Hans Vischer

Major Hans Vischer
File:Vischer, Hans.jpg
Born	1876
Died	1945
Residence	Director of Education, S. Nigeria 32 Rosary Gardens, SW [1915] Charlwood Park, Charlwood, Surrey [1921] Colonial Office, Downing Street, SW1 [1925] 2 Richmond Terrace, SW1 [1929]
Occupation	educator
Society Membership membership ordinary fellow left 1929 last listed elected_AI 1911.05.23 societies International African Institute

Notes

House Notes

1911 proposed by T.A. Joyce, seconded by J. Edge Partington

Notes From Elsewhere

Sir Hanns Vischer, C.M.G., C.B.E.
G. J. F. TOMLINSON
THE death on February 19 of Hanns Vischer has removed a notable and commanding figure from the sphere of African interests. Even his entry, more than forty years ago, into the political service of Northern Nigeria was in itself a notable event, for by birth he was a foreigner and his previous contact with Africa had been in the mission field; neither of which circumstances could in those early days be regarded as an ‘open sesame’ to the British Colonial Service. But there was that in Vischer’s make-up before which all prejudice, British or African, melted like snow in the midday sun; and the reason was not far to seek. The Hausa people, quick at all times to detect the idiosyncrasies of their alien overlords, proclaimed the secret of his influence in two words. Throughout the country he was known as Dan Hausa (“Son of Hausa”)—perhaps the most significant nickname ever conferred on a European in West Africa. It meant that in him the Hausas recognized, not only a man who possessed an extraordinary command of their delightful and expressive language, but also one whose affection for them was equalled by his insight into the innermost recesses of the African soul. It meant that they had, as it were, adopted him. One had only to watch him in his daily avocations in those early days to realize how completely at home he was with every class of society—whether he was engaged in grave deliberations with emirs, viziers and other high personages of the ruling hierarchy, or whether he was chaffing the hucksters at the market stalls as he rode through Kano city. No less revealing was it to see him in his own home pick up a native drum and, squatting on the floor, croon local Hausa songs to his own accompaniment. So inimitably did he do it that, if he had been hidden behind a screen, one would have said that an African musician had been engaged to entertain his guests.

Sir Hanns Vischer (born September 14, 1876 in Basel, Germany , February 19, 1945 in Newport Pagnell ) was a missionary, British colonial officer and African explorer .
Before Vischer became a British citizen, he was a missionary in Hausa land, and then worked as a British citizen at the Colonial Administrative Service , developing an education system that included local cultural peculiarities. The success of this educational system in northern Nigeria was marked by Vischer.
The Swiss born in Switzerland became famous for his desertification in 1906, which started from Tripoli , Tunisia and ended at the Chad lake . To this end, he took a vacation in England to choose the land route through the Sahara to return to his post as administrator in Kukawa . He was denied a second trip to the area by his superiors WP Hewby in 1907. He published about this journey in 1910 the book Across the Sahara .
The journey of Vischer inspired John Hare 2001 to a Kamelexpedition, the journey into the object, the expedition undertaken, the Vischer 1907 remained denied.

Publications

External Publications

Hanns Vischer: Across the Sahara. From Tripoli to Bornu (Foreword by HH Johnston). London, Arnold, 1910. Repr. 1995: London, May Publishers. ISBN 1850771863 . Facsimile 2007: Saarbrücken, Fines Mundi.