Travels in West Africa
by Mary H. Kingsley
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mary H. KingsleyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-01-23
ISBN: 0486424901
Number of pages: 800
Publisher: Dover Publications
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780486424903
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Travels in West Africa
Book Review: A travel journal by a courageous, intelligent, vivacious and witty lady.
Summary: 4 Stars
Travels In West Africa, Kingsley
Of all the great women travelers such as Gertrude Bell and Freya Stark of Middle Eastern fame and Fanny Bullock Workman and Janet Wuslin of Eastern Asian and Himalayan note I would place Mary Kingsley of African renown greatest of all. I am familiar with the books and works of the others but Kingsley combines all the attributes of all great travelers, whether male or female. Though she derides her own literary style I find it excellent, she writes with a witty and self-deprecating style which I find engaging. After reading this book no one could doubt her courage and imperviousness to hardship and discomfort. She also seems to posses a quite extraordinary personality as she seems to get along well with practically everyone she meets. But first of all I find her intelligence to be first rate. Her five chapters on fetish are of important value to the anthropologist and student of West African culture, and her comment in the appendix on "Foreign Labor" [page 656 in the Dover edition] may be considered brilliant.
It's interesting to compare this work on West Africa to the famous explorer, Richard F. Burton's, "Travels in West Africa" It seems no two people could be more unlike. Burton, though at times brilliant and always interesting and an intellectual of the highest order, is of course extremely opinionated if not outright bigoted. Burton's attempt at humor or wit never comes through like Kingsley's does. Burton has outright contempt for non-Muslim Africans, perhaps justifiably so in the case semi-Christianized mission Africans. But whereas Kingsley also mistrusts the latter, she attempts to understand the pagan African, while Burton never does. While Kingsley's book is always lighthearted, Burton's work seems strangely macabre at times.
I am not disappointed in this Dover Publishers edition I have
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