Shaping the Cartography of Southwestern Africa

Coastal Charts and Orientation Maps of the Interior, 1502–1902

Abstract

A dangerous barren coast, a harsh interior environment, and at times violent conflicts among its inhabitants were
all obstacles to the exploration and mapping of southwestern Africa. Looking back on more than five hundred
years of mapped history, Namibia nevertheless boasts one of the richest cartographic heritages of the African
countries south of the equator. For a concise orientation on significant milestones of that extensive cultural heritage,
this paper selects for discussion sixteen outstanding coastal charts and orientation maps of the interior1 from
the four centuries between the years 1502 and 1902. For the continuity of contextual circumstances that drove
the cartographic unveiling of southwestern Africa, this paper presents the selected charts and maps in a chronological
order from the time of the Portuguese discovery until the eve of the major cartographical changes brought
about by the Herero and Nama uprisings.