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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 2 of 6

Narrative of an Expedition to Explore the River Zaire, Usually Called the Congo, in South Africa, in 1816
  • James Hingston Tuckey, Christen Smith
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    07 June 2012
    First published in:
    1818
  • In 1816, an expedition to Africa, commanded by Captain James Tuckey (1776–1816), set out on HMS Congo, accompanied by the storeship Dorothy. The aim was to discover more about African geography - of which relatively little was then known - and in particular the connection between the River Congo, also known as the Zaire, and the Niger Basin. The mission failed when eighteen crew members, including Tuckey, died from virulent fevers and attacks by hostile natives. However, the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty gave permission for publication of Tuckey's notes, and those of his Norwegian botanist Christen Smith (1785–1816), who also died during the voyage. First published in 1818, the work comprises their narratives of the doomed expedition. At the time it aroused Western interest in Africa, encouraging further research, and it remains of interest to geographers, botanists and scholars of African studies today.

The Congo State
  • Or, the Growth of Civilisation in Central Africa
  • Demetrius Charles Boulger
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    07 June 2012
    First published in:
    1898
  • Written by the historian and biographer Demetrius C. Boulger (1853–1928), this history of early Belgian rule in the Congo was first published in 1898. The book documents nineteenth-century colonial activity after King Leopold II (1835–1909) assumed private control of the Congo Free State following the Berlin Conference in 1884. Exposed by the Casement Report of 1904, Leopold's controversial administration of the territory has become infamous for its exploitation of the local people and natural resources. Boulger's pro-Leopold account describes the Congolese population and environment, the presence and decline of the slave trade in the area, interaction with other European colonial powers, and the introduction of technologies such as the railway and telegraph. Including more than fifty illustrations, this book offers a fascinating insight into nineteenth-century colonial zeal.

Narrative of Voyages to Explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar
  • Performed in HM Ships Leven and Barracouta
  • Volume 2
  • William Fitzwilliam Owen
  • Edited by Heaton Bowstead Robinson
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    19 July 2012
    First published in:
    1833
  • William Fitzwilliam Owen (1774–1857) was a British naval officer. Between 1821 and 1826 he commanded an expedition to Africa, Arabia and Madagascar with the Royal Navy ships Leven and Barracouta, during which he mapped some 30,000 miles of coastline. His memoirs of the voyage are presented in this two-volume account, first published in 1833. Volume 2 continues to describe the rituals of the native peoples whom Owen's crew encountered - and who were at times hostile - and the tragic deaths on board the ships from tropical diseases, which with better planning might have been avoided. The volume also covers the lives of colonists and missionaries, the slave trade, and the spread of European influence across Africa and its neighbouring lands. Providing a vivid account of African exploration in the nineteenth century, Owen's writings remain of great interest to geographers, historians and anthropologists.

Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa
  • Performed under the Direction and Patronage of the African Association in the Years 1795, 1796, and 1797
  • Mungo Park
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    03 February 2011
    First published in:
    1799
  • Mungo Park (1771–1806) was a Scottish surgeon and explorer. Encouraged by Sir Joseph Banks, he was sent by the African Association, in 1795, to explore the interior of Africa, forbidden to western traders. He is believed to have been the first European to reach the River Niger. His return was delayed by imprisonment and illness, and he did not arrive back in Scotland until December 1797, having been thought dead. He later went on a second expedition to Africa, and died there in 1806. This account of his earlier travels, published in 1799, was an immediate best-seller, with three editions in the first year. Park presents a straightforward account of his journey, together with observations about daily life in West Africa, with none of the arrogant superiority so often expressed by European travellers. The book includes a vocabulary of Mandinka words, plates and maps, and a geographical appendix.

The Great Sahara
  • Wanderings South of the Atlas Mountains
  • Henry Baker Tristram
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    07 June 2012
    First published in:
    1860
  • After sailing on a crowded steamer from Marseilles, Henry Baker Tristram (1822–1906) arrived in Algiers in the winter of 1856, and began preparations for an expedition into the Sahara. Although the northern areas had been well documented by the occupying French forces, the south was little travelled by Europeans. A keen naturalist and later a Fellow of the Linnaean Society, Tristram made meticulous preparations for collecting specimens, and kept a thorough journal as he travelled. This book, one of the first English reports of the South Sahara, published in 1860, is an almost exact transcription of that journal. Travelling with a tin of chocolate and a collection of fine silk handkerchiefs to trade, Tristram made notes on a host of topics, from the flight of flamingos to the government and customs of the native Touareg. His account is still a valuable resource for students of the history of science.

Narrative of Voyages to Explore the Shores of Africa, Arabia, and Madagascar
  • Performed in HM Ships Leven and Barracouta
  • Volume 1
  • William Fitzwilliam Owen
  • Edited by Heaton Bowstead Robinson
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    28 June 2012
    First published in:
    1833
  • William Fitzwilliam Owen (1774–1857) was a British naval officer. Between 1821 and 1826 he commanded an expedition to Africa, Arabia and Madagascar with the Royal Navy ships Leven and Barracouta, during which he mapped some 30,000 miles of coastline. His memoirs of the voyage are presented in this two-volume account, first published in 1833. Volume 1 begins by presenting Owen's instructions from the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty and the Hydrographical Office, on which the editor comments that Owen was not given the power to take account of seasonal climate changes. Through Owen's recollections we learn that this proved fatal, as many of his crew succumbed to tropical diseases. Providing a vivid account of African exploration in the nineteenth century, Owen also documents his encounters with native peoples and wildlife. His writings remain of great interest to geographers, historians and anthropologists.

The Nile Quest
  • A Record of the Exploration of the Nile and its Basin
  • Harry Johnston
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    17 November 2011
    First published in:
    1903
  • Sir Harry Johnston (1858–1927), was a British artist, explorer and colonial administrator. He was a key figure in the so-called 'Scramble for Africa', the invasion and colonisation of Africa by major European powers in the late nineteenth century. This book, first published in 1903, is Johnston's wide-ranging history of Nile exploration, beginning with the Ancient Egyptians and the Greeks and continuing into the Victorian period. As well as charting the development of ancient civilisations in the Nile region, Johnston also discusses its wider role in world history and its appeal to powerful leaders from Alexander the Great to Napoleon. As a contemporary of many significant participants in nineteenth-century Nile exploration, Johnston was perfectly situated to provide detailed insights into the personalities and achievements of explorers such as Burton, Stanley and Speke. His absorbing and accessible account provides a fascinating late Victorian perspective on the subject.

The Albert N'yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, and Explorations of the Nile Sources
  • Volume 2
  • Samuel White Baker
  • Published online:
    05 November 2012
    Print publication:
    15 September 2011
    First published in:
    1866
  • Sir Samuel Baker (1821–93) was one of the most famous Victorian explorers and hunters. First published in two illustrated volumes in 1866, this account of his most celebrated expedition is amongst the most important works of its type. Baker promises 'to take the reader by the hand, and lead him step by step … through scorching deserts and thirsty sands; through swamp and jungle … until I bring him, faint with the wearying journey, to that high cliff … from which he shall look down upon the vast Albert Lake and drink with me from the sources of the Nile!' Volume 2 finds Baker a prisoner of a native king. Baker offers a number of 'gifts' to buy his release, and after an arduous journey, with his wife in a coma, in March 1864 he reaches Luta N'zige, which he renames in memory of Prince Albert. A compelling account of an historic adventure.

The Albert N'yanza, Great Basin of the Nile, and Explorations of the Nile Sources
  • Volume 1
  • Samuel White Baker
  • Published online:
    05 October 2012
    Print publication:
    15 September 2011
    First published in:
    1866
  • Sir Samuel Baker (1821–93) was one of the most famous Victorian explorers and hunters. First published in two illustrated volumes in 1866, this account of his most celebrated expedition is amongst the most important works of its type. Baker promises 'to take the reader by the hand, and lead him step by step … through scorching deserts and thirsty sands; through swamp and jungle … until I bring him, faint with the wearying journey, to that high cliff … from which he shall look down upon the vast Albert Lake and drink with me from the sources of the Nile!' Volume 1 covers the first two years of the expedition, from Cairo to southern Sudan. Leading a party of 96 people, including his wife, and dealing with Arab duplicity, native aggression, and frequent mutinies amongst his porters, he maintains his resolve and writes with clarity and great colour.

A History of the Arabs in the Sudan
  • And Some Account of the People who Preceded them and of the Tribes Inhabiting Dárfūr
  • H. A. MacMichael
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    17 March 2011
    First published in:
    1922
  • H. A. MacMichael was a member of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan government between 1905 and 1933. This two-volume work, first published in 1922, is the culmination of almost twenty years' ethnological research conducted while MacMichael was stationed in various parts of Sudan. This ethnography provides detailed histories of the origins, movements and degrees of relation between indigenous groups in Sudan based on oral histories gained from interviews with local people, and on Sudanese genealogical records known as 'nisbas'. These records provide a valuable insight into the construction and fluidity of ethnic identity at a local and regional level, and have been widely used as a basis for subsequent investigations concerning identity in Sudan. Volume 2 contains translations of nisbas with an analysis of their relation to ethnic identities. This book contains opinions on ethnicity which were acceptable at the time it was first published.

A History of the Arabs in the Sudan
  • And Some Account of the People who Preceded them and of the Tribes Inhabiting Dárfūr
  • H. A. MacMichael
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    17 March 2011
    First published in:
    1922
  • H. A. MacMichael was a member of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan government between 1905 and 1933. This two-volume work, first published in 1922, is the culmination of almost twenty years' ethnological research conducted while MacMichael was stationed in various parts of Sudan. It provides detailed histories of the origins, movements and degrees of relation between indigenous groups in Sudan, based on oral histories gained from interviews with local people, and on Sudanese genealogical records known as 'nisbas'. These records provide a valuable insight into the construction and fluidity of ethnic identity at a local and regional level, and have been widely used as a basis for subsequent investigations concerning identity in Sudan. Volume 1 discusses pre-Islamic and contemporary indigenous groups. This book contains opinions on ethnicity which were acceptable at the time it was first published.

Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone
  • To which is Added, an Account of the Present State of Medicine among Them
  • Volume 1
  • Thomas Winterbottom
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    21 October 2010
    First published in:
    1803
  • Sierra Leone in West Africa is the subject of this 1803 work by English physician Thomas Winterbottom (1766–1859). In the 1790s he spent four years there working for the Sierra Leone Company (established by abolitionists to resettle ex-slaves), and combating diseases such as malaria and scurvy. He displays none of the pejorative views of Africa or its inhabitants that some of his contemporaries expressed, but has a very positive opinion of the country. Winterbottom describes the women as beautiful and graceful, and he dismisses racial differentiations based on skin colour as being absurd. In Volume 1 he draws a many-faceted picture of the climate, history and traditions of Sierra Leone, describing the limited diet of the inhabitants (consisting mainly of rice and palm oil), and seeking to give scientific answers to such questions as why the hair of the inhabitants is mostly of a 'woolly' type.

Account of the Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone
  • To which is Added, an Account of the Present State of Medicine among Them
  • Volume 2
  • Thomas Winterbottom
  • Published online:
    05 April 2012
    Print publication:
    21 October 2010
    First published in:
    1803
  • Sierra Leone in West Africa is the subject of this 1803 work by English physician Thomas Winterbottom (1766–1859). In the 1790s he spent four years there working for the Sierra Leone Company (established by abolitionists to resettle ex-slaves), and combating diseases such as malaria and scurvy. He displays none of the pejorative views of Africa or its inhabitants that some of his contemporaries expressed, but has a very positive opinion of the country. Winterbottom describes the women as beautiful and graceful, and he dismisses racial differentiations based on skin colour as being absurd. In Volume 2 Winterbottom focuses on African medicine and common diseases found in Sierra Leone. He pays particular attention to cases of abortions and miscarriages, and to malnourished children. The author does not refrain from addressing circumcision and sexually transmitted diseases, and is intrigued by the role of magic in the native medical tradition.

William Cotton Oswell, Hunter and Explorer
  • The Story of his Life with Certain Correspondence and Extracts from the Private Journal of David Livingstone, Hitherto Unpublished
  • Volume 2
  • William Edward Oswell
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1900
  • The life of English explorer William Cotton Oswell (1818–93) was marked by adventures and discoveries. At nineteen, he left Essex for Madras, where he worked for the East India Company and became a renowned elephant catcher. Due to poor health, he was sent to South Africa, the 'empire of wild sport', where he specialised in hunting and exploration. He discovered the River Zouga and Lake Ngami during an expedition across the Kalahari desert, and travelled to the Zambezi River with Scottish missionary David Livingstone. Originally published in 1900, this two-volume biography was written by Oswell's eldest son. Since Oswell kept no diary, his life is here reconstructed through the many letters he sent to his family and friends. Volume 2 opens with Oswell's return to England in 1852, and includes an account of his journey to the Crimean front, where he worked in hospitals between 1854 and 1855.

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 4
  • Heinrich Barth
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    23 June 2011
    First published in:
    1858
  • 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 4 follows Barth's challenging journey along the Niger to Timbuktu, and describes the city and its inhabitants.

The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa, in the Year 1805
  • Mungo Park
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    20 January 2011
    First published in:
    1815
  • Mungo Park was the original lone explorer of West Africa. The first European to reach the Niger, record its flow direction and return alive, he was considered a hero on his return. He died during his second exploration attempt inland along the Niger to discover the city of Timbuktu. Published posthumously in 1815 by the African Institution, which had sponsored his journey, a biography, personal letters and the account of the rescue team sent to discover his fate accompany Park's own journal of the expedition. The journals and letters are a fascinating description of the constant dangers and thrill of the age of exploration. Battling adverse weather, local hostility, tropical diseases and the death of nearly all his party including his brother-in-law, Park writes 'I would still persevere; and if I could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would at least die on the Niger.'

African Researches
  • Or, Proceedings of the Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa
  • Corporate Author Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    03 November 2011
    First published in:
    1802
  • The founding of the African Association in 1788 was arguably the starting point of the European race to explore Africa. The organisation lay behind many of the most famous expeditions to Africa at the end of the eighteenth century, including those of Mungo Park, Friedrich Hornemann and John Lewis Burckhardt. This volume, published in 1802, includes fascinating details of their expeditions. We read of the failure of earlier projects, and Sir Joseph Banks' recommendation of Hornemann to the Association, stating that 'his youth, his prudence … and lively zeal' would make him a fine 'acquisition'. Of Mungo Park, the Association heard that he was 'a young man of no mean talents'. Alongside the insights into the preparations for the expeditions, the volume includes letters and detailed accounts from both Park and Hornemann, and meticulous contemporary maps, providing a unique picture of the earliest days of exploration in Africa.

The Life of John William Colenso, D.D.
  • Bishop of Natal
  • Volume 2
  • George William Cox
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1888
  • The prolific nineteenth-century historian and liberal churchman George William Cox (1827–1902) published this biography of the controversial bishop John William Colenso (1814–83) in 1888. Colenso was appointed the first Bishop of Natal in 1853, and in the next few years he oversaw the completion of the cathedral in Pietermaritzburg and the building of churches in Durban and Richmond, established mission stations and learned Zulu. He was heavily criticised for his tolerance of Zulu practices and for his view that the Old Testament was not literally true. Eventually he was excommunicated, though he retained a loyal following. Cox had accompanied Colenso on his first visit to South Africa in 1853, and remained a fervent supporter of the bishop's work, eventually being nominated (unsuccessfully) as his successor. Volume 2 covers the period from 1865 to Colenso's death, focusing on his support for indigenous rights in the face of colonialist injustice.

Zanzibar
  • City, Island, and Coast
  • Volume 1
  • Richard Francis Burton
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1872
  • First published in 1872, this two-volume memoir by explorer, ethnographer and diplomat Sir Richard Burton (1821–90) was written while Burton and John Hanning Speke were making preparations for their expedition to solve one of the major geographical mysteries of the nineteenth century - the location of the source of the Nile. The pair arrived in Zanzibar in December 1856, and Burton made detailed notes on his surroundings which were developed into Volume 1, which focuses on 'The City and the Island', including Burton's journey preparations and arrival. He discusses the significance of the 'Nile question' as well as recording geographical, botanical, meteorological and ethnographic observations. The manuscript on which the book is based, entrusted to an East India Company official for dispatch to the Royal Geographical Society, was initially misplaced, thus delaying publication by twelve years, but enabling Burton to add a chapter on Speke's achievement and untimely death.

The Ashanti Campaign of 1900
  • Cecil Hamilton Armitage, Arthur Forbes Montanaro
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1901
  • In March 1900, Frederick Hodgson, the British Governor of the Gold Coast, demanded to sit on the Golden Stool of the Ashanti people in Ghana. The Golden Stool had great historical and symbolic significance for the Ashanti people and the Governor's demand was perceived as nothing short of a declaration of war: they responded by besieging the garrison in the city of Kumasi. British troops were sent in and recaptured the city in September 1900. C. H. Armitage (1869–1933), private secretary to Hodgson (and later himself to serve as Governor of Gambia) and A. F. Montanaro (1862–1914) were in the British retaliatory force, and as such perfectly positioned to give a first-hand account of the episode. The book was originally published in 1901 and is divided into two parts. The first part, by Armitage, describes the Ashanti siege of Kumasi, and in the second part Montanaro relates the British response.

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