Welcome to the Wastelands: Voyages Across the African Deserts
While the first image that springs to our mind (certainly to mine) when we hear the word “explorer” or even “voyage” is of sailing ships toiling their way across the seven seas, exploration was not of course confined to seafaring adventurers and traders. Much of Africa is made up of huge deserts, and you wouldn’t get very far trying to cross those in a ship! In fact, the traversing of these arid seas of sand could be seen to be even more arduous and fraught with danger than the crossings of the Atlantic, Pacific or Indian oceans. The sun was remorseless by day, hot enough to cook flesh, and the night time searingly cold; little if any shelter available, no resources for food or water save what you carried with you, no game to hunt, no trees to cut down to make shelters, and always before you the same rolling, endless expanse of yellow, waves of sand dunes and hills of sand running on into what seemed eternity, to the very horizon, leaving you feeling trapped in the desert, and sure to die there, your bones joining those of other foolhardy adventurers or travellers who had attempted to cross these crucibles of endurance.
In case you think I’m exaggerating, or making this up, or basing it on films I’ve seen, well I am, but again don’t take only my word for it. Here’s a description of the Libyan Desert by one of the foremost authorities on the Sahara, E.F. Gautier:
“There, in the great Libyan Erg, we find what is probably the most imposing mass of dunes on the whole face of the Earth. They cover a vast area, some 750 miles in length and 250 to 300 miles wide. It is a region more unknown than the Antarctic, and unknown because it is impenetrable… Within the confines of the Libyan Desert we find an extreme rarity … or even a total absence of pasturage, wells or running water.”
The first record we have of an attempt to cross the desert tells us that it ended badly. King Cambyses II of Persia, having subdued Egypt in around 525 BC, ordered his men into the desert to destroy a shrine there and take control of the oases. About 50,000 men entered, but not one returned. Word is that they got caught in a sandstorm and that was the end of them. Perhaps a salutary lesson that the desert should be given respect and not treated as something that can be conquered or brushed aside. The already-alluded to bones buried under the major deserts all attest to the impotence of even the greatest rulers when pitted against Mother Nature and her searing, scorching sons, the deserts of Africa.
The next account we have from our friend Herodotus, who while talking to men of Cyrene was told of the story related by the King of Ammon, Etearchos. Apparently this comes across as a basic ancient’s idea of a lads’ road trip, as some of the sons of the chieftain of the Nasamonians, bored and with nothing to do, drew lots and the five who got the short (or long) straw, headed out into the Libyan Desert to explore and see how far they could get. Mad, right? But boys will be boys, and at least they had the good sense to pack provisions. After walking through a whole lotta sand they came to a place where there were some fruit trees growing. As you do, they stopped and began picking the fruit when they were set upon by a load of small black guys (I’m not being racist here: the literal account says they were “of less than moderate height… and black of colour.”) who took them prisoner. It’s supposed they escaped and got back to their own country, but again it might be taken as yet another admonition: the desert ain’t a playground, kids. If you’re bored go into the village or annoy camels or something, or check out the local brothels. Your first encounter with the desert could well end up being your last.
But the Romans were seldom put off by warnings and tales of adversity, and small wonder when they were the largest and most powerful empire in the ancient world, certainly for a long time after the birth of Christ. Romans, too, considered themselves, or at least their empire, indestructible, unbeatable, indefatigable, and so the desert presented little terror for them. More than likely, their cruel and remorseless centurions instilled more fear in them than did the Sahara itself. To refuse an order in a Roman legion was to invite death, and not usually a quick one either, so the soldiers did what soldiers down the centuries have done, obeyed orders and went where they were told to go, without thinking about it much, or at least without grumbling about it.
They began their occupation of the northern Sahara in 19 BC and by about 60 AD had penetrated into the central Sahara. Can’t have been fun, weighed down by all that armour. Still, I guess it beat hanging on a cross. Nevertheless, the Romans were principally conquerors, soldiers, servants of a military state and eventually ruled by dictators, and they weren’t (or don’t seem to have been) that interested in exploring for exploring’s sake. Certainly, this could be said of many races, empires, countries and even individual explorers: while some men and women surely did seek merely to expand their knowledge of the world or reach some intellectual or artistic goal (such as those seeking the source of the Nile, or the search for the Northwest Passage) most had some sort of ulterior motive in mind. The Roman Empire, however, almost explored as a by-product, discovering countries, civilisations and so forth by accident, in their quest for new territory, slaves and riches. Reminds me of the old joke: “Join the Navy! Travel to lots of exotic interesting places! Meet lots of exotic interesting people… and kill them!”
So, while it seems you couldn’t really classify the Romans as explorers, their Greek counterparts were something else entirely, as we have already seen they were explorers at heart (traders too, of course, and even conquerors, those mostly in that order) so it was not at all surprising that they should be the first ones to properly explore the interior of the Dark Continent.
Lake Victoria, originally Nyanza or Lake Nyanza
Diogenes
Name: Diogenes
Nationality: Greek
The Exploration Years: Unknown
Ship name(s): n/a
Ship type(s): n/a
Famous for: Discovering the source of the Nile, being the first non-African to see Mount Kilimanjaro and Lake Victoria
Diogenes was apparently a very common name in Greece and Greek-speaking countries - might as well be called Harry or Eddie - and we have no other name so there’s no way to trace the actual existence of this man, but he’s nevertheless one of the first real explorers of Africa. And even if he has no real name he deserves his place in history. Another one who was blown off-course (those pesky winds, huh?) he ended up landing at Tanganyika, moving inland to set eyes on the fabulous Mount Kilimanjaro, and then also found the twin lakes which would later be named Lake Victoria and Lake Albert by Henry Stanley, the true source of the River Nile.