Untitled Image (Portraits from the Central Savanna)
This engraving shows hair styles, headdresses and facial scarification patterns of seven people. The captions under each person read: Native of Kasuna in Soudan (top); Negress of Jacoba [Yacoba] (center left); Negresse of Nyffee (center right); Umbuum of South Kano (lower left); Goobar and Zamfra (lower right). All located in the Central Savanna region. This engraving is based on sketches by Dixon Denham (1786–1828), who was an English soldier and explorer. After serving in the Napoleonic Wars, Denham volunteered in 1821 to join Walter Oudney and Hugh Clapperton on an official expedition across the Sahara from Tripoli to in the Lake Chad basin of the Central Savanna region. After enduring danger and privation, they arrived at Kuka, the capital of Bornu, in 1823. While Clapperton and Oudney set out on a journey westward, Denham traveled the shores of Lake Chad and the lower courses of the Waubé, Chari and Logone rivers. After returning to England in 1825, Denham became the superintendent of Liberated Africans in Freetown in 1827, and the year after, he became governor of Sierra Leone.
Image Title
Untitled Image (Portraits from the Central Savanna)
RegID
SI-OB-834
Date
1822-1824
Title
Untitled Image (Portraits from the Central Savanna)
Source
Dixon Denham, Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824 (London, 1826), part 2, facing p, 54.
Language
English
Item sets
Portraits & Illustrations of Individuals
Spatial Coverage
Africa--Central Savanna
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
5-Apr-16; 26-Aug-19
Identifier
Denham005