Anne Hugon

US edition (left) and UK edition.

L'Afrique des explorateurs : Vers les sources du Nil (lit. 'Explorers in Africa: Towards the Sources of the Nile'; English edition: The Exploration of Africa: From Cairo to the Cape) is the first book of this "miniseries" and the 117th title of Découvertes collection. Despite the small format, the book is distinguished by the huge number of colour illustrations taken from 19th century journals and other sources, the quality of the colour is remarkable.[8] The body text is divided into five chapters: Ⅰ, "A World to Explore"; Ⅱ, "The Mystery of the Source of the Nile"; Ⅲ, "Livingstone's Mission in Southern Africa"; Ⅳ, "Into the Heart of the Forest"; Ⅴ, "The Explorer's Profession". The text follows the steps of those explorers in Africa: Richard Francis Burton, John Hanning Speke, James Augustus Grant, Samuel Baker, Henry Morton Stanley, David Livingstone, Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza, Jean-Baptiste Marchand and Mary Kingsley. In less than fifty years, in the late 19th century, they penetrated the heart of Africa, discovered the sources of the Nile, explored the Congo and Zambezi Basins, surveyed the Mountains of the Moon. But these explorers also revealed the riches of the black continent to the European colonisers. The "Documents" section at the back features excerpts from the explorers' own journals which is divided into five parts: 1, Preparing an Expedition; 2, The Explorers Confront Africa; 3, The Advent of Colonialism; 4, The Explorer's Changing Image; 5, Patrons. These are followed by a map, a chronology, further reading, list of illustrations and an index. The book has been translated into American and British English, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, simplified and traditional Chinese.

A 52-minute documentary adaptation of the book titled Le mystère des sources du Nil, directed by Stéphane Bégoin, released in 2003 for Arte's documentary television programme The Human Adventure. It's a co-production by Arte, Arte France, Éditions Gallimard and La Compagnie des Taxi-Brousse. In an interview with Arte, the director explains the use of pictures in the documentary: "I sought to find the iconographic richness that made the success of these small books (from Découvertes Gallimard). Specifically for this film, this is reflected in the mixture of different visual sources. There are the 'vignettes' that we talked about earlier, which are photomontages made from coloured prints."[6]

First edition

Vers Tombouctou : L'Afrique des explorateurs Ⅱ (lit. 'On the Road to Timbuktu: Explorers in Africa Ⅱ') is a sequel to Vers les sources du Nil and the 216th title of Découvertes collection, published in 1994. This book concentrates on Timbuktu, an ancient city in Mali, in West Africa, a region which the previous book has nothing on it. The book is not available in other languages.

For the Europeans, Timbuktu was a mythical city in the heart of the Sahara. In 1795, Mungo Park acknowledged the Niger River. Thirty years later, René Caillié entered this "forbidden city", while Hugh Clapperton explored Lake Chad, Heinrich Barth crossed the Sahara… Travellers discovered the powerful dynasties of West Africa. Since 1850, the new explorers were mostly colonial officers with mission of conquest. On the eve of the World War I, despite African nationalism, Europeans managed to create genuine empires in Africa.

A 52-minute documentary adaptation with the same title released in 1999, directed by Jean-Claude Lubtchansky. It's a co-production by Arte, Trans Europe Film and Éditions Gallimard.[7]