Exploration of Africa
Senior 2 · History
Exploration of Africa
Lesson 2 of 4
20 min
At the end of the eighteenth century the great puzzle of West African geography, for Europeans, was the River Niger. Some believed it flowed west into the Atlantic, some that it joined the Nile, others that it vanished into the desert. Local people along its banks knew exactly where it ran, but European maps did not. Solving the "Niger question" took forty years and cost many lives, and it opened the way for British trade, and later rule, in what became Nigeria.
| Explorer | Date | What he did |
|---|---|---|
| Mungo Park (Scottish), for the African Association | 1795–1797; 1805–1806 | Reached the Niger at Ségou in 1796 and saw that it flows east, not west. On a second journey he died at the Bussa rapids in 1806. |
| Dixon Denham, Hugh Clapperton and Walter Oudney (British) | 1822–1825 | Crossed the Sahara from Tripoli and reached Lake Chad in 1823. Clapperton visited the Sokoto Caliphate and met its ruler, Sultan Muhammad Bello. |
| Alexander Gordon Laing (Scottish) | 1826 | Reached Timbuktu but was killed soon after leaving it. |
| René Caillié (French) | 1827–1828 | Travelled disguised as a Muslim, reached Timbuktu in 1828 and was the first European to return from it alive. |
| Richard and John Lander (British brothers) | 1830 | Followed the lower Niger from Bussa down to the sea and proved that it enters the Atlantic through the Niger Delta. |
| Heinrich Barth (German, on a British expedition) | 1850–1855 | Travelled widely in the Sahel, reached Timbuktu in 1853 and wrote detailed histories of West African states from local records and scholars. |
These travellers moved through powerful, organised states: the Bambara kingdom of Ségou, the Sokoto Caliphate, the kingdom of Bornu, and the old scholarly city of Timbuktu, which had libraries of Arabic manuscripts centuries before any European arrived. They crossed the Sahara with trans-Saharan caravans on routes over a thousand years old. Barth, unusually for his time, treated African scholarship with respect and used it as a source.
Question: Why was the Landers' journey of 1830 important to European traders?
The Landers showed that the Niger reaches the Atlantic through the Niger Delta. This meant that a ship could enter the river from the sea and travel deep into the interior. British merchants soon sent steamboats up the river to trade directly for palm oil and other goods, cutting out coastal middlemen. The discovery of the river's course therefore turned a geographical puzzle into a trade route, and later into a route for British expansion into Nigeria.
Tip
The Niger in four steps: Park saw it flow east (1796) → Denham and Clapperton reached Lake Chad (1823) → Caillié returned from Timbuktu (1828) → the Landers found the mouth (1830). Park asked the question; the Landers answered it.
What did Mungo Park establish about the Niger in 1796?
Solution. That it flows eastwards, not westwards into the Atlantic as many Europeans had assumed.
Why is René Caillié remembered?
Solution. In 1828 he became the first European to reach Timbuktu and return alive. He travelled disguised as a Muslim.
How did the Lander brothers solve the "Niger question"?
Solution. In 1830 they followed the river downstream from Bussa to the sea and showed that it enters the Atlantic through the Niger Delta.
Why is Heinrich Barth valued by historians of Africa?
Solution. He recorded the history, languages and politics of the Sahel states in great detail, drawing on local scholars and written records, and treated African learning with respect.
Remember
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
