The Genesis of Interest

Abstract

As late as 1860 the great expanse of West Africa watered by the Niger River along its twenty-six hundred mile course was still largely terra incognita to most Europeans. Between 1788 and 1830 a number of intrepid travellers including Mungo Park, Hugh Clapperton and the Lander brothers had explored scattered portions of the Western Sudan. In 1851 the epic journey of Heinrich Barth had aroused considerable interest in the Muslim empire of Sokoto and in the Fulani emirates of which it was composed. The publication of Barth’s five volumes for a time focused attention on the history, manners, and traditions of the Sudanic world in the African interior1. But the Sokoto empire, despite the flurry occasioned by Barth’s journey, remained largely unknown to Europeans.