INTRODUCTION TO THEMATIC SECTION: HEINRICH BARTH ON AFRICA. EXPLORING THE EXPLORER

Unlike many other European ‘explorers’ of Africa, the German scholar Heinrich Barth, who undertook a major expedition through the Sahara and Sahel regions from 1849 and 1855, remained critical of colonial endeavours and showed a high respect for Islamic cultural traditions. Moreover, he pursued a multidisciplinary approach to Africa’s past and present to which scholarship has done little justice so far. The introduction to a thematic section on Barth provides a brief overview of his life and work and lays out the themes that are explored in the following essays.