A remarkable account by a pioneering woman explorer who was
described by Rudyard Kipling as 'the bravest woman of all my
knowledge'. Until 1893, Mary Kingsley lived the typical life of a
single Victorian woman, tending to sick relatives and keeping house
for her brother. However, on the death of her parents, she
undertook an extraordinary decision: with no prior knowledge of the
region, she set out alone to West Africa to pursue her
anthropological interests and collect botanical specimens. Her
subsequent book, published in 1897, is a testament to
understatement and humour - few explorers made less of the
hardships and dangers experienced while travelling (including
unaccompanied treks through dangerous jungles and encounters with
deadly animals). Travels in West Africa would challenge (as well as
reinforce) contemporary Victorian prejudices about Africa, and also
made invaluable contributions to the fields of botany and
anthropology. Above all, however, it has stood the test of time as
a gripping, classic travel narrative by a woman whose sense of
adventure and fascination with Africa transformed her whole life.
This Penguin edition includes a fascinating introduction by Dr Toby
Green examining Victorian attitudes to Africa, along with
explanatory notes by Lynnette Turner. Mary Kingsley was born in
north London in 1862, the daughter of the traveller and physician
George Kingsley and his former housekeeper, Mary Bailey. Her
education was scant: while her younger brother was sent away to
school, she stayed at home. Later she lived in Cambridge, and cared
for her bedridden mother. Following the deaths of her parents,
Kingsley embarked on a voyage to West Africa in August 1893, with
the object of studying native religion and law and collecting
zoological specimens. In December 1894, she undertook a second trip
to the region, during which she became the first woman to climb
West Africa's highest mountain, Mount Cameroon. On returning home
eleven months later, she wrote Travels in West Africa, which was
published in 1897 and was followed by West African Studies in 1899.
Kingsley made one final trip to Africa, enlisting as a volunteer
nurse in South Africa during the Boer War. She had only been there
for two months when she developed typhoid fever and died, on 3rd
June 1900, before being buried at sea in accordance with her
wishes. Lynnette Turner is Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts
and Sciences at Edge Hill University. Toby Green is Lecturer in
Lusophone African History and Culture at Kings College London. His
book The Rise of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade in Western Africa
appeared in 2011.
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