Emptying and filling. Maps of inland Africa

Abstract

This chapter intends to reflect on the transformation of blank spaces into mapped places, within the process of colonial appropriation of Africa. With respect to an inland area very far from the coast and isolated, two cartographic documents—created almost a century apart: 1827 and 1924—enabled us to observe the transition from blank space to a topographic survey. The first cartographic document consists of two sheets from the Atlas Universel published by Vandermaelen; the second one is the topographic survey drawn by two Commissions—working jointly from 1922 to 1923—to define the colonial border between French Equatorial Africa and Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. The large blank spaces in the Atlas Universel are filled with the meticulous work of colonial cartographers. The territorial knowledge of the inhabitants was considered unreliable by the Commissioners, basically for racist motives. A carto-humanistic approach highlights the heavy colonial legacy of mapping on the continent, with the view of going beyond the darkness of this long night of domination and submission.