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"Trodden on by elephants, ripped up by the horn of a rhinoceros, suffering hunger and thirst, our author has survived all these dangers to write us a very interesting book." -The Rambler, 1856
"Charles Andersson was attacked and nearly crushed to death by a wounded elephant…his passion for hunting led him into needless dangers." - New American Cyclopaedia, 1857
Andersson was born on March 4, 1827 in Sweden. He was the illegitimate child of the British bear hunter Llewellyn Lloyd and Lloyd's Swedish servant.
Andersson grew up in Sweden. Early in his life he went on hunting expeditions with his father and started a collection of biology specimens.
In 1849 he departed for London, intending to sell his collection to raise money for travels around the world. In London he met the explorer Francis Galton, with whom he organised an expedition to Southern Africa, which he narrated in LAKE NGAMI.
Andersson ultimately launched several ventures in Damaraland, including a copper mining scheme. He was briefly elected Chief of the Damara in 1864, but he was severely wounded in battle against the Nama Hottentots. He died there in 1867, and is considered the most important early European explorer of the region.
Click any of the title-pages below to learn more about the title and to see additional images.
Click any of the title-pages below to learn more about the title and to see additional images.
LAKE NGAMI
THE OKAVANGO RIVER
THE LION AND THE ELEPHANT
NOTES OF TRAVEL IN SOUTH AFRICA
A few websites about Andersson:
At the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences with Karl Grandin, Current Director at the Centre for Historic Science, and Ann Gollifer.
The Centre for Historic Science at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is the home of an enormous archive of objects, maps, drawings, and manuscripts. One of these objects is an original 19th century map of the interior of Southern Africa that has marked in place the geographical position of a massive waterfall called “ Mosi Oa Tunya”. This map was sent to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, in Stockholm from Cape Town by Charles John Andersson in 1852. The map was received by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1853 and duly locked away for safe keeping because within the 30 page letter from Andersson that came with the map was a request that the information therein remain unpublished. This was most likely because the map was one copied by Andersson from an original by Livingstone, marked with information that had yet to be verified by physical discovery. Livingstone did not set eyes upon Mosi Oa Tunya until 1855, despite the fact that he knew of its existence and location. He claimed the prize of being the first European to visit the falls and renamed them for his Queen. ‘Mosi Oa Tunya’ which in the Lozi language means ‘resounding smoke’, became the ‘Victoria Falls’. There is no record that Livingstone and Andersson ever met and to this day no one knows how Charles John Andersson came upon the original Livingstone map from which he made his copy.
Andersson never saw the falls himself, but he can be credited with being the first European explorer to send proof of their existence to Europe, two years prior to their physical substantiation by Livingstone to the Royal Geographical Society in London. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences seems not to have realised at the time the significance of the map and it was packed away and most likely, never looked at again.
That is until 2004 when Christer Blomstrand, a Swedish journalist who had been living and working in Botswana, South Africa and Namibia since the 1960s, was commissioned by the Swedish Embassy in Pretoria to search for any ‘ancient’ maps of Africa, in Swedish collections. The Speaker of Parliament in Cape Town, hoped to gather together a collection of old maps for exhibition, that would illustrate how European maps had defined the image of Africa for centuries. Christer contacted Karl Grandin, then Deputy Director at the Centre for Historic Science at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. On his arrival Karl presented Christer with an old cardboard box bound with string and together they opened it. Inside there were two old maps, each made up of many sections of cardboard, pasted onto a thin linen that could be folded neatly in upon itself without obscuring any detail in their folding. This structure was typical of early 19th century maps, made for easy carriage, annotation and editing, throughout journeys that might last months if not years. A letter of thirty pages accompanied the two maps. Charles John Andersson’s signature graced both maps and the letter, and it seemed likely that all three items had been lying inside the box since 1853, quite forgotten.
The first to be opened was a map of the South West of Africa that upon consultation with the Namibian historian, Gunther von Schumann in Windhoek, turned out to be one of the earliest maps of that area in existence. The second was Andersson’s handmade copy of Livinstone’s map bearing the position of the fabulous waterfall ‘Mosi Oa Tunya”.
Rediscovery of Andersson’s final resting place
Rediscovery of Andersson’s final resting place
Swedish historian Christer Blomstrand made a discovery in 2004 which was downright sensational: from a long forgotten dusty chest at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences he unearthed a map of Namibia which to date is the oldest one known. The map was drawn in 1852 by Swedish explorer and trader Charles John Andersson.
In 1850 Charles John Andersson arrived in Walvis Bay as the travel companion of British scientist Francis Galton. They set off for Owamboland and in May 1852 were the first Europeans to see Etosha Pan. In recognition of Andersson’s role in the exploration of the northern parts of Namibia the southern gate into Etosha National Park, near Okaukuejo, was named after him.
It was during this expedition with Galton that Andersson drew the first known map of northern Namibia. It includes Victoria Falls, identified by its indigenous name of Mosi-oa-tunya. This is a sensation because until this map was found it was believed that in 1855 Scottish missionary David Livingstone was the first European to see the waterfall, which he called Victoria Falls. Andersson sent his map and the notes on his discoveries to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, requesting that none of it would be published but used for private purposes only. And so it happened that the map as well as Andersson’s notes faded away in the academy’s archives for more than 150 years.
Andersson continued his exploration of the north in the years which followed and published several books on his discoveries. His biggest aim was to find the Kunene River. He had heard accounts of the river and wanted to find out whether it was navigable.
In the course of the 1850s Andersson settled in Otjimbingwe and started a successful trading post. Otjimbingwe developed into a veritable shopping paradise during the following years: Andersson traded with rifles, ammunition, clothes, household effects, alcohol and hardware. His goods were paid for with cattle, sheep, ivory and ostrich feathers.
Herero chief Maharero (Samuel Maharero’s father) and his people fled from Windhoek to Otjimbingwe in 1863 to escape the domination of the Afrikaners, an Orlam tribe. Andersson supported Maharero and in a decisive battle near Otjimbingwe the Afrikaner forces were defeated. After this victory Maharero was proclaimed Paramount Chief of the Herero nation. He thanked Andersson by appointing him ‘regent and military commander of the Herero nation’ for life. To this day Andersson is the only white person ever to be awarded a distinction of this kind.
In 1865 Andersson sold his property in Otjimbingwe to Rhenish missionary Hahn and moved to Walvisbay. From there he set off on another research and trading expedition to the north and established a trading post at Omandongo. From there he hoped to finally make it to the Kunene River, a dream, which he had fostered for years.
With his young assistant, Axel Eriksson, he travelled north once more, from Walvis Bay via Otjimbingwe, in May 1866. After a few days Andersson fell ill, showing symptoms of blackwater fever. He stopped at his trading station Omandongo (30 km east of Ondangwa), the first of its kind in the Owambo kingdom. Shikongo, the King of the Uukwaluudhi, lived there. White hunters came together at the trading post and rested there. Some of them told Andersson that they had been to the Kunene two years before.
Despite his illness Andersson decided to continue with his expedition. He was riding a horse, his assistant rode a pack ox and everybody else was on foot. As the expedition crossed the Uukwambi Kingdom Andersson had become too weak to ride. Uukwambi King Nuujoma lent them an ox wagon. Two weeks after leaving Omandango they arrived at the Kunene on 12 June 1867. It is said that Andersson found the river somewhat disappointing. After what the hunters who had been there had told him he had apparently expected a much larger, majestic river.
Andersson’s state of health deteriorated rapidly. He did not have enough helpers to cross over and look for help at Humbe, a Portuguese fort, 70 km north of the Kunene. Therefore the expedition turned back towards Omandango. Axel Eriksson, the young assistant, had to take over as leader. Inexperienced as he was he struggled to find the way back. When they finally reached the Uukwambi area again, Andersson was close to death. He wrote a letter with instructions about his estate to make sure that his wife and children were provided for. Charles John Andersson died in the vicinity of King Nuujoma’s village, probably on July 6th or 9th, 1867, at the age of 40.
The Uukwambi King first gave permission to bury Andersson near his village. Shortly afterwards, however, he changed his mind because the grave of a white man might spell ill fortune to his people. Eriksson exhumed the body and travelled north again for two days. He buried Andersson under a big old Omumborombonga, the Tree of Life (Leadwood, Combretum imberbe), on a hill close to a small lake.
Eriksson kept the new site of the grave to himself for a long time, presumably out of consideration for Andersson’s family. Only 30 years later he told Swedish traveller Peter Möller about it. Möller mentions the story in his book ‘Journey in Africa: Through Angola, Ovampoland and Damaraland (1896)’.
Andersson’s oldest son, Sir Llewellyn Andersson, visited his father’s grave in 1919. He found the site 4.5 km north of the border between Namibia and Angola with the help of local guides. 20 years later he had a commemorative plaque, a cross and a fence put up. It is likely that he also erected the signpost to the grave at the border.
After World War II the historian Dr Cecil Joseph Lemmer was taken to the site by guides, probably the same ones who had accompanied Andersson’s son. Lemmer was one of the founding members of the S.W.A. Scientific Society (now the Namibia Scientific Society) and the S.W.A. Monuments Commission.
Nevertheless Andersson’s final resting place faded into oblivion. During the long war in Angola and due to non-existent roads it was anyway impossible to get there. It was only in May 2007 that Christer Blomstrand and his wife Lena Johansson Blomstrand set out in search of the grave together with Gunter and Julia von Schumann as well as Pastor Dr Shekutaamba Nambala from Ondangwa. Sarafina Tuningeni, a woman from the village of Ongenga, took them there. Her parents had told her about the grave when she was still a child. They found it on a little hill close to a lake. Shade was now provided by a large Jackalberry tree which apparently had taken the place of the Tree of Life which must have died in earlier years.
From 1850 until 1867 Swedish explorer and author Charles John Andersson made a significant contribution to exploring and opening up today’s Namibia. He was also the first to use the term South West Africa for the land between the Gariep (Orange River) and Kunene. The name was later adopted by the German colonial power.
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