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This series focuses on Africa during the period of European colonial expansion. It includes anthropological studies, travel accounts from missionaries and explorers (including those searching for the sources of the Nile and the Congo) and works that shed light on colonial concerns such as gold mining, big game hunting, trade, education and political rivalries.

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103 results in Cambridge Library Collection - African Studies

Page 1 of 6

A Narrative of a Visit to the Mauritius and South Africa
  • James Backhouse
  • Published online:
    05 June 2016
    Print publication:
    25 September 2014
    First published in:
    1844
  • James Backhouse (1794–1869) came from a family of accomplished naturalists and horticulturalists. As a Quaker, he spent several years in Australia engaged in missionary and humanitarian work, after which he returned to England via Mauritius and South Africa. The present work, first published in 1844, is adapted from his journals of that journey, providing a rich and personal account. It contains vivid descriptions of the people he encountered, particularly the indigenous communities and those involved in the slave trade, which he found revolting and unchristian. Backhouse's horticultural interests are evident in the detailed botanical observations he made, the value of which led to a genus of shrub being named after him: Backhousia. This work contains illustrations based on original sketches made by Backhouse during the trip, and appendices which include letters and texts relating to the mission, as well as a map of South Africa.

Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa
  • Being a Journal of an Expedition Undertaken under the Auspices of H.B.M.'s Government, in the Years 1849–1855
  • Volume 2
  • Heinrich Barth
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    23 June 2011
    First published in:
    1857
  • Born in Hamburg, Henry (Heinrich) Barth (1821–1865) studied history, archaeology, geography and Arabic. He joined James Richardson's 1849 expedition to Africa, which aimed to open the interior to trade and to study slavery. Following the deaths of Richardson (1851) and his colleague Overweg (1852), Barth led the expedition alone. His travels extended to Lake Chad in the east, Cameroon in the south and Timbuktu in the west. He was the first European to use the oral traditions of the local tribes for historical research, learning several African languages, and studying the history, resources and civilisations of the people he encountered. Barth's five-volume account includes plates, engravings and detailed annotated maps. Published in both English and German in 1857–1858, it is still regarded as a major source on African culture. Volume 2 describes the settlements and peoples found on the journey from Kano to the shore of Lake Chad.

A Historical and Philosophical Sketch of the Discoveries and Settlements of the Europeans in Northern and Western Africa, at the Close of the Eighteenth Century
  • John Leyden
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    22 September 2011
    First published in:
    1799
  • Although he had never set foot in Africa, Scottish poet and linguist John Leyden (1775–1811) decided to publish in 1799 this compilation on 'discoveries and settlements' there, drawing from the published works of explorers. His aim was 'to exhibit the progress of discoveries at this period in North and West Africa', giving descriptions of places such as Guinea, the Gold Coast, and Sierra Leone, as well as accounts of their people. He begins the work by discussing a meeting of the African Association on 9 June 1788, where a map depicted the interior of the continent as 'an extended blank'. Leyden attempts to provide information on those unknown areas by using the travel accounts of writers - including the Scots explorer Mungo Park - who had ventured into the African interior, to put together a narrative which makes this work a valuable collection of eighteenth-century accounts by European explorers in Africa.

The Record
  • Or, a Series of Official Papers Relative to the Condition and Treatment of the Native Tribes of South Africa
  • Edited by Donald Moodie
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    22 December 2011
    First published in:
    1838
  • Originally published in 1838, this text draws upon official documents such as council resolutions and official journals, as well as statistics and local people's oral accounts, in order to explore the history of the treatment of the indigenous population of South Africa between 1649 and 1819. It was compiled, edited and translated by Scottish colonial official Donald Moodie (1794–1861), a 'liberal-minded British Colonist', who had emigrated to South Africa in 1820, originally as a farmer, and rose to the position of magistrate, and later 'Protector of the Slaves'. He was often critical of colonists' behaviour towards the indigenous tribes; he conducted interviews with the local populace during his investigations, earning himself the title of 'South Africa's pioneer oral historian'. This reissue includes only Parts 1, 3 and 5 of Moodie's investigation, as Parts 2 and 4 were never published.

The Autobiography of Sir Henry Morton Stanley, G.C.B
  • Henry Morton Stanley
  • Edited by Dorothy Stanley
  • Published online:
    05 November 2015
    Print publication:
    25 August 2011
    First published in:
    1909
  • Henry Morton Stanley (1841–1904), the Welsh-born explorer famous for his 1871 meeting with the missionary David Livingstone, published this intimate autobiography in 1909. Through his recollections we learn how his troubled early life - an impoverished childhood in a workhouse and some harrowing experiences as a young soldier - were what drove him to succeed as an explorer, and gave him the strength to deal with the sometimes vehement opposition he encountered. Although Stanley died before finishing this book, his wife Dorothy brought it to completion by compiling and editing the letters and memoirs he wrote during his travels, so that his avowed aim - to encourage impoverished young people to realise their ambitions - was met. This is the story of a man who, in the context of his own time, achieved 'greatness' against the odds, though his imperialist and allegedly racist views later caused the eclipse of his reputation.

Morocco and the Moors
  • Being an Account of Travels, with a General Description of the Country and its People
  • Arthur Leared
  • Published online:
    05 August 2015
    Print publication:
    17 February 2011
    First published in:
    1876
  • This travelogue by Dr Arthur Leared (1822–1879) follows his journey through Morocco during 1872, giving a comprehensive picture of the country and its people. At this time, Morocco was a French protectorate, ruled by the Alouite dynasty, comprising a mix of tribes, cultures, races and religions. Following Leared's route south, the geography, people, culture, legal and religious practices of Morocco are all explored thoroughly, with personal memories and anecdotes of daily life. As a physician and the inventor of the binaural stethoscope, Leared was interested in the advantages of the climate for treating respiratory diseases, particularly tuberculosis, and in native medical materials and practices. He subsequently became the physician at the Portuguese embassy, and planned the foundation of a sanatorium in Tangier. A vivid and balanced account of the country, as viewed from the stance of an objective traveller as the country began to open up to Europeans.

The Partition of Africa
  • John Scott Keltie
  • Published online:
    05 June 2015
    Print publication:
    11 December 2014
  • In the latter part of the nineteenth century, as technological progress enabled the exploration of hitherto neglected territory, the powers of Western Europe embarked on a process of imperial expansion into the African continent. As a journalist for The Times, geographer John Scott Keltie (1840–1927) wrote articles on the 'scramble' at the time, and in 1893 published this authoritative text on the subject, here reissued in its revised and augmented second edition of 1895. Keltie's presentation of the topic was well received and remained of lasting relevance, being described in his obituary as 'the best text-book of that exploration and division of a forgotten continent'. Early chapters address certain aspects of African history, but the bulk of the book deals with European attempts at settlement, partition and commercial exploitation. The future of Africa, as a site of ongoing European contention and competition, is also considered.

Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the Years 1822, 1823, and 1824
  • Dixon Denham, Hugh Clapperton
  • Published online:
    05 February 2015
    Print publication:
    19 May 2011
    First published in:
    1826
  • Major Dixon Denham (1786–1828) and Lieutenant Hugh Clapperton (1788–1827) were British explorers famous for their explorations in Africa. Between 1822 and 1825, they set out to investigate the lower course of the River Niger and the swamps and forests of the Guinea Coast, accompanied by the physician Dr Walter Oudney (1790–1824), who sadly died of a fever during the expedition. This important book, first published in 1826, brings together the memoirs of all three explorers to document their mission, which represented the first complete crossing of the Sahara by Europeans in recorded history. Diverse and insightful, it recounts phenomena such as the transportation of slaves from the Sudan, the salt industry in the heart of the desert, and encounters with native tribes. Providing unique insights into pre-colonial Africa, these vivid recollections remain of great interest to historians of Africa, cultural anthropologists and geographers alike.

Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee
  • With a Statistical Account of that Kingdom, and Geographical Notices of Other Parts of the Interior of Africa
  • Thomas Edward Bowdich
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    22 May 2014
    First published in:
    1819
  • This work by Thomas Edward Bowdich (1791?–1824) describes the journey he made on behalf of the Royal African Company from Cape Coast Castle in West Africa into the territory of the Ashanti, a warlike tribe which had legendary resources of gold and which had been attacking European settlements along the Gold Coast. The intention was to make a peace and trade treaty with the Ashanti, and also to learn more about their culture and customs. Bowdich, not the original leader of the expedition, took control, and negotiated a treaty of mutual co-operation and trade. He returned to Europe in 1818, publishing this fascinating account in 1819, but he felt that his own efforts, and his book, did not receive the rewards they merited. He died on a second, scientific expedition to West Africa, leaving his widow, naturalist and artist Sarah (later Lee), to edit and publish his last work.

The Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pearce
  • Written by Himself, during a Residence in Abyssinia from the Years 1810–1819; Together with Mr Coffin's Account of his First Visit to Gondar
  • Volume 1
  • Nathaniel Pearce
  • Edited by John James Halls
  • Published online:
    18 December 2014
    Print publication:
    22 May 2014
    First published in:
    1831
  • Nathaniel Pearce (1779–1820) was, according to J. J. Halls, who edited and published his autobiographical writings in 1831, 'one of those remarkable and adventurous beings, whom Nature … seems to take delight in creating'. Having run away to sea twice, deserted from the navy, accidentally killed a man, and briefly converted to Islam, he came into his own as a guide and factotum to British travellers in Egypt. He accompanied Henry Salt's 1805 mission to Abyssinia, where he married a local girl and served the ruler of Tigré until the latter's death in 1816. Pearce's humorous account of his life is particularly interesting in the details it gives of the land and people of Ethiopia, then little known by Europeans. Volume 1 begins the narrative of Pearce's life and his African travels and also contains an account of an expedition to the city of Gondar by his friend William Coffin.

The Life and Correspondence of Henry Salt, Esq.
  • His Britannic Majesty's Late Consul General in Egypt
  • Volume 1
  • John James Halls
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    08 May 2014
    First published in:
    1834
  • The traveller and antiquary Henry Salt (1780–1827) hoped to become a portrait painter, but recognised his own limitations, and instead entered the employment of Viscount Valentia, embarking with him on an eastern tour in 1802. In 1805, Valentia sent him on a mission to improve relations with the rulers of Abyssinia. After a second expedition, this time on behalf of the British government, in which he made observations and collections of the local flora and fauna, he was appointed consul-general to Egypt, and in his spare time carried out excavations at Thebes and Abu Simbel. This two-volume work was published in 1834 by Salt's close friend, the painter J. J. Halls (1776–1853). Volume 1 tells the story of Salt's early life and his career up to the famous removal of the colossal statue of Ramesses II ('Ozymandias') from Thebes to the British Museum in 1816.

The Life and Correspondence of Henry Salt, Esq.
  • His Britannic Majesty's Late Consul General in Egypt
  • Volume 2
  • John James Halls
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    08 May 2014
    First published in:
    1834
  • The traveller and antiquary Henry Salt (1780–1827) hoped to become a portrait painter, but recognised his own limitations, and instead entered the employment of Viscount Valentia, embarking with him on an eastern tour in 1802. In 1805, Valentia sent him on a mission to improve relations with the rulers of Abyssinia. After a second expedition, this time on behalf of the British government, in which he made observations and collections of the local flora and fauna, he was appointed consul-general to Egypt, and in his spare time carried out excavations at Thebes and Abu Simbel. This two-volume work was published in 1834 by Salt's close friend, the painter J. J. Halls (1776–1853). Volume 2 describes Salt's later career in Egypt, as a diplomat and especially as a pioneering archaeologist, as well as his negotiations over the future of his own spectacular collection of Egyptian artefacts.

The Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pearce
  • Written by Himself, during a Residence in Abyssinia from the Years 1810–1819; Together with Mr Coffin's Account of his First Visit to Gondar
  • Volume 2
  • Nathaniel Pearce
  • Edited by John James Halls
  • Published online:
    05 November 2014
    Print publication:
    22 May 2014
    First published in:
    1831
  • Nathaniel Pearce (1779–1820) was, according to J. J. Halls, who edited and published his autobiographical writings in 1831, 'one of those remarkable and adventurous beings, whom Nature … seems to take delight in creating'. Having run away to sea twice, deserted from the navy, accidentally killed a man, and briefly converted to Islam, he came into his own as a guide and factotum to British travellers in Egypt. He accompanied Henry Salt's 1805 mission to Abyssinia, where he married a local girl and served the ruler of Tigré until the latter's death in 1816. Pearce's humorous account of his life is particularly interesting in the details it gives of the land and people of Ethiopia, then little known by Europeans. In Volume 2, the situation in Abyssinia becomes dangerous and Pearce decides to escape down the Nile. The journal ends abruptly in 1819, a year before his death.

A History of the Zulu Rebellion 1906
  • And of Dinuzulu's Arrest, Trial and Expatriation
  • James Stuart
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    26 September 2013
  • After many years of relatively peaceful coexistence, a dispute over taxation in 1906 stirred thousands of Zulus into bloody revolt against the British in Natal. Following the rebellion's defeat, James Stuart (1868–1942), an expert on Zulu customs and history, was commissioned to write the official history of military operations. It later became a private project of much broader scope. Providing a thoroughly researched account of the rebellion, Stuart wrote using the full breadth of his knowledge of Africa, drawing on the contacts and materials that became available to him during his time as an intelligence officer in the Natal Field Artillery. First published in 1913, the work also covers the administration of the Zulu territories and goes on to investigate the aftermath of the rebellion, including the arrest and imprisonment of the Zulu king, Dinuzulu.

Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo
  • And across the Great Desert, to Morocco, Performed in the Years 1824–1828
  • Volume 1
  • René Caillié
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1830
  • French explorer Réné Caillié (1799–1838) was the first European to document a successful expedition to Timbuktu, Africa's elusive 'city of gold'. Europeans were not welcome there, and until Caillié's expedition no explorer had returned alive. Encouraged by the 10,000 francs offered by the Société de Géographie to the first non-Muslim to bring back information on the city, he set out in 1824 from Senegal and eventually reached Timbuktu in 1828, remaining there for a fortnight before returning to France. His travels are recounted here in this two-volume work, first published in English in 1830. Volume 1 covers his outward journey, with detailed accounts of his travels through Saint-Louis, Kankan and other exotic waypoints, and the people, customs and commerce he encountered in the course of his trip. Vividly written, Caillié's work remains a landmark in the history of African exploration and adventure.

Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo
  • And across the Great Desert, to Morocco, Performed in the Years 1824–1828
  • Volume 2
  • René Caillié
  • Published online:
    05 October 2014
    Print publication:
    28 March 2013
    First published in:
    1830
  • French explorer Réné Caillié (1799–1838) was the first European to document a successful expedition to Timbuktu, Africa's elusive 'city of gold'. Europeans were not welcome there, and until Caillié's expedition no explorer had returned alive. Encouraged by the 10,000 francs offered by the Société de Géographie to the first non-Muslim to bring back information on the city, he set out from Senegal in 1824 and eventually reached Timbuktu in 1828. His travels are recounted here in this two-volume work, first published in English in 1830. Volume 2 covers the final part of his journey to Timbuktu, where he stayed for two weeks. Including his impressions of the peoples, tribal conflict, slavery, customs and commerce, the volume concludes with an account of his journey home across the Sahara Desert, and his survival in spite of suffering from fever and fatigue. Vividly written, Caillié's work remains a landmark in the history of African exploration and adventure.

The Merchant's and Mariner's African Guide
  • Containing an Accurate Description of the Coast, Bays, Harbours, and Adjacent Islands of West Africa
  • Edward Bold
  • Published online:
    05 July 2014
    Print publication:
    06 May 2011
    First published in:
    1822
  • This work of 1822 was written by Royal Navy Lieutenant Edward Bold to help sailors navigate from Britain to West Africa, via Madeira, the Canaries and the Cape Verde Islands. Bold was concerned about 'excessively erroneous hydrographic descriptions' that misled ships and put crews in danger. Writing after Britain's abolition of the slave trade, Bold was an advocate of developing other types of commerce with this region of Africa - an area, as he discovered, rich in valuable ivory - and part of the work describes the system of trade that stretched from port to port along the continent's western coast, including useful information such as that, upon arriving, sailors should indicate their desire to trade by 'firing a gun and hoisting your colours'. With its navigational detail and observations about trade, this work is a useful source on Anglo-African commerce in the nineteenth century.

Ismailïa
  • A Narrative of the Expedition to Central Africa for the Suppression of the Slave Trade Organized by Ismail, Khedive of Egypt
  • Volume 1
  • Samuel White Baker
  • Published online:
    05 March 2014
    Print publication:
    11 May 2011
    First published in:
    1874
  • Sir Samuel White Baker (1821–1893) was a traveller and explorer. This two-volume work of 1874 is his account of a military expedition under Ismail Pasha (Ismail the Magnificent, 1830–1895), Khedive of Egypt, to suppress the slave-trade of central Africa between 1869 and 1873. Having found Egyptian citizens exploiting the population of the lawless central lands, Ismail determined to colonize and modernize the Nile basin (now southern Egypt and Sudan). He appointed Baker governor-general and major-general in the Ottoman army. Illustrated with over 50 plates and maps, and with Baker's lively observations of the country and of the society he was trying to reform, this book is a wonderful record of a lost world, and of an important stage in late Ottoman military expansion. The first volume starts with preparations for the voyage and ends with Baker having established stability in Gondokoro and about to march further south.

From Cyprus to Zanzibar by the Egyptian Delta
  • The Adventures of a Journalist in the Isle of Love, the Home of Miracles, and the Land of Cloves
  • Edward Henry Vizetelly
  • Published online:
    05 October 2013
    Print publication:
    26 April 2012
    First published in:
    1901
  • Edward Vizetelly (1847–1903) was the son of the publisher Henry Vizetelly and a perceptive war correspondent. He began his career for the Daily News and New York Times, covering the Franco-Prussian War, where he narrowly escaped being shot as a spy. This work, published in 1901, recounts the next period of his career, with vivid descriptions of people and places. In 1878, Cyprus was ceded to Britain by Turkey, and Vizetelly, then in Athens, was sent to report on the Island, where he remained for four years. In 1882, he moved to Egypt, where Arab unrest led to the massacre of Europeans in Cairo and the bombardment of Alexandria by British warships. On his return to Europe in 1889, he was commissioned by the owner of the New York Herald to find H. M. Stanley, using Zanzibar as his base. He concludes with a brief summary of subsequent events in Africa.

Narrative of Four Journeys into the Country of the Hottentots, and Caffraria
  • In the Years One Thousand Seven Hundred and Seventy-Seven, Eight, and Nine
  • William Paterson
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    14 June 2012
    First published in:
    1789
  • Later known as an administrator in Australia and founder of one of Tasmania's earliest settlements, William Paterson (1755–1810) was an army officer, naturalist and friend of Joseph Banks. Keenly interested in botany from childhood, in 1777 he was dispatched to Cape Colony on an expedition to collect plant specimens, many of which remain in the Natural History Museum. His accounts, published in 1789, are the observations and impressions of one of the first Europeans to venture into the south-east of modern-day South Africa. On his return to England he brought with him the skin and skeleton of a giraffe, which remained on show in the British Museum until the early twentieth century. He writes clearly and engagingly of the people, flora and fauna, assuring the reader that the work is 'a series of facts, noted down upon the spot, without any after additions'.

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