The Patterns and Meaning of a Great Lake in West Africa

Abstract

The cartographical history of Africa has often left much to the imagination. The idea of a great inland lake along the Niger River in West Africa, for example, has had a rich tradition in written accounts and on maps from Ptolemy onwards. One tendency was to dismiss the notion that any such body of water existed; another was to find divers ways of reconciling tradition and the sparse scattering of new 'facts' that reached European mapmakers. The fundamental problem was ignorance about the hydrology of the interior of Africa, especially in the region of the Niger River. Not until the nineteenth century was the presumed connection between the Niger and Senegal rivers laid to rest, together with the older view that the Niger flowed underground through the eastern highlands to the Nile. Only then was the Niger's actual course established, flowing first east and then, after a great bend, south to debouche into the Gulf of Guinea.1 While the attention of historians focused mostly on the African coastline and the eastern lakes, the early maps of West Africa had regularly showed a prominent inland lake on the southern edge of the Sahara. The cartographical history of this lake has invited further investigation. In this paper we ask how did the image originate, by what physical feature could it have been inspired, and why should it have been considered important in the history of the sub-Saharan region. We approached the issue by looking at four hundred primary maps dating from 900 to 1900. The analysis of this database confirmed that one of the most consistent features throughout the archival record was the image of a lake in West Africa within the region of the middle Niger River.2 From maps on which the lake was named (which was not always the case), we have identified numerous toponyms, including Nigrite Palus, Nilides Palolus, Wangara, Sigisma, Guber, Guarda, Bogs of Guarda, Maberia, Nigris Morass, Dibbie Sea, Lake Dibbie and Lake Debo. This analysis has led to the conclusion that whatever the feature was called, and whatever shape it was given, the mapmakers were each attempting to portray a common physical reality. That entity was the fluctuating area of lakes and branching streams in the middle course of the Niger River, between Djenne and Tombouctou known today as the Inland Niger Delta (Fig. 1). The inland delta, as a unique local feature, is shown on modern maps at best as a limited area of swamp at the southern edge of the Sahara. It is rarely given a name and remains mostly unnoticed in the world's view of modern Africa. Yet, the true meaning of this great wetland lies in the fact that it was once home to a thriving civilization centred on an array of specialized urban settlements near Lake Debo, in the vicinity of modern Djenne (old JenneJeno).3 For more than fifteen hundred years Jenne-Jeno had been the focus of one of the