African Association

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Map of the Niger. The source of the Niger and the location of Timbuktu were unknown at the time the African Association was founded
Map of the Niger. The source of the Niger and the location of Timbuktu were unknown at the time the African Association was founded

The African Association ( The Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa ) was one of the so-called African societies . It was founded in London on June 9, 1788 by twelve influential men. In 1831 the Royal Geographical Society emerged from the African Association .

History, goals and structure

The idea of ​​the African Association came from a Saturday's club of twelve , whose members usually dined together at St. Albans Tavern in London's Pall Mall . As an exception, the meeting of the Saturday club, on the evening of which the association was founded, took place on a Monday.

The board consisted of MP Henry Beaufoy as secretary and Joseph Banks as treasurer. That evening the nine club members present also chose the five-member committee of the Association , which also belonged to Banks and Beaufoy. The committee was given the task of selecting the contract travelers, maintaining the Association's correspondence, and managing its finances.

The founding resolution formulated its goals as follows:

"The members of this club join together in a society to promote the discovery of the inner regions of this part of the world [Africa]"

Although the European nations had been trading along the African coast for a long time, especially with slaves , they did not penetrate deeper inland. Beaufoy's plan for the society from 1790 stated: "... the map of his interior is still only a vast blank area ..." . The members of the African Society said, "... this ignorance must be viewed as a great disgrace for the present age." In research, they focused on West Africa and the Middle East . She was particularly interested in the Niger , of which no course, source or estuary were known. The gold cities of Timbuktu and Haussa should also lie along the Niger .

In addition to this geographical interest, the members also had commercial interests. This is how Sir John Sinclair, who is also a member of the committee in addition to the two boards, said of that Timbuktu :

"... There is gold there in such abundance that you can even decorate the slaves with it ... If we could bring our products into this country, we would soon have enough gold."

However, at that time it was still thought that trading could not take place for self-interest but for mutual benefit.

The association was funded through a subscription model . Each member agreed to pay five guineas a year for three years , in return for which the information sent back from time to time by the posted travelers was only passed on to the members of the Association . Due to the limited financial income, only small one-man expeditions could be carried out.

For the Association, the superiority of European culture was beyond question. The members meant well if they wanted to "civilize" the Africans, because Beaufoy concluded in the plan of 1790:

“[The African Association] cannot remain indifferent to the consideration that in the pursuit of these advantages - by means as peaceful as the ends - the comforts of bourgeois life, the advantages of manual and mechanical artistry, the knowledge of Science, the energies of the civilized mind and the refinement of the human character can be communicated to a certain extent to those peoples who are still at the mercy of hopeless barbarism and general contempt. "

Explorers

Lobbying

In addition to sending travelers, the African Association tried to win over the British government to develop the continent. In 1792, for example, the Society asked the government to appoint a consul for Senegambia based in Fattatenda , which the traveler Daniel Houghton described as suitable:

"As there is reason to believe that extensive and profitable trade can be opened from Great Britain via the Gambia and Niger ... [which] will both advance the interests of the public and advance geographical advancement, which are the ultimate goals of this society, would facilitate, the committee is requested ... [to propose] at least [to the government] the tentative and temporary appointment of a consul for Senegambia ”

In fact, James Willis became Consul General of Senegambia for a short time in April 1794 .

The End

The number of members rose to 95 by 1790. Among them were a number of opponents of slavery: in addition to the board of directors Beaufoy, also the parliamentarian William Wilberforce , who joined the association in 1789. Cartographer James Rennell was made an honorary member of the Association's official geographer in 1792 . He processed the travel reports into maps (Lit .: Müller, 1980, p. 44; Sattin, 2003, p. 78–79). The association had a total of 212 members and was merged with the newly formed Royal Geographical Society in 1831 . Mungo Park's first voyage was the company's most expensive expedition at £ 1307 and its only complete success.

Remarks

  1. ↑ "the Members of this Club do form themselves into an Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Inland Parts of that Quarter of the World" , Lit. Lupton, 1979, p. 20)
  2. ↑ "... the map of its Interior is still but a wide extended blank ..." (Lit .: Lupton, 1979, p. 21)
  3. ↑ "... that ignorance must be considered as a degree of reproach upon the present age." (Lit .: Lupton, 1979, p. 21)
  4. ↑ "... gold is there so plentiful as to adorn even the slaves ... If we could get our manufactures into that country we should soon have gold enough" (Lit .: Lupton, 1979, p. 25)
  5. ↑ “cannot be indifferent to the reflection, that in the pursuit of these advantages, and by means as peaceable as the purposes are just, the conveniences of civil life, the benefits of the mechanic and manufacturing arts, the attainments of science, the energies of the cultivated mind, and the elevation of the human character, may in some degree be imparted to the nations hitherto consigned to hopeless barbarism and uniform contempt. " (Lit .: Lupton, 1979, p. 25)
  6. ↑ Müller, 1980, p. 50
  7. ↑ "That as there is reason to believe that an extensive and lucrative Trade from Great Britain may be opened by the way of the Gambia and the Niger ... [which] would equally promote the Interests of the Public and facilitate the Geographical Improvements that are the peculiar objects ot this Association. The Committee be requested ... [to propose to the Government] ... at least the Experimental and Temporary Appointment of a Consul to Senegambia " (Lit .: Lupton, 1979, p. 34)
  8. ↑ Lupton, 1979, p. 34
  9. ↑ Müller, 1980, p. 35

literature

  • Albert Adu Boahen : Britain, the Sahara and the Western Sudan, 1788–1861. Oxford 1964 (dissertation by an important African historian with extensive chapters on the formation of the African Association , its goals and the expeditions it sent out); Published under the same title in 1970 in the Oxford Studies in African Affairs series.
  • Anthony Sattin: The Gates of Africa: Death, Discovery and the Search for Timbuktu , HarperCollionsPublishers, London 2003, ISBN 0-00-712234-9 (This rather journalistic book is about the African Association and its travelers)
  • Kenneth Lupton: Mungo Park the African Traveler , Oxford University Press, Oxford 1979, pp. 20-35, ISBN 0-19-211749-1 ; Translated into German by Wolfdietrich Müller: Mungo Park. 1771-1806. A life for Africa , FA Brockhaus, Wiesbaden 1980, pp. 35–51, ISBN 3-7653-0317-8 (an extensive biography about Mungo Park with two chapters about the association )
  • Robin Hallett (Ed.): Records of the African Association , 1788-1831, London 1964
  • Robin Hallett, The Penetration of Africa: european enterprise and exploration principally in northern and western Africa up to 1830. London 1965 (work conceived in several volumes, but only volume 1 of which has been published by the African Association )

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