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A New ‘Playground of Europe’? Exploration, colonisation and the naturalisation of Mount Kilimanjaro at the dawn of the 20th century
Hybrid event: Register for the webinar using the link below.
At the turn of the twentieth century, Mount Kilimanjaro was an integral part of German East Africa’s colonial territory and even stood as one of its most celebrated landmarks. With its so-called ‘eternal’ snows and lush forests, it was perceived as a unique environment—a veritable ‘African Eden’ that had to be preserved at all costs: as a result, it became the subject of colonial environmental policies, including the establishment of reserves that laid the groundwork for environmental legislation still in effect in the postcolonial era. Furthermore, standing at 19,341 feet (5,895 metres), the mountain attracted an increasing number of Western visitors, who saw it as a new ‘playground of Europe’ for mountaineering and safari activities: in this way, it became a quintessential East African topos and a key destination for the emerging tourism industry in the region. Froment revisits the history of this dual process—the development of conservation policies on Kilimanjaro and its commodification as a tourist destination during the colonial era—by tracing its origins back to the early European explorations in the 1840s, and analysing its consequences. It demonstrates how the naturalisation of the massif systematically emptied the mountain of its inhabitants—not so much to protect biodiversity as to serve new forms of exploitation defined, imposed and regulated by Western actors and colonial rule.
Dr Delphine Froment is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Lorraine (Nancy). Her doctoral research focused on the history of the construction of knowledge and representations about East Africa, and more specifically about Kilimanjaro, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, within the context of European (and particularly British and German) exploration and colonization of the African continent. Her current research looks at the actors, practices, and stakes of scientific exploration in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Date:
10 February 2026, 16:00
Venue:
13 Bevington Road, 13 Bevington Road OX2 6NB
Venue Details:
Seminar Room, African Studies Centre
Speaker:
Delphine Froment (Lorraine, Nancy)
Organising department:
Centre for African Studies
Organisers:
Norman Aselmeyer (University of Oxford),
Mwangi Mwaura (Oxford),
Biruk Terrefe (University of Oxford),
Jason Mosley (University of Oxford)
Part of:
Northeast Africa Forum seminar series
Booking required?:
Recommended
Booking url:
https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/af7ac9a8-85b7-4585-ad8f-69d2240f5217@cc95de1b-97f5-4f93-b4ba-fe68b852cf91
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Jason Mosley
