An image has been circulating, with claims that it depicts Nigerian men carrying Mungo Park in a wooden carrier, in 1975 to show him River Niger.
This claim was first discovered on a WhatsApp status update message but a quick check revealed it has been circulating claim on social media for a while.
The same picture with the caption stating that Lokoja men were carrying Mungo Park was discovered on X, here and here; Instagram, here and here; and Facebook, here, and here.
Similar pictures with variations in captions were found here and here. NV-A went to verify the picture, accompanying claim and its origin.
VERIFICATION
Mungo Park is renowned for his explorations of the Niger River in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. During his expeditions, he traveled extensively through West Africa and was credited with the discovery of River Niger.
A reverse image search traced the circulating image to a report published by Uganda Monitor, which identified the man in the picture as Harry George Galt, a former sub-commissioner of the Western Province of Uganda during the colonial era. According to Uganda Monitor, George Galt’s first assignment was as a tax collector in the Ankelo sub-region in Uganda. He was later appointed sub-commissioner for the Western Ugandan Province. George was said to have been a very cruel officer who treated people harshly.
An online history magazine, Historyville, also posted the picture of Galt on X and Instagram with the caption, “British colonial officer, Harry George Galt arrives in Ibanda, Uganda, May 19, 1905. Galt was so cruel that he forced the natives to carry him from Fort Portal to Ibanda and three kilometres further to Katooma, refusing to let them rest. Galt was later speared to death by Rutaraka, a tired native. He was 33.”
According to Spinx, an auction house that auctioned Galt’s medal, he had just been appointed acting sub-commissioner of western province of Uganda at the time.
“Harry St. George Galt first entered Uganda’s Protectorate Service as a 3rd Class Assistant Collector in the Political Department in December 1897 and quickly witnessed active service in the operations of 1897-98,” said Spinx.
In July 1899, Galt was appointed a Collector at Mbarara Station on an annual salary of £400. He was murdered by an Ankole native at Ibanda on 19 May 1905. While sitting in front of his grass hut, a young native came up behind him without warning, and stabbed him, running a spear into his lungs, near his heart and he died a few minutes later.
Uganda Monitor reported that: “On May 19, 1905 as the newly appointed provincial officer, Galt allegedly forced the local people to carry him on their heads from Fort Portal to Ibanda. When the people got tired they requested him to let them rest, he refused and ordered them to march on until they reached Ibanda – Paka Banda he said in his broken Runyankore, meaning, “Up to Ibanda.” The porters complied up to Katooma, 3 km from Ibanda Town after the Kagongo Catholic Church where he stopped and rested in a Government house.”
“As the locals rehashed Galt’s cruelty, a man named Rutaraka got riled by the officer’s acts and he picked up a spear, headed towards Galt who was sitting in the government house compound and speared him in the chest. Galt died after a short time,” stated Uganda Monitor.
In present day Uganda, there is a pile of stones that stands in the form of a pyramid in Ibanda District called The Pyramid of Galt to commemorate where he was killed by the locals.
CONCLUSION
The circulating image depicting a white man being carried by Black African men on a wooden carrier is MISLEADING. The man is not Mungo Park, as falsely claimed. He is Harry George Galt, an acting sub-commissioner of the Western Province of the Uganda Protectorate in 1905.”
