This quote from Tilley’s book highlights that the “Africa has no data/bad data” rhetoric has been around since at least the Berlin conferenc: “The head of the Russian delegation, Count Knapist, told the conference that “precise data on the climate of Africa are absolutely wanting, whereas the [International] Meteorological Committee have already gathered them in every other part of the world.” It would be a tremendous service to science if the conference might “facilitate the establishment of a meteorological station in the upper regions of the Congo.”” (54).
