"You Have Everything Confused and Mixed up...!" Georg Schweinfurth, Knowledge and Cartography of Africa in the 19th Century

I

Petermanns Geographische Mittheilungen, the leading German geographical journal of the nineteenth century, is of fundamental significance for the early scholarly study of Africa. It printed numerous accounts by practically all of the important explorers of the time, in particular under the aegis of the geographer August Petermann. Of particular significance are the cartographic supplements to the articles published in the journal. These maps showed for the first time hitherto unknown areas of Africa. Although the data for these maps were often collected in the field under difficult conditions by European travellers, and drawn up in Gotha with the assistance of numerous specialists (astronomers, geologists, cartographers, lithographers, graphic artists), their creation would have been impossible without the cooperation of Africans. That is to say, these maps, a medium seen as a most exact expression of scientific and technical progress, could not have been produced without the assistance of so-called "natives" or "savages." This aspect of cartographic production, to which little attention has been paid so far, is the subject of a research project at the Institute for Regional Geography in Leipzig initiated in May 2009. In the course of this project, a range of German-language travelers' accounts will be studied, giving special attention to the role of indigenous informants and in combination with archival materials. This paper is based on the example of the German African explorer Georg Schweinfurth.

In September 1863, the as yet unknown botanist Georg Schweinfurth announced the start of his African projects in a "call to botanists" in Petermanns Geographische Mittheilungen, describing his planned "expedition over several years to Egypt, Nubia and the countries of the Upper Nile, devoted solely to botanical purposes."¹ Although Schweinfurth did not publish solely in the Geographische Mittheilungen in the following years, he remained in close contact with Petermann, especially with regard to new geographical discoveries. Unlike other travelers, Schweinfurth often visited areas barely known to geographers, where he compared existing maps most carefully with his own observations. In this way he was able to correct many inaccuracies and improve European cartographic knowledge of these regions. A total of six maps by Schweinfurth appeared in the Geographische Mittheilungen between 1865 and 1877.

One of most interesting aspects of Schweinfurth's accounts is his descriptions of his procedure in the "field." He repeatedly referred to his encounters with Africans in his accounts of his travels and "discoveries," incidentally revealing his extreme dependence on his native escorts. Although Schweinfurth was a botanist by training, he also reported on historical, ethnographic, archeological, zoological, and geographical topics in the course of his travels. In particular, in his letters and reports to Petermann, which were printed in the Geographische Mittheilungen, he provided comprehensive information about the geography of the areas in which he had traveled. As well as comparing his own observations in detail with any existing European travel books, he also placed a special emphasis on information gathered from "natives" familiar with the areas in question. Schweinfurth differs from other travelers in that he does not deny these sources, but occasionally records them in detail.

Thus he chides his nephew Konrad Guenther after hearing that the latter did not use a local guide on his expedition to Ceylon:

On principle no European traveler, especially the natural scientist, should travel otherwise than in the company of a native. This is essential, especially in view of his inability to make himself understood, to threaten to summon reinforcements when molested, or to recover forgotten pieces of clothing.²

The reduction of "natives" to the role of mere servants obscures the important role they played as mediators between two worlds and reveals the nineteenth-century European attitude which denied the existence of independent "native" knowledge equal to that of Europeans.

II

In an obituary honoring the famous African explorer Gerhard Rohlfs, Schweinfurth describes the nature of the "explorer in Africa" in the mid-nineteenth century as follows:

It was the time of those classical explorers who set out into the unknown, without the expense of a large expedition, alone or...