''Description of Africa'' (in the original archaic
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
''Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche Gewesten'', or "Accurate Descriptions of the African Regions") is a Dutch
ethnographic
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...
book published in 1668 describing
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. The work consists of detailed description of the parts of Africa known to Europeans in the mid-seventeenth century and was written by the geographer
Olfert Dapper
Olfert Dapper (January 1636 – 29 December 1689) was a Dutch physician and writer. He wrote books about world history and geography, although he never travelled outside the Netherlands.
Biography
Olfert Dapper was born in early 1636 in the J ...
.
Book
Among other things, the book contains a rare description of the
Kingdom of Benin
The Kingdom of Benin, also known as the Edo Kingdom, or the Benin Empire ( Bini: ') was a kingdom within what is now southern Nigeria. It has no historical relation to the modern republic of Benin, which was known as Dahomey from the 17th ce ...
which explicitly mentions the
Benin Bronzes
The Benin Bronzes are a group of several thousand metal plaques and sculptures that decorated the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now Edo State, Nigeria. Collectively, the objects form the best examples of Benin art and were cr ...
.
Dapper never visited Africa himself, but relied very heavily on records of the
Dutch West India Company, especially a collection made by
Samuel Bloomaerts, one of its officials. The records which Dapper used are no longer extant, however, as searches for the original reports and letters in the archives of the company, held by the
Dutch National Archive, have not produced anything original.
It was first published in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...
by
Jacob van Meurs in 1668, and a second edition appeared in 1676. A
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
translation was issued in 1670, as was the English translation, often attributed to
John Ogilby, as ''Africa'' in 1670. A French translation also appeared in 1676. All of these translations have problems with occasional mistranslations but more significantly, abbreviation of the contents. The German and English versions are the most faithful, both in translation and inclusion of the original material, the French edition is generally regarded as quite deficient.
The illustrations of Central Africa were probably based on work by
Abraham Willaerts
Abraham Willaerts (c. 1603 - 18 October 1669) was a Dutch Baroque painter, mostly of marine and harbor scenes. He also painted a number of single and family portraits.
Life
Abraham Willaerts was born in Utrecht, the son of the painter Adam Wi ...
who accompanied the Dutch expedition against Portuguese Angola in 1641. The illustration of
Mbanza Kongo
Mbanza-Kongo (, , or , known as São Salvador in Portuguese from 1570 to 1975), is the capital of Angola's northwestern Zaire Province with a population of 148,000 (2014). Mbanza Kongo (properly Mbanza Koongo or Kôngo in most acceptable ortho ...
matches very well with the topography of the site, the location of wells and the position of the Jesuit church. Other illustrations are generally notable for faithfully presenting cloth, clothing, tools and weapons.
Citations
References
Bibliography
*
External links
{{commons category, Naukeurige beschrijvinge der Afrikaensche gewesten van Egypten, Barbaryen, Libyen, Biledulgerid, Negroslant, Guinea, Ethiopiën, Abyssinie (1668)
Original textof the book at
Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
Original textat
Archive.org
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
1668 books
Geography books
Books about Africa
17th-century Dutch books
Dutch West India Company