Category Archives: Africa

Town planning or erasure?

This nineteenth-century map of the area around Collo, on the coast of Algeria, shows a “Ville projetée,” a proposed town. With a regular grid of streets, including a church, a market and several unidentified buildings, it looks orderly and regular, fitting into the comparatively flat and empty plain between the hills and the sea. To the north of the town is an area set aside for “manoeuvre et bivouac” – presumably a military site. It appears on a sea chart of the area, surveyed in 1869 and published in 1874.

The proposed town is represented on an area of empty land

As this is a navigational chart, most of it is taken up by sea, which is shown in some detail with many recordings of depths and the locations of rocks that could be a hazard to ships. There are two lighthouses, marked in hand colour on the otherwise monochrome map; the more remote one, at the end of the Djerda peninsula, is connected to Collo by a road along the coast. The map was surveyed under the direction of Ernest Mouchez, a captain commanding the ship Travailleur, in 1869, assisted by several of the ship’s officers, as part of a wider survey along the Algerian coast, producing many charts which were published by the Dépôt des cartes et plans de la marine (the French hydrographic office).

The full chart shows sea depths and lighthouses as well as land information

France had been taking control of coastal settlements in Algeria since 1830, so the plan to establish a new town at a useful port is unsurprising. As is often the case, the earliest detailed map of a coastal area appears on a navigational chart, as previously mentioned here. An earlier sea chart shows that the land was not uninhabited as it’s made to look here. This chart surveyed in 1851 (also a French survey, by C. Bouchet-Rivière) shows the same area with three small clusters of buildings, one identified as a mosque; there are roads, trees and cultivated land around them. This was not empty land.

An earlier chart makes clear that the land was already occupied

The modern layout of Collo suggests that the grid of streets was built as planned on the 1874 chart, presumably erasing the settlements that were there before. Subsequently the town seems to have developed more organically, as most of the surrounding streets follow a more irregular pattern. The earlier buildings closest to the sea may not have been affected, and there is still a mosque on the same site.

Algérie: plan de Collo / levé en 1869 par Mr. Mouchez. [Paris] : Dépôt des cartes et plans de la marine, 1874. B1 a.61/25 [17]

Plan du mouillage de Collo / levé et dressé en 1851 par M. C. Bouchet-Rivière. [Paris] : Dépôt général de la marine, 1852. B1 a.61/25 [18]

Black Sash

Black Sash was a South African human rights organisation founded by liberal white women in Johannesburg in 1955 as a non-violent resistance organisation. It was so-named as the women wore black sashes on their protest meetings. Their initial campaigns focused on anti-apartheid issues such as forced removal of voters from the electoral roll, and the adoption of Pass Laws.
One way of getting this message across was to create maps showing the realities of the Apartheid system and to send them to organisations throughout the World. The Map Department here at the Bodleian was recently contacted by some of the people involved in Black Sash, the Guinness family, with this intriguing message:

The map includes detailed notes and statistical tables


“In 1977 I was temporarily resident in South Africa. In the autumn of 1977 the Black Sash organisation arranged for the production of a map, detailing the forced removal of indigenous people to their so-called Homelands. The intention was to mail copies of the map to institutions, academic and political, worldwide. It was believed that the South African authorities would try to confiscate these maps. They were, therefore, rolled up, like calendars, hand addressed and stamped, as if they were Christmas presents. My family picked a small number every day and posted them, one by one, in letter boxes round Johannesburg. At least one would have been addressed to the Bodleian. Can you tell me whether you ever received a copy/ copies of the map? If so, would it be possible to see it.”

Much to our delight, we were able to find the map posted to the Library all those years ago, which according to the accession stamp on the back was catalogued on 6 March 1978. Originally, the map was added to the collection at Rhodes House Library, but was transferred to the Weston Library in 2014 (with the rest of that collection).

The family conveyed their delight by email, and a visit was scheduled, three generations of the Guinness family visiting the Library. Back in the 1970s, the Guinness children hand-wrote the envelopes, and posted each map individually from different post boxes in and around Johannesburg. On arrival at the Library they were introduced to us as the “political activists”.

The inset shows where people were forcibly moved


Along with the map, we were able to display a later map, somewhat more sophisticated and professionally produced, yet somehow lacking the excitement and subterfuge conveyed by the original. We also called up a number of issues of the journal ‘Black Sash’ which thrilled the family as they recognised many of the names featured within each issue, and were keen to share their impressions of this visit with those individuals, many of whom they had lost contact with.

Black Sash was able to disband in 1994 with Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and the unbanning of the African National Congress.

A land divided against itself, a map of South Africa showing the African homelands and some of the mass removals of people which have taken place, also conditions in some of the resettlement areas / compiled by Barbara Waite. [Johannesburg] : Black Sash, 1977. 610.41 t.2

Casablanca

Casablanca is one of those names which is more than a location; how many of us think of the movie before the place? The film features the best use of a map (a globe really) in an opening sequence

With France under Marshal Petain agreeing a neutrality which favoured the Germans after French defeat in the Second World War Casablanca became one of the key points in safe passage of people escaping Fascist rule from Europe. From Casablanca boats and planes would go onto to Lisbon and from there across the Atlantic to America (as explained in the opening sequence). This map of Casablanca is contemporary with the film

Mil.-Geo.-plan von Casablanca, 1941. E23:20 Casablanca (12)

Published by the cartographic department of the German Army (Generalstab des Heeres), this is typical of German town plans from the war. Based on a French map published in 1935 the map has been enhanced by the highlighting of key administrative and military positions in the town. It was common for German military cartographers to make maps of countries and locations which were either neutral, as in this case, or actual allies of the Germans during the war.

Here is another version of the  French map from 1935 the German plan is based on, this time published by the War Office in, like the German plan, 1941 (Plan de Casablanca, 1941. E23:20 Casablanca (14)).

These maps by both Allied and Axis forces shows the importance of Morocco generally and Casablanca in particular in the North African Theatre of War. Comparing the two maps it is evident how much more information the German maps included, as is the case with most of the mapping that the Germans produced throughout the war. By using existing guide books, maps and postcards and gathering information from spies, Embassy staff and the general public the German military were able to map important locations to a level that up until the plans for the D-Day landings Allied forces often weren’t able or attempting to match (a blog on D-Day mapping can be found here)