Page 56 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 12

MY AFRIKA

Samuel Phillips is a writer, in Africa, he sent a letter to his wife river and enter Segu, Park was
podcaster, photographer, in England marveling at the ease of obliged to observe it from a dis-
songwriter and singer. living there: tance. ‘The view of this extensive
As a content creator, he is passion- Gold, ivory, wax and slaves may at all city; the numerous canoes upon the
ate about creating a better image and times be had for the most trifling articles; river; the crowded population, and
the cultivated state of the surround-
and a trade, the profit of which would be
positive narrative about Afrika. upwards of eight hundred per cent, can be ing country, formed altogether a
philpsalmist@gmail.com carried on . . . without the least trouble. prospect of civilization and magnifi-
You may live here almost for nothing: ten cence, which I little expected to find
pounds a year would support a whole in the bosom of Africa.’
family with plenty of fowls, sheep, milk, But his own position was perilous.
eggs, butter, honey, bullocks, fish and all Tired, hungry and in poor health,
sorts of game. he was directed to stay in a village
on the north bank, but on arriving
Houghton’s luck soon changed. there he was met with ‘astonishment
Many of his possessions, including and fear’. No one there would give
his compass, thermometer, quadrant him food or shelter. A storm was
and firearms, were destroyed in a brewing. Dusk fell. Dejected by the
fire; his interpreter deserted him; prospect of a hard night ahead, he
he joined the caravan of a slave was sitting beneath a tree when a
trader and reached Bambuk but was woman returning from labouring
robbed of more possessions; when in the fields took him to her family
the rainy season started, he devel- compound, fed him and provided
oped a fever and found it difficult to him with a place to rest.

discovery make progress; in the last recorded As he lay down to sleep, one of the
I read a book titled: The Fortunes note he sent in September 1791, women in a family group spinning
of Africa by Martin Meredith, which he said he had been robbed once cotton began to tell his story in a
talks about 'A 5,000 -Year History more and deserted by his servants. song.
of Wealth, Greed and Endeavour In 1793, the African Association
in Africa.' The particular story of received reports that he was dead. The winds roared, and the rains fell.
Mungo Park and his adventure to Subsequent inquiries suggested The poor white man, faint and weary,
the Niger River caught my attention that he had died alone and starving, came and sat under our tree.
in the book. The story did not nec- abandoned by a caravan, on the He has no mother to bring him milk; no
essarily set the record straight but it edge of the Sahara desert. wife to grind his corn.
gave me a different perspective.
Mr Mungo came to town Other women followed with a

The story began with how, in No- Another candidate was hired for chorus.
vember 1790, former army officer, the task. Mungo Park, a 24-year-old Let us pity the white man; no mother has
major Daniel Houghton was sent Scottish doctor who had previously he . . .
from London by the African Asso- served as a ship’s surgeon on a voy-
ciation, formed by a small group of age to Asia, arrived on the coast of Upon his return to London in 1797,
prominent public figures in 1788 to the Gambia in June 1795. the African Association was duly
promote "the discovery of the in- On 20 July 1796, six hundred miles appreciative. ‘We have . . . by Mr
terior parts of Africa." His mission from his starting point, as he ap- Park’s means opened a Gate into
was to find a route inland from the proached Segu, the capital of Bam- the Interior of Africa,’ its founder,
Gambia River to the Niger River bara, he caught sight of the Niger. ‘I Joseph Banks, told members.
and to reach the legendary city of saw with infinite pleasure the great object Eight years later, Park volunteered
Timbuktu. of my mission; the long sought for, majestic to try again. His plan this time was
Niger, glittering in the morning sun, as to take with him an army escort
In March 1791, Houghton reached broad as the Thames at Westminster, and of thirty soldiers and a team of six
the Mandingo kingdom of Wuli and flowing to the eastward.’ carpenters, to follow the same route
trying to explain the life he found from the Gambia to the Niger, and
Refused permission to cross the then to build boats and to sail

56 | we tell the true afrikan story