The New International Encyclopædia/Krapf, Johann Ludwig

KRAPF, kräpf, (1810-81). A German missionary, explorer in British East Africa, and specialist in African linguistics. He was born at Derendigen near Tübingen, where he studied theology. In 1837 he went to Abyssinia as missionary of the English Church Missionary Society, and with his fellows, Erhardt and Rebmann, made many valuable tours into Usambara (1848 and 1852) and Ukamba (1849 and 1851). Krapf brought to Europe the first definite information about the Victoria Nyanza, Mount Kilimanjaro, and Mount Kenia, which he visited in 1849. After a short stay in England he returned to Africa in 1854, but was forbidden by King Theodore to enter Abyssinia. He returned to Germany and lived near Stuttgart till 1867, when he joined the English expedition to Abyssinia. He wrote: Reisen in Ostafrika in den Jahren 1837-55 (1858); Vocabulary of Six East African Languages (1850); Elements of the Kisuahili Language (1851); several biblical translations into African dialects; and the Dictionary of the Suahili Language (1882). Consult Claus, Ludwig Krapf (Basel, 1882).