Page 57 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 12

MY AFRIKA

And to think of it, how can you

even discover a river that runs

through the very backyards of the

locals? The river from which they

fish for food, get water for drink

and even travel on?

downriver until they reached the remaining colleagues perished at it for those who sent him from
terminus. the Bussa rapids. London? But even if that is
the case, why is there a general
Delayed in starting, Park’s expe- My thoughts acceptance that he discovered the
dition soon encountered difficul- The story of Mungo Park is Niger River as if there was never
ty. He was no more than halfway quite a beautiful one for a 24 year anyone who had seen the river
to the Niger in June 1805 when old but a sad one for the way it before he came to Afrika?
the rains began. Struck down by ended. But since this article is not
malaria and dysentery, soldiers so much about his life or what he And come to think of it, how
and carpenters died along the did or did not do, but about the can you even discover a river that
way. Not until mid-August did lies told about the discovery of runs through the very backyards
Park finally reach the Niger at the Niger River, I will share my of the locals? The river from
Bamako. ‘When I reflected that thoughts using questions. which they fish for food, get wa-
three-fourths of the soldiers had ter for drink and even travel on?
died on their march, and that in Firstly, if according to Mungo If a white man claims he discov-
addition to our weakly state we Park's own words "‘The view of ered it, what about the locals that
had no carpenters to build the this extensive city; the numerous have lived their lives for genera-
boats in which we proposed to canoes upon the river; the crowd- tion in that same place?
prosecute our discoveries; the ed population, and the cultivated
prospects appeared somewhat state of the surrounding country, It reminds me of a recent report
gloomy,’ he wrote in his journal. formed altogether a prospect of by BBC about how a white wom-
Nevertheless, he decided to press civilization and magnificence, which an discovered dolphins in the
on. In Segu, the remnant of his I little expected to find in the bosom coast of Kenya. When I first saw
expedition fashioned a forty- of Africa.’ referring to both the that report, the first question that
foot-long barge-like canoe and Niger River and the civilization came to my mind was "If she
set off downstream. Wanting to around it, how on earth then was said she discovered the dolphins,
avoid trouble, Park decided not he the one that discovered the what about the locals who told
to land anywhere until he reached Niger River, since there was a her about it and whose boat she
the end of the river. He sailed civilization and a people already used to go see the dolphins?"
straight past Timbuktu and Gao, established and thriving in trade
traversed the great Niger bend, on the river? For the purpose And this is 2021...same lies.
and was heading due south, of fairness, could it be that the
only 350 miles from the Atlan- record that says that Mungo Park
tic coast, when he and his few discovered the Niger River was
in relation to him "discovering"

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