Imperialism, colonialism and cartography

58 JEFFREY C. STONEcontinent. The freedom was for Europeans to competefor trade, not for Africans to obstruct it (Hargreaves,1984) and the imperial relationship was essentiallyinternational in character, being based on mutualityof interests among European powers. The Europeaninternational imperialism which was promoted inBerlin in 1884 is equally evident in the founding ofthe International African Association at the BrusselsGeographical Conference in 1876 (Bridges, 1980) andindeed it is a relationship which can be traced backthrough at least four centuries. By contrast, the periodof direct European colonial rule which began neverthelessin the 1890s and which is differentiated byparochial European nationalism and exclusivity, canbe regarded as an abnormal and brief but influentialinterlude in the imperial relationship between Africaand Europe. The relatively ephemeral nature ofcolonialism by contrast with imperialism in Africa isemphasized by projecting forward to the postcolonialperiod, for example to the successivenegotiations of the Lome Conventions between theEEC and the largely African ACP states. Only tinyresiduals of European colonialism remain in Africabut the very long standing imperial relationship isarguably evolving. European imperialism in Africa ischaracterized by collaborative internationalism andhistorical continuity, whereas colonialism was arelatively brief assertion of competitive Europeannationalism. The difference has great significancein understanding the cartographic evolution ofAfrica.Pre-colonial cartography of the interior of Africahas long been seen as dividing into two distinctphases, which are of debatable validity and whichobscure the reality of the forces operative. The earlierphase is characterized by its use of Ptolemaic conceptions,particularly for the source of the Nile, and isepitomized by the eight-sheet map of Africa of 1564by Gastaldi whose subsequent influence is apparent inthe depictions of Africa by Ortelius (1570), Speed(1627), Blaeu (1642) and others. Supposedly, theturning point in the cartography of Africa is located inthe ‘Age of Reason’, in the maps of the French school,notably De L’Isle (1700) and d’Anville (1727) (Tooley,1969). A scientific approach lead to the removal ofmany legends and assumptions by the innovatorswho achieved marked gains in accuracy and werefamous for their blank spaces (Lane-Poole, 1950;Klemp, 1968; Tooley, Bricker and Crone, 1976;Wallis, 1986) which are allegedly indicative of ascientific attitude of mind. But contemporary wisdomabout the interior of Africa was set aside in favour ofblank spaces as early as 1666 by Vossius (Randles,1956), while the Ptolemaic tradition of Africa wasitself replete with blank spaces and the use of theword ‘incognita’.Sixteenth and seventeenth century cartographyemployed such contemporary sources as were availableand made significant changes in the depiction ofAfrica (Ouwinga, 1975) in the same way that JamesMacQueen (1856) made substantial changes to themap of Central Africa in the nineteenth century, albeitwith different subject matter and quality of data. Justas Almeida was critical of previous depictions ofEthiopia in the seventeenth century (Skelton, 1958),so eighteenth century cartographers reacted to thework of their predecessors, given new sources tohand. There is methodological continuity linkingeighteenth century and both earlier and latercartographers,The critical circumstances for methodological continuityin the mapping of Africa over four centuries bycartographers from several European countries wasmovement of information about Africa within Europe.Certainly, commercial competition meant that thenavigational information of the Dutch, for example,remained secret (Ouwinga, 1975). Nevertheless, originalinformation about Africa did disseminate withinEurope under the commercial impetus of publication.Perhaps the most striking example, which challengesthe conception of the eighteenth century Frenchschool as innovatory in its critical attitudes or itssources, and also demonstrates the manner in whichinformation disseminated for commercial gain, is the1665 Portuguese Atlas of Africa by Joao TeixeiraAlbernaz II. The atlas was commissioned by aFrenchman and together with other Portuguesesource material, it was used to transform previousdepictions of the Zambezi basin by Jaillot (1678) aFrenchman, by Berry (1680) an Englishman and byCoronelli (168.3) a Venetion, in their maps of Africa,before inspiring De L’Isle and d’Anville (Cortesãoand da Mota, 1960). In the past, the commercial andstrategic divisions within Europe have been stressedin seeking to comprehend the evolving early cartographyof Africa, but it is the facility with whichPortuguese information disseminated throughoutEurope in the form of the printed map which isstriking. This is understandable, given the essentiallycollaborative nature of European imperialism towardsAfrica.The pre-colonial cartographic depiction of Africarepresents evolution not transformation. The conceptof an eighteenth century reformation derives from