Roscher was born in
Ottensen on August 27, 1836. He attended grammar school at the
Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums in
Hamburg and then went on to study geography, science and medicine at the
University of Leipzig. In his 1857 dissertation, "Ptolemy and the trade routes in Central Africa", Roscher, with goal of pinpointing the
source of the Nile, used information gleaned from
Ptolemy's map of the world to reconstruct the geography of
Central Africa. This achievement attracted the interest of eminent
geographers such as
Heinrich Barth,
Alexander Humboldt,
Carl Ritter and
August Petermann. Roscher soon embarked on a multi-year scientific expedition to Africa, arriving in
Zanzibar in 1858, where he conducted
botanical investigations and learned
Swahili. In early 1859, he traveled down the coastline of what is now mainland
Tanzania, exploring the waters around modern-day
Dar es Salaam and charting the
Rufiji delta. In June he landed at
Kilwa. He remained there for two months while ill. He then joined an
Arab slave caravan heading inland, arriving at Lake Malawi in October 1859, two months after the famed
British explorer
David Livingstone. On departing the shores of Lake Malawi in March 1860, Roscher was attacked and killed. There is speculation that his death resulted from Arab slave traders' fears that he would expose the practices of the Arab slave trade. His journals along with his geographical and
anthropological observations were lost. ==References==