Baines, The Gold Regions of South-Eastern Africa
(1877); Sir H. M. Stanley, Through the Dark Continent, 2 vols. (1878);
Idem, In Darkest Africa, 2 vols. (1890); G. Nachtigal, Sahara und Sudan, 3
vols. (Berlin, 1879-1889); P. S. De Brazza, Les Voyages de . . . (1875-
1882), Paris, 1884; i. Thomson, Through Masai Land (1885); H. von Wissmann,
Unter Deutscher Flagge quer durch Afrika, &c. (Berlin, 1889); Idem, My
Second Journey through Equatorial Africa (1891); W. Junker, Travels in
Africa 1875-1886, 3 vols. (1890-1892); L. G. Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de
Guinee, &c. (Paris, 1892); O. Baumann, Durch Masailand zur Nilquelle
(Berlin, 1894); R. Kandt, Caput Nili (Berlin, 1904); C. A. von Gotzen,
Durch Afrika von Ost nach West (Berlin, 1896); L. Vanutelli and C. Citerni,
Seconda spedizione Bottego: L’Omo (Milan, 1899); P. Foureau, D’Alger au
Congo par le Tchad (Paris, 1902); C. Lemaire, Mission scientifique du Ka-
Tanga: Journal de route, 1 vol., Resultats des observations, 16 parts
(Brussels, 1902); A. St. H. Gibbons, Africa from South to North through
Marotseland, 2 vols. (1904); E. Lenfant, La Grande Route du Tchad (Paris,
1905); Boyd Alexander, From the Niger to the Nile, 2 vols. (1907).
sec. VI. Historical and Political.—H.Schurtz, Africa (World’s History, vol.
3, part 3) (1903); Sir H. H. Johnston, History of the Colonization of
Africa by Alien Races (Cambridge, 1899) (reprint with additional chapter
“Latest Developments,” 1905); A. H. L. Heeren, Reflections on the
Politics, Intercourse and Trade of the Ancient Nations of Africa, 2 vols.
(Oxford, 1832); G. Rawlinson, History of Ancient Egypt (1881); A. Graham,
Roman Africa (1902); J. De Barros, Asia: Ira Decada, Lisbon (1552 and 1777-
1778); J. Strandes, Die Portugiesenzeit von . . . Ostafrika (Berlin, 1899);
R. Schuck, Brandenburg- Preussens Kolonial-Politik . . . 1641-1721, 2 vols.
Leipzig, 1889): G. M`Call Theal, History and Ethnography of Africa south of
the Zambesi . . . to 1795, 3 vols. (1907-1910), and History of South
Africa since September 1795 (to 1872) 5 vols. (1908); Idem, Records of
South-Eastern Africa, 9 vols., 1898-1903; Lady Lugard, A Tropical
Dependency: Outline of the History of the Western Sudan, &c.; (1905); Sir
F. Hertslet, The Map of Africa by Treaty, 3 vols. (3rd ed., 1909); J . S.
Keltie, The Partition of Africa, 2nd ed. (1895); F. Van Ortroy, Conventions
internationales definissant les limites . . . en Afrique (Brussels, 1898);
General Act of the Conference of Berlin, 1885: The Surveys and Explorations
of British Africa (Colonial Reports, No. 500) (1906), and annual reports
thereafter; Sir F. D. Lugard, The Rise or our East African Empire, 2 vols.
(1893); E. Petit, Les colonies francaises, 2 vols. (Paris, 1902-1904); E.
Rouard de Card, Les Traites de protectorat conclus par la France en
Afrique, 1870-1895 (Paris, 1897); A. J. de Araujo, Colonies portuguaises
d’Afrique Lisbon, 1900); B.Trognitz, “Neue Arealbestimmung des Continents
Afrika,” Petermanns Mitt., 1893, 220-221; A. Supan, “Die Bevolkerung der
Erde,” xii., Peterm. Mitt. Erganzungsh. 146 (Gotha, 1904) (deals with
areas as well as population).
sec. VII. Commerce and Economics.—A. Silva White, The Development of
Africa, 2nd ed. (1892): K. Dove, “Grundzuge einer Wirtschaftsgeographie
Afrikas,” Geographische Zeitschrift, 1905, i-18; E. Hahn, “Die Stellung
Afrikas in der Geschichte des Welthandels,” Verhandl. 11. Deutsch.
Geographentags zu Bremen (Berlin, 1896); L. de Launay, Les Richesses
minerales de l’Afrique (Paris, 1903); K. Futterer, Afrika in seiner
Bedeutung fur die Goldproduktion (Berlin, 1894); P. Reichard, “Das
afrikan. Elfenbein und sein Handel,” Deutsche geogr. Blatter (Bremen,
1889); Sir A. Moloney, Sketch of the Forestry of West Africa (1887);
Dewevre, “Les Caoutchoucs africains,” Ann. Soc. Sci. Bruxelles, 1895; Sir
T. F. Buxton, The African Slave Trade and its Remedy (1840); C. M. A.
Lavigerie, L’Esclavage africain (Paris, 1888); E. de Renty, Les chemins de
fer coloniaux en Afrique, 3 vols. (Paris, 1903-1905); H. Meyer, Die
Eisenbahnen im tropischen Afrika (Leipzig, 1902); G. Grenfell, “The Upper
Congo as a Waterway,” Geogr. Journ., Nov. 1902; A. St. H. Gibbons, “The
Nile and Zambezi Systems as Waterways,” Journ. R. Colon. Inst., 1901; K.
Lent, “Verkehrsmittel in Ostafrika,” Deutsches Kolonialblatt, 1894;
“Trade of the United Kingdom with the African Continent in 1898-1902,”
Board of T. Journ., 1903; Diplomatic and Consular Peports, Annual Series;
Colonial Reports; T. H. Parke, Guide to Health in Africa (1893); R. W.
Felkin, Geographical Distribution of Tropical Diseases in Africa (1895)
The following bibliographies may also be consulted: J. Gay, Bibliographie
des ouvrages relatifs a l’Afrique, &c. (San Remo, 1875); P. Paulitschke,
Die Afrika-Literatur von 1500 bis 1750 (Vienne, 1882); Catalogue of the
Colonial Office Library, vol. 3, Africa (specially for government
publications). (E. HE.) 1 Where no place of publication is given, London is
to be understood.