Unveiling Africa: The Pioneering European Explorers of Africa

Join us as we delve into the fascinating journeys of key European explorers who ventured into Africa, shaping our understanding of the continent.

From the early voyages of Prince Henry the Navigator and Bartolomeu Dias to the impactful expeditions of David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley, discover how these explorers not only mapped unknown territories but also influenced the cultural and political landscapes between Africa and Europe. Learn about their discoveries, challenges, and the profound impacts of their explorations on global history.

The Pioneering European Explorers of Africa: Henry the Navigator

Ever wondered how the vast, mysterious lands of Africa were first explored by Europeans? Let’s dive into the journeys that shaped our understanding of this diverse continent.

Today, we’re exploring the key European explorers who ventured into Africa, unveiling its geography and cultures to the wider world.

These explorations had profound impacts, both positive and negative. Although Prince Henry of Portugal, known as Henry the Navigator, never actually set foot in Africa, his patronage led to the exploration of the West African coast in the fifteenth century.

Under his direction, Portuguese sailors pushed southward, seeking a sea route to Asia and initiating the European age of discovery.

In fourteen eighty-eight, Bartolomeu Dias, a Portuguese explorer, became the first European to round the southern tip of Africa, opening the way for a sea route to Asia.

His journey past the Cape of Good Hope marked a significant milestone in world navigation. Building on Dias’ discoveries, Vasco da Gama’s voyage in fourteen ninety-seven successfully reached India by sailing around Africa, proving the feasibility of a sea route from Europe to Asia.

This journey had enormous implications for global trade and European colonialism. Moving into the nineteenth century, Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone became famous for his extensive travels in central Africa.

He sought to find the source of the Nile and was one of the first Europeans to traverse the width of southern Africa.

His reports on the horrors of the slave trade played a crucial role in its abolition. An American journalist who later became a British subject, Henry Morton Stanley is best known for his expedition to find David Livingstone, who had been out of contact for years.

His famous greeting, “Doctor Livingstone, I presume?” became legendary. Stanley’s subsequent explorations opened up the Congo to European colonization.

West Africa

Mungo Park

West Africa was opened to Europeans by a Scottish explorer called Mungo Park.

In 1795, the African association employed him to find the source and the course of the Niger River, and to find out if it was Navigable.

First journey (1795-1797)

• In June 1795, Park started his journey from Gambia
• He travelled through the semi- desert area of Karta. He was captured and held prisoner for four months by the chief of the Muslim people called Moors. He escaped with only his hat and his compass.
• On 20th July 1796, near Segon, he reached the river Niger that he was looking for. He realized that the river flowed eastwards.
• He travelled downstream to Silla before returning to the coast, and from there back to England. There he published a book called Travels in the interior of Africa.

Second Journey (1805)

Park returned to West Africa in January 1805. But this expedition ended in a disaster. Along the way, most of Park’s travelling companions died due to tropical diseases. Park and the last survivors drowned at Bussa around November while trying to escape from a hostile tribe.

Richard Lander

He was also an Englishman. He came to Africa with His brother John Lander in 1830.
He discovered the mouth of the Niger around 1831. This flowed into the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic.

He returned to England in 1831. But in 1834 Richard Lander returned to Nigeria and was attacked by Africans and died from wounds.

Rene Calili’e

• In 1828, the French explorer Rene Calili’e became the first European to return alive from the city of Timbuktu. Previously, Europeans only knew about this city from the Arab traders.

East Africa Exploration

Richards Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke

• Richards Burton explored the Arabian Peninsula before setting off with John Hanning Speke from 1857 – 1858 to search for the source of the Nile River in East Africa.
• They were the first Europeans to reach Lake Tanganyika in 1858. However, they realised from its position that it could not be the source of the Nile.
• Burton became ill, but Speke continued with a new European travelling partner, James Grant, to a lake in the North that he called Lake Victoria.
• He claimed that Lake Victoria was the source of the Nile. He was proved right by Henry Morton Stanley in 1874.

Central Africa

Henry Morton Stanley

Expedition to find Livingstone

• Henry Morton Stanley was a journalist for an American newspaper called the New York Herold.
• He first travelled to Africa in 1871 to try and solve the mystery of what happened to David Livingstone. Nothing had been heard of Livingstone for three years, so many people thought he had died.
• He met Livingstone at Ujiji in 1871.
• Stanley’s journey was a major expedition, with a team of more than 200 porters and local guides. One of these guides was Sidi Mubarak Bombay who first started his life as a slave and later became a guide for many explorers.

Exploring the Congo area

• In November 1874, Stanley set off from Zanzibar on a major expedition to carry on confirming the source of the Nile. He circumnavigated Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika.
• Stanley moved west of the Lualaba River, which proved to be the start of the Congo River, all the way to the West coast of Africa. They reached the coast on 12th August 1877.
• From 1879 to 1884, Stanley worked for the king Leopold II of Belgium in the Congo area after the British government refused to help him. This started the process of creating a Belgian colony.

Mary Kingsley

• Mary Kingsley made two trips to the north of the Congo River between 1893 and 1895.
• She was unusual for an explorer of that time. Firstly, she was a woman when most explorers were men. Secondly, she travelled on her own with just a few guides.
• Other explorers used teams of African porters to carry to carry all the goods they took with them.
• Her aim was not just to explore. She also wanted to find out more about the life and religions of the people in the areas that she visited.

North Africa

Gerard Way, Georg Schweinfurt and Gustav Nachtigal
These three explored Southern Morocco, the Sahara and the Sudan.
Nachtigal confirmed stories of the tiny people called Pygmies in Central Africa.

Southern and central Africa

David Livingstone is generally regarded as the greatest European Explorer of Africa.

David Livingstone

Dr David Livingstone came to Africa as a missionary in the southern Africa in 1841. However,
from 1853 he spent the rest of his life until his death in1873 exploring large parts of central
Africa.

Background

• Dr David Livingstone was born in Blantyre, Scotland in 1813.
• He had difficulties in education such that he started work in a cotton factory at the age of ten.
• He continued learning through night school which earned him a place at Glasgow University where graduated as a medical doctor, after which he joined the London Missionary Society (LMS) in the Northern Cape.
• He undertook shorter trips through the Northern Cape and what is now Botswana, and reached the land of the Kololo where he met king Sebitwane.

First journey (1852-1856)

• Livingstone began the first major journey of exploration in 1852. He travelled north, passing through Kuruman, Koboleng and Mobosta until he reached Linyanti. From there he travelled up the Zambezi River in search of malaria – free site for a mission station.
• In 1854, he returned to Linyanti. After resting for some months, he travelled downstream along the Zambezi River in 1855. On the Batoka Plateau, he met Chief Monze.
• On this journey, he became the first European to see the waterfall locally as “Mosi-o- tunya” (the smoke that thunders). He named it after the British Queen.
• In 1856, he reached Quelimane in what is now Mozambique, and sailed back to England.
• In England, he published a book called “missionary travels and researches in the southern Africa”. He also made speeches to influence people to take up missionary work in Africa.

Second journey(1858- 1864)

• In 1858, Livingstone returned to Africa as a British consul in Mozambique to oppose the slave trade. From there he went on his second journey through Eastern and Central Africa.
• Livingstone started his second journey from Quelimane and sailed upstream in the Zambezi River. His aim was to see if the Zambezi River was Navigable.
• After he was stopped by the Cabora Bassa rapids, he explored the Shire River and Highlands. He encouraged the setting up of a mission station at Magomero in what is now Malawi.
• Livingstone then continued trying to navigate inland along the Ruvuma River. However, increasing costs and the failure to find a navigable River led to the British Government cancelling the expedition. Livingstone returned to England.

Third journey (1866-1873)

• Livingstone started his third journey from Zanzibar in March 1866, in search of the source of the Nile River.
• He travelled up the Ruvuma River, passed through Kota-Kota on the southern top of Lake Nyasa (now called Malawi) and entered the present day Eastern province of Zambia.
• He crossed the Luangwa River and the Muchinga escarpment. He then entered Lubemba.
• In 1871, he met Henry Morton Stanley at Ujiji, a journalist from the New York Herald to go back to England, but Livingstone refused.
• After this, Livingstone crossed the Bemba Plateau and entered the Bangweulu Swamps. Here he caught a terrible fever and finally died on 1st May 1873 at Chitambo Village.
• His African servants Chuma and Susi buried his heart and organs under a tree. They embalmed his body and carried it to the east coast of Africa. From there his body was shipped back to England.
• He was buried in Westminster Abbey in London, England.

Achievements of David Livingstone

1. He set up a route for traders and missionaries
2. He made known the evils of slave trade to the outside world
3. As a result of his work successful missions were later set up
4. His exploration work led to other explorers following his examples.

These explorers not only charted unknown territories but also laid the groundwork for the complex relationships between Africa and Europe.

From the strategic sea routes of the Portuguese to the inland expeditions of Livingstone and Stanley, each played a pivotal role in unveiling the geographical and cultural tapestry of Africa.

Understanding these explorations gives us insight into the early interactions between continents and the lasting impacts they had on global history.

Thanks for joining us on this journey through the past!