Africa Explored: Europeans in the Dark Continent, 1769-1889

by Christopher Hibbert

This highly praised book uses letters, diaries, and memoirs by Mongo Park, Richard Burton, David Livingstone, Henry Morton Stanley, and others to provide a gripping account of the search for the source of the Nile and of the colonialization of Africa.

Genres: History, Africa, Nonfiction, Travel

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

Christopher Hibbert, MC, FRSL, FRGS (5 March 1924 - 21 December 2008) was an English writer, historian and biographer. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of many books, including Disraeli, Edward VII, George IV, The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, and Cavaliers and Roundheads.

Described by Professor Sir John Plumb as "a writer of the highest ability and in the New Statesman as "a pearl of biographers," he established himself as a leading popular historian/biographer whose works reflected meticulous scholarship.

Reviews

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book covers the exploration of Africa by European explorers, covering over 100 years. I have mixed feelings about the book, so I'll try to explain why.

First, I liked the format. It was clear, concise writing, with a few unfamiliar words, but a glossary in the back. And there were maps, which was really important, as I tried to follow the explorers as they traveled.

And the subject itself was ambitious. Hibbert tried to be fair, portraying both the native Africans and the Europeans with warts and all. He made an effort not to 'take sides' but to show people as they really were. I certainly learned a lot. This was a historical era that I knew virtually nothing about.

But oh, was this book depressing! It wasn't the fault of the writer. It was just the feeling I came away with. It seemed that in Africa, the strongest, most aggressive, most bloodthirsty group was the one that came out on top. Those who were peaceful were always exploited by someone else. This was true no matter what the ethnic group. Some of the worst excesses described were committed by Africans. One example was the slavetrader who snatched a baby from its mother and dashed its brains out, so the woman would walk faster.

I guess I had an idea that the Europeans were basically the ones exploiting the Africans, but as I read, I discovered that was not necessarily so. Even before Europeans outposts were established, some African tribes and Arabs engaged in the slave trade. One European who arrived early in the 18th century described a man as a slavetrader and a very good person. To me, in the 21st century, I just don't see how anyone could describe a person engaged in such a trade as a 'good person.'

But the Europeans were certainly not blameless. Richard Burton, in particular, struck me as a really nasty sort of person. He loved describing in lurid detail the sexual customs of the tribes, and tried to experience it as much first hand. And he delighted in the most cruel, barbaric practices. He wrote a friend with similar tastes complaining that no one had been tortured yet in his honor, but he had hopes that the next village would be better in that respect.

All in all, I would only recommend this to people interested in the history of Africa or European exploration. As entertainment, it was pretty grim.

[Grim Tidings · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is something of a tempered down swashbuckling tale, it is a historical account certainly but one that is centered around 14 chapters of fun and adventure. I imagine some of the biases of the source material penetrate Hibbert's retelling here and I thought to myself while reading, he is not 'fact checking' what these men tell us beyond the truth of the expedition happening and whether discoveries made were accurate, rather it is just a short summary of the lengthy memoirs the explorers wrote. Worth saying as I wouldn't take the book as a factual exploration of African cultures at the time, but of the explorers' journeys - but I didn't view this as a negative at all; Hibbert is a talented historian in pulling out the amusing and educational from his sources, and through what these men experienced I learnt and thought about a lot.

First of all there is the gruesomeness of uncivilised societies - again how much of the explorers' own accounts is true I do not know, but the sheer, recognisable brutality humans are capable of spikes through the pages. To name some common sights in this book, we have: slavery (especially sexual slavery, often where children are involved) is universally practiced by natives across the content, female genital mutation, and intense cruelty to animals (including a vivid scene in the first chapter on Ethopia where a cow is ritually eaten alive, its shrieks of pain taken as a blessing). It is hard to read at times and why I find non-fiction a far more effective route into understanding suffering than fiction that tries to replicate the same. It was interesting seeing the differing views of our explorers to these cruelties: some partake in it, others are disgusted. More or less all are forced to witness it and do nothing. At times we see slaves freed, these were scarce moments of relief.

There is also a comical tone to many of the explorers' experiences, past the human suffering observed. A few anecdotes I enjoyed were:

- a king placing a fork presented to him as a gift in his hair as an ornament
- another king gleefully accepting an explorer's gift of two children's farthing whistles with which, he said, he could 'amuse himself' in retirement
- an explorer going through an interminable ritual of introductory dance and song with a Tubu native while, in accordance with native custom, avoiding eye contact at all times

In general as an anthropological study this was a fascinating read. We are presented with a diverse range of cultures but through all of them there are common points of focus that differentiate one from the other (i.e. how bodies can be altered to fit with a culture's image, or how animals are best killed to taste their meat). One thing I didn't like was Hibbert's need to explain to us the racial characteristics of each tribe through the explorers' own descriptions of the 'native beauties'. While I understand this as an element of contemporary note-taking when it came to foreign cultures, it does not hold much interest for me as a modern reader and I felt the constant inclusion of the explorers' sexual comments on the native women quite unnecessary and unpleasant.

There are loads of sketches from the explorers in the picture section of the book, along with an accompanying map which each chapter. Actually I'd be interested to know the selection process for the stories in the book as together the 14 chapters do not form a particular narrative of such, however it worked quite well as it was. I did wonder though, as an account of European exploration, whether Hibbert as a Brit has selectively shown primarily British (and of these, the majority were Scottish) explorers or if this is merely a representation of the reality.

Finally I was surprised by how dominant the force of Islam is during this period: even in the most remote of tribes it is present. Though it is not the focus of the book, I would've liked some more explanation of this in the prologue. I wasn't aware how strong the Muslim influence was across the whole continent and how it had come to be. As a separate point the relationship between the white man and the Arab in the explorers' accounts does make for interesting reading - antagonistic at times, the enemy of my enemy is my friend at others. I am left wanting to read a book of 'Arabs on the Dark Continent' as if there is one thing I have learnt from the book, it is that Europeans were certainly not entering a continent that had not hitherto been explored by outside forces.

[Chris Bartholomew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read. A taste of Stanley's "In Darkest Africa" travels without 500 hundred pages of incessant daily insect and tribal village attacks. This is great stuff.