Eastward course of the Niger
Curso del Níger hacia el este
- Date
- 1796-1830 · confidence high
- Place
- Ségou, Ségou Region, Mali
- Credited to
- Mungo Park (1796) and Richard and John Lander (1830)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
In July 1796 Mungo Park reached Ségou and saw that the Niger flowed east, not west as believed. In 1830 the Lander brothers descended the river to the Gulf of Guinea, solving the 'Niger problem'.
Park died in 1806 at the Bussa rapids; the Landers (1830) did not find his body. Local peoples had always known the course: the 'discovery' is so only for Europeans.
What it led to
- an end to the geographical debate on the Niger's mouth
- British trade and exploration in West Africa
- expeditions to Nigeria and Niger in the 19th century