Johannes Rebmann
Encyclopedia
Johannes Rebmann was a German missionary
and explorer credited with feats including being the first European, along with his colleague Johann Ludwig Krapf
, to enter Africa from the Indian Ocean
coast. In addition, he was the first European to find Kilimanjaro. News of Rebmann's discovery was published in the Church Missionary Intelligencer in May 1849, but disregarded as mere fantasy for the next twelve years. The Geographical Society of London held that snow could not possibly occur let alone persist in such latitudes and considered the report to be the hallucination of a malaria-stricken missionary . European scientists were not yet ready to integrate -Kilimanjaro’s specific nature into their scalar hierarchy of natural phenomena. It was only in 1861 that researchers began their efforts to measure Kilimanjaro. Expeditions to Tanzania between 1861 and 1865, led by the German Baron Carl Claus von der Decken, confirmed Rebmann’s report. Together with his colleague Johann Ludwig Krapf
he also disovered Mt. Kenya. Their work there is also thought to have had effects on future African expeditions by Europeans, including the exploits of Sir Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke
, and David Livingstone
. After losing most of his eyesight and entering into a brief marriage, he died of pneumonia.
n farmer and winegrower on January 16, 1820 in Gerlingen
, Württemberg
. The village he lived in was very small, with about 1,500 inhabitants. Even at an early age, he aspired to be a "preacher and canvasser of the gospel
".
Later, when Rebmann became a young man, he chose to devote himself to being a missionary, and was trained in Basel
.
Together with fellow missionary Johann Ludwig Krapf, Rebmann traveled to East Africa
in 1846 by way of a ship entitled "Arrow", where he worked in areas around Kenya
, as well as at various other locations.
Their work was hard, and they had much trouble convincing tribal chiefs to let them speak to the people. Krapf noted (what he called) the "surge of Islam" that was going through Africa, and wanted to make some sort of Christian standing against its religious influence on the people of the continent. As the radius of the two missionaries work expanded, plans for Christian missionary outposts in the area began to develop.
During his time in Africa, Rebmann kept a diary from 1848 until the end of his life. In the diary, Rebmann writes of the way his trust in his Christianity kept him stable in the continent of Africa, where only very few Europeans had ventured before him. An extract from the diary, which Rebmann in turn took from the Bible (Psalm: 51, 12) reflects Rebmann's belief in his faith: "Restore to me joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me."
In 1848, Rebmann was the first European to see Kilimanjaro. The following year, he saw Mt. Kenya together with his colleague Krapf.
On the October 16, 1847, the two men set out for the mountain of Kasigau. With them came eight tribesmen and a local caravan leader named Bwana Kheri. This expedition was designed with the goal of establishing some of the first mission posts in the region. The journey was successful, and the group of tribesmen and the missionaries returned to Mombasa on October 27.
Sometime during their journey or their stay in the region, Rebmann and Krapf learned of a great mountain referred to as 'Kilimansharo', who peaked the clouds and who was 'capped in silver'. The two men, like most Europeans at the time, were under the impression that snow and ice could not exist so close to the equator, and failed to realize the significance of the mountain being 'topped with silver'.
However, the two missionaries, who had become just as much explorers as they were missionaries, became quite interested in Kilimanjaro, and Krapf sought permission of the Mombasa governor
for an expedition to the land of the Jagga, a people now known as the Chaga
, who lived and live on the actual slopes of Kilimanjaro. Krapf told the governor that this journey would be work-based. Despite this, Krapf actually did not accompany Rebmann on the journey, so only Bwana Kheri and Rebmann left for Kilimanjaro on April 27, 1848.
Within two weeks, Rebmann and his guide were within sight of the mountain. He noted in his journal the strange white on the summit of Kilimanjaro, and he questioned his guide on what he thought it was. According to Rebmann's log, the guide 'did not know what it was, but supposed it was coldness'. It was then that Rebmann realised that Kilimanjaro, even though it was located in a region that was thought impossible to bear snow or 'coldness', as the guide referred to it, was in fact capped in it. In 1849, these observations were published, but the findings were not truly accepted by most of the scientific community at the time. On November 10, 1848, Rebmann recorded an entry in his log about the mountain:
Mt. Kenya was found by Krapf in the next year, on December 3, 1849. The finding of this mountain was also met with disbelief in Europe, but the impact of the both of these findings was enough to trigger further investigations into other areas of Africa, thereby stimulated a growth of scientific (among other fields) knowledge of the regions, people, history, and geography of the African continent.
As well as visiting Kilimanjaro, Rebmann and Krapf visited other areas of Africa, including the African Great Lakes
and Mount Meru
. He even became married to a fellow missionary, Anna Maria, née Maisch, with whom he spent fifteen years doing missionary work in Africa before her death in 1866, and had a child with (who died only days after his birth).
Also during his time in Africa, after his expeditions to Kilimanjaro and around the Great lakes, he learned to speak several native languages, as well as wrote a dictionary
in the Swahili
language.
known as the 'Slug' map. It was known by this name because the layout of the water body suggested a shape similar to that of a slug
.
On the map, several subtle but interesting things can be discovered, including, in the northeast section of the cartograph, a reference to a stream flowing through Lake Victoria
, then known by the missionaries as "the Ukerewa". A note is present describing how the waters of the stream were very sweet, but stained the teeth a sickly yellow. This note is probably the first known text referring to the drinking water
, found primarily around and of Mount Meru, which has a high content of fluorine
and causes a yellow-brown stain to the incisors which cannot be removed.
Among other things, another piece of writing on the Slug Map -"From where the Magad [soda] is bought" - provides evidence that the soda trade
, the soda originating in Lake Natron
(obviously not known by that name then), was active at that time in those regions of Africa in which the map depicts. The Slug Map has never been published.
The Slug Map is now in the care of the Royal Geographical Society
in London, who were presented it in 1855 by Erhardt, a fellow missionary. The map is described by the society as:
The legacy that he left behind him is preserved by the Johannes Rebmann Foundation, a religious society devoted to Rebmann and his memory. Rebmann's work in Africa, both as a missionary and as an explorer, allowed other Europeans to follow in his footsteps.
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
and explorer credited with feats including being the first European, along with his colleague Johann Ludwig Krapf
Johann Ludwig Krapf
Johann Ludwig Krapf was a German missionary in East Africa, as well as an explorer, linguist, and traveler. Krapf played an important role in exploring East Africa with Johannes Rebmann. They were the first Europeans to see Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro...
, to enter Africa from the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
coast. In addition, he was the first European to find Kilimanjaro. News of Rebmann's discovery was published in the Church Missionary Intelligencer in May 1849, but disregarded as mere fantasy for the next twelve years. The Geographical Society of London held that snow could not possibly occur let alone persist in such latitudes and considered the report to be the hallucination of a malaria-stricken missionary . European scientists were not yet ready to integrate -Kilimanjaro’s specific nature into their scalar hierarchy of natural phenomena. It was only in 1861 that researchers began their efforts to measure Kilimanjaro. Expeditions to Tanzania between 1861 and 1865, led by the German Baron Carl Claus von der Decken, confirmed Rebmann’s report. Together with his colleague Johann Ludwig Krapf
Johann Ludwig Krapf
Johann Ludwig Krapf was a German missionary in East Africa, as well as an explorer, linguist, and traveler. Krapf played an important role in exploring East Africa with Johannes Rebmann. They were the first Europeans to see Mount Kenya and Kilimanjaro...
he also disovered Mt. Kenya. Their work there is also thought to have had effects on future African expeditions by Europeans, including the exploits of Sir Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke
John Hanning Speke
John Hanning Speke was an officer in the British Indian Army who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa and who is most associated with the search for the source of the Nile.-Life:...
, and David Livingstone
David Livingstone
David Livingstone was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley gave rise to the popular quotation, "Dr...
. After losing most of his eyesight and entering into a brief marriage, he died of pneumonia.
Early life
Rebmann was born to a SwabiaSwabia
Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...
n farmer and winegrower on January 16, 1820 in Gerlingen
Gerlingen
Gerlingen is a town in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 9 km west of Stuttgart, and 15 km southwest of Ludwigsburg, Gerlingen is home to BOSCH appliances....
, Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
. The village he lived in was very small, with about 1,500 inhabitants. Even at an early age, he aspired to be a "preacher and canvasser of the gospel
Gospel
A gospel is an account, often written, that describes the life of Jesus of Nazareth. In a more general sense the term "gospel" may refer to the good news message of the New Testament. It is primarily used in reference to the four canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...
".
Later, when Rebmann became a young man, he chose to devote himself to being a missionary, and was trained in Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
.
Together with fellow missionary Johann Ludwig Krapf, Rebmann traveled to East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
in 1846 by way of a ship entitled "Arrow", where he worked in areas around Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, as well as at various other locations.
Their work was hard, and they had much trouble convincing tribal chiefs to let them speak to the people. Krapf noted (what he called) the "surge of Islam" that was going through Africa, and wanted to make some sort of Christian standing against its religious influence on the people of the continent. As the radius of the two missionaries work expanded, plans for Christian missionary outposts in the area began to develop.
During his time in Africa, Rebmann kept a diary from 1848 until the end of his life. In the diary, Rebmann writes of the way his trust in his Christianity kept him stable in the continent of Africa, where only very few Europeans had ventured before him. An extract from the diary, which Rebmann in turn took from the Bible (Psalm: 51, 12) reflects Rebmann's belief in his faith: "Restore to me joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me."
Stumbling upon Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya
On the October 16, 1847, the two men set out for the mountain of Kasigau. With them came eight tribesmen and a local caravan leader named Bwana Kheri. This expedition was designed with the goal of establishing some of the first mission posts in the region. The journey was successful, and the group of tribesmen and the missionaries returned to Mombasa on October 27.
Sometime during their journey or their stay in the region, Rebmann and Krapf learned of a great mountain referred to as 'Kilimansharo', who peaked the clouds and who was 'capped in silver'. The two men, like most Europeans at the time, were under the impression that snow and ice could not exist so close to the equator, and failed to realize the significance of the mountain being 'topped with silver'.
However, the two missionaries, who had become just as much explorers as they were missionaries, became quite interested in Kilimanjaro, and Krapf sought permission of the Mombasa governor
Governor
A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...
for an expedition to the land of the Jagga, a people now known as the Chaga
Chaga
The Chaga are Bantu-speaking indigenous Africans and the third largest ethnic group in Tanzania. They live on the southern and eastern slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru, as well as in the Moshi area...
, who lived and live on the actual slopes of Kilimanjaro. Krapf told the governor that this journey would be work-based. Despite this, Krapf actually did not accompany Rebmann on the journey, so only Bwana Kheri and Rebmann left for Kilimanjaro on April 27, 1848.
Within two weeks, Rebmann and his guide were within sight of the mountain. He noted in his journal the strange white on the summit of Kilimanjaro, and he questioned his guide on what he thought it was. According to Rebmann's log, the guide 'did not know what it was, but supposed it was coldness'. It was then that Rebmann realised that Kilimanjaro, even though it was located in a region that was thought impossible to bear snow or 'coldness', as the guide referred to it, was in fact capped in it. In 1849, these observations were published, but the findings were not truly accepted by most of the scientific community at the time. On November 10, 1848, Rebmann recorded an entry in his log about the mountain:
Mt. Kenya was found by Krapf in the next year, on December 3, 1849. The finding of this mountain was also met with disbelief in Europe, but the impact of the both of these findings was enough to trigger further investigations into other areas of Africa, thereby stimulated a growth of scientific (among other fields) knowledge of the regions, people, history, and geography of the African continent.
Other work in Africa
Rebmann stayed in Africa for almost thirty consecutive years. He kept to a policy that, in order to truly have an impact on the African people, and to complete his task as a missionary, much patience was needed. It appears that this policy was the driving force behind his many years of work on the continent.As well as visiting Kilimanjaro, Rebmann and Krapf visited other areas of Africa, including the African Great Lakes
African Great Lakes
The African Great Lakes are a series of lakes and the Rift Valley lakes in and around the geographic Great Rift Valley formed by the action of the tectonic East African Rift on the continent of Africa...
and Mount Meru
Mount Meru (Tanzania)
Mount Meru is an active stratovolcano located west of Mount Kilimanjaro in the nation of Tanzania. At a height of , it is visible from Mt Kilimanjaro on a clear day, and is the tenth highest mountain in Africa. Much of its bulk was lost about 8,000 years ago due to an eastward volcanic blast,...
. He even became married to a fellow missionary, Anna Maria, née Maisch, with whom he spent fifteen years doing missionary work in Africa before her death in 1866, and had a child with (who died only days after his birth).
Also during his time in Africa, after his expeditions to Kilimanjaro and around the Great lakes, he learned to speak several native languages, as well as wrote a dictionary
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
in the Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
language.
Slug map
During their time in Africa, Krapf and Rebmann worked their way into the interior of the continent. They traveled to several areas in the regions of Central and Eastern Africa, including to what is now known as the African Great Lakes. The finding of one especially large lake is depicted in a mapMap
A map is a visual representation of an area—a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as objects, regions, and themes....
known as the 'Slug' map. It was known by this name because the layout of the water body suggested a shape similar to that of a slug
Slug
Slug is a common name that is normally applied to any gastropod mollusc that lacks a shell, has a very reduced shell, or has a small internal shell...
.
On the map, several subtle but interesting things can be discovered, including, in the northeast section of the cartograph, a reference to a stream flowing through Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, by John Hanning Speke, the first European to discover this lake....
, then known by the missionaries as "the Ukerewa". A note is present describing how the waters of the stream were very sweet, but stained the teeth a sickly yellow. This note is probably the first known text referring to the drinking water
Drinking water
Drinking water or potable water is water pure enough to be consumed or used with low risk of immediate or long term harm. In most developed countries, the water supplied to households, commerce and industry is all of drinking water standard, even though only a very small proportion is actually...
, found primarily around and of Mount Meru, which has a high content of fluorine
Fluorine
Fluorine is the chemical element with atomic number 9, represented by the symbol F. It is the lightest element of the halogen column of the periodic table and has a single stable isotope, fluorine-19. At standard pressure and temperature, fluorine is a pale yellow gas composed of diatomic...
and causes a yellow-brown stain to the incisors which cannot be removed.
Among other things, another piece of writing on the Slug Map -"From where the Magad [soda] is bought" - provides evidence that the soda trade
Trade
Trade is the transfer of ownership of goods and services from one person or entity to another. Trade is sometimes loosely called commerce or financial transaction or barter. A network that allows trade is called a market. The original form of trade was barter, the direct exchange of goods and...
, the soda originating in Lake Natron
Lake Natron
Lake Natron is a salt lake located in northern Tanzania, close to the Kenyan border, in the eastern branch of Africa's Great Rift Valley. The lake is fed by the Ewaso Ng'iro River but also by mineral-rich hot springs and is quite shallow, less than three meters deep, and varies in width depending...
(obviously not known by that name then), was active at that time in those regions of Africa in which the map depicts. The Slug Map has never been published.
The Slug Map is now in the care of the Royal Geographical Society
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
in London, who were presented it in 1855 by Erhardt, a fellow missionary. The map is described by the society as:
Later life and death
Having almost lost his eyesight for unknown reasons, Rebmann went back to Europe in September 1875. He returned to Germany for the first time in 29 years after being persuaded to do so by a fellow missionary who was working in the area. He then proceeded to take up residence in Korntal near Stuttgart, where he was close to his old friend Krapf. In Spring 1876, upon the advice of Krapf, he married the widow of another missionary from India, Louise Rebmann née Däuble. The marriage did not last long, as on October 4, 1876, Rebmann died of pneumonia. Encrypted on Rebmann's tombstone in the cemetery of Korntal are the words "Saved in Jesus' Arms".The legacy that he left behind him is preserved by the Johannes Rebmann Foundation, a religious society devoted to Rebmann and his memory. Rebmann's work in Africa, both as a missionary and as an explorer, allowed other Europeans to follow in his footsteps.
External links
- The Johannes Rebmann Foundation website - translated into English
- Biography - operational area - Information and a map of Rebmann's area of Missionary operation in Africa