The American Southern Baptist Mission and Maps of Yorùbáland: The Evolution of a Cartographic Style

ABSTRACT

The Southern Baptist cartographic style portraying Yorùbáland in the mid-nineteenth century shifted the graphic appearance of this geographical space. This paper asserts that this graphic appearance reflects the evangelical thought of spreading the gospel and marked a very significant transition in the visual portrayal of West-Central Africa. Employing an historical-stylistic analysis, this paper examines the Christian missionary contribution to the appearance of the Yorùbá landscape in nineteenth-century maps. The Southern Baptist missionary maps of the 1850s, resulting from evangelical discourses and missionary work, highlighted geographical features that gave a new landscape identity to Yorùbáland. The map design of this ethno-territorial space emphasises an evangelical concern for well-populated regions. Hence, this study highlights the role of missionary maps in the distinctive visual expression of an ethnic territory in West African geography.

KEYWORDS:

• Cartographic style
• Southern Baptist Mission
• Yorùbáland
• Thomas Bowen
• William Keenan

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Babatunde Adedayo Ogundiwin

Babatunde Adedayo Ogundiwin is currently a doctoral student at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa having gained Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Nigeria. His thesis explores the role of maps in providing visual insights into agrarian spatial thought.