Jeff Ragan’s Reviews > The White Nile > Status Update
Jeff Ragan
is on page 21 of 432
"Burton, despite the plethora of books that have been written either by or about him, still remains beyond the range of ordinary definition. Above all else he was a romantic and an Arabist; he belongs decidedly to that small perennial group of English men and women who are born with something lacking in their lives; a hunger, a nostalgia, that can be set at rest only in the deserts of the East" (14).
— Aug 05, 2026 06:55AM
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Jeff’s Previous Updates
Jeff Ragan
is on page 31 of 432
"And here, in almost a haphazard way, there occurred the beginning of a chain of incidents which was to set this journey apart from all others in Central Africa and lead on through endless bitterness and tragedy to the solution of the problem of the Nile...Speke wanted to go off and investigate the reports they had heard from the Arabs of the 'N'yanza'...Burton willingly let him go" (30).
— Aug 10, 2026 09:48AM
Jeff Ragan
is on page 11 of 432
"In 1845 the Sultan of Zanzibar had declared that the export of slaves was forbidden...British & French men-of-war patrolled the coast in search of Arab dhows bringing Negroes from the mainland. But none of this had made any real difference. With a tradition of at least 2,000 years of slaving behind them none of the east coast Arab dealers had as yet dreamed of giving up the trade" (6-7).
— Aug 01, 2026 07:35AM