Annular Eclipse Maps

Annular Eclipse MapsAuthor(s): Richard GraySource: The Journal of African History, Vol. 9, No. 1 (1968), pp. 147-157Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/179924 .

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Journal of African History, ix, i (1968), pp. 147-157

Printed in Great Britain

ANNULAR ECLIPSE MAPS

BY RICHARD GRAY

The purpose of these maps, like those of the total solar eclipses published earlier,1 is to enable a historian rapidly to identify an apparent reference in his sources to a solar eclipse, or to ascertain the moments at which eclipses might have been witnessed over specific areas in Africa. The originals have again been drawn to the scale of I:Io,000,ooo by Mr A. K. Appleton, F.R.A.S., to calculations by Dr J. G. Porter, F.R.A.S., and represent precisely the same advance in accuracy compared with Oppolzer's charts. At the small scale at which the6e maps are here reproduced, however, it will generally be possible merely to arrive at approximate results; a more accurate assessment can be reached only by consulting copies of the originals,2 or, in some cases, by undertaking further calculations. Within these limits it is hoped that they will prove a useful indication of the possibilities of this type of evidence and will lead to the discovery of references that have not yet been published or reported.

An annular eclipse (Lat. annulus, ring) occurs when the umbra, the Moon's shadow, falls short of the Earth's surface, so that for someone standing in the track of the eclipse merely the central portion of the Sun is obscured, and a ring of sunlight still appears round the dark body of the Moon. The maps show the central paths of the eclipses; as in the case of total eclipses, the tracks can vary in width from near zero to a maximum of, in a few instances, about 200 miles, and, as with total eclipses, a partial eclipse is produced on either side of these tracks. For the purpose of identifying a reference to an eclipse, however, it is essential to remember that the effects of a total eclipse-the sudden onset of darkness, the drop in temperature, the view of the corona and of the glowing, blood-red prominencies of the Sun (precisely the phenomena most liable to cause the greatest alarm among unprepared spectators)-are never produced during an annular eclipse. Thus, whereas in a clear sky the occurrence of a total eclipse would certainly be noticed and cause acute alarm, an annular or a partial eclipse of even a high magnitude might well pass unobserved.3 When attempting to identify an eclipse reference, one should therefore always begin by consulting the maps showing the paths of the total eclipses, for even if totality did not apparently occur at the particular point referred to in the source, the possibility that a total eclipse was witnessed close to this point and by the same ethnic group should always be considered. There seem in fact to be at least three relatively well-

1 'Eclipse maps', J.A.H., vi (I965), 25i-62. 2 Velograph copies on stable-base film of the original five maps of total eclipses and of

the master grid are obtainable, price ?21 the set, and of the four annular eclipse maps at ?I4. Orders should be sent to the Editors of the Journal of African History.

3 Monsieur B. Kamian, Director of the Jlcole Normale Superieure at Bamako, most kindly sent me a report of his observations during the annular eclipse of i966. v. 20 which passed over Bamako. The sky had a light cloud covering and M. Kamian was able to observe the sun with the naked eye. He noticed that some animals showed signs of alarm: donkeys and sheep ceased to browse, and some hens began to return to the hen-house as at dusk; but most people merely thought that a storm was imminent and remained un- aware of the eclipse. Outside the rainy season the phenomenon might of course have aroused much more alarm.

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attested instances of this.4 Only if it seems impossible to connect the reference with a total eclipse, should one then examine the possibility of an annular eclipse, or finally, failing this, that of a partial eclipse, i.e. the effect produced by a relatively distant eclipse whether total or annular.

These priorities seem to be borne out by the list of references to solar eclipses drawn up, and considered by, the conference on African Iron Age chronology held at the School of Oriental and African Studies in July I966, and now published at the end of this article. The data at hand are still far too scanty to permit any firm generalizations, but of the cases so far considered the great majority, twelve out of eighteen, seem to refer to eclipses which caused totality either at the point mentioned in the source or close by within the same ethnic area. Against this, there is so far one clear case of a reference to an annular eclipse (Adwa, i668. xi. 4), and two reports from oral tradition which would seem to refer to annular eclipses which passed either overhead or very close to the point of reference (Cazombo, 1759. xii. 19, and Kigali, 1796. i. io). There are also two

apparently well authenticated instances of references in Arabic chronicles to partial eclipses caused by annular eclipses (Timbuktu, I668. xi. 4, and Buipe, 1750. i. 8), though it remains difficult to explain why these particular eclipses were noticed and thought worthy of recording. On the whole, however, the results of this initial investigation have proved distinctly encouraging, for although an apparent reference to an eclipse in oral tradition will seldom result in a fixed date of unchallengeable certainty, one can at least arrive at a degree of probability which can constitute, as in the case of the celebrated eclipse at Biharwe, a significant clue or working hypothesis for reconstructing the chronology of a very wide area. It is hoped to publish further lists of eclipses and to build up a series of case studies, so readers are asked kindly to communicate references to the author.

References to solar eclipses in Africa south of the Sahara with suggested identifications

1516. xii. 23.

During the reign of Ali Kariagiwa of Katsina. Palmer's statement5 that the eclipse was that of 14I9. iii. 26 can hardly stand: this eclipse was not, as he states, a total eclipse; it was annular, and the central line passed ca. Ioo miles south of Katsina in mid-morning. It would have caused nothing like the alarm of I 516. xii. 23, the central line of which passed through, or very close to, Katsina in the late afternoon. The only other eclipses in the period I000-2000 which might have caused totality at Katsina are those of 1025, 1232 and I347, all of which are far too early. The 15 6 date would seem to fit in admirably with Professor Smith's reconstruction of Katsina chronology.6

1520. iv. 17.

Seen by Olimi I, fifth Mukama of the Bito dynasty of Bunyoro, at Biharwe in Ankole (lat. o? 30' 30" S., long. 30? 45' E.), and also by Nyabugaro Ntare I

4 Baka, I680. iii. 30; Thularestad, I820. iii. 14; Biharwe, I520. iv. 17. 5 Sir Richmond Palmer, The Bornu, Sahara and Sudan (I936), 84-5. 6 H. F. C. Smith, 'A further adventure in the chronology of Katsina', Bulletin of News

(Hist. Soc. Nigeria), vi (I96), 5-7.

148 R. GRAY




of Ankole.7 The northern limit of the tracks of two total eclipses (1462. xi. 21 and 1520. iv. 17) and of one annular eclipse (I492. x. 21) passed within

forty miles of Biharwe; these would appear to be the only eclipses worth con-

sidering seriously in the period I400-I600. Dr J. G. Porter has kindly supplied the following calculations for these eclipses at the longitude of Biharwe with the southern latitude positions expressed in decimal form:

1462 I492 I520 Northern limit of track S. lat. 0.99? 1.02? 0.55? Southern limit of track S. lat. I'390 2'20? 2230? Width of track (miles) 28 82 I2I

Duration on the central line I min 02 s 3 min 46 s 3 min o0 s

The I520 eclipse would therefore have caused totality within about three miles of Biharwe, and though at this northern limit of the track the total phase would have lasted only a few seconds, this would still have been sufficient to cause acute alarm. 'The maximum phase of the 1520 eclipse,' Dr Porter adds, 'would take place about an hour before sunset, so that the sun would be at an altitude of only I3?, in a direction a little north of west.' This would make the phenomenon more easily observable in any case, and in high-altitude country, if there were a clear view to the north of west, it would be an impressive spectacle. 'I think', he concludes, 'we can rule out the I462 eclipse-an eclipse of short duration, with the central line too far away, and the sun high in the afternoon sky. The annular eclipse of I492 is even less promising.' The central line of the I506. vii. 20 total eclipse passed ca. 300 miles south of Biharwe, and, as in the case of the I492 and 1524. ii. 4 annular eclipses, the impact of totality would have been lacking throughout Ankole and Bunyoro. Against the 1520 eclipse it might be argued that one account states that darkness 'covered the whole land and remained throughout noonday', but this indication of the time of day need not perhaps be taken too seriously. Current interpretations of inter-lacustrine genealogical evidence would favour 1520 as opposed to 1462, which seems almost certainly too early.

1553. i. 14. At Sire, Ethiopia, during the thirteenth year of the Emperor Claudius.8

The central path of this eclipse passed ca. 400 miles south of Sire, yet it apparently caused 'great consternation'; Bruce, however, does not give his source, and the record might refer to the annular eclipse of I528. v. i8, whose central path passed very close to Sire.

1668. xi. 4. At Adwa, Ethiopia.9 7 Sir J. M. Gray, 'The solar eclipse in Ankole in I492', Ugandaj. xxvII (1963), 217-21;

J. Sykes, 'The eclipse at Biharwe', Uganda J. xxIII (I959), 44-50. 8 J. Bruce, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, II (1790), I93-4. The eclipse was

on the 24th and not, as Bruce states, on the I4th. 9 E. A. Wallis Budge, A History of the Ethiopians, II (1928), 408.

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R. GRAY

1668. xi. 4. The Tedzkiret en-Nisian'0 records an eclipse of the sun at Timbuktu on I668. xi.

3. This may refer to the annular eclipse of the day after, whose central line passed ca. 400 miles to the north-east soon after midday, but it is astonishing that the chronicler should record this eclipse, rather than that of I673. viii. 12 which was total at Timbuktu. This can perhaps be accounted for by the fact that August falls in the rainy season at Timbuktu; but it still remains surprising that an annular eclipse should have caused alarm at that distance.

1680. iii. 30.

During the reign of Mbakam Mbomancyeel, Bushoong, Congo.ll The total

eclipse of I6I9. vii. ii passed almost as close to the Bushoong kingdom, but Professor Vansina considers that this eclipse should be ruled out if his date for the arrival of the Bushoong (ca. I569) remains unchallenged. The I680. iii. 30 eclipse caused totality at Sao Paulo on the coast, where candles were lit in the houses.l2

1680. iii. 30.

At Baka, Uganda, during the reign of the Kabaka Juko. The southern edge of the umbra passed ca. oo00 miles north of Baka, producing a partial eclipse at Baka of 0-96 magnitude.l3

1750. i. 8.

The Gonja Chronicle records the observation of an eclipse, probably at Buipe, on I749. xii. 3I. Dr Porter has calculated that the annular eclipse of I750. i. 8 was at its maximum at Buipe at 7 h 58 min with a magnitude of o06I. The annular eclipse of I749. vii. 14 caused a magnitude of o-86 at I2 h 27 min, but Dr Porter considers that the 1750 eclipse might well attract more interest, as the sun would not have been too high in the eastern sky.14

1759. xii. 19.

Balovale Lunda tradition records an apparent eclipse near Cazombo (then ca. I2? 30' S, 22? 40' E.) during a battle which immediately preceded the accession of Kazanda to the Ishindi chieftainship. A translation of the relevant text is as follows: 'At dawn Kazanda's war party came with the intention of fighting with Chilumbu's war party; it is said that they saw a hill of darkness between them with a war party on either side of it, unable to see each other; so they failed to fight and held that it was wrong for the sons of a single chief to fight thus'.'1

10 0. Houdas (trans.), Tedzkiret en-Nisian (I899), 255. I am grateful to Dr H. J. Fisher for this reference and for clarifying Houdas's confusion with regard to the Christian date.

"1 E. Torday, On the Trail of the Bushongo (1925), 141-2. E. Torday and T. A. Joyce, Notes ethnographiques sur les peuples communement appeles Bakuba, ainsi que les peuplades apparentees. Les Bushongo (Brussels), 1910, 34-6.

12 A. O. de Cadornega, Historia Geral das Guerras Angolanas, 11 (I940), 428. 13 Sir J. M. Gray, 'Early history of Buganda', Uganda J. II (1935), 268. See also

Dr J. G. Porter's calculation quoted in R. Gray, 'Eclipse maps', J.A.H., VI (1965), 257. 14 Personal communications from Dr N. Levtzion and Dr J. G. Porter. 15 I am most grateful to Mr C. M. N. White for this translation of the passage from a

vernacular history of the Balovale Lunda by Thomas Chinyama, published in Lusaka 1945.

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Livingstone met Kazanda's son, Kawumbu, on i8 January 1854 and reported that he 'appeared a man upwards of fifty-five years of age'.16 Kazanda is reputed to have had an exceptionally long reign, and Kawumbu was a mere youth when he inherited after three chiefs who had succeeded Kazanda for short periods. Mr C. M. N. White has therefore suggested that Kazanda 'can hardly have been born later than I740-50, or succeeded before 1765-70'.17 There are no total eclipses close to Cazombo in the eighteenth century. The following annular eclipses passed close to Cazombo, however, and Dr Porter has calculated their magnitudes as follows:

Magnitude H Min

I716. . I 5 096 at II 52 1726. iv. 2 o-80 14 26

1749- vii. I4 0-92 15 23

I759. xii. 19 0'94 I7 I5 (sunset at I8 h 22 min)

Of these annular eclipses, that of I759 fits closest to Mr White's reconstruction of the Ishindi chronology. Cazombo was situated well within its path, and with the sun at a low altitude the eclipse should have been impressive at Cazombo if the sky was clear that evening. The difficulty is the time of day: a morning eclipse would certainly fit better with the text. The only eclipse which occurred early in the morning, was the total eclipse of I755. ix. 6, but the central line passed about 800 miles to the south, and at its maximum at 8 h 33 min it obscured only 0'72 of the sun at Cazombo. Otherwise the late morning annular eclipse of 1716. x. 15 passed closest to the area. Livingstone may have underestimated Kawumbu's age by anything up to fifteen years, giving at the outside a birth-date of ca. 1784; but even so it would seem difficult to accept that his father, Kazanda, could have led his men and succeeded to the chieftainship as early as 1716, for in that case he would have been a remarkably virile nonagenarian.

1796. i. 10.

An eclipse marked the coronation of Mibambwe III Sentabyo of Rwanda. The following eclipses occurred with their central line within a radius of ca. 800 miles of Kigali (ca. 2? S., 30? 15' E.) in the eighteenth century:

Total

1741. vi. 13, ca. 550 m. N. at midday I78I. x. 17, ca. 650 m. NE just before noon

Annular

1759. xii. 19, ca. 400 m. S.E., just before sunset 1763. iv. 13, ca. 750 m. N.W., just before noon I774. iii. I2, almost directly overhead at noon 1792. ix. 16, ca. 550 m. N.E., just before noon I796. i. o0, ca. 50 m. S., very soon after sunrise

16 D. Livingstone, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (Minerva Library ed.), 256.

17 C. M. N. White, 'The ethno-history of the upper Zambezi', African Studies, xxi (1962), I5.

I5I



The total eclipse of 1832. vii. 27 which passed within ca. 50 miles of Kigali can presumably be ruled out as too late a date.

The Abbe Kagame suggests the eclipse of I74I as the most probable.18 Citing the case of an old man, Muhunde, who died ca. 900o and was born during Sentabyo's reign, and also that of Ntare, ruler of Burundi who died about I852 having been a contemporary of Sentabyo, Professor Vansina has argued in favour of the 1792 eclipse.19 Dr Porter calculates, however, that whereas the I792 eclipse attained a magnitude of o074, that of I796 attained 0-93 at 6 h 28 min, sunrise being at 6 h 04 min. Kigali lay well inside the path of the I796 eclipse, which must, Dr Porter writes, 'have been a striking phenomenon. Imagine the sun rising already almost completely eclipsed; within a few moments the moon would have moved downwards, to leave a thin ring of light round the black disc of the moon. This annular phase lasted roughly three minutes, and then the moon continued to move downwards, finally leaving the sun completely clear.' The Abbe Kagame rejects I796 as being too early in the day; if this were so, and should other evidence throw doubt on I796, I774 would be left as the best choice.

1807. xi. 29.

Seen in Kano20 and Western Bornu.21

1820. iii. 14.

On the day of the death of Thulare, chief of the Pedi, Transvaal. Hunt's identification22 with the annular eclipse of I824. xii. 20 has been questioned by Professor L. M. Thompson on the grounds that Thulare must have died before the arrival of Mzilikazi in the eastern Transvaal in I823.23 The central line of the total eclipse of i820. iii. 14 passed about 200 miles north of Thularestad in the late afternoon. In comparison, both the annular eclipses of 1824. Xii. 20 and

I825. vi. i6, whose central lines passed ca. 400 and ca. 600 miles away, can be ruled out; the central line of the annular eclipse of I8I7. v. i6 passed within ca. I80 miles of Thularestad, but the I820. iii. 14 total eclipse produced a greater magnitude there. Dr Porter calculates the following magnitudes at Thularestad:

I8I7. v. i6, annular, mag. o'89 at 07 h 05 min (sunrise 06.28) I820. iii. 14, total, mag. 0o96 at I6 h 34 min (sunset I8.17)

The extra 7 % in the magnitude would make a great difference to the diminution of light at Thularestad, and the I820 eclipse may well have been total over a part of the area inhabited by the Pedi or their immediate neighbours.

18 A. Kagame, La notion de generation appliquee a la genealogie dynastique et d l'histoire du Rwanda des Xe-XIe siecles d nos jours (Brussels, I959), 75-79.

19 J. Vansina, L'Evolution du royaume Rwanda des origines d 1900 (Brussels, 1962), 52-3. 20 Muhammad b. Salih, Taqyid al Akhbar, composed in I868. Dr D. M. Last sent me

this reference, and points out that Muhammad b. Salih records the eclipse as taking place in mid-Ramadan, i.e. about mid-November.

21 S. W. Koelle, African Native Literature (I854), 207. The eclipse was total at Daya (lat. II? 38' N., long. 11? 41' E.) in the early afternoon. I am grateful to Mr Lavers and Dr Victor Low for this reference.

22 D. R. Hunt, 'An account of the Bapedi', Bantu Studies, v (193I), 284. 23 Personal communication.

I52 R. GRAY




1835. xi. 20.

Near Zumbo while the Ngoni were crossing the Zambesi.24

1886. viii. 29.

In the kingdom of Wambu, Angola, during the reign of Wambu II.25 The central line of the total eclipse of i886. viii. 29 passed within ca. 20 miles of Samisasa, the capital of Wambu. The total eclipse of I889. xii. 22 would not have caused totality over Wambu, its central line passing ca. 200 miles to the north.

1886. viii. 29.

Among the Lozi.26

1889. xii. 22.

In central Burundi, where an informant, Ntaampeera, told Professor Vansina of an eclipse which occurred in the i88os at the time the cattle returned to the kraal.27

1889. xii. 22.

At the coronation of Mibambwe IV Rutarindwa of Rwanda.28 24 G. Lancaster, 'Tentative chronology of the Ngoni; genealogy of their chiefs and

notes', J. Roy. Anthrop. Inst. xvII (937), 78. 25 G. M. Childs, 'The kingdom of Wambu (Huambo): a tentative chronology', J.A.H.

v (1964), 377. I am grateful to Mr D. H. Jones for this reference. 26 C. Mackintosh, Yeta III, 19. I am grateful to Mr G. Caplan for this reference. 27 Personal communication. 28 Kagame, op. cit. 75.

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I54 R. GRAY

20W. 10 0 10 20E. 30

woo o soo too uMiLes.

Map I. 140I A.D.-I550 A.D.

to

20

-30

40 50 60.



ANNULAR ECLIPSE MAPS I55

zoW. 10

Map 2. 1551 A.D.-I700 A.D.



R. GRAY

10

Map 3. 170I A.D.-I850 A.D.

I56

10 o so 00ooo UILES



ANNULAR ECLIPSE MAPS I57

oo 0 s00 1000 MILHS L . . . . . . . . .

Map 4. I85I A.D.-2000 A.D.



Documents

Annular Eclipse Maps