Speke Memorial Monument in Jinja Uganda – Source of the Nile visit.

Monument to Speke at Jinja — For many Victorian-era adventurers, the possibility of finding the Nile’s source in Jinja was an enticing one. Because of the general public’s intense interest, it is comparable to the current effort to land a man on the moon.

Anyone could become famous, rich, and a nobleman if they could get their hands on this, the “Holy Grail” of British exploratory enthusiasm. A number of individuals, including David Livingstone, who was religious, Stanly, who was greedy, and James Burton and John Hannington Speke, who saw a way to eternal life, embarked on a quest for this reward.

John Hannington Speke, who was almost blind, continued to the southern beaches of Lake Victoria while a bedridden Burton was left behind on a combined expedition that had been plagued from the start by disasters and catastrophes.

John Speke rechristened Lake Nalubale (meaning “of the gods”) to Lake Victoria in honor of his patrons, the British Royal Family, after hearing tales of a huge river at the lake’s northernmost point from the indigenous people. So, this had to be the Nile’s source, according to Speke, and he went back to announce his finding.

On the other hand, Burton argued that Speke never laid eyes on the Nile and proposed that Lake Tanganyika was truly the river’s source.

Burton was the one who was believed and bestowed the honorific “Sir” upon him as a knight.

Tragically, Speke shot himself while climbing a wall with his hunting rifle slung at his side on the day he intended to deliver proof that the source of the Nile River was Lake Nalubale and not Tanganyika.

The investigation of his notes led to the establishment of truth and the erection of a monument on the western bank of the River Nile, which is now in Jinja, Uganda.