One of the changes that life on the savannah appears to have prompted was a move to becoming upright, and various suggestions have been made to explain this. One is that the move to the savannah meant that the groups had less access to shade. With the sun high in the African sky, heat stress would have been a considerable problem and the adoption of an upright stance would have reduced exposure by limiting the surface area under direct rays from the sun.
Our evolutionary heritage has also granted us amazing attributes when it comes to environmental hardship. Because the ancestors of all modern humans were still living in the heat of Africa as little as 100,000 years ago and most evolutionary adaptations move very slowly, we all have an extraordinary capacity to cope with the heat if given some days in which to acclimatize and access to a reasonable water supply.
APPENDIX II
Some Key Hot Country Explorers
Cristóbal de Acuña (1597–c.1675) Jesuit priest who provided the first written testimony about the Amazon and the tribes in its vicinity.
Delia Denning Akeley (1875–1970) American plant and animal collector whose expeditions to Africa with husband Carl and later in her own right included crossing the Somalia desert and living with pygmies in the Congo. Carl’s second wife, Mary, accompanied him to the Belgian Congo in 1926 to study gorillas and both raised concerns about their risk of extinction. She continued mapping and recording observations about wildlife after Carl’s death.
Alexander the Great (356–323 BC) Conquered Asia, including parts of India, northern Africa and part of Europe to create a mighty empire extending from Gibraltar to the Punjab, although it did not survive his death.
Samuel White Baker (1821–1893) Sailed with second wife Florence up the White Nile hoping to discover its source. He was also a campaigner against the slave trade.
Heinrich Barth (1821–1865) Writer and mapmaker who explored North and Central Africa, he travelled in the Sahara and the Sudan for more than five years.
Henry Walter Bates (1825–1892) Travelled with Alfred Russel Wallace to the upper Amazon to study plants and insect life.
Nicolas Baudin (1754–1803) One of the earliest maritime explorers to chart Australia’s coastline.
Margaret Bell (1754–1803) Veteran of expeditions in the Moab, Syrian and Arabian deserts as well as an expert on Persian culture and a British diplomat.
Gregory Blaxland (1778–1853) One of the first free men to emigrate to Australia, where he navigated a route across the Blue Mountains.
William Bligh (1754–1817) Commander of HMS Bounty and famously the subject of a mutiny after a voyage to Tahiti. He later charted the coast of New South Wales in Australia.
Pierre-Paul-François-Camille Savorgnan de Brazza (1852–1905) Italian-born Brazza served in the French navy and explored central Africa, eventually establishing the colony of French Equatorial Africa. He was a campaigner against exploitation of local workers by private companies.
James Bruce (1730–1794) African explorer who believed that he had located the source of the Blue Nile, but was later derided by a sceptical British public.
Johann Burckhardt (1784–1817) Explorer in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula who became a scholar on secretive Muslim communities before his death from dysentery.
Robert O’Hara Burke (1821–1861) With William Wills, led an ill-fated expedition across Australia that led to their deaths from starvation.
Richard Burton (1821–1890) Dressed as a Muslim, he visited the holy cities of Medina and Mecca, also Harar in Ethiopia. Burton discovered Lake Tanganyika and searched for the source of the Nile.
Pedro Alvares Cabral (c.1467–c.1520) Credited with discovering Brazil during a sea voyage to India, which he was undertaking as one of the earliest international traders.
Alvise da Cadamosto (1432–1480) Broke out from domestic Portuguese waters to explore Africa’s west coast and daringly sailed out of sight of land to do so.
René-Auguste Caillié (1799–1838) Frenchman who wrote vibrant accounts of Timbuktu, at the mysterious heart of the desert.
Verney Lovett Cameron (1844–1894) The first European to travel equatorial Africa from coast to coast, one-time associate of Richard Burton, and the leader of an expedition to locate the lost missionary David Livingstone.
Diogo Cão (1450–1486) Explored uncharted West African coastline, discovered the mouth of the Congo River and marked his travels with limestone pillars donated by Portugal’s King John II.
Charles Chaillé-Long (1842–1917) American who explored the Nile and discovered Lake Kyoga.
Hugh Clapperton (1788–1827) Born one of 21 children who later went to sea as a cabin boy, Scotsman Clapperton was both an explorer in West Africa and a campaigner against the locally run slave trade.
Christopher Columbus (c.1451–1506) Maritime explorer whose three major expeditions significantly enhanced geographical knowledge of the globe.
Pêro da Covilhã (c.1460–c.1526) At the behest of Portuguese rulers, he explored India, the Middle East and Ethiopia, creating new trading opportunities and pursuing the legendary Prester John, thought to be an immortal Christian king living beyond Persia.
Charles Darwin (1809–1882) ‘Gentleman naturalist’ who accompanied a round-the-world expedition to study rare wildlife, after which he published a long-considered theory of evolution. An anxious Darwin was left fending off criticism from the established Church, believing his theories contrary to biblical orthodoxy.
Dixon Denham (1786–1828) One of the first Europeans to reach Lake Chad, which he encountered as he tried to map the course of the River Niger.
Bartholomew Dias (c.1450–1500) Extensively mapped a hitherto unknown African coastline on his way to rounding Cape of Good Hope.
Charles Doughty (1843–1926) Fascination with the Arabian desert led him to live with Bedouin tribesmen, after which he produced some influential early travel writing.
Henri Duveyrier (1840–1892) In his day he was the leading authority on the Sahara’s animals, plant life, archaeology and the Touareg tribespeople who lived there.
Antoine d’Entrecasteaux (1739–1793) French naval officer who explored the South Pacific, south Australia and Tasmania.
Edward Eyre (1815–1901) Sheep station manager who explored Australia’s harsh interior landscape in a bid to find routes across it for livestock.
Percy Fawcett (1867–1925) Initially a military surveyor, Fawcett disappeared without trace trying to locate a lost city in the Brazilian jungle.
Matthew Flinders (1774–1814) First to navigate his way around Australia, expanding knowledge about the continent by collecting flora and fauna.
Charles-Eugène de Foucauld (1858–1916) French soldier who was beguiled by North Africa, became a missionary in the Sahara and mapped Morocco.
Vasco da Gama (c.1460–1524) Building on the achievements of Bartholomew Dias, da Gama forged a sea route around Africa to India and spearheaded the creation of a Portuguese empire.
Ernest Giles (1835–1897) One of the first to cross Australia travelling from east to west, traversing some of the most inhospitable desert territory in the world to do so.
Jane Goodall (1934– ) Advocate and activist, Goodall was driven by a love of chimpanzees to spend years studying the way colonies lived, loved and communicated in Tanzania. Thanks to television, she brought her findings into people’s homes and has received numerous awards.
James Grant (1827–1892) Part of John Hanning Speke’s expedition that proved that the source of the Nile is Lake Victoria.
Freidrich Hornemann (1772–1801) The first European to travel across the Sahara from Egypt to reach what is now northern Nigeria, sending his findings home to Germany. He vanished on a subsequent expedition.
Daniel Houghton (c.1740–1791) An English army major who established that the upper Niger River ran towards the east before perishing at the end of another ill-fated African venture.
Hamilton Hume (1797–1873) An explorer who discovered two rivers in his native Australia.
&nb
sp; Ibn Battuta (1304–1368) Attributed with 75,000 miles of exploration, Battuta went to most major Islamic territories to produce a substantial and historically important document about what he found.
Willem Jansz (late 1500–c.1629) A Dutch sea captain thought to have been among the first to conduct an inland foray in Australia.
Mary Kingsley (1862–1900) Following the death of her parents, Kingsley sailed for West Africa where she spent eight years studying culture and wildlife, labelling her expedition ‘a quest for fish and fetish’. Remarkably, despite the heat, she always dressed in a highnecked blouse, a small bonnet, tight-waisted skirt and petticoats – which once saved her from injury when she fell into an elephant trap. She died of typhus working as a nurse in South Africa during the Boer War.
Alexander Laing (1793–1826) Early Western visitor to Timbuktu after a trip across the Sahara from Africa’s north coast, he was murdered shortly after leaving.
Richard Lander (1804–1834) Initially a servant to Hugh Clapperton, he later emerged as an explorer in his own right, travelling to the mouth of the River Niger with his brother John before both were captured by tribesmen and ransomed to a slave trader. On a third trip he died after another attack by hostile locals.
Miguel López de Legazpi (1510–1572) Spaniard who moved to Mexico before establishing a colony in the Philippines.
Ludwig Leichhardt (1813–1848) A Prussian army deserter, Leichhardt was a plant collector in Australia who organized one expedition from Sydney which was hailed as a triumph, but he perished along with six others on a second outing, probably in the Simpson Desert.
David Livingstone (1813–1873) Missionary and doctor whose detailed observations and records – along with his long disappearances into the heart of Africa – elevated him to be one of the world’s most famous explorers. A former cotton mill worker, Livingstone was driven by unshakeable faith and a desire to end the slave trade in Africa. He discovered that the Kalahari Desert did not meet the Sahara, and he named the Victoria Falls for the British Queen, but he failed in his efforts to find the source of the Nile.
Jerome Lobo (c.1593–c.1678) Jesuit priest from Portugal whose written descriptions of life in Abyssinia and Lake Tana, the source of the Blue Nile, were much later criticized by James Bruce, who also visited the area.
Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521) Portuguese circumnavigator whose achievements rivalled those of Christopher Columbus. He died in battle in the Philippines.
Jean-Baptiste Marchand (1863–1934) French explorer who ventured into the Western Sudan and later the Ivory Coast. But he is best remembered for trying to block British colonial expansion of the Nile when there was nearly a war between the two nations before France abandoned her claims.
Francisco de Orellana (c.1511–1546) First European to cross South America by sailing up the Amazon, enduring heat and hunger to do so, although his first aim had been to find ‘El Dorado’, a lost city reputedly made of gold.
Mungo Park (1771–c.1806) Sent to Africa’s interior by eminent scientist Sir Joseph Banks, Scottish surgeon Park suffered numerous attacks from hostile tribes as well as debilitating disease in order to explore the River Niger. After publishing a bestseller about his adventures he returned to plot the Niger’s path once more and was killed when he toppled into its fast rushing waters during another attack.
Marco Polo (c.1254–1324) Venetian who devoted his life to travelling the unknown world, heading as far north as Russia and through the Middle East, Asia, including India, then around China. Doubt has been cast on some of his accounts, but on his deathbed he insisted, ‘I did not write half of what I saw.’
Friedrich Rohlfs (1831–1896) As a soldier in the French Foreign Legion, Rohlfs became so captivated by north Africa that he was the first to travel from Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast to Lagos on the Gulf of Guinea.
Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon (1865–1958) Before the First World War he mapped 193,000 square miles of his native Brazil, in the process becoming an expert on flora, fauna and jungle cultures.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) Apart from diplomatic and political triumphs Roosevelt was an explorer who charted the River of Doubt in Brazil alongside Rondon.
Eduard Schnitzer (1840–1892) Also known as Emin Pasha, he worked for the British and the Germans in Africa as well as conducting expeditions. A committed anti-slave trader, he was ousted as the governor of a region known as Equatoria by the rebellious Mahdi and was ultimately beheaded by Arab soldiers near the River Congo.
Georg Schweinfurth (1836–1925) Related by marriage to Rohlfs, Schweinfurth shared his fellow German’s passion for North Africa and his observations were compiled into an influential book called The Heart of Africa, published in 1871.
May Sheldon (1847–1936) A wealthy American with a fascination for Africa, Sheldon bucked the trend, being a woman explorer with a conviction that the continent’s tribes were friendly. She was largely proved right although her team flatly refused to breach the territory of the Masai warriors.
John Hanning Speke (1827–1865) Army officer who briefly saw action in the Crimea before turning explorer and discovering the source of the White Nile. Speke undertook three expeditions to the area, named Lake Victoria for the British Queen and had his claims rubbished by the irascible Burton. Although he accidentally shot himself the day before he was due to debate the touchy subject with Burton, later findings proved that Speke’s declarations about the source of the White Nile were correct.
Henry Morton Stanley (1841–1904) Best remembered for finding the ‘lost’ missionary David Livingstone, Welsh-American journalist Stanley colonized the Congo for Belgium and liberated a reluctant Eduard Schnitzer from an apparent Arab siege. He later returned to England and became a Member of Parliament.
Freya Stark (1893–1993) After being spellbound by stories of the Arabian Nights, Stark spent years travelling the Middle East, working both as a travel writer and a cartographer, this time in the Himalayas. She died a centenarian.
John McDouall Stuart (1815–1866) First man to reach the heart of Australia, the Scot finally helped to link north and south by telegraph after two failed attempts to find a suitable route. The exertions cost him his health and he died soon afterwards in near penury, despite being acclaimed for his achievement.
Charles Sturt (1795–1869) Known as ‘the father’ of Australian exploration, Sturt revealed hundreds of acres of valuable pasture and inspired the foundation of Adelaide following his extensive charting of the continent’s waterways.
Pedro de Teixeira (unknown–1640) After helping to oust rival colonialists from Brazil, Teixeira led an all-Portuguese team along the Amazon and back to establish his nation’s overriding influence.
Wilfred Thesiger (1910–2003) Although his first expeditions centred on Ethiopia, Thesiger is best known for living among Arabs in the north of the continent where he developed what he called ‘a strange compulsion’ to wander in deserts, including the Empty Quarter.
Joseph Thomson (1858–1895) First European to cross territory held by the hostile Masai tribe, Thomson also has a waterfall in Kenya and an African gazelle named after him. He was later a treaty negotiator between African tribes and trading companies keen to exploit the area. However, it cost him his health and he died aged just 37.
Alexine Tinne (1835–1869) As a wealthy heiress Tinne explored the Nile and its hinterlands and Central Africa in considerable style, hiring large steamers and numerous staff, including soldiers, a botanist and an ornithologist. She was killed by Touaregs as she attempted to cross the Sahara.
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) An avid naturalist, Wallace explored the insect life of the Amazon and Malaya before publishing findings simultaneously with Charles Darwin that suggested natural selection.
William Wentworth (1790–1872) Son of a woman transported to Norfolk Island, Wentworth nonetheless became a wealthy landowner and a lawyer – but he is best known for finding a route across Australia’s previously impenetrable Blue Moun
tains.
APPENDIX III
The Paths of the Nile
To the Ancient Egyptians it was the river that brought them life. The Nile flowed through otherwise arid territory ruled by the Pharaohs, bringing a harvest of plenty. Mysteriously, the waters rose mightily every year, even when there had been no rains in Egypt. After it burst its banks, the black silt deposited by the river on farmlands encouraged the following year’s crops to grow.
In fact, the Nile isn’t just a single river; it is the sum total of two great rivers and many minor tributaries, some of them as yet uncharted. The waters that inundated the fields of Egypt came rushing down from far distant highlands where there were seasonal downpours, as by volume most of the waters and all the silt of Egypt’s primary river come from the Blue Nile which flows from Lake Tana in Ethiopia.
However, the longer of the two rivers is the White Nile, or Bahr al Abyad, and its ultimate source is still disputed.
For years Lake Victoria in Uganda, with its northerly facing Ripon Falls, was wrongly held to be the source of the White Nile. Certainly the waters that tumbled over the Ripon Falls were known as the waters of the Victoria Nile. But at that point the lengthening effect of the rivers and tributaries flowing into Lake Victoria weren’t taken into account.
In 2010 one team claimed that the starting point was in Rwanda’s Nyungwe Forest, at the start of a tributary to the River Kagera which feeds Lake Victoria. However, a different tributary to the same river which begins in Burundi has been given credence too.
In any event, it is the inclusion of the River Kagera’s length that gives the Nile the accolade of being the world’s longest river. A further extension in length by dint of a newly discovered source will only compound that claim.
The Victoria Nile flows into Lake Kyoga where the waters that once gushed down the Ripon Falls sweep around in a half-circle and encounter the Karuma and Murchison Falls before reaching Lake Albert. Thereafter the river is called the Albert Nile.
By the time it arrives in South Sudan it is more familiar as the Bahr al Jabal or Mountain River until it encounters Lake No. Whitish clay from the riverbed here dictated that its name be changed to the White Nile.
Heat Page 42
