The Nile Quest | #ProjectAfrica

The Nile is the longest river in Africa and the disputed longest river in the world. Its incredible length spans over 11 countries, from Egypt all the way to Tanzania. Now, we are aware of its length and size, but in the early 19th century, to European explorers, the Nile was a mysterious and fabled river that promised adventure and riches if one were to discover its source. What followed were several exploration voyages deep into Africa. These voyages are fruitful ground for great tales already, but what is more… most of them were curiously intertwined.

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During the late 1830s, explorers embarked on a quest for a legendary goal: to discover the source of the Nile. The Ottoman governor at the time, Muhammed Ali of Egypt, had already launched two expeditions in those years in order to seek economic expansion into Sudan. These expeditions proved fruitful: the navigable head of the Nile was found at a place called Gondokoro. It now was just the rapids to Gondokoro’s south that stood between adventurers and the source of the Nile. Considering the time frame, unfortunately, many adventurers and traders that moved south were no more than ordinary bandits, raiding the African lands for their wealth, resources and slaves. Regardless of the moral concerns, these marauders did contribute to the geographical knowledge of the region, as they often navigated through uncharted lands.

In the 1840s it was missionaries that worked inland from Mombasa that changed the course of exploration of the Nile. Whenever a caravan of Arab traders would pass by, Ludwig Krapf, Johann Rebmann and Johann Erhardt would ask for information about the places they had travelled. According to these traders, there were great lakes and huge mountains. When Krapf and Rebmann traveled into the direction several months later they are said to have seen the mountains for themselves, covered in snow.

These weren’t just generic mountains but turned out to be Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. These mountains could very well have given rise to the White Nile, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile. The men were awarded a medal by the Paris Geographical Society and, in contrast, severely ridiculed by the British… There was a bit of disparity between the two nations. Nevertheless, the fact that they had seen the mountains gave other explorers the idea to attempt and approach the source of the Nile from Africa’s East Coast.

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Sources:

Garstin, William. "Fifty Years of Nile Exploration, and Some of Its Results." The Geographical Journal 33, no. 2 (1909).

Rice, E., & Bottmann, D. (1990). Sir Richard Francis Burton. Editora Companhia das Letras.

Photos, paintings and imagery: Public Domain, Wikicommons

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