The Race for Timbuktu: In Search of Africa's City of Gold [Hardcover]

Frank T. Kryza (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 24, 2006

This book is a dramatic true adventure. It is the first book-length account of Laing's expedition. It appeals to readers of travel, exploration, and adventure writing and was extracted in the travel section of national newspaper eg "FT". This is the incredible true story of Alexander Gordon Laing and the race to discover Timbuktu during the early part of the 19th century - a time when the African continent was still largely uncharted. In the first decades of 19th century, no place burned more brightly in the imagination of European geographers and fortune hunters, than the lost city of Timbuktu. Like the mythical city of El Dorado, the very real Timbuktu held the promise of wealth and fame. Whoever got there first was guaranteed worldwide renown. Yet, though many had tried, no European explorer had been there and returned since the Middle Ages. In 1824, the French Geographical Society offered a cash prize for the first expedition from any nation to return from Timbuktu. The British, unwilling to depend on the fate of one explorer, sent several "African travelers" on their way. "The Race for Timbuktu" focuses on two of these men: Alexander Gordon Laing, the book's protagonist and "voice," and Hugh Clapperton, the man who would become his greatest rival. The book follows Laing and Clapperton on their arduous journeys across the unforgiving Sahara, in constant battle against the elements, illness, attack, and time, to be the first white man to reach the fabled gates of Timbuktu. The story of their expeditions also serves as a narrative history of the European colonization of Africa, the "Great Scramble" that resulted in nearly every square yard of Africa occupied by European nations. "The Race for Timbuktu" offers a close personal look at the extraordinary people and pivotal events of 19th century African exploration that changed the course of history and the shape of the modern world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Kryza recreates the bold journeys through the unknown Africa of early 19th-century British explorers Alexander Gordon Laing and Hugh Clapperton, competing to find the fabled city of Timbuktu. Kryza's meticulous research of letters, diaries and official records forms the basis for affecting descriptions of the hazards and horrors the two explorers faced. Kryza, who lived in Africa for 11 years and traveled Laing's route, writes evocatively of the beauty of the African landscape and provides chilling glimpses of the barbarism of the slave trade. He also exposes the unbridgeable cultural gap between 19th-century Muslims in North Africa and the Christian explorers. But what most impresses are the sheer number of ways there were to die in Africa, known as the "White Man's grave"—malaria, dysentery, drowning, parasitic infections and heat stroke were a few of the natural threats, which paled beside the likelihood of being killed by fellow travelers, slavers, bandits or capricious rulers. Kryza (The Power of Light) starts slowly, but when the focus settles on Laing and Clapperton, readers will be eager to find out their fates. 20 b&w illus.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Timbuktu is in the center of Mali on the southern edge of the Sahara. In the first two decades of the nineteenth century, it held the promise of wealth and fame for the first explorer to make it there and back alive. As Kryza sees it, Timbuktu assumed the quality of a mythic dream, a city paved in gold. He chronicles the 2,000-mile journey of Major Alexander Gordon Laing, an army officer with the Royal Africa Corps, in 1825. The trip across the Sahara from Tripoli to Timbuktu took more than a year, Laing's caravan facing suffocating heat and foul-smelling food. Distances were measured in days, never in miles, and at night he and his men wrapped themselves in blankets and slept on the sand. Laing was the first European to visit Timbuktu and was received by its governor in a small mud house, and Kryza himself spent 11 years in Africa traveling much of this route. His narration of Laing's perilous journey is electrifying. George Cohen
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Ecco; 1St Edition edition (January 24, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060560649
• ISBN-13: 978-0060560645
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #427,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > History > Africa > Mali

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fun read but, December 23, 2006

By 

L. Berlin "disraeli67" (Evanston, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Race for Timbuktu: In Search of Africa's City of Gold (Hardcover)

The Race For Timbuktu is a fun and interesting read. It does a good job of covering the voyages of Alexander Laing and those who proceeded him. The writing is generally good and the story well told.

In short, Timbuktu was a legendary city of gold and wealth in the middle of Africa. A sort of Shangri-La that really existed, even if not in the wealth imagined. Given the importance of Africa to the European powers at the start of the 19th century, France and England raced to find the fabled city and the source of the Niger River. The book focuses on England's explorers such as Denham, Chapperton and Oudney. Followed by a solid biography of Alexander Laing, who eventually discovered Timbuktu. In the process a good glimpse of European affairs in the Sahara is provided.

So why only three stars? First this book needs maps-- desperately. I am amazed how many books I have read lately lack them. How hard is it for a publisher to get a map, draw the routes taken by multiple explorers on them and publish them in the book? Somehow it seems obvious and yet where are they? Second some pictures might be nice so one can see, or glimpse the regions described. Third, the author often repeats himself. How many times do we need to know Emma Warrington took unescorted walks with the son of the French Ambassador?

Fourth and most important, the author does little to provide African context for the events. Cities, empires, and rulers appear in the narrative, but little is said about them. This especially hurts when a people, the Taureg tribe, appear over and over with very little context. I recommend reading this book with one's internet link to Wikipedia or Encylcopedia Britannica open to answer obvious questions.

One last little thing, on P. 149 the author refers to Herodotus documenting a Roman garrison. Herodotus pre-dates roman times by a few centuries and did not write on Rome but on Greece and Persia. He also places a city in the Sudan which is clearly in Nigeria. Other mistakes may be present.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars High Adventure!, May 16, 2006

By 

Loves the View "Louise" (Hawaii) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Race for Timbuktu: In Search of Africa's City of Gold (Hardcover)

These expeditions make Lewis and Clark's look like a walk in the park. Where did these explorers get their grit, stamina, inspiration? ... especially those who had an idea of the hardships ahead. Thirsty, malnourished and wounded, they walk distances in 110 degrees that have killed their camels only to spend days digging a well that may or may not yield water. If you hit water, you fight with your entire caravan (man and beast) to have a crack at the sludge.

Kryza is at his best when he describes, be it a person, a relationship, dynamic or a place. His descriptions of Warrington, the Laing-Emma romance, Clapperton and Denham add dimension to the tale as do the discussions of the strange diplomacy in this Tripoli outpost.

Intriguing pictures are placed very nicely with the text they relate to. Kryza loves his material, and he gets us to love it too.

Whether you try the desert route or the Niger, the environment and the unpredictable people take toll on life itself. Fortunately, Kryza restrains description here so that this is pallatable for a general audience. While we might flinch from the page, we can read on.

I did wish for an earlier map than p. 88, and one that encompassed all routes described. Also, I didn't check the table of contents, so I wasn't aware what the race was. I kind of thought it was something that would emerge with Clapperton and Denham. The race actually begins half way through the book. The descriptions of the earlier expeditions are merely prologue. Perhaps a different title is needed, since the book is much wider than the "race".

I like having an afterward. (I've put down many books with long forwards, probably because I wasn't steeped enough in the story to appreciate the author's comments.) I also like the narrative chapter notes.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, March 7, 2006

By 

Thomas E. Meurer (dallas, tx United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Race for Timbuktu: In Search of Africa's City of Gold (Hardcover)

If you enjoyed Rice's Sir Richard Burton, you will enjoy this book. It a fun read for a airplane ride. Kryza weaves an excellent tale in the search for the mythical city. You feel the stress and challenges of the early 19th century African explorers and marvel that the human body could accomplish the feat of these individuals under those circumstance. It is worth the price because it takes you back in time to a period where individual performance is truly measured.