Six years in the Sahara and the Sudan

Heinrich Barth · 1849 CE – 1855 CE · Earth

Six years in the Sahara and the Sudan — Heinrich Barth · 1849 CE – 1855 CE · Earth — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Open a route from Tripoli to Lake Chad, survey the central Sudan and report on its trade.

Historical context

Britain wanted a treaty route from Tripoli to Lake Chad that would undercut the Saharan slave trade by opening legitimate commerce, and attached a young German philologist to the mission. When both his companions died, Barth kept going for five more years on the strength of Arabic, Hausa and Kanuri rather than firearms. What he brought home was less a map than an archive of the central Sudan as its own states understood it.

The voyage, step by step

  1. Tripoli, March 1850

    March 1850

    Barth, Richardson and Overweg leave the Ottoman port for Lake Chad.

  2. Murzuk in the Fezzan

    1850 CE

    The caravan re-forms in the oasis capital before entering the open desert.

  3. The Aïr massif

    1850 CE

    He is the first European to map the granite mountains and their hidden valleys.

  4. Agadez

    1850 CE

    He spends weeks in the sultanate, copying its chronicle and describing its minaret.

  5. Kano

    1851 CE

    He reaches the greatest market of the central Sudan and stays to study its trade.

  6. Kukawa and Lake Chad

    1851 CE

    At the Bornu capital he learns that Richardson has died, and takes over the mission.

  7. The Benue at Yola

    1851 CE

    He stands on the great river and proves it has no connection with Lake Chad.

  8. Eight months in Timbuktu

    1853 CE

    Sheikh al-Bakkay shelters him while factions demand the death of a Christian.

Outcome

Mapped the Aïr, Bornu, the Benue and the Niger bend, lived eight months in Timbuktu and returned to Tripoli in 1855 as the only survivor of the mission.

Heinrich Barth

German scholar-traveller whose six years in the Sahara and the Sudan produced the most reliable European record of nineteenth-century West Africa.

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Sources

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