Handtke's (1849) map of the Horn of Africa uncovered

As part of our research on historical cartography in the Horn of Africa (Nyssen et al. 2020b; Nyssen et al. 2020a; Nyssen et al. 2019), we have been hinted at the existence of a map prepared by a German atlas printing house in the mid-19^th century (Fig. 1):

Handtke, F.H., 1849. Nordöstliches Afrika, Ca. 1:5 600 000. In: Sohr, K., Supplement-Band zum Hand-Atlas der neueren Erdbeschreibung, 85. Flemming, Glogau/Głogów and Leipzig [in German]

Map description

The map could be located at the National Library of Estonia. It is 39 cm wide and 66 cm tall, and it's printed on paper that's been bonded to fabric (Fig. 2). The scale is approximately 1:5 600 000, graphically represented in German miles. Relief is shown by hachures (Collier et al. 2003). The map, based on 1840s diplomatic and other sources, has been produced by lithographic printing, with manual outline colouring (Witkam 2007).

The work was realised in one of the few stronger cartographic publishing houses in 19^th century Germany, managed by Carl Flemming (1806-1878) (Fig. 3). Flemming was aided by cartographer Friedrich Handtke (1815-1879), who worked on nearly every map assignment for the firm (Brogiato and Fick 1997; Witkam 2007).

Northeast Africa in 1849

The map (Handtke 1849) shows that the sources of the White Nile had not yet been discovered by European explorers; the southernmost part of the map is left blank, with only a few generic names, particularly the “Mond Gebirge” (Mountains of the Moon – throughout this note, quotation marks indicate a literal transcription of calligraphy from the map) and “Endpunkt der 1. Expedition”.

The geography of the Red Sea Coast, Egypt and “Nubia” was fairly well known, as well as that of the northern and central Ethiopian highlands. These were mapped in relative detail for “Tigre”, “Amhara”, and to the south with fuzzy boundaries for “Schoa”. Due to inaccessibility, the physiography of the otherwise well mapped northern highlands holds one major mistake: the Areqwa River, which flows directly to Tekeze R. was erroneously mapped as running parallel to Tekeze and intercepting other affluents such as Giba R. and Weri’i R. (Fig. 4)

Futher south, “Enarea”, “Dschimma” and “Kaffa” are located with few details. A generic name “Habesch” is written diagonally across the highlands.

Ras Ali’s “Amhara” corresponded largely to the current Amhara region, yet with Wollo as a separate entity. The territorial organisation of “Tigre” included the Eritrean highlands (“Baharnagasch”) and the current Tigray region, comprising “Walkayt” and “Waldubba” at the west (Fig. 4). This must not be seen as a unified “country”; rather, within an alliance, the “Tigre” territory denoted a confederate structure of typically largely independent provinces and princedoms, pacified by Dejazmatch Wubie (Prunier 2010). The intersection by rivers that were unpassable during the rainy season contributed to the sovereignty of the provinces within the larger confederation (Nyssen et al. 2019).

By 1849, well before the scramble for Africa, Eritrea had not yet come into existence as a separate territory (Ullendorff 1965), and does not appear on Handtke’s  (1849) map.

On Handtke’s  (1849) map, the lowlands at the west of “Habesh” were also poorly defined, with occurrence of names like “Schangalla”, “Kolla” or “Dar El Berta”.

Historical maps and Gondarine irredentism

Before Handtke, Rigobert Bonne (1771) mapped already (less precise) outlines of a confederate “Tigré”. Overall, these maps demonstrate that the argument that Welqayt was always a part of Begemdir cq. Amhara is not based on evidence, apart from a territorial reorganisation in the early and mid-twentieth century. Indeed, the Abyssinian emperors Menelik and Haile Selassie divided the country into provinces, replacing territories that were formerly semi-autonomously governed. As colonial powers did elsewhere, Haile Selassie cut into these existing territories and used this territorial reorganisation as a way to reward his allies. The resulting provinces were constructed along the strength of local powers (zones of influence of major towns), regardless of ethnic composition.

Reversely, Tigray is a valid contemporary territory, whose legitimacy stems from modern federalism's potential to create a region away from concepts of the imperialist Menelikian centralism. In 1991, when the boundaries of the Tigray Region were established, Handtke’s (1849) map was deeply buried in archives. Yet, all language maps of the Ethiopian state in tempore non suspecto sustain the current extent of the Tigray region. Such is the case for the map of languages of Ethiopia established by Trimingham (1965), and republished by Westphal (1975).

Use of Handtke’s map

A Scholar Google search tends to indicate that this map (Handtke 1849) has so far not been used by historians, geographers or other researchers.

The map is available at the authorised workplace in the National Library of Estonia, Archival Library of the Estonian Literary Museum (Tallinn University of Technology Library, Academic Library of Tallinn University and University of Tartu Library). The scanned map may be accessed and downloaded from their repository at https://www.digar.ee/arhiiv/nlib-digar:429790

Other copies are held at  Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (München, Germany), at Universitätsbibliothek Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Eichstätt, Germany), and at the David Rumsey Map Center at Stanford University (USA). The latter also holds a downloadable scan: https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~33543~1171029:Composite--NO-Afrika-

 References

Bonne, R. 1771. Nubie et Abissinie. Paris: Lattré.

Brogiato, H. P., and K. E. Fick. 1997. „An dem Knochen wird von vielen genagt “: Zur Entwicklung der geographischen Schulatlanten im 19. Jahrhundert. Internationale Schulbuchforschung:35-66.

Collier, P., D. Forrest, and A. Pearson. 2003. The representation of topographic information on maps: the depiction of relief. The Cartographic Journal 40 (1):17-26.

Handtke, F. H. 1849. Nordöstliches Afrika, Ca. 1:5 600 000. In Supplement-Band zum Hand-Atlas der neueren Erdbeschreibung, edited by K. Sohr. Glogau/Głogów and Leipzig: Flemming.

Nyssen, J., M. Debever, Gezahegne Gebremeskel, B. De Wit, Kiros Meles Hadgu, S. De Vriese, J. Verbeurgt, Sultan Mohammed, A. Frankl, Tulu Besha, J. Kropáček, A. Forceville, and Biadgilgn Demissie. 2020a. Aerial photographs of Ethiopia 1935-1941: PANGAEA. Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science

Nyssen, J., G. Petrie, R. N. Munro, M. Jacob, W. Smidt, M. Haile, A. Frankl, and P. Billi. 2019. Historical Maps, Terrestrial and Aerial Photographs. In Geo-trekking in Ethiopia’s Tropical Mountains, edited by J. Nyssen, M. Jacob and A. Frankl. Cham: Springer, 461-476.

Nyssen, J., Tesfaalem Ghebreyohannes, Hailemariam Meaza, and S. Dondeyne. 2020b. Exploration of a medieval African map (Aksum, Ethiopia) – How do historical maps fit with topography? In Liber Amicorum: Philippe De Maeyer In Kaart, edited by M. De Ryck, J. Nyssen, K. Van Acker and W. Van Roy. Wachtebeke (Belgium): University Press, 165-178.

Prunier, G. 2010. The 1943 Woyane Revolt: A Modern Reassessment. Journal of the Middle East and Africa 1 (2):187-195.

Trimingham, J. S. 1965. Islam in Ethiopia. London: Frank Cass & Company.

Ullendorff, E. 1965. The Ethiopians: An Introduction to Country and People London: Oxford University Press.

Westphal, E. 1975. Agricultural systems in Ethiopia. Wageningen: Centre for Agricultural Publishing and Documentation.

Witkam, M. 2007. Sohr-Berghaus Hand-Atlas, 4th edition (1847-1850). http://www.atlassen.info/atlassen/flemming/sohha04/sohha04.html#summary.