Background.
Explorer
Samuel Baker was the first governer of the new Egyptian province of Equatoria
(1869-71) followed by General Gordon (1873-76), who became governer's-general
of all of Sudan. Gordon appointed Eduard Schnitzer (Emin Pasha) as governer of
Equatoria. Under Emin's governership, Equatoria flourished. Their
boss, the Egyptian Khedive Ismail was in debt, forced eventually to sell out to
the British. Egypt -and by extention Sudan,
was still part of the dying Ottoman Empire, but the British were now in charge,
with Ismail as puppet.
In Khartoum at about the same time, a Sudanese Muhammad Ahmed declared himself
to be 'Mahdi' (the Expected One). After half a century of Egypian exploitation,
Sudan was ready for payback, and over the next two years the Mahdi jihad gradually
controlled most of Sudan. The
British decided to quit Sudan, and recalled Gordon (who had resigned) to evacuate
Khartoum. Soon after Gordon's arrival (Feb 1884), Khartoum was under seige and
held out for a year, but eventually fell to the Mahdists. Gordon was killed, and
became a martyr in England.
With Khartoum in Mahdist hands, and with
Bahr-el-Ghazal falling shortly after, Equatoria was cut off. Emin Pasha, fearing
an attack, arranged for all of his people to leave Lado and fall back to Wadelai.
Hysteria in the British newspapers whiped up support for Emin, describing
him as 'Gordon's last lieutenant'. Although Gordon had been dead for over a year,
the public still blamed their government as acting too slow. With the rescue of
Emin, the slate would be cleared. Businessmen organised the 'Committee for the
Relief of Emin Pasha', while the British government sat on it's hands. Stanley
was chosen to lead the relief mission. There
were darker motives lurking. Businessman William Mackinnon wanted to open up east
Africa for his Imperial British East Africa Company, and Léopold
II, (King of the Belgians and owner of the Congo Free State) had similar ideas
for his Congo.
Stanley, wanted to bring Emin back to ensure his own hero
status.- he didn't want to repeat of the 'Livingstone' show.
The committee
chose the Congo route as Léopold
held the trump card. Stanley was under contract to Léopold,
and would only be released if they chose his route. Léopold
tossed in a sweetener - he would make available the entire fleet of steamers
of the Congo Free State to transport the expedition up
the Congo. As it turned out, the Free State owned only one operational vessel.
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Arriving
in Zanzibar, Stanley arranges porters, supplies, visits notables, and sets off
in February 1887 with 802 persons as the the most lavish and best equipped expedition
ever seen in Africa. They rounded the 'Cape' and arrived at Banana Point, a small
enclave of European trading stations at the mouth of the Congo river. They found
only one vessel available from Léopold
but managed to beg 4 more from the other stations. They finally steamed up the
Congo to Matadi, then to avoid the many rapids, treked 380km overland to Stanley
Pool.
Most arrived at Stanley Pool starving on 21 April 1887, with 57
men lost to death or desertion, at least 100 more ill or injured, and 38 rifles
missing. Stanley had intended to barter cheap cloth and trinkets for food, but
the whole area at this time was in the grip of famine. Belgian warnings of famine,
Stanley had chosen to ignore.
watch this space...continued next month.
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