UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Ancient Civilizations of Africa
rejected the story altogether. A voyage certainly seems to have taken place
but whether they circumnavigated Africa is uncertain. Mauny (i960) 42 has
suggested that it is very improbable that the slow-moving oared ships then
plying from Egypt could have managed the currents either of the Cape or of
the north-western coast of Africa, where they would also have found the
utmost difficulty in obtaining sufficient water or food along the largely
desert stretch of coast, a stretch which would have taken months rather than
weeks to navigate in a northwards direction. Grcumstantial evidence against
the voyage is very strong. The second voyage is said to have been made
by the Carthaginian, Hanno. The tale contained in the Periplus is highly
exaggerated 43 and fanciful and its topographical details are ambiguous and
often contradictory; nevertheless, many writers have accepted the story at
face value. They have suggested that the description of a flaming mountain
refers either to the volcanic Mount Cameroon or to bush fires in Sierra
Leone, whilst the mention in the Periplus of hairy people called 'gorillas'
has been taken literally as the firstdescription of gorillas. 44 Germain's
(1957) research into the textual context and details of the Periplus, however,
suggests that it is not genuine and that most of it is quite a late
classical fabrication. Ferguson, 4 s however, aware of Germain's objection
and knowing the West African geography, feels that the voyage did take
place and that the Gabon estuary was the farthest point reached. Mauny
(i960) has indicated that the same circumstantial evidence that adduced
against Necho's reign would apply equally well to Hanno 's voyage. If the
voyages were made, they certainly had no impact on West Africa. No undoubted
or well-authenticated and dated Carthaginian, Phoenician or
Egyptian artefacts have been found along the West African coast.
The Carthaginians certainly obtained gold along the Atlantic coast of
Morocco as the account of the 'dumb barter' trading in Herodotus
implies but it is doubtful whether classical sailors reached further south
than the Senegal river, which Warmington 46 suggested is the 'Bambotum'
42. At a symposium held in Dakar in January 1976 ('Black Africa and the Mediterranean
World in Antiquity') Mr Raoul Lonis presented an important paper in this field on the
conditions of navigation off the Atlantic coast of Africa in Antiquity: the problem of the
'return'. Supported by a mass of written or iconographical evidence, Mr Lonis set out to
prove that R. Mauny's thesis was probably formulated in too categorical a manner, and that
the ships of Antiquity were technically quite capable of making the voyage from south to
north along the African coasts.
43. For example, his fleetis said to have comprised sixty vessels and 30000 passengers
and crew.
44. V. Reynolds argues that the classical writers were familiar with baboons and that
the creatures were apes with which they were not familiar, and that it is quite likely that
gorillas which are as tall as man, unlike the chimpanzees, may have had a former distribution
as far west as Sierra Leone.
45- P-7-
46. B. H. Warmington, 1969, p. 79.
548