Genus Nachtigalia

For Gustav Hermann Nachtigal (1834–1885), German physician, botanist, explorer and consul-general in Tunis and commissioner for West Africa. He studied medicine at Halle, Würzburg and Greifswald, and practised in Cologne from 1859–1863. He then moved to Algiers and Tunisia for health reasons. He undertook a hazardous expedition across the Sahara as described in his three-volume book Sahara and Sudan (1879–1881) visiting places not known to Europeans. In 1884 Chancellor Otto von Bismarck appointed him commissioner for West Africa, and he was instrumental in safeguarding German business interests in Africa by annexing Togoland and the Cameroon, which subsequently became colonies of Germany. He died of malaria on his return voyage to Germany.