The Monthly Record: Atlas of the Tanganyika Territory

Summary

This paper presents a critical review of the Atlas of Tanganyika, published in 1942 under the authority of the Territory’s Chief Surveyor. The purpose is to evaluate the atlas’s cartographic quality, content, and broader implications for colonial geographical knowledge. The review method involves detailed examination of the atlas’s map design, projection, thematic coverage, toponymy, and historical cartography. Key findings highlight the atlas as a remarkable achievement produced during wartime in a remote dependency, featuring eighteen polyconic maps that use a common base and overprints to depict physical features, biogeography, human geography, and economic activities. The maps are intentionally generalized at approximately 1:4,000,000 to avoid spurious accuracy, with pleasing color use and generally good registration. Historical maps are included but suffer from being copies of copies. The gazetteer omits several well‑known place‑names, and while orthographic consistency has improved since earlier lists, minor spelling variations remain. A significant limitation is the lack of references to more detailed sources, reducing the atlas’s utility as a gateway to in‑depth information. The review concludes that despite its merits, the atlas epitomizes a wider problem: locally produced colonial publications are often inaccessible or unknown outside the territory, and wartime difficulties in obtaining such materials underline the need for systematic efforts to collect and disseminate colonial geographical knowledge. The paper thus advocates for concerted measures to remedy this persistent information gap.