author
Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa
Founded in London in 1788, this British society set out to answer some of Europe’s biggest geographical questions about West Africa, especially the course of the Niger River and the location of Timbuktu. Its expeditions helped shape later exploration, even as many of its missions ended in hardship or mystery.
2 Audiobooks
Travels in Nubia
by John Lewis Burckhardt, Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa
![Proceedings of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa [1790]](https://listenly.io/api/img/6a1002abd526f8ed6efc25e6/cover.jpg)
Proceedings of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa [1790]
by Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa
About the author
The Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, more commonly called the African Association, was founded on June 9, 1788, by a group of influential Britons led by Sir Joseph Banks. At a time when Europeans knew little about inland West Africa, the society focused on two famous puzzles: where the Niger River flowed and where Timbuktu was located.
The Association backed a series of explorers, including Mungo Park, whose travels became especially well known. Its work reflected the curiosity and ambition of the late eighteenth century, supporting journeys that were often dangerous and only partly successful. Some expeditions brought back valuable observations, while others ended in disappearance or death.
Even though the Association itself was a relatively small organization, it played an important role in opening the way for later British exploration of Africa. Its records and published proceedings remain a useful window into how people in Britain imagined, studied, and tried to map the African interior at the time.