This Wednesday, Círculo Ecuestre hosted the conference Explorers of the Nile: Harriet van Capellen and Alexine Tinne, organized together with the Ali Bey Travel Commission and Ferrer & Saret. The session was given by the Egyptologist and historian Irene Cordón, who analyzed the journey along the Nile of Harriet van Capellen and her daughter Alexine Tinne, two women who broke the social molds of the Victorian era to venture into cartographically unknown and dangerous territories.
During the conference, Cordón explained that this journey began in 1860 and that both explorers were motivated by scientific exploration. This led them to finance and organize a monumental caravan of nearly 200 porters heading towards the heart of Africa. Throughout their journey along the Nile, the explorers stood out for their deep moral compass, even buying and freeing slaves to immediately incorporate them as salaried staff within their own expedition.
Continuing with the account of the trip, the speaker detailed that the delegation ventured into the untamed region of Bahr el Ghazal to carry out meticulous anthropological and botanical studies. At that point, African fevers and malaria ended the life of Harriet van Capellen in the jungle. Despite this, Alexine Tinne refused to return to the comfort of the Netherlands and chose to continue collecting and classifying plant species unknown in Europe. Her dedication was such that she managed to have a family of plants named Tinneae in her honor.
Despite this, in 1869, while trying to open new trade routes in the Sahara Desert, Alexine Tinne was assaulted and murdered at the age of 33 by a hostile tribe who believed she was carrying gold among her belongings.
Finally, Irene Cordón concluded the conference by recalling the enormous historical debt owed to these female figures, demonstrating that Africa is also the setting where the legacy of the female explorer rests.