Berezin, N.I.: Africa. A Manual for Teaching Geography

Title

Afrika. Posobie dlia prepodavaniia geografii, Sankt-Peterburg 1912

Africa. A Manual for Teaching Geography

Keywords

Summary

According to Berezin’s introduction, this manual was born out of necessity as he had struggled to find a geography textbook suitable for young students and reliable for teachers. It was thought of as the first in a series (with Asia, America, Australia and Oceania, and Europe and Russia meant to follow). The book is divided into six chapters: Chapter 1 is dedicated to the history of the discovery and study of the African continent; Chapter 2 covers expeditions to Inner Africa; Chapter 3 is devoted to the climate and rivers; Chapter 4 describes nature; Chapter 5 recounts European acquisitions; Chapter 6 discusses African countries and regions, including Egypt, Mauritania, the Sahara, Sudan, Abyssinia, Guinea, Equatorial Africa, East Africa and South Africa. Henry Stanley seems to have been a primary source of information, as Berezin quotes him repeatedly. The observations about the continent appear to be largely based on second-hand anecdotal information. Pictures of locals, everyday life in villages, hunting practices, and landscapes are also provided.

While Berezin’s other popular books were generally well-received, this textbook was not: for example, the 1914 Index of Popular Science Books of Geography included the manual among those not recommended, stating that it offered “a very inaccurate portrayal of Negroes and their lives”, contained many “scientific inaccuracies and errors”, and failed to clarify “the connection between nature and life”.

Bio

The son of the renowned Orientalist Il’ia Berezin, professor at Kazan and Saint Petersburg universities, Nikolai Berezin was a writer, geographer and schoolteacher, who dedicated himself to popularise the life and works of many Western explorers, like Nils Nordenskiöld, James Cook, Gustav Nachtigal. He also translated the adventurous accounts of Joachin von Brenner-Felsach’s travel to Sumatra and Sven Hedin’s to Central Asia. A passionate traveller himself, he thoroughly documented some of his experiences, writing, for instance, a reportage of a journey through Karelia, complete with photos. In addition to popular literature, he also compiled several geography textbooks and manuals for schoolchildren and teachers.

Sources

Ukazatel’ nauchno-populiarnykh knig po geografii, Sankt-Peterburg 1914², p. 149;

I. Masanov, Slovar’ psevdonimov russkikh pisatelei, uchenykh i obshchestvennykh deiatelei, t. 4, Moskva 1960, p. 63.

A.F.

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