Alfa Wa Diop

A Senegalese geographer who mapped West Africa and advocated for indigenous knowledge systems.

Alfa Wa Diop (1827–1901) was a Gambian scholar who produced the first accurate maps of the Senegal River basin, challenging European colonial cartography. As a Wolof oral historian, he documented navigational routes and ecological patterns using local knowledge, which he combined with European surveying techniques. His 1878 map of the Gambia River corrected colonial navigational errors that had caused multiple shipwrecks.

Diop's 1883 book Les Routes de l'Empire du Jolof revealed ancient trade networks linking modern Senegal to Mali, predating European exploration. He trained 50 African cartographers through a unique apprenticeship system, as described in this digital archive. His resistance to French colonial mapping policies led to his 1892 exile, but his methods influenced later independence leaders like Léopold Sédar Senghor. Modern geographers cite his work in GIS projects preserving West African hydrology.