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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Anderson-d'Ollone Controversy of 1903-04: Race, Imperialism, and the Reconfiguration of Liberia-Guinea Border |
Author: | Geysbeek, Tim |
Year: | 2004 |
Periodical: | History in Africa |
Volume: | 31 |
Pages: | 185-213 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Guinea Liberia |
Subjects: | travel scramble for Africa biographies (form) colonialism History and Exploration Ethnic and Race Relations Politics and Government Inter-African Relations |
About person: | Benjamin J.K. Anderson (1834-1910) |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/4128524 |
Abstract: | The years 2003-2004 mark the centennial observance of a debate that emerged in Paris, Freetown and Monrovia over whether or not the Liberian Benjamin Anderson trekked to the fabled town of Musadu in 1868. Musadu, now situated c. 5 miles northwest of Beyla in Guinea-Conakry, or 85 miles northwest of the Liberian border town of Yekepa, represented Liberia's interiormost claim in the 19th century. Anderson's challenger was a captain in the French army named Henri d'Ollone, who went to West Africa in the late 1890s and surveyed some of the land that the French had recently conquered. In 1903, d'Ollone raised allegations that Anderson had not visited Musadu in 1868. Anderson, he wrote, was 'simply a black Liberian' who could not possibly have travelled so far in the interior, calculated geographic coordinates and altitude, and written a book. Anderson won the debate. The controversy was set in the context of Britain, France and Liberia's competing claims for land during the heyday of the Western conquest of Africa. This paper examines the main contours of the debate, sets the debate in historical context, and republishes the most important primary sources. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |