In 1914, H. Rider Haggardadventure novelist, diplomat, farmer, lawyer, and, above all, renowned author of such classic and influential bestsellers as King Solomon's Mines and Shereturned to South Africa, the country that had fired his literary imagination, for the first time in a quarter century.

Haggard, whose work is today considered a prototype of colonial literature, barely recognized the Africa of his youth. The discovery of gold, the destruction of the Zulu kingdom, and the aftermath of the Anglo-Boer war had all radically transformed the political, cultural, and often physical landscape.

No longer the diehard imperialist of his youth, when conquest and colonization were the order of the day, Haggard toured southern Africa extensively during this trip, acquiring an impression of black politics and even meeting the first president of the African National Congress, John Dube. This is the chronicle, in Haggard's own hand, of that journey.

A remarkable literary find, written by a man who helped shape Western perceptions of Africa, this hitherto unpublished manuscript presents a portrait both surprising and in some ways familiar of Africa and of a central figure in the literature of African colonialism.

H. Rider Haggard, best known as the author of King Solomon's Mines, She, and Allan Quatermain, also wrote three full-length plays. The play Mameena, based on Haggard's novel Child of Storm, is set in Zululand during the 1850s and deals with the struggle for the succession to the Zulu throne. Mameena was staged in 1914 by actor-manager Oscar Asche, who employed the Zulu expert James Stuart as technical adviser on the production. Star of Egypt was adapted from Haggard's ancient Egyptian romance Morning Star, while the historical melodrama To Hell or Connaught, set against the backdrop of the Cromwellian colonization of Ireland, was written expressly for the stage. All three plays are published here for the first time, together with previously unrecorded information on how they came to be written and, in the case of Mameena, performed.

This is a diary of Sir Henry Rider Haggard's tour of South Africa in 1914. It captures his feelings and perceptions on the change of Southern Africa, and of himself, since his departure in 1881. In 1914, Sir Henry Rider Haggard, returned to South Africa. He had left in 1881, in his mid-twenties, an unknown, he returned a houshold name, after the success of his novels, such as "King Solomon's Mines" and "She". Touring the country as a member of the Dominions Royal Commission, Haggard found it hard to recognise the South Africa of his youth; war and politics had left their mark. Haggard had also changed, he considered himself a "man of affairs" rather than as a novelist. This account of his journey through Southern Africa shows his feelings and views on the changes he encountered and shows his thoughts on the plight of the Zulus and his meeting with John Dube, the first president of the African National Congress.