Welcome to House of History. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and the disputed longest
river in the world. Its incredible length spans over 11 countries, from Egypt all the
way to Tanzania. Now, we are aware of its length and size, but in the early 19th century,
to European explorers, the Nile was a mysterious and fabled river that promised adventure and
riches if one were to discover its source. What followed were several exploration voyages
deep into Africa. These voyages are fruitful ground for great tales already, but what is
more… most of them were curiously intertwined. Welcome to the ProjectAfrica collaboration,
a collaboration with some fantastic history Youtube channels. Definitely check out the
playlist after watching this video.
-intro-
Arab Traders and missionaries
During the late 1830s, explorers embarked on a quest for a legendary goal: to discover
the source of the Nile. The Ottoman governor at the time, Muhammed Ali of Egypt, had already
launched two expeditions in those years in order to seek economic expansion into Sudan.
These expeditions proved fruitful: the navigable head of the Nile was found at a place called
Gondokoro. It now was just the rapids to Gondokoro’s south that stood between adventurers and the
source of the Nile. Considering the time frame, unfortunately, many adventurers and traders
that moved south were no more than ordinary bandits, raiding the African lands for their
wealth, resources and slaves. Regardless of the moral concerns, these marauders did contribute
to the geographical knowledge of the region, as they often navigated through uncharted
lands. In the 1840s it was missionaries that worked
inland from Mombasa that changed the course of exploration of the Nile. Whenever a caravan
of Arab traders would pass by, Ludwig Krapf, Johann Rebmann and Johann Erhardt would ask
for information about the places they had travelled. According to these traders, there
were great lakes and huge mountains. When Krapf and Rebmann traveled into the direction
several months later they are said to have seen the mountains for themselves, covered
in snow. These weren’t just generic mountains but
turned out to be Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Kenya. These mountains could very well have
given rise to the White Nile, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile. The men were
awarded a medal by the Paris Geographical Society and, in contrast, severely ridiculed
by the British… There was a bit of disparity between the two nations. Nevertheless, the
fact that they had seen the mountains gave other explorers the idea to attempt and approach
the source of the Nile from Africa’s East Coast.
Burton and Speke
Building forth on the discoveries of the missionaries would eventually, and perhaps ironically,
be done by two Englishman. Having both served in British India, Richard Burton was the enthusiastic
traveller and renowned oriental scholar of the two. He was difficult at times though,
a typical man that, in Speke’s words “was one of those men who can never be wrong”.
He had travelled to Mecca, an incredible journey, certainly at the time, and had been invited
by the British Royal Geographic Society to lead an expedition towards the source of the
Nile. As for the other man, his name was John Hanning
Speke - a big-game hunting enthusiast… to be fair, finding the source of the Nile wasn’t
high on his priorities list. He was a bit of a contrast to Burton: reserved, aloof and
not too interested in any of the scholarly work Burton wanted to do. Nevertheless, these
men would become dependent on each other in the near future. They had met each other a
few years before in Aden, Yemen, and now too Speke accompanied Burton on his exploration.
As you can see on this painting, Burton had a rather prominent scar on his cheek. As a
matter of fact, Speke had been there when Burton was wounded several years before. They
had been on an expedition when a band of Somali bandits raided their camp. Enough history
between the two to be entrusted to each other on an exploration towards the source of the
Nile, through the African lands. The two men now set up their travels: following
the instructions written down by the aforementioned missionaries, especially using the map on
which Erhardt drew a large inland sea. This sea would eventually turn out to be Lake Victoria,
Lake Albert and Lake Tanganyika.
Start of the Expedition
The men started their expedition in Zanzibar - a place known for its ivory and slave traders
and its colourful collection of groups from all over the world - Africans, Arabs, Indians
and Europeans. Burton and Speke recruited African porters - to whom thanks is owed for
enabling these expeditions. Because of the tsetse fly being prevalent in the region,
it was impossible to find a substitute for ensuring the supplying of expeditions. Loyal
captains and headmen that spoke Swahili and stood in contact with local chiefs were a
priceless addition to these expeditions. On June 16, 1857, they set off from Bagamoyo,
without as much as a clue if they were going to find the lakes and sources they were looking
for. At first, they went looking for the ‘inland sea’ after which they could start looking
for the mountains, and perhaps find one of the two tributaries of the Nile.
Travels throughout Africa at the time weren't ... safe, to say the least. It didn’t take
long for Burton and Speke to become extremely ill with a depleted supply. Both suffered
severe infections. Burton’s legs became paralysed and Speke became near blind and
deaf - he lost sight due to ophthalmia, an aggressive infection, and gone deaf from a
beetle penetrating his ear. Disregarding their condition, the men somehow made it to Lake
Tanganyika, but unable to find a way to cross the lake and considering their condition,
they had to return, not knowing whether the supposed stream running out of the lake was
the Nile. It wouldn’t be for another 15 years that Livingstone and Stanley confirmed
it was an inflowing stream, named Ruzizi. We’ll get to that in a bit.
Once Speke and Burton returned to Tabora, Speke decided to visit the lake to the north,
of which Arab traders had told him. Once he reached the lake it he instantly claimed that
this lake, named “Victoria”, after the British Queen, was the source of the Nile.
It was a guess, he couldn’t really have known, and it would not be confirmed for several
years. Upon his return, Burton snubbed him, Speke
recounted. He wasn’t amused Speke claimed he found the source of the Nile. What ensued
was the famous public quarrel between Burton and Speke, mainly about whether Lake Tanganyika
or Victoria was the source of the Nile. The quarrel would get extremely ugly and very
public. Aside from their fabled search for the source of the Nile, Burton and Speke too
proved a fruitful source for British tabloids. It was evident that another expedition in
search for the source of the Nile was required.
Speke and Grant
As the argument between Speke and Burton developed it became evident that the only way to solve
it was by more exploration: figure out what the real source of the Nile was. In 1860 Speke
returned to Africa, now accompanied by the Scotsman James August Grant. Grant was the
complete opposite of Burton. He had an unwavering sense of loyalty to Speke. The two men once
again travelled via Zanzibar to Lake Victoria. Then they made their way up north on the Western
side - entering Buganda and becoming the first Europeans to visit the Bantu Kingdom under
Muteesa I. It was there Speke fell in love with a girl given to him by the Queen Mother.
For 5 months Speke remained at court. He truly fell in love with the girl, Meri. The love
was unreturned though, and those months spent at the court were described as very sad and
tormenting ones. The King would not let him leave, and Speke spent ages trying to convince
him. Once he was allowed by Muteesa, he was able
to make a quick dash, reunited with Grant and explore the northern end of the lake.
Here he discovered the Nile flowing over, in what he coined ‘the Rippon Falls’.
The men decided to follow the Nile down-stream, entering Bunyoro. Within another 4 months
their supplies were low to the degree that they had to abandon their trail and move towards
Gondokoro again. They hoped they could restock and find boats
there to sail towards Khartoum. But here another curious coincidence found the men: they met
their old friend, a man named Samuel Baker, and his wife, Florence von Sass. They too
had been on an adventure, in an attempt to find the source of the Nile.
Samuel Baker and Florence von Sass
The Bakers happened, by chance, to be in Gondokoro when they ran into Speke and Grant. Their
story is a rather unusual one: Samuel White Baker, an Englishman, was a very affluent
sportsman who had lived all over the world and had a passion for Big Game Hunting, just
like Speke. Having resided in Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, for several years, on his return to
England his wife passed away. The couple had four daughters, which Samuel now left with
his sister while he went hunting in the Balkans. Over there, one day he stumbled upon an Ottoman
slave auction of Hungarians. On impulse, he bought a 20-years-younger girl, who would
become his wife, Florence. His affection was returned and together they truly made a name
for themselves thanks to their voyages. Now, Samuel later wrote that to Florence he
“owed his success and life”. They travelled to Africa in April 1861 in search of the fabled
source of the Nile. Starting much farther north than Baker, Speke and Grant had, they
went from Cairo to Korosko, upon which they mounted camels through the Nubian Desert.
All the while the Bakers learned Arabic, mapped and studied the rivers and hills they encountered,
and even made multiple visits to local chiefs. Around a year and a half later they arrived
in Khartoum. It was there they were planning on beginning their real expedition: follow
the main course of the White Nile. It didn’t take long for them to arrive at Gondokoro
and there they ran into Speke and Grant. Speke enthusiastically told them about Lake Victoria
he had discovered, “most certainly the source of the Nile”. Baker is said to have lamented
“Does not one leaf of the laurel remain for me?” Speke thereupon told him of the
lake to the west, and while it wasn’t the main source, as that was Lake Victoria, he
said it was probably part of the Nile system. Speke gave the Bakers instructions and a map
- it wasn’t their original expedition but the Bakers confidently embarked on their new
adventure. The lake they were going to discover was lake
Albert - no more than 290 kilometres in a straight line from Gondokoro. A considerable
journey through the desert, however. Unfortunately for the Bakers, there were several obstacles
that made the journey even more difficult. Firstly, their porters mutinied (after which
Florence managed to get them back in line), their horses died which meant they had to
mount oxen, and both Samuel and Florence fell very ill with fever. On March 4, 1864, nearly
3 years after they started their journey from Cairo, they reached the lake.
Samuel Baker called the leak ‘the Albert Nyanza’, Nyanza being the Swahili word for
lake. They now took a boat to explore the lake - sailing past its eastern shore, when
they reached the northern shore they saw a river flowing into the lake - they (rightly)
assumed it was the Nile, which they had already once crossed on their travels towards the
lake. It was Florence’s request they make sure it was in fact the Nile. They now sailed
upstream but had to halt their journey because of great falls Baker decided to name Murchison.
To this day these falls remain a national park and tourist resort in Uganda. Eventually,
the Bakers made their way back to Gondokoro and eventually, in the summer of 1865, arrived
in Cairo. Two large sources of the Nile had been explored, yet the Bakers left a stretch
of the Nile between Lake Victoria and Albert unexplored, and there wasn't any certainty
about the size of Lake Albert either.
Speke’s Dispute
While the Bakers were exploring Lake Albert, Speke, Grant, and “Speke’s Faithfuls”,
the 18 porters that had been with them since Zanzibar, turned home. Speke’s message for
London was: “The Nile is settled”. It wasn’t, to be fair. Speke’s account had
many omissions in it, not to mention the fact that he was the only one that had seen Lake
Victoria. Burton wouldn’t just let it slip and continued
his public attacks. The men would never put aside their differences until their deaths.
Speke would die soon in a very ironic tale: he was scheduled to have a debate with Burton
in the Association for the Advancement for Science, but one day before the debate he
shot himself during a hunting trip. Considering the point of entry, his armpit, it is doubtful
it was a suicide, but Burton nevertheless used the occasion to spread myths that Speke
was afraid of the debate and took his own life. Nasty business indeed. Another speaker
at the event was David Livingstone - and it was he that would undertake the next expedition,
in an attempt to locate the real Nile Source.
Dr Livingstone, I presume?
The famed British explorer Dr David Livingstone, together with his close friend Sir Roderick
Murchison decided to find, and map out, all sources of the Nile. Both men figured Lake
Tanganyika was probably the origin. They left in 1867 and as the map shows the route they
took passed the Rovuma River all the way north to Lake Tanganyika. Livingstone didn’t bring
a lot of supplies, but then again, the famed British traveller wouldn’t need a lot as
he wouldn’t be away for too long… Ironically, this journey took Livingstone 6 years and
in fact, would be his last one. Livingstone drifted during those years - travelling
with Arab caravans around Ujiji which was their trading hub. Misfortune befell him:
his porters mutinied, supplies ran out, he lost his communication line with Zanzibar
and was very sick most of the time. It wasn’t until late 1871 when a new traveller arrived
in Ujiji. His name was Henry Stanley and he started
his journey from Zanzibar, sent to Africa by the New York Herald to find Dr Livingstone.
When he arrived he found an old and exhausted man. The meeting between the men became famous
for Stanley, explaining that he was too embarrassed to embrace him, uttering the famous line “Dr.
Livingstone, I presume?” In Stanley’s company Livingstone re-energized and together
they rode to the northern end of Lake Tanganyika - there they discovered the Ruzizi could not
be connected with the Nile as it flowed into the lake.
Subsequently, Livingstone became convinced the Lualaba river was the headwater of the
Nile. In truth, it was the Congo. Stanley advised Livingstone to return to England in
order to recuperate, but Livingstone adamantly refused. He wanted to find the Nile fountains…
and it became his last attempt. He passed away in May 1873 on the shore of Lake Bangweulu
suffering from Malaria and dysentery. His heart and internal organs were buried by Chuma
and Susi, the captain and headman of his expedition party. The tree they were buried under were
marked with his name and the date, upon which his body and journals were carried to the
coast, a 2-month journey, to be returned to England. His remains received a hero’s welcome.
The Last Piece of the Puzzle
It eventually was Henry Morton Stanley who discovered the missing pieces of the puzzle.
He learned of Livingstone’s death in 1873 and decided to continue Livingstone’s research
on both the Congo and Nile river systems, using the findings of Speke, Burton and Baker.
A gigantic project that turned out to be very worthwhile.
In November 1874 Stanley lead a caravan of over 350 men into Africa. They traversed past
Lake Victoria and visited the Kingdom of Buganda. They took the boat ‘the Lady Alice’, named
after Stanley’s fiancée and explored the lake - it turned out Speke had been right
about the size and importance. Crimes against the local population were committed, which
Stanley was severely criticized for later in life and his fiancée after whom the boat
was named decided to marry someone else in his absence.
With the aid of canoes, Stanley explored Lake Tanganyika and confirmed there was no connection
with the Nile. He did the same with the Lualaba and Nyangwe. He proved the Lualaba was in
fact the Congo and not an early stage of the Nile*. Following its stream he faced the Stanley
Falls which the men had to pass: by the time they were past it they had 24 battles with
natives. What the group didn’t know was that there were still 8 battles waiting for
them for the rest of the trip. At the Livingstone Falls Stanley’s last
European companion Frank Pocock drowned, the lady Alice was left to rot and when they were
eventually able to send a message for help after months of hardship, of the 350 original
men, only 114 were left. After exactly 999 days, on August 1877 the men reached a Portuguese
outpost and were rescued. Henry Morton Stanley had, however, proven that there was no connection
between the Nile and the rivers to the south. And that’s the remarkable story of several
expeditions that are all curiously intertwined about discovering the source of the Nile.
Although the first expeditions started amidst the 18th century, it took well over 15 years
to finally conclusively determine the sources of the Nile.
If you want to know more about Libera, America’s African Colony, check out Ghipoli’s video.
If the life of Menelik the Second sounds interesting - check out the witty and well-edited video
by Jack Rackam. Both videos are linked in the description, as is the playlist for the
entire Project Africa collaboration. Thank you for watching this video. I would
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