Gustav Nachtigal | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1834-02-23)23 February 1834 |
| Died | 20 April 1885(1885-04-20) (aged 51) at sea offCape Palmas, West Africa |
| Occupation(s) | Military surgeon Commissioner forWest Africa Consul-general for theGerman Empire |
| Known for | German explorer of Africa |
| Reichskommissar of German South West Africa | |
| In office 7 October 1884 – 20 April 1885 | |
| Monarch | Wilhelm I |
| Chancellor | Otto von Bismarck |
| Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs | Paul von Hatzfeldt |
| Preceded by | Adolf Lüderitz (asMagistrat of German South West Africa) |
| Succeeded by | Heinrich Ernst Göring (as acting) |
Gustav Nachtigal (German:[ˈɡʊstafˈnaxtɪɡal]; born 23 February 1834 – 20 April 1885) was aGerman militarysurgeon andexplorer ofCentral andWest Africa. He is also known as theGerman Empire'sconsul-general forTunisia andCommissioner for West Africa. His mission as commissioner resulted inTogoland andKamerun becoming the first colonies of aGerman colonial empire.[1]
Gustav Nachtigal, the son of aLutheran pastor and his wife, was born on 23 February 1834 atEichstedt in the Prussian province ofSaxony-Anhalt.[2] His father died of Phthisis pulmonum (pulmonarytuberculosis) in 1839, when the boy was five.[3]
After early education, Nachtigal studied medicine at the universities ofHalle,Würzburg, andGreifswald.[2]
Nachtigal practised for several years as amilitary surgeon.[4] He worked inCologne, Germany.[2] Nachtigal contracted alung disease and relocated toAnnaba inAlgeria in October, 1862.[2] He travelled toTunis in 1863, where he studiedArabic. He later took part as surgeon in several expeditions intoCentral Africa[2] between 1869 and 1875.[2]
He returned to Germany and metFriedrich Gerhard Rohlfs. Rohlfs asked him to go to theBornu Empire.[2] He was commissioned by KingWilhelm I ofPrussia to carry gifts toUmar Kura, ruler of theBornu Empire, in acknowledgment of kindness shown to German travellers, such asHeinrich Barth.[2]
Nachtigal set out in 1869 from OttomanTripoli and accomplished his mission after a two years' journey. During this period, he visitedTibesti andBorku, regions of the centralSahara not previously known to Europeans,[4] and reached the region of theToubou people.[5] He travelled with eightcamels and six men.[2]
FromBornu, he travelled toBaguirmi, an independent state to the southeast of Bornu. From there, he proceeded toWadai (a powerful Muslim kingdom to the northeast of Baguirmi) and toKordofan (a former province of central Sudan).
Nachtigal finally emerged from his journey throughthe Sahel atKhartoum (then the centre ofTurkish-Egyptian Sudan) in the winter of 1874, after having been given up as lost. His journey, described in hisSahara and Sudan, earned him a reputation as a discoverer.[6] In 1882, he was awarded theRoyal Geographical Society'sFounder's Medal.[7]
After the establishment of aFrenchprotectorate overTunisia, Nachtigal was sent asconsul-general for theGerman Empire and served there until 1884.[4] Thereafter, he was appointed by ChancellorOtto von Bismarck as specialcommissioner forWest Africa.[1] Local German business interests in that region began advocating for protection by the German Empire, after they had acquired huge properties in West Africa. Nachtigal’s task was to establish a claim for Germany, before the British could advance their own interests. He establishedTogoland andKamerun as Germany’s first colonial possessions.
On his return, he died at sea aboard the gunboatMöwe offCape Palmas on 20 April 1885. He was initially interred atGrand Bassam (now inIvory Coast). In 1888 Nachtigal’s remains were exhumed and reburied in a ceremonial grave inDuala (then a German protectorate)[8] in front of the Kamerun colonial government building.
Along withHeinrich Barth, Nachtigal has been regarded as the other important German explorer of Africa.[2] Like Barth, Nachtigal was primarily interested inethnography, and additionally intropical medicine. His works stand out because of their wealth of details and because of his unbiased views of Africans. In contrast to most contemporary explorers, Nachtigal did not regard Africans as inferior to Europeans, as is reflected in his descriptions and choice of words.[5]
He had witnessedslave hunts performed by African rulers and the cruelties inflicted by them upon other Africans.[9] The horror that he felt about these atrocities made him enter colonial endeavours, because he believed that European domination of the African continent might stop slave-hunting and slave ownership.[5]
TheGustav Nachtigal Medal, awarded by theBerlin Geographical Society from 1896 until the 1990s, was named in his honour.[10]
In 2022, "Nachtigalplatz" (Nachtigal Square) in Berlin was renamed "Manga-Bell-Platz", in honor ofDuala king and resistance leaderRudolf Duala Manga Bell.[11][12]
Original Publication
English Translation
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Nachtigal, Gustav".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 19 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 148.
Governors ofGerman South West Africa (1883–1915) | ||
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