Johannes Rebmann - Stumbling Upon Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya

Stumbling Upon Kilimanjaro and Mt. Kenya

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:

This morning we discerned the Mountains of Jagga more distinctly than ever; and about ten o'clock I fancied I saw a dazzlingly white cloud. My Guide called the white which I saw merely 'Baridi,' cold; it was perfectly clear to me, however, that it could be nothing else but snow.

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.