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in 1885 rebels in the Egyptian province
of the Sudan over an the capital of
Khartoum and killed the general leaving
the Sudanese troops there the British
General George Gordon that raised
concerns for the southernmost province
of Egypt Equatoria and its governor emin
pasha fearing another gordon incident
philanthropist in London raised money
and engaged the services of famed
Explorer henry morton stanley to send
him on one of the last great
nineteenth-century expeditions to the
interior of Africa and so today we join
Henry Morton Stanley to deepest darkest
Africa on the 1886 emin pasha relief
expedition Henry Morton Stanley was one
of the most famous explorers of his time
a Welshman who immigrated to America at
the age of eighteen he managed to fight
on both sides of the u.s. Civil War
following the war he became a journalist
chronicling the expansion to the
American West and then visiting the
Ottoman Empire as a correspondent for
the New York Herald he accompanied the
British expedition against Emperor to
drawers the second in Ethiopia in 1868
and then covered the Glorious Revolution
in Spain but he became most famous
worldwide when he chronicled his
700-mile expedition to locate famed
missionary dr. David Livingstone who had
been missing in Africa for over two
years
famously uttering the words dr.
Livingstone I presume after several more
years exploring in the Congo he was
engaged by a group of British
businessman to mount an expedition to
relieve the governor of equatoria emin
pasha emin pasha was a Polish born
German trained medical doctor and
naturalist he'd spent several years
working for the government in the
Ottoman Empire and have been given the
honorary title Pasha in 1878 the can of
of Egypt had made him governor of the
province of Equatorial even though he
wasn't get enough resources to really
help develop the province after the fall
of Khartoum in 1885 the rebels started
moving
and Pasha only had a few thousand troops
not enough to defend himself his cries
for help to Europe receive considerable
sympathy especially following the death
of George Gordon at Khartoum equatorial
was established in 1870 as an idealistic
effort to create a model state in the
interior of Africa but because it was so
remote it never really developed it was
only the province of the few adventurers
and explorers
it included territory along the white
nile in the present-day states of the
South Sudan and Uganda there were over
400 applications to join the expedition
Stanley chose a handful of officers who
had good experience in Africa he chose a
route up the Congo River rather than the
shorter overland route arguing that
River travel was easier and gave less
opportunity for desertion
Stanley preferred that it was privately
funded not a government mission
he said the expedition is non-military
that is to say its purpose is not to
fight destroy or waste its purpose is to
save to relieve distress to carry
comfort the term darkest Africa refers
to the part of Africa where the jungle
is so dense that light scarcely reaches
the ground
the expedition faced the typical
challenges disease poor supply hostile
natives Stanley was compelled to leave a
part of the group in camp a rear column
commanded by five of his European
officers that was supposed to move up
when more porters arrived to carry
supply when Stanley finally caught up
with him and Pasha at first time and
Pasha didn't want to leave he just
wanted supply but eventually the
revolution would force his hand and he
would have to come south Stanley
returned to the rear column which he
hadn't heard from in months
to find out that the news was grim he'd
left behind five officers and several
hundred troops and porters now of the
five officers one was dead
shot by his own troops one was in camp
dying of a fever another had been sent
home too ill to continue and one more
had gone to the coast to try to
Telegraph for instructions since they
hadn't heard from Stanley in over a year
of those five officers only one remained
to command the column and the vast
majority of the expedition had either
deserted
or died Stanley finally managed to
collect up m and Pasha and his few
surviving supporters but then they had
to travel again back to the coast down
the same hard route disease starvation
unfriendly natives by the time that they
got back to safety at the coast and
Zanzibar not one and three who had left
on the original expedition made it to
the end to make matters worse when they
finally did get safely to the coast and
to the palace of the Sultan of Zanzibar
the Sultan threw a party for them and
emin pasha got so drunk that he fell out
a second-story window he survived but he
was unable to travel with Stanley back
to England
Stanley returned back to London and
initially there was great acclaim after
all he had achieved his purpose of
rescuing mmm Pasha but the reputation
turned dark as details of the expedition
came out especially what had happened in
the rear camp it turns out there were
serious allegations that the Europeans
there had abused not just the natives
but their own soldiers and porters the
European that was shot was shot by a
soldier because he was beating that
soldier's wife and in the most shocking
allegation one of the other officers
became so fascinated with cannibalism
that he was accused of purchasing a
native slave girl and selling her to
cannibals so that he could watch the
process as accusations flew back and
forth between Stanley and the families
of the officers who had died Stanley's
reputation was destroyed by 1899 the
British Armour had reconquered the Sudan
and equatorial Stanley's reputation
never recovered from the accusations
that came from the Eman Pasha relief
expedition while it had technically been
a success the cost was very high
especially to reputation and because of
that this was the last expedition of its
kind from then on expeditions to the
interior would either be purely military
for military purpose or purely
scientific but what was most shocking is
what happened with the English gentlemen
who were left behind in the rear camp as
once again we find out that the
Europeans who came to tame savage Africa
were themselves the Savage
years later when he was reminiscing
Henry Morton Stanley offered some
insight into what had happened to the
men back at camp
he wrote deprived of butchers meat and
bread and wine books newspapers the
society and influence of their friends
fever sees them wrecked minds and bodies
good nature was banished by anxiety
until they became but shadows morally
and physically of what they had been in
English society the term darkest Africa
is supposed to refer to that part of
Africa where the jungle is so thick that
the light does not reach the ground but
maybe there's a double meaning
maybe the darkness isn't just the jungle
but the darkness is here just waiting to
come out
I'm the history guy I hope you enjoyed
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