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Explorers & agents · 1834–1910

Benjamin J. K. Anderson

Liberian explorer whose journeys to Musardu documented the interior trade system from the inside.

Biography

Anderson travelled from the coast through Bopolu to Musardu in 1868 and again in 1874, producing the first detailed account of the interior road by a Liberian.

His narrative describes the markets, the tolls, the political etiquette of passage and the towns of the Condo sphere — a generation after Sao Boso, but describing a system that long predates him.

Historical significance

The single richest description of the interior commercial order, written by an African observer.

Timeline

  1. 1868First journey to Musardu
  2. 1870Narrative published
  3. 1874Second journey

Related entries

References

  • Anderson, Benjamin (1870). Narrative of a Journey to Musardu.

Suggested reading

  • Anderson (1870) — available in modern reprint.