Cartographical Quandaries: the Limits of Knowledge Production in Burton's and Speke's Search for the Source of the Nile

2008 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 455-479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian S. Wisnicki
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Lake Tanganyika ◽  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
East African ◽  
Blue Nile ◽  
Historical Series ◽  
The World ◽  
Limits Of Knowledge ◽  
White Nile

When he sighted the southern end of Lake Victoria on 3 August 1858, John Hanning Speke (1859b:397) realized that he had discovered the “source” of the White Nile, the most important tributary of the Nile proper, and so had “almost, if not entirely, solved a problem which it has been the first geographical desideratum of many thousand years to ascertain, and the ambition of the first monarchs of the world to unravel.” That Speke was an unknown explorer and that he had made his discovery on a solo “flying trip” during the East African Expedition of 1856-59, which, under the command of the renowned explorer Richard Francis Burton, had already also discovered Lake Tanganyika, made Speke's accomplishment all the more remarkable.As contemporaries soon asserted, Speke's discovery culminated a historical series of excursions, real and imagined, into the interior of Africa and placed Speke at the pinnacle of a line of explorers and geographers that ran from Herodotus, Julius Caesar, and Ptolemy to, in more recent times, James Bruce (the Scotsman who “discovered” the source of the Blue Nile, the second most important tributary of the Nile, in 1770), the German missionaries Ludwig Krapf and Johannes Rebmann (who “discovered,” respectively, the snow-capped mountains of Kilimanjaro in 1848 and Kenya in 1849), and noted “armchair geographers” like W.D. Cooley, Charles Beke, and James M'Queen.

scholarly journals “What the great Alexander and the famous Julius Caesar wanted so much to see”. A commemoration of the fourth centenary of the Blue Nile Sources discovery by the Spanish Jesuit Pedro Páez Xaramillo (April 21th, 1618)

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 012
Author(s):  
Víctor M. Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Julius Caesar ◽  
Global Knowledge ◽  
Military Leader ◽  
Blue Nile ◽  
History Of ◽  
White Nile ◽  
Athanasius Kircher ◽  
The Military

On April 21, 1618 Pedro Páez visited the small spring where the waters of the Blue Nile rise before passing through Lake Tana. The site had been seen before by the military leader of the group of Ethio-Portuguese descendants of the Portuguese soldiers who had helped the Christian kingdom in the wars of 1541-1543, who passed the news to the missionaries shortly before 1607. In both cases the Ethiopian kings, Särsä Dengel and Susenyos, took them to the sources, showing that the local population had a clear knowledge of the river course. Páez was the first European who described all its characteristics, occupying a complete chapter of his “History of Ethiopia”. Although this book was not published until the 20th century, the manuscript was copied and the information was incorporated into the global knowledge before the end of the 17th century, through the works of the German Jesuit Athanasius Kircher and the maps of the Venetian geographer, Vincenzo Coronelli. In this way, a problem that had intrigued travellers, geographers and historians since antiquity was solved. The next European who visited the place was the Scottish James Bruce in 1770, and the sources in Lake Victoria of the other large arm of the river, the White Nile, were not discovered until two and a half centuries later, with the travels of the English John Hanning Speke in 1858-1862.

scholarly journals Back to Tanganyika: a case of recent trans-species-flock dispersal in East African haplochromine cichlid fishes

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 140498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Britta S. Meyer ◽  
Adrian Indermaur ◽  
Xenia Ehrensperger ◽  
Bernd Egger ◽  
Gaspard Banyankimbona ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lake Tanganyika ◽  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Species Flock ◽  
East African ◽  
Cichlid Species ◽  
African Great Lakes ◽  
Cichlid Fishes ◽  
Haplochromine Cichlid ◽  
Lake Victoria Region ◽  
Adaptive Radiations

The species flocks of cichlid fishes in the East African Great Lakes are the largest vertebrate adaptive radiations in the world and illustrious textbook examples of convergent evolution between independent species assemblages. Although recent studies suggest some degrees of genetic exchange between riverine taxa and the lake faunas, not a single cichlid species is known from Lakes Tanganyika, Malawi and Victoria that is derived from the radiation associated with another of these lakes. Here, we report the discovery of a haplochromine cichlid species in Lake Tanganyika, which belongs genetically to the species flock of haplochromines of the Lake Victoria region. The new species colonized Lake Tanganyika only recently, suggesting that faunal exchange across watersheds and, hence, between isolated ichthyofaunas, is more common than previously thought.

Ethiopia, the Sudan, and Egypt: The Nile River Dispute

1997 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 675-694 ◽  
Author(s):  
ASHOK SWAIN
Keyword(s):  
Nile Blue ◽  
River System ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Nile River ◽  
Seasonal Fluctuations ◽  
Blue Nile ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
The World ◽  
White Nile ◽  
International River

The Nile flows for 6,700 kilometres through ten countries in north-eastern Africa – Rwanda, Burundi, Zaïre/Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea, Ethiopia, the Sudan, and Egypt – before reaching the Mediterranean, and is the longest international river system in the world – see Map 1. Its two main tributaries converge at Khartoum: the White Nile, which originates from Burundi and flows through the Equatorial Lakes, provides a small but steady flow that is fed by the eternal snows of the Ruwenzori (the ‘rain giver’) mountains, while the Blue Nile, which suffers from high seasonal fluctuations, descends from the lofty Ethiopian ‘water tower’ highlands. They provide 86 per cent of the waters of the Nile – Blue Nile 59 per cent, Baro-Akobo (Sobat) 14 per cent, Tekesse (Atbara) 13 per cent – while the contribution from the Equatorial Lakes region is only 14 per cent.

International Telesupervision: The Clinical Fellowship Experience

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (11) ◽  
pp. 73-78
Author(s):  
David W. Rule ◽  
Lisa N. Kelchner
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Clinical Supervision ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
The United States ◽  
Speech Language Pathology ◽  
Access To Services ◽  
East African ◽  
The World ◽  
Language Pathology ◽  
National Certification

Telepractice technology allows greater access to speech-language pathology services around the world. These technologies extend beyond evaluation and treatment and are shown to be used effectively in clinical supervision including graduate students and clinical fellows. In fact, a clinical fellow from the United States completed the entire supervised clinical fellowship (CF) year internationally at a rural East African hospital, meeting all requirements for state and national certification by employing telesupervision technology. Thus, telesupervision has the potential to be successfully implemented to address a range of needs including supervisory shortages, health disparities worldwide, and access to services in rural areas where speech-language pathology services are not readily available. The telesupervision experience, potential advantages, implications, and possible limitations are discussed. A brief guide for clinical fellows pursuing telesupervision is also provided.

Hypoxia Tolerance in Twelve Species of East African Cichlids: Potential for Low Oxygen Refugia in Lake Victoria

1995 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 1274-1288 ◽  
Author(s):  
LAUREN J. CHAPMAN ◽  
LESLIE S. KAUFMAN ◽  
COLIN A. CHAPMAN ◽  
F. ELLIS MCKENZIE
Keyword(s):  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Hypoxia Tolerance ◽  
Low Oxygen ◽  
East African ◽  
East African Cichlids ◽  
African Cichlids

Early-Stage Extension in the Southwest East African Rift: Integration of New Seismic Reflection Data

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher A. Scholz ◽  
Douglas Wood
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Reflection ◽  
Lake Tanganyika ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
East African Rift ◽  
East African ◽  
Seismic Reflection Data ◽  
Reflection Data ◽  
Legacy Data ◽  
African Rift ◽  
Water Depths

ABSTRACT The western branch of the East African Rift is characterized by modest amounts of extension and by deeply-subsided, fault-controlled basins filled with large, deep lakes. Lakes Tanganyika and Nyasa (Malawi) are two of the largest lakes in the world, with maximum water depths of 1450 and 700 m respectively. Newly acquired seismic reflection data, along with newly reprocessed legacy data reveal thick sedimentary sections, in excess of 5 km in some localities. The 1980's vintage legacy data from Project PROBE have been reprocessed through pre-stack depth migration in Lake Tanganyika, and similar reprocessing of legacy data from Lake Nyasa (Malawi) is underway. New high-fold and large-source commercial data have recently been collected in southern Lake Tanganyika, and new academic data have been acquired in the northern and central basins of Lake Nyasa (Malawi) as part of the 2015 SEGMeNT project. In the case of Lake Tanganyika, new data indicate the presence of older sediment packages that underlie previously identified "pre-rift" basement (the "Nyanja Event"). These episodes of sedimentation and extension may substantially predate the modern lake. These deep stratal reflections are absent in many localites, possibly on account of attenuation of the acoustic signal. However in one area of southern Lake Tanganyika, the newly-observed deep strata extend axially for ~70 km, likely representing deposits from a discrete paleolake. The high-amplitude Nyanja Event is interpreted as the onset of late-Cenozoic rifting, and the changing character of the overlying depositional sequences reflects increasing relief in the rift valley, as well as the variability of fluvial inputs, and the intermittent connectivity of upstream lake catchments. Earlier Tanganyika sequences are dominated by shallow lake and fluvial-lacustrine facies, whereas later sequences are characterized by extensive gravity flow deposition in deep water, and pronounced erosion and incision in shallow water depths and on littoral platforms. The age and provenance of the sub-Nyanja Event sequences is unknown, but may correlate to Miocene, Cretaceous or Karroo-age sedimentary packages documented elsewhere in the southwestern part of the East African Rift, including in the region around Lakes Rukwa and Nyasa (Malawi).

scholarly journals Geology and U-Th-Pb Dating of the Gakara REE Deposit, Burundi

Minerals ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seconde Ntiharirizwa ◽  
Philippe Boulvais ◽  
Marc Poujol ◽  
Yannick Branquet ◽  
Cesare Morelli ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rare Earth ◽  
Lake Tanganyika ◽  
Hydrothermal Activity ◽  
Field Observations ◽  
Upper Crust ◽  
East African ◽  
Geochronological Data ◽  
Ree Mineralization ◽  
Pan African ◽  
African Rift

The Gakara Rare Earth Elements (REE) deposit is one of the world’s highest grade REE deposits, likely linked to a carbonatitic magmatic-hydrothermal activity. It is located near Lake Tanganyika in Burundi, along the western branch of the East African Rift. Field observations suggest that the mineralized veins formed in the upper crust. Previous structures inherited from the Kibaran orogeny may have been reused during the mineralizing event. The paragenetic sequence and the geochronological data show that the Gakara mineralization occurred in successive stages in a continuous hydrothermal history. The primary mineralization in bastnaesite was followed by an alteration stage into monazite. The U-Th-Pb ages obtained on bastnaesite (602 ± 7 Ma) and on monazite (589 ± 8 Ma) belong to the Pan-African cycle. The emplacement of the Gakara REE mineralization most likely took place during a pre-collisional event in the Pan-African belt, probably in an extensional context.

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