Virtual Representation Theory

At the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, the printing and publishing market of England was not limited to the production of maps and geographic items only (Wallis 19-20); however, it seems there was a definite appeal and demand for maps in the early to mid-eighteenth century when maps began appearing in magazines such as the Gentleman's Magazine, "its first map appearing in 1736," the London Magazine, and the Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure (1747) (Woodward 189). Not only were maps being produced for the commercial collector and buyer, but they were also appearing for the novel-reading public in fictions such as Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) and Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) (Woodward 190). Subsequently, maps were becoming a sustainable commodity during a British economic and imperial expansion, and maps of Africa were bought, sold, and viewed by Europeans of the eighteenth century during the African slave-trade as the images found on these maps were gaining cultural primacy.

Being experts in a field of study, cartographers, perhaps, would seem to have more integrity and respect in terms of their truth claims and ability to provide "accurate" descriptions of geographic regions than travelers and explorers, and experts' claims are hard to refute. The advances in math and science "initiated by Sir Issaac Newton" were accompanied by the development of new mapping instruments to solidify the accuracy of the images provided by a map -- new instruments such as the quadrant with reflecting mirrors, the chronometer which measured longtitude more accurately, the sextant, which was an improvement of the quadrant, and the theodolite "which had evolved from the polymetrum" (Crone 101). During the eighteenth century, London "became the center of cartographic progess," and with the imperial expansion "there was a marked improvement in the construction and engraving of their maps, which, by their clarity and freedom from conjectures or unverified detail, in themselves conveyed a general impression of accuracy and thoroughness" (Crone 108). It is this conveyance of accuracy that is mythic; the illusion of accuracy is based on a faith in science; the growing number of details gave the illusion that there was more verifiable information.

Maps of Africa are a critical political and demarcating tool for the British imperialist and the British reader. Africa is, first, geographically located in a study by an expert cartographer, employed to locate and define the region with mapmaking instruments, and then the map is defined as a truthful representation of hte continent for his reader, collector, or buyer. Although it seems natural for our minds to "formulate what Claude Levi-Strauss has called a science of the concrete" based on what is observed and experienced, there is still proof that dominant images produced by and found in a culture are not arbitrary. The geographic region of Africa is depicted in such a way that the "us" and "them" is clearly delineated; Africans are assigned a role and given meaning which becomes more valid the longer the image is viewed by the majority of the dominant culture. Theoretically aligned with post-structuralists, Denis Wook and John Fels in The Power of Maps claim that maps serve an interested cultural product (1) as the cartographer selects a particular road, legend marker or image and assumes that this is what belongs as a representation of a city road, a country mile, or an African geographic region. The political implications behind these images will vary depending on the creator and the spectator, and the interest of the culture that dictates and controls the dissemination of dominant images is masked. However, the product or the representation on the cartographic image is "naturalized" in the culture (Wood 2), and the pictorial image created to represent the African woman is the point at which the African woman is realized as Other in the minds and eyes of the European spectator, and the boundaries between cultures are created by the lines on the maps (Said 54).

The African culture is reproduced through very specifically chosen and "concentrated" cartouches - the implications are mythical, unknown, unquestioned. Readers of travel narratives of eighteenth-century England could only "imagine" the reality of Africans and their culture; however, these printed words, these "imaginative geographic thoughts" could be solidified through visual sketches. If the readers could not travel to the far away, unknown world of Africa, then the cartographers would bring them closer by way of maps and give signs of their existence. Wood and Fels claim that "the map doesn't let us see anything, but it does let us know what others have seen or found out or discovered, others often living but more often dead, the things they learned pile dup on layer on top of layer so that to study even the simplest-looking image is to peer back through ages of cultural acquisition" (6-7). Looking at the entire map, these cartouches become a narrative that acquires distinctions of race, culture, and signs.

Beginning with the image of the African woman introduced at the beginning of this project, look at her again. The woman is dark-skinned, naked, and surrounded by animals typically thought of as wild and perhaps dangerous, but she does not flinch. She touches her jewelry; she has no expression. What happens to the images when the words of explorers such as John Ogilby, William Snelgrave, or John Atkins are evoked in the minds of Europeans living during the eighteenth century, living before, during and after the African slave-trade? Ogilby claims that African women "have a great propensity to, and skill in Sorcery, so that they can charm Serpents.... They believe farther, that they can bewitch any in such manner, as to cause them to die of a languishing Disease" (347). Furthermore, African women "at all times chew and each such Herbs and Barks of Trees, as are the greatest incentives to heighten their desires to almost hourly Congresses" (390). William Snelgrave alleges that "Negroes are lascivious, given to worship of snakes, and anthropophagous; they will vend their own children." The implications of depicting her physique and behavior as masculine would assume that she can endure hard agricultural labor like the African men. However, based on a chauvinistic imperialist gaze, what would ultimately place the African woman in an inferior role, would be to imply that she is not as feminine, therefore, less beautiful and desirable than her European counterpart. Furthermore, if you consider the disproportional size of her head as depicting unintelligence, childlike thoughts, and powerlessness then this African woman lacks all that Europe would consider superior.

Based on the travelers' words, does this African woman now appear capable of bewitching because the animals are not affected by her presence? Is the white-skinned man shielding himself from her supernatural powers? Does she chew the bark of trees to appear more desirable? John Berger's Ways of Seeing asserts that the words have changed the meaning of the image, and "the image now illustrates the sentence" (28). The African woman is issued new signs of meaning; she is no longer viewed with only a text to guide the reader. She has a visual context, and she signifies transatlantically a possible sorcerer, a sexual and desiring being, a threat, a danger, an Other who does not belong in Europe. She is fetishized as her body begins to represent all that is "African" and all that is an African female.

The cartographer's choice of images has evoked the words of the travelers, and the spectator will see these depicted scenes as wild, primitive and uncivilized because the woman is naked, and wild animals, crocodiles, scorpions do not make her flinch. Notice the two frames on the ground below her feet; they appear to be portraits of Viking soldiers or Europeans in general. The iconoclastic plates would seem, first, to establish Africa as an ancient culture spanning a historical time line. However, the position of the small framed pictures fallen at her feet perhaps signify the fallen civilization of Africa and ultimately the alleged fallen nature of this woman. The scene encircling her body indicates the meaning of her image, and each icon within the cartouche is significant to how the viewer will define her. Berger claims that "we never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves. Our vision is continually moving, continually holding things in a circle around itself, constituting what is present to us as we are" (9), and the circle enlarges as we connect each cartouche with a meaning indicative of "Africa."

Looking on Price's map, above and diagonally to the right of the images we've been discussing two scenes of cannibalism are depicted. One scene illustrates Africans who appear to be cooking pieces of human flesh - torso, arms, legs - on an open fire. The scene is emblematic of an African feast, and the natives appear to be talking with each other, waiting for the food to be prepared. For the European, the illustration of an open-pit cooking human flesh would not be considered a civilized social setting, and again words of the explorers are evoked. Ogilby claims that the Kumba tribe are "anthropophagus, and by consequence of nature cruel and barbarous," and they "[ate] up whomever they took" (374). These Africans will appear dispossessed to a European audience and are truly cannibals in need of civilizing discipline.

An even more violent scene appears in the same cartouche below the top scene where a white-skinned man seems to be attacking a dark-skinned African. The image of this fierce, animal-like white-skinned man is very problematic because the white man has been depicted also as savage - he is naked, brutish, his teeth appear to be fang-like, his hair is long and unkempt, yet he is white. One wonders if he represents the civilizing power or the valor of a European who Ogilby claims can tame the Africans' wildness and savagery (24). Another possible interpretation is that this light-skinned man could have been made savage by Africa's influence, and his actions may be a warning sign to European travelers to avoid relations with Africans. Even without an irrefutable interpretation of this scene, the white-skinned man is still shown as overpowering the dark-skinned man, and the skulls on the ground represent death caused by cannibalisitc Africans who, according to Ogilby, can only be civilized "by their conversing with Europeans" (6). What do these images, these scenes of cannibalism do to the meaning of the African woman figured in the bottom left cartouche? She is African an dark-skinned, and she is now associated with violence and bodily destruction because she sits on the block titled "Africa" - a continent depicted by scenes of cannibalism.

The scenes in the lower-left and upper-right cartouches are drawn to provide the map-viewer with an idea about the Africans' social and cultural activities as well as the natural vegetative world which surrounds them. However, what is drawn and depicted is not necessarily accurate, but once these ideas are instilled, the viewer can look at the lower-right cartouche and make the assumption that these instruments were used to create this map and to create an "accurate" representation of the African region - including the illustrations. In the lower-right cartouche, below the images of cannibalism, there are various objects encased by a decorative scroll. Some of the objects such as the jewelry - the ring, earrings, and pendants - are indicative of the commerical value of the African culture. However, these objects and others such as the comb may depict the beautification of the African culture and would seem to eroticize the African figure, for these objects are used to decorate the body. There are also objects in this cartouche that stamp Britain's cultural presence and power on this map and create the boundaries between the colonial and imperial cultures. The mapping instruments (the mini telescope and the scissors), the pistol and the European figure standing on the globe represent the British imperialist's ambition to conquer the world through exploration and expansion. The words below the objects indicate the British imperialist's delineation and commodification of Africa and locate the British producer of this map on a street in London: "Made & Sold by G. Willdey in Ludgate Street." Moreover, the two small figures depict the divisions between the European and African cultures. The European explorer stands on a globe and looks through a telescope enacting European knowledge, science, exploration, and the imperialist expansion. However, the African figure strains under the weight of a large globe, which he holds behind his back and above his shoulders. The glove may also represent the European atlas market, which is another image of European imperialism. The European figure is positioned as having the power to travel and map the world, while the African figure is positioned as being subordinate to that power.

To see the rest of the images:

Figure 5

Figure 6

Figure 7

Figures 8 & 9

Figure 10