The Niger and the Nile: Botanical Exploration Around Two African Rivers

6 Pages·1991·5.4 MB·

by  F Nigel Hepper

f
THE NIGER AND THE
NILE
Nigel Hepper^
F,
BOTANICAL EXPLORATION
TWO
AROUND
AFRICAN
RIVERS
Abstract
Knowledge
of the plants of Africa has been obtained by exploration and taxonomic study. While west Africa
is
dominated by the River Niger, northeast Africa has the famous Nile, with major branches of the White and Blue
its
more
Niles. This paper outlines than two centuries of botanical exploration by individuals and organizations these
in
regions, relating them to the colonial and governmental history of each period, and links the value of the knowledge
gained to the environmental concerns of today.
—
The Niger and two Germany and
the Nile the great rivers Portugal, the states that controlled
—
of Africa north of the equator to the west and their African colonies,
lie
east of the continent. For centuries even geogra-
phers thought that the Nieer flowed out through ^ ^
Preliminary Explorations
c r-.j
r
X .1. XT- -
oenegal,, owi. ng to the hidden nature oi t1he Niger
s
debouchment with the Atlantic Ocean via a mul- Ever since the time of Henry the Navigator
titude of outlets in Nigeria; they also thought the (1345-1460), when the Portuguese in the fifteenth
common
Niger and had
the Nile a source in the century sent their caravels to explore coastal regions
Moon
Mountains The
of the (Senex, 1721). real ever further around Africa, European nations sought
source of the Nile, however, was a mid -eighteenth the spices of the Far East, rather than conquest
much moon
century
objective as sought after as a of unhealthy tropical Africa Not the
itself. until
landing was in the mid-twentieth century. eighteenth century were herbarium collections and
we
If look back on the past century we see that serious botanical observations made. The were
first
this time span encloses most of Africa's colonial the French, with Adanson Senegal 1749-
in (in
period. Before the 1880s only a few, scattered 1754), and de Beauvois 1790) Oware
Palisot
(in in
European trading posts located along rivers, such and Benin, which are now parts of Nigeria (Aubre-
as the Niger and Senegal, could be reached by ville, 1962). The British Duchess of Portland sent
ship. This situation was altered by the "scramble the Dane Henry Smeathman to Sierra Leone to
West
for Africa,'' starting with the Berlin Africa settle released slaves in 1771; William Brass was
Conference of 1884-1885, when European im- sent by Kew's Sir Joseph Banks to the Gold Coast
1780
perial powers scrambled to gain colonial posses- in -(although Keay [1962] stated that Brass
By 1898
sions. all of Africa except for Liberia and actually collected more gold than plants). The Danes
Abyssinia was carved up were who
into colonies (see Fig. early seafarers established forts on Af-
1).
Less than three-score-years-and-ten later, howev- rica's west coast. was from Christiansborg Castle
It
er, the colonies were becoming independent nations. in present-day Ghana that P. E. Isert and Peter
Gold Coast became Ghana 1957, and quick Thonning made important
in in their plant collections
succession other British and French possessions between 1783 and 1803. They out
set to find
gained nationhood, with only Portuguese territories medicinal herbs and to help the Africans create
resisting until the 1970s. better farms to alleviate their poverty (Hepper,
Botanical exploration adapted to these changing 1976, 1979a).
and no main known
conditions, accident that the Virtually nothing was of the natural
it is his-
African herbaria were established in the imperial tory of northeast Africa until the second half of
Two
cities of London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, and Lis- the eighteenth century (see Fig. notable
2).
which were
bon, the capitals of Britain, France, expeditions dramatically opened up the and
flora
TW9
The
Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey 3AE.
'
Ann. Missouri Bot. Card. 78: 81-86. 1991
82 Annals of the
Garden
Missouri Botanical
20
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10
An
Figure The Niger and West African colonization. (Based on Fage, 1978, Atlas of African History,
1. J.
Edward
Arnold, London.)
some superb water Most
fauna by approaching the region along the Egyp- pedition, as finished colors.
tian Nile and the Red Sea. The first was a royal had been overlooked until I worked on them at the
when
Danish expedition with the botanist Peter Forsskal, Yale Center for British Art and realized that
who Yemen 1763. Balugani drew them they were new species that
died in the In (I include this
unknown
because many of the plants [and animals] he col- remained until later explorers collected
lected have an African distribution and affinity, them. At last Balugani takes his place, according
Museum,
rather than an Arabian one.) The sole survivor of to Paul Hulton, formerly of the British
Carsten Niebuhr, sent back Forss- as a major eighteenth-century artist alongside John
expedition,
this
Copenhagen Parkinson of James Cook's voyage (Hulton et ah,
natural history collections to
kal's
am
University. at present revising that important 1990).
I
botanical material (Hepper, in prep.).
The Half of the Nineteenth Century
First
The was by James Bruce
other expedition led
(now which he reached Napoleon's savants Egypt included the bot-
Abyssinia Ethiopia), in in
to
up Bruce and
1770 and about which he published his five-volume anist Delile (1809); further the Nile,
Henry (1832-1833)
Travels (1790). This work included illustrations of Balugani were followed by Salt
15 species of plants (the second edition of 1805 and more importantly by others including Quartin-
German
increased the number to 27), as well as engravings Dillion and Petit in the 1830s, and the
W. 1837-
Much who from
of some birds, mammals, and other creatures. P. Schimper, lived in Abyssinia
1878 and who made and important
has been written about this expedition to discover large collec-
the source of the [Blue] Nile (Head, 1836; Moore- tions of plants. The Sudan was visited mainly by
1819-1822)
head, 1962), but has been known about his French (F. Caillaud in and Italian (G.
little
who 1827-1829)
companion Luigi Balugani. This Italian artist, Raddi in explorers (Cufodontis, 1962).
Gondar 1772, had drawn more than 150 In West Africa, the early nineteenth century
died in in
and many animals during African ex- saw increasing numbers of expeditions, partly for
plants this
Volume Number
Hepper
78, 83
1
1991
Around
Botanical Exploration
the Niger and the
Nile
-20
20-
15
15
-
- 10
10-
- 5
Figure 2. The Nile and East Africa. See text for explanation.
trading purposes and partly to resist the Portuguese
The "Heroic Period" of African
slave trade; along on the ships went naturalists. In
Exploration
1820s and 1830s French
the the sent the botanists
Perrottet, Leprieur, Richard, and Heudelot to Sen- According to Gillett (1962), the **heroic period"
egal, and their herbarium material was received at extended East Africa between 1860 and 1888,
in
Mungo
The
Paris. British explorers, such as Park, with famous expeditions such as those by Speke
who
perished in the Niger in 1805, and Clapperton, and Grant and the German explorations Mt.
to
who my
reached the Niger from the coast in 1826, Kilimanjaro led by Decken. Here overextend
I
An
few The 1886
collected plants. ill-fated expedition to the terms of ''the Nile area" in East Africa.
Niger in 1841 lost most of crew because of Anglo-German agreement decided the spheres of
its
The Theodor Vogel
disease. botanist also sue- influence of the trading companies, and the direct
many
cumbed, although he had collected plants imperial administrations created the period of co-
way Kew.
that found their to Fortunately, the next establishment between 1888 and 1918
lonial (Gil-
W.
expedition under Dr. B. Baikie in 1854 was 1962). The British areas of Uganda and Kenya
lett,
equipped with quinine, which successfully con- included the headwaters of the Nile at Lake Albert,
trolled malaria. During Baikie's return visit to the while Lake Victoria impinged on German Tangan-
Niger 1857, however, "Dayspring" Meanwhile
in his ship yika (see Fig. in the north, following
2).
wrecked at the Jebba rapids, and Charles Barter's the British occupation of Egypt in 1882 and the
herbarium collection was Undaunted, Barter Mahdist Sudan 1881-1898 which
lost. revolt in (during
made
friends with local chiefs and collected another occurred the death of General C. G. Gordon
in
2,000 specimens in the vicinity while waiting for 1885), the joint Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was set up
He
a replacement ship. did not survive the two in 1899. This opened up the entire Nile to explo-
years required, however, and was in turn replaced ration, although in 1863 Samuel Baker had almost
Kew Mann
by another botanist, Gustav (Hepper reached Unyoro (now Bunyoro Uganda), and
in in
&
Neate, 1971). the opposite direction Speke and Grant arrived
at
84 Annals of the
Garden
Missouri Botanical
Khartoum in 1863. Georg Schweinfurth's epic idents based in departments or offices. In 1908,
journey from Congo to Egypt (1866-1872) yielded H. N. "Timber" Thompson founded the Gold Coast
a large collection for Berlin (Cufodontis, 1962; Forest Department and soon afterward became su-
Lagos (W. where
1962). perintendent of forests at Nigeria),
Gillett,
In between the Nile and the Niger, the French he designated forest reserves. In 1892, the Ger-
conquest of the Lake Chad region and the Shari mans established a botanical garden on the Cam-
Lamy
and Ubangi river basins by and Archambault eroon coast at Victoria where Dr. P. R. Preuss
in 1899 linked equatorial Africa with French West studied the flora; in Tanganyika in 1902 the Ger-
Germans Kamerun mans Amani much
Africa, but the took (Cameroon) founded a herbarium at (which
eastward of British Nigeria. C. Ledermann was the later was transferred to Nairobi's East African Her-
German Adamaua
botanist on the expedition barium). Botanical exploration of the Anglo-Egyp-
Museum
through Cameroon from 1908 to 1909, during tian Sudan for British (Natural History)
(1950-
which he 6,492 Unfortunately, Andrew's Flora
collected plants. collections resulted in
few duplicates were distributed and most were later 1956). In Egypt, the Swede Vivi Tackholm and
War
Mohamed
World
destroyed Berlin during (Hepper, her Egyptian colleague Drar published
in II
many W. Egypt
1974). Fortunately, of G. Mildbraed's four volumes of their Flora of {\9A\-\9()9)^
J.
Cameroon collections are represented in other ma- which was never completed.
jor herbaria and were included in Letouzey's( 1963) From 1899 to the 1930s the notable and en-
Flore du Cameroun, which has provided an ergelic Auguste Chevalier sponsored West African
itself
incentive for further biological exploration. botany in the French territories, and he amassed
He
Nigeria had seen an amalgamation of trading a huge collection at the Paris herbarium. was
companies in 1879; by 1897 Nigeria was taken followed by another of similar stature, Andre
somewhat reluctantly under the British crown, and Aubreville, who published much including an
illus-
La
military expeditions pushed north to Sokoto de- iraied-,throe-vo\un\e Flore forestiere de la Cote
meantime (1879-
daring a Protectorate. In the d'lvoire in 1936.
it
made
French had
1893), the military rapid ad-
vances from Senegal eastward through the Sudan SECOND Half OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
country under the asssumption that the most ad-
Second World War, more
Since the increasingly
West
vanced and productive parts of Africa lay
African nationals have become involved botan-
in
there. Thus, the British and French forces met,
ical exploration. Following the war, institutes of
and defining territorial limits was necessary to avoid
higher learning and research stations with herbaria
was during boundary commissions, such
disputes.
It
were and were by motorable
established linked
between Leone and French Guinea
as that Sierra
roads. Roads had a counterproductive effect on
(1891-1892) on which was
G. F. Scott-Elliot able
became
plant collecting as well, as increasingly
it
Kew,
to collect plants for that serious botanical
o^the
were
difficult to travel roads! Porters ex-
investigations took place.
pensive or unprocurable, and the scatter of rest
In the 1860s the director of the Royal Botanic
houses about a day's walk apart into disuse in
fell
Gardens Kew, William Hooker, had
at Sir initiated
favor of hotels or lodges at wide intervals along
the plan for the Flora of Tropical Africa as one
On
government
the roads. the positive side, resident
of the proposed series of colonial floras detailing
down
officers were able to settle to extended study
the plant and potential products of the British
life
Some
of large or small areas. notable collections
With
Empire. hindsight one cannot help but be
made
have been by amateurs, including wives of
amazed such an undertaking was when —
that started
officials posted to out-of-the-way places the best
was known about
so the interior of Africa,
little
known Mary who
Zambia
Richards,
lived
is in
yet was a significant work that continued until
it
outside our area of consideration. Others such as
1937. The preparation of 11-volume work
this
Mrs. Faulkner Tanzania and Mrs. Tweedie
in in
must have and
stimulated botanical exploration the
Kenya were good correspondents of Kew. Con-
collection of herbarium material, as did the
first
governments, and
trolling later aid donors, sent
edition of the Flora of West Tropical Africa by
missions to regions to report on the forestry, pas-
&
Hutchinson M. Dalziel during the 1920s
J. J.
turage, geology, and so forth, which resulted in
and 1930s.
large collections of often, regrettably, inadequate
™
„
,, ^ specimens. Local herbaria were active in identi-
FiRST Half of the Twentieth Century ...
/.
. • . Kw^ew
, .
lying material, usually cooperation with or
in
By the twentieth century in both West and East Paris. Thus In Sierra Leone, F. C. Deighton's study
made
Africa botanical studies began to be by res- of pathogenetic fungi resulted in the formation of
Volume Number
Hepper
78,
85
1
1991
Around
Botanical Exploration
and
the Niger the
Nile
an herbarium economy
excellent agricultural at Njala. In to the of African countries, but also to
Ghana
the Forestry Herbarium at Kumasi was the well-being of the biosphere. Overseas aid
is
under who
the erudite, self-taught A. A. Enti, trans- partly being directed toward conservation instead
—
Ghana
ferred to the University of and there built of development in the old sense that of cutting
up a much larger and active herbarium under C. down ''the useless bush" in order to establish a
D. Adams, K. Morton, and
B. Hall. In Nigeria plantation. Since the ancestors of the plantation
J. J.
the largest herbarium is still at the Department of crops occur in the bush, developers now realize
Forest Research in Ibadan, which was very active that not useless after This gives added
it is all.
W.
who
under Keay,
R. J. helped prepare A^tg-erma impetus to exploration of the vegetated habitats
Trees (1960-1964). As by and
well as collections res- the investigation of their constituent species.
ident botanists, exploration by visitors continued Joint projects with zoologists, the World Wide
my
for general collections like own to remote parts Fund for Nature, and other donors in cooperation
of northern Nigeria (1957-1958) and from Sen- with national governments are concentrating ex-
egal to Lake Chad by hovercraft along the River ploration and research on special areas, for ex-
Niger (1969) for the revised edition of the Flora ample, Gola Forest (Sierra Leone), Sapo National
o/JFe5/ 7>o/;/ca//iyr/ra. Specialist collecting grad- Park (Liberia), Tai Forest (Ivory Coast), Ankasa
ually increased again with fine work by F. White Forest (Ghana), Oban Forest (Nigeria), and Korup
(Ebenaceae); D. Mabberley of Oxford (mountain National Park (Cameroon). One project with which
J.
flora); 0. Hedberg of Uppsala (mountain R. have been concerned since inception 1986
flora); I its in
M. Kew
Polhill of (Loranthaceae); C. Grey-Wilson is the Limbe Botanic Garden project for the con-
Kew
of {Impatiens); B. L. Burtt of Edinburgh servation of genetic resources of associated rain-
and many The Cameroon
(Gesneriaceae); others. Association forests on Mountain. This project
is
(AETFAT) much
of African Taxonomists has done supported financially by the British Overseas De-
to channel and coordinate such studies and explo- velopment Administration and the Cameroon gov-
ralions, and they have collaborated on publications ernment and linked with the Royal Botanic Gar-
is
such as their Index (Leonard, 1954-) and vege- dens, Kew. refurbishing the old German garden
It is
maps
tation (Keay, 1959; White, 1983). at Victoria (now Limbe) as the administrative and
The
tremendous
burst of activity after indepen- research base for the species-rich forested areas
dence from colonial rule was badly hit by the rise (Hepper, 1989). Another project concerns the Mis-
of oil prices in the 1970s, the slump in oil demand souri Botanical Garden. For more than a decade
in the 1980s, and inflation generally. Foreign cur- significant discoveries have been made by station-
rency was unavailable for botanical journals and ing plant collectors in strategic places, such as
equipment, fuel, and even food. For example, in Korup in Cameroon where Duncan Thomas gained
Nigeria and Ghana most were suspended knowledge and made many
activities unrivalled of the flora
&
many
for years, yet B. Hall M. Swaine (1981), additional records. Other Missouri collectors else-
J.
with D. Abbiw's help, managed to make a study where in Africa are making herbarium Amer-
this
of Ghana's tropical forests that probably the most ica's major one for tropical African study. This
is
—
An may
comprehensive of any in the world. active cen- be the pattern for the future international
ter in the Ivory Coast has continued under Pro- cooperation at various levels.
Ake
Kenya, Kabuye,
fessor L. Assi. In Christine
following B. Gillett and colleagues, collaborated CONCLUDING REMARKS
J.
Kew
with on the Flora of Tropical East Africa
maps
Published (Leonard, 1965; Hepper, 1979b)
1952-).
(Turrill et Exploration of Ethiopia con-
al.,
show
large gaps the cover of botanical explo-
in
tinued sporadically (Cufodontis, 1962), but the
re-
some Cameroon
ration African countries, such as
in
cent incentive by the founding of a project
flora
and Gabon. In Gabon, Breteler (1990) estimated
&
(Hedberg Edwards, 1989) has meant concerted
that only 40,000 herbarium specimens have been
many
by
efforts international expeditions, unfor-
collected thus far in a tropical forest covering a
when
tunately at a time the vegetation already
is
quarter of a million square hectares, and probably
decimated.
75%
only of the species are described. (Owing to
may
general deforestation Africa one ask wheth-
in
Future of the Environment
known
er they ever be before they are de-
will
The By Ghana now known
present international awareness of and con- stroyed.) contrast, so well
is
cern for the environment at last involves govern- that few additional species are likely to be found,
ments and donor organizations. They now begin known of the ecology or biology of
to Little
is still
most and where
realize that tropical rainforests are crucial not only tropical species, this future field
is
Annals the
of
86
Garden
Missouri Botanical
Hedberg Systematic Botany,
must concentrate (Hawthorne, 1990). Ex- ploration. In: I. (editor).
studies
and Biosphere Conservation. Alm-
Plant Utilization
canopy study epiphytes
ploration say, the tree to
of,
&
Stockholm.
Wiksell International,
qvist
may
not be as
or the study of insect pollination map
1979b. Second edition of the sh wing
. I
hazardous a quest as the old Niger and Nile ex- the extent of floristic exploration in Africa south of
we must out what sustains plant the Sahara, published by A.E.T.F.A.T. In: G. Kunkel
peditions, yet find
Economic
Taxonomic Aspects of African
human on (editor),
or life will be unsustainable this
life,
Kew.
Las Palmas and
Botany.
planet.
988. Taxonomic analysis of the plants drawn
1
from James Bruce and Luigi Balugani's Ethiopian
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W.
1950-1956.
Andrews. F. Flora of the [Anglo-
575-580.
&
Egyptian] Sudan. Buncle Co., Arbroath.
S.W. Camer-
1989. Limbe Botanic Garden,
:
La
Aubr£ville, a. 1936. Flore forestiere de la Cote
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d'lvoire. [2nd edition, 1959.] Le Chevalier, Paris.
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tanic
1950. Flore forestiere soudano-guineene. Le
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