East Africa Public-Domain Corpora
Collection
Digitized public-domain sources: history, law, health, agriculture, maps, language. Terra preta for agents — soil that compounds with use. • 8 items • Updated
id string | title string | cartographer string | date int64 | region string | format string | repository string | access_url string | public_domain bool | pd_basis string | features list | value_for_coordination string | tags list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MAP001 | Africa (1688) | Guillaume de L'Isle | 1,688 | Africa (continent) | Engraving | Library of Congress | https://loc.gov/item/ | true | Published before 1928 | [
"Coastal detail",
"Trade routes",
"Major rivers",
"Kingdom boundaries (approximate)"
] | Shows pre-colonial trade route networks; coastline detail | [
"africa",
"1688",
"trade-routes",
"colonial-era",
"historical"
] |
MAP002 | East Africa — British East Africa Protectorate Survey (1907) | Survey of India for Colonial Office | 1,907 | Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda | Survey map | National Archives UK | catalogue.nationalarchives.gov.uk | true | Crown copyright expired (>50 years since publication) | [
"Settlement locations",
"Caravan routes",
"River systems",
"Altitude contours",
"District boundaries"
] | Administrative boundary baselines; caravan/trade routes; river networks | [
"kenya",
"uganda",
"tanzania",
"1907",
"survey",
"boundaries",
"rivers"
] |
MAP003 | Nairobi Town Plan (1908) | Survey Department, British East Africa | 1,908 | Nairobi, Kenya | Town plan | Kenya National Archives | null | true | Government document, >100 years old | [
"Street grid",
"Railway",
"European and Indian residential areas",
"Market locations",
"Water supply"
] | Historical urban baseline; infrastructure origins; market location history | [
"nairobi",
"1908",
"urban",
"streets",
"railway",
"kenya"
] |
MAP004 | Drainage and Irrigation Map — Nile Basin (1904) | Egyptian Survey Department | 1,904 | Nile Basin (Uganda, Sudan, Egypt) | Hydrological survey | National Archives Cairo / BNF | null | true | Published before 1928, government document | [
"Nile tributaries",
"Irrigation canals",
"Seasonal flooding zones",
"Watershed boundaries"
] | Water resource baselines; flood risk zones; agricultural water availability | [
"nile",
"water",
"irrigation",
"uganda",
"flood",
"1904",
"watershed"
] |
MAP005 | Vegetation Map of East Africa (1911) | Engler, Vegetation der Erde series | 1,911 | East Africa | Botanical survey map | Kew Gardens Library / BNF | null | true | Published before 1928 | [
"Forest zones",
"Savanna types",
"Desert/semi-arid zones",
"Montane vegetation",
"Coastal mangroves"
] | Agricultural land suitability baseline; climate change comparison; conservation | [
"vegetation",
"botany",
"forest",
"savanna",
"east-africa",
"1911",
"ecology"
] |
MAP006 | Missionary Map of East Africa (1895) | Church Missionary Society | 1,895 | East Africa | Network map | CMS Archives (many digitized) / National Archives | null | true | Published before 1928 | [
"Mission stations",
"Language group boundaries",
"Caravan routes",
"Tribal territory markers"
] | Language group boundaries (useful for NLP scope); settlement patterns | [
"missions",
"language-groups",
"1895",
"east-africa",
"settlements",
"routes"
] |
MAP007 | Geological Map of British East Africa (1920) | Geological Survey of British East Africa | 1,920 | Kenya, Tanzania | Geological survey | British Geological Survey / Kenya Geological Survey | null | true | Crown government document, >100 years | [
"Rock types",
"Soil parent material",
"Mineral deposits",
"Aquifer zones",
"Escarpment geology"
] | Groundwater potential zones; soil parent material for agriculture; mineral resources | [
"geology",
"soil",
"groundwater",
"minerals",
"kenya",
"tanzania",
"1920"
] |
Africa Historical Maps — Public Domain Metadata
Catalog of public domain historical maps of Africa and East Africa, with metadata structured for AI tools and GIS applications.
All maps listed are in the public domain (published before 1928 or government-authored works with expired copyright).
Coverage
- Continental Africa maps (1600s-1920s)
- East Africa survey maps (1895-1925)
- Urban/town plans (Nairobi 1908, Mombasa 1910)
- Hydrological maps (Nile basin, river systems)
- Vegetation/botanical surveys
- Geological surveys (soil, groundwater)
- Missionary network maps (language boundaries)
Structure
Each record includes:
- Title, cartographer, date, region
- Repository and access information
- Features listed
- Coordination value for AI tools
- Public domain basis
Why Historical Maps Matter for Coordination Infrastructure
Historical maps provide:
- Baseline data — pre-development vegetation, watershed boundaries
- Trade route archaeology — where commerce naturally moved
- Language territory boundaries — NLP scope definitions
- Administrative history — how districts formed and changed
- Water resource baselines — rivers, aquifers, flood zones before modification
Related
- ardhi-mcp — land information
- wapimaji-mcp — water and drought
- county-mcp — county information
Use this dataset with the coordination stack
- Evaluate any model on Swahili agent tasks: kipimo —
pip install kipimo· leaderboard - Run the MCP servers this data serves:
pip install reli-cli && reli list— 33 servers on the official MCP Registry underio.github.gabrielmahia - Route tasks across servers: africa-coord-bus — offline-first event bus with a built-in Kenya routing table
- All East Africa datasets: huggingface.co/gmahia
Open weights welcome: these resources are model-agnostic by design — closed APIs, open-weight models (Kimi, GLM, DeepSeek, Nemotron, Llama), and small distilled models score on equal terms.
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