John Hanning Speke John Hanning Speke John Hanning Speke (4 May 1827 – 15 September 1864) was an English explorer and officer in the British Indian Army who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa. He is most associated with the search for the source of the Nile and was the first European to reach Lake Victoria. He is also known for propounding the Hamitic hypothesis in 1863, in which he supposed that the Tutsi ethnic group were descendants of the biblical figure Ham, and had lighter skin and more Hamitic features than the Bantu-featured Hutu over whom they ruled. Speke was born on
Lake Burigi Lake Burigi Lake Burigi (originally Lueor-lo-Urigi, meaning "White Lake of Urigi") is an endorheic lake in the Karagwe district, Kagera Region of Tanzania. Parts of the lake and its shore are situated within the Burigi Game Reserve. Visited by Dr. Hans Meyer's East African expedition, its name on maps of the time was Urigi. The lake's discovery is attributed to Capt. John Hanning Speke, who name it Lueor-lo-Urigi ("White Lake of Urigi"). The lake is long and wide. It has an elongated shape, the greatest distance between the two extremities being about . It is so narrow that from one