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In the Raw: Some Reflections on Transcribing and Editing Lieutenant Hugh Clapperton's Writings on the Borno Mission of 1822–25

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Jamie Bruce Lockhart
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Extract

In this paper I review the evolution of a nineteenth-century travel diary from the original “remark books” to a polished fair copy version prepared for publication. The journals in question are those kept by Lieut. Hugh Clapperton RN while serving on the Borno Mission in 1822-25. The central issue is how best to reach into and interpret the raw material itself—the author's original observations and thoughts at the time. Each case will have its particularities—in the context of the period and the journey, in the character and interests of the writer, and in the writer's own attitude to the purpose of the journal he or she kept. While the Clapperton material is just one case among many, a review of its internal development—as it proceeded towards publication—allows us to draw some conclusions which may have wider application.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 26 , January 1999 , pp. 157 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1999

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References

1 For a review of editorial issues see Jones, Adam, Raw, Medium, and Well Done: A Critical Review of Editorial And Quasi-Editorial Work on pre-1885 European Sources for sub-Saharan Africa, 1960-1986 (Madison, 1987)Google Scholar

2 Denham, Dixon, Oudney, Walter, and Clapperton, Hugh, Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa in the Years 1822, 1823, and 1824 (London, 1826).Google Scholar

3 Bovill, E.W., Missions to the Niger (4 vols.: Cambridge, 1966).Google Scholar Denham's papers are in the Royal Geographical Society, London, manuscript AR 64.

4 In his preface to the Narrative, for example, Denham alleges that Clapperton had not kept a journal regularly until Oudney's death: Bovill, , Missions, 2:131.Google Scholar

5 A few letters remain at the Royal Geographical Society, Mus. 407

6 He might also have been concerned to suppress material that conflicted with his own cherished theories about the course of the Niger.

7 Lockhart, J.R.B., ed., Clapperton in Borno (Köln, 1996)Google Scholar

8 I have also researched the primary journals and supporting correspondence relating to Clapperton's second voyage to the interior (1825-27), which also includes some significant unpublished material.

9 Sources for Clapperton's early life include memoirs of the Rev. Thomas Nelson and of Clapperton's uncle, Lt. Col. Samuel Clapperton; the preface to a Journal of a Second Expedition; contemporary Dumfriesshire accounts; Clapperton's Royal Navy return of service; Masters' and Captains' logs; and other records in the PRO and in Canada.

10 Curtin, P.D.The Image of Africa (Madison, 1984).Google Scholar

11 On Clapperton's second mission to Africa, the single copy of his journal was stolen and never recovered, leaving a hiatus of six weeks in the formal records: Clapperton, Hugh, Journal of a Second Expedition into the Interior of Africa (London, 1829), 178.Google Scholar

12 Bovill, , Missions, 4: 624Google Scholar

13 Ibid., 621.

14 Ibid., 4:605.

15 Barrow's despair is echoed in a postscript to a letter he wrote to John Murray in November of 1828 on another matter” Clapperton, thank God, is finished.” John Murray & Co. archives.

16 Including, for example, a crucial three-page entry covering Clapperton's eventual return to Kano in 1826, where he found Sokoto and Borno at war, and his ambitions for the Mission frustrated yet again.

17 The journal passage is transcribed from ADM 55/11, ff. 41-43, PRO. Material in brackets is my transcription.

18 The fair copy is the published version, but on the basis of Barrow's strict adherence to Clapperton's own fair copy text for the preceding month, it seems safe to assume that changes are negligible.

19 The texl is from Missions to the Niger, chapter 6, section III; Bovill, , Missions, 4:664–65.Google Scholar

20 I did not retain, however, Clapperton's use of the antiquated ß for “ss.”