Exploration and Travel

James Beckwourth

Little is known about exploration by people from Africa to other parts of the world, whether on and off the continent. If "African Explorers" is Googled, up comes information about European and Arab explorers to and in Africa. If "Black Explorers" is Googled, up comes information about five Black explorers: Esteban Dorantes also known as Estevanico (c1500-1539) (there is an excellent new work of fiction from his point of view, The Moors Account by Laila Lalami) ; Jean-Baptiste-Point DuSable (1745-1818); James Pierson Beckwourth (1805-1866); Matthew Henson (1866-1955); and Mae C. Jemison (1955-). These five people were/are explorers of water, land, cultures, and space. The common characteristic they share is a curiosity about the world around them and the desire to seek, to see what is out there, to explore.

There has been the implicit assumption that, in general, Africans didn't leave the continent unless on a slave ship. There was, however, considerable exploration, migration, and movement undertaken by Africans for a variety of reasons, the main ones being trade, famine and climate change, and war. There is a plethora of  theories about Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact with people in South America made by Polynesians, Chinese, Japanese, Arabs, Medieval Europeans,Welsh, and one that explorers from Africa also reached there. Africans were in the Roman Armies in Britain as generals and emperors; they were in Medieval and Renaissance Europe; they were present in many far-flung places and times.

There are suggestions each year made in these posts on how to organize ideas and get inspiration for travel: Thinking of Travel: Armchair and Otherwise (via books); Armchair Travel 2013 (via music); Thinking of Travel 2014: World War I (via visiting war memorials). Exploring museums, art museums and galleries, National Parks, libraries, theatres, concert halls are all terrific entries into new worlds.