1899 Pujol Map of the St. Louis - Dakar Railroad, Senegal

This is the only known example of the 1899 Pujol map of Senegal focusing on the Saint-Louis-Dakar Railroad - the primary artery of French hegemony in West Africa. The map is printed on linen-silk, intended to withstand arid weather conditions and military use. It was printed by helio-zincography, likely in Saint-Louis, capital of Afrique-Occidentale Française, and designed by A. Vandenkerckhove, a sergeant in the all-African Senegalese Skirmishers.

A Closer Look

The map focuses on western Senegal, detailing the two primary arteries of French hegemony: the Senegal River and the Saint-Louis-Dakar Railway (SLD). It is based on railroad surveys conducted under administrator Jean Marie Emile Pinet-Laprade and engineer Pierre Famin. The primary focus is this latter railway. Completed in 1885, the SLD allowed French troops and resources to quickly move between the capital at Saint-Louis and the port of Dakar. It also provided a mechanism to control the Cayor Kingdom, through which it ran. There are three detail maps artistically rendered to appear as separate sheets overlaid on the main map, with clever folds, rolls, and even tears added to create both a three-dimensional effect and maximize space. These include, Dakar, Saint-Louis, and with its dark history in the slave trade, Gorée.

Saint-Louis-Dakar Railway

The Saint-Louis-Dakar Railway was the first railroad in Senegal. It connected Saint-Louis, then capital of French Senegal, to its primary port, Dakar. The value of such a railroad had been promoted for decades, not only as a means to access and exploit the resources of the interior, but also to militarily dominate the problematic Cayor Kingdom, whose Islamic populace doggedly opposed French regional hegemony. Cayor was situated between the French strongholds of Saint-Louis and Dakar, thus dividing French spheres of influence. French engineers therefore planned a railroad that would run far inland, well away from lightly populated coastal regions, deep into the densely populated Cayor heartlands. The railroad, it was believed, would allow the French to psychologically and militarily dominate Cayor. Work on the railroad began in 1878 and it officially opened in 1885. A generation later, in the 1920s, it became known as the 'Peanut Railroad', reflecting various groundnut schemes that used the railroad to transport crops. It continued to operate sporadically until about 2000.

Photo-zincography and Helio-zincography

Photo-zincography and helio-zincography are similar reprographic processes popularized by the British Ordnance Survey. In 1859, photo-zincography was developed, separately but simultaneously, by John Walter Osborne in Australia and by two soldiers at the Ordnance Survey in Southampton. These soldiers, Captain Alexander de Courcy Scott and Lance-Corporal Rider, were working under the command of Colonel Henry James, who falsely took credit for the innovation. Essentially, photo-zincography is a reproductive process that uses glass photographic negatives to create carbon positive prints which are then transferred to zinc plates. Helio-zincography, while essentially the same process, eliminates the carbon positive by placing negatives directly on the zinc plate. It offers several advantages, most importantly, zinc plates are lighter and cheaper than lithographic stones, economizing the process considerably. Helio-zincography was embraced by various cartographic agencies that demanded mobility and economy, among them the British Ordinance Survey, the French Bureau Topographique, and various other military mapping agencies.

Publication History and Census

This map was published and printed on linen-silk by helio-zincography in 1899, likely in Saint Louis, Senegal. It was commissioned by one 'Colonel Pujol'. This is most likely August Marie Joseph Pujol, who, around this time, held the post of Commandant des Troupes Coloniales in French West Africa. The map's remarkable design can be attributed to one 'A. Vandenkerckhove', a sergeant of the 'Tirailleurs Seneglais', or Senegalese Skirmishers, an all-African unit under the 'Troops Coloniales'. There is some evidence on the page, in terms of plate numbers, that suggest this map may have been made for some sort of military loose-leaf atlas or official map collection, although only one similar item, a map of the Senegal River, is known (see Geographicus: SenegalFleuve-pujol-1899). This is the only known example of the present map.