Imperial Boundary Making: The Diary of Captain Kelly and the Sudan-Uganda Boundary Commission of 1913

by G. H. Blake, Gerald Blake (Editor)

Captain Kelly's personal account of the Sudan-Uganda Boundary Commission of 1913 provides fresh and important insights into the process of imperial boundary making. The Commission set out with good intentions but their desire to avoid dividing tribes was complicated by inadequate information, shortages of food and water, and fundamental differences of personality and outlook. The boundary they devised survives almost unchanged to this day, even though parts of it were never visited by the Commission. Imperial geopolitics provide the setting for a fascinating day by day account of the Commission on the march, and of the tribes they encountered, some of which were uncooperative and hostile. Harry Kelly emerges from the pages of his diary as a fine leader, most conscientious surveyor and a man of unusual enlightenment for his time.

130 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 1997

Reviews

[Samuel Beer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting work. Clearly Kelly was in many ways a product of his time; however, the facile narrative of a dehumanizing colonial apparatus drawing African state boundaries in a dark room in Europe is rendered a little bit more complicated by his concerns during the expedition. Kelly's diaries display both the noble and the ugly.