Geographic Provinces of Angola

No part of Africa has been so neglected by writers in English as Angola. This is natural, since the colony always has been Portuguese except for a short period of Dutch rule and since the inhabited sections are separated from British holdings by great stretches of unknown and difficult hunger country. Thus Colonel Statham's venture into this field with Through Angola, a Coming Colony is a novelty. Interested in hunting big game, the greater part of his book covers personal experiences in his pursuit of the antelope; as regards geographic and economic problems it is chiefly useful for what can be read between the lines. Some of the illustrations depict geographical conditions excellently. Two recent expeditions, headed by Count Rohan-Chabot and Professor Taruffi respectively, had scientific objectives-the formner general exploration, the latter a study of agricultural possibilities with a view to Italian immigration. Each expedition confined itself to a single section of the colony and made careful observations. Those of the French mission are objective in tone; the Italian expedition has been written up somewhat in the vein of propaganda for settlers. Marquardsen's monograph on Angola is also based on personal observation in part. But in addition it incorporates all the information available in literature at the time of publication and is an all-round serious geographic study. It bears evidence of the painstaking care and thoroughness with which German scientists generally are accredited and likewise evidence of the complementary undiscriminating acceptance of sources at their face value. In spite of faults, however, this is by all odds the best study of Angola in any language. There is a large-scale map (I: 2,000,000) for relief, drainage, places, transportation, and political subdivisions, in addition to useful sketch maps

Geography · Political science · Regional science · African history and culture studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories