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Schweinfurth
Georg August
Im Herzen von Afrika: Reisen und Entdeckungen im Centralen Aequatorial-Afrika während der Jahre 1868 bis 1871
Book
Leipzig
F. A. Brockhaus
1874
German
The Heart of Africa. Three years' travels and adventures in the unexplored regions of Central Africa from 1868 to 1871 (London: Sampson Low, 1873). English. Au cœur de l’Afrique 1868-1871, voyages et découvertes dans les régions inexplorées de l'Afrique centrale (Paris: Hachette, 1875). French.
Travel Writings
Kongelige Bibliotek, Danmark. Bibliothèque Nationale de France. British Library.
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Heart Central East Africa Sudan German Travel Slave Trade
Latvian-born scientist and Egypt specialist Georg Schweinfurth was funded by a scientific organisation in Berlin to travel to the Sudan between 1868 and 1871. The lurid account of his travels, 'The Heart of Africa', was a bestseller of European nineteenth-century travel writing on Africa, and one of the inspirations for the European abolitionist revival in the 1880s. In a chapter on his encounters with the slave trade in East Africa, Schweinfurth notes the strong demand and supply of slaves (he suggests more than 25,000 slaves were trafficked yearly from the Sudan) and argues that the trade would not disappear of its own accord. He stresses the contrast between West and East Africa in terms of slave trading, and argues that's Europe's work in Africa was only 'half complete', calling for direct intervention on the issue of slavery across the continent.
Two volumes, with illustrations and maps. Volume II is also available online: http://www.archive.org/stream/imherzenvonafri00schwgoog#page/n13/mode/2up