Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa

The Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa—better known as the African Association—was founded on June 9, 1788, in London. Sources describe it as a club of well-connected British members, led by figures including Sir Joseph Banks, with the stated aim of learning more about the interior of West Africa, especially the course of the Niger River and the location of Timbuktu.

The Association is best remembered for financing and encouraging expeditions by explorers such as Mungo Park. Its records and proceedings show how strongly late-18th-century Britain was drawn to African geography at a time when much of the continent's interior was still poorly understood by Europeans.

Today, the Association is often seen as an important early chapter in the history of African exploration. At the same time, its story also reflects the era's mix of scientific curiosity, commercial interest, and imperial thinking—making its publications valuable not just as travel documents, but as historical evidence of how Britain imagined Africa in that period.