Windhoek — An exhibition displaying early maps of Namibia is to be held at the National Art Gallery of Namibia next Friday and will run until March 20.

The display, of particular interest to researchers and scholars, of Charles John Andersson's Maps of Namibia (1851 - 1852) and notes on the country (1850-1867) are illustrated with photos, drawings and sketches. The maps were discovered in Sweden.

Anderson arrived in Namibia in 1850 with British scientist Sir Francis Galton, with whom he travelled throughout Namibia, reaching as far north as Ondangwa.. While Galton went back to England in the beginning of 1852, Andersson decided to stay on. In order to finance his next journey in Namibia he went to Cape Town.

Here the Swedish-Norwegian Consul at the time, Jacob Letterstedt, asked him to make a map of the area of Namibia they had seen. This land was at the time almost completely un-known in Europe.

Two maps were then compiled and sent to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm, Sweden. The second map showed what is today northern Botswana and southern Zimbabwe with the Zambezi River. The waterfall Mosi-oa-Tunya is featured on the map which was made three years before Dr David Livingstone visited the Falls for the first time (1855).

On request of Andersson the two maps were not published, but were locked up in the archive of the Academy in Sweden, and remained there for 154 years. These maps were found recently by Christer Blomstrand and the Head of Archives at the Academy, Dr Karl Grandin. The Namibian map is the first map ever made of central and northern Namibia. This is the first time ever that the map is shown and published.

In addition to displaying the two unique maps, the exhibitors intend to bring forward and discuss the fact that the African people participated to a great extent with information and sketches in the production of the early maps, as well as guiding and leading the European, American and Asian explorers. This fact was hardly ever mentioned in the representations that the explorers did in their home countries about their discoveries in Africa.

These two maps will bring forward essential historical information, not only on geography, but also on the peoples and tribes of Namibia at the time. Andersson had made numerous notes, in handwriting, on the maps with information on these people. The historical information will be useful for historical research on pre-colonial Namibia.

Charles John Andersson lived and worked in Namibia during the pre-colonial times, 1850 - 1867, a period with scarce and scattered information on Namibia.

His books "Lake Ngami" and "Okavango River" published in 1857 and 1861 were sold in large numbers and were translated from English to Swedish and German at the time. His publications created in Europe and America for the fist time some knowledge of the country, Namibia.