Wanderings in West Africa [Paperback]

Richard F. Burton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 1991

Great Victorian scholar-adventurer recounts long journey to British diplomatic post at Fernando Po, expeditions to African mainland. Invaluable descriptions of African tribal rituals concerning birth, marriage and death, and of tribal fetishism, ritual murder, cannibalism, exotic sexual practices, more. Preface. 1 illustration. 1 foldout map.

Editorial Reviews

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Sir Richard Burton's Wanderings in West Africa is a rare book. There are not many narratives that deal with the West Africa of the 19th century, especially in so much detail. Written a few years after the famous journey Burton describes in Lake Regions of Central Africa, this book takes the reader on a port-by-port tour from Liverpool to Morocco and then as far south as Fernando Po (Equatorial Guinea). Like Burton's other books, this one contains a wealth of information on subjects as varied as costume, language, agriculture, colonial administration, and local religions and rulers. There is certainly something in these volumes to interest any enthusiast of African history, or of colonial attitudes, as Burton is certainly free with his opinion on everything.

This narrative demonstrates Burton's typical scorn for all the people he encounters. For example, he is able to simultaneously exhibit contempt for the customs of the Africans and the English, who both treat young women like show dogs:

"When marriageable, [girls] are taken home, kept from work, highly fed, well dressed, and profusely ornamented. After many ceremonies, they are exhibited in the town by the advertisements of finery, dancing, and playing; thus it is pretty much the same in barbarous Medidsiasikpong (Africa) as in civilised England."

However, the darker his subjects' skin, the more offensive Burton's commentary becomes, and it is sometimes really shocking:

"From humbly aspiring to be owned as a man, our black friend now boldly advances his claims to egalité and fraternité, as if there could be brotherhood between the crown and the clown! The being who `invents nothing originates nothing, improves nothing, who can only cook, nurse and fiddle;' who has neither energy nor industry...the self-constituted thrall, that delights in subjection to and in imitation of the superior races."

The real interest in the book is its incredibly detailed descriptions of the things Burton sees as he wanders. He makes everything his business, from circumcision rites to dietary preferences. For example, his description of the kola nut is a wealth of sensory and cultural information:

"The Shaykh then presented me with a handful of kola nuts, which...are the local 'chaw'...The edible parts are the five or six beans, which are compared to Brazil nuts; they are covered with a pure white placenta, which must be removed with the finger-nails, and then appears the rosy pink skin...Travellers use it to quiet the sensation of hunger...In native courts eating kola nuts forms part of the ceremony of welcoming strangers, and the Yorubas have a proverb: 'Anger draweth arrows from the quiver: good words draw kolas from the bag.'"

Only Richard Burton could create such a combination of immediate experience, botanical knowledge, practical advice, and folklore in one paragraph. That is the kind of writer, and the kind of man he was - equally brilliant and opinionated in many different fields. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (October 7, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 048626890X
• ISBN-13: 978-0486268903
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,318,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Valuable & readable for students of African history, April 14, 2000

By 

Ed Gibbon www.congocookbook.com - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wanderings in West Africa (Paperback)

Note: I am resubmitting this review so it will not be anonymous...

One must come to Burton's "Wanderings in West Africa" with the understanding that there are not a lot of primary (first-hand) sources of information about Atlantic coast Africa in the 19th century. Furthermore, the majority of books about Africa of this era (mostly by explorers and missionaries; few or none by Africans) are long out of print and can only be accessed in mjor libraries. Given that, Burton's work is a valuable and readable account of a voyage along Africa's West Coast, as far south as Fernando Po (Equatorial Guinea). (We should be thankful for the publisher.) His text is direct and readable. The account is chronological, port by port. Burton describes the the places and people and whatever catches his interest. His opinion is always present. Burton goes into many details--trade, early colonial administration, rulers, languages, etc.--and it is unlikely that any one reader would be interested in all of it, but most students of African history are likely to find something of interest. There is no index. It should be noted that Burton has plenty of scorn and disdain for many of the Africans he encounters (as well as for many Europeans); this is typical for Burton, but may upset a reader who is new to this writer.

Many of the names (of places, tribes, etc.) are antiquated so a good reference book is a help.

Overall this is not Burton's best book, but it does have a place along with his other books on Africa ("First Footsteps in East Africa", "The Lake Regions of Central Africa") and it adds something of value to the reputation of the great writer, explorer, traveler, and translator who produced "Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Mecca" and "The Arabian Nights".

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Valuable & readable for students of African history, April 3, 2000

By 

Ed Gibbon www.congocookbook.com - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wanderings in West Africa (Paperback)

One must come to Burton's "Wanderings in West Africa" with the understanding that there are not a lot of primary (first-hand) sources of information about Atlantic coast Africa in the 19th century. Furthermore, the majority of books about Africa of this era (mostly by explorers and missionaries; few or none by Africans) are long out of print and can only be accessed in mjor libraries. Given that, Burton's work is a valuable and readable account of a voyage along Africa's West Coast, as far south as Fernando Po (Equatorial Guinea). (We should be thankful for the publisher.) His text is direct and readable. The account is chronological, port by port. Burton describes the the places and people and whatever catches his interest. His opinion is always present. Burton goes into many details--trade, early colonial administration, rulers, languages, etc.--and it is unlikely that any one reader would be interested in all of it, but most students of African history are likely to find something of interest. There is no index.

It should be noted that Burton has plenty of scorn and disdain for many of the Africans he encounters (as well as for many Europeans); this is typical for Burton, but may upset a reader who is new to this writer.

Many of the names (of places, tribes, etc.) are antiquated so a good reference book is a help.

Overall this is not Burton's best book, but it does have a place along with his other books on Africa ("First Footsteps in East Africa", "The Lake Regions of Central Africa") and it adds something of value to the reputation of the great writer, explorer, traveler, and translator who produced "Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al Madinah and Mecca" and "The Arabian Nights".

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Burton, coastal explorer of West Africa, August 2, 2003

By 

events3 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wanderings in West Africa (Paperback)

In WANDERINGS IN WEST AFRICA, the future Sir Richard Burton starts out with his departure from Liverpool and his arrival in Madeira, stops briefly in Tenerife (Island of the guanches in the Canary Islands) then heads down the coast (still onboard the A.S.S. Blackland), around Cape Verde and Goree, to Bathurst on St. Mary Island off Cape St. Mary near the mouth of the Gambia, then around the hump of Africa, past Elmina and Cape Coast Castle, and eventually reaches the island then known as Fernando Po (named after a Portuguese officer, Fernao do Po - now Bioko, a part of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea) near the more familiar islands of Principe and Sao Tome. Along the way, there are many vivid descriptions of people and locations.

At Tenerife, Burton provides a short account of the conquest of the guanches and describes them as being dark-complexioned [curiously, Peter Russell, in his excellent biography PRINCE HENRY 'THE NAVIGATOR' which recounts the beginnings of European involvement in West Africa, describes them as "probably fair-haired" based on descriptions in primary Portuguese sources].

At St. Mary's, Bathurst, he impugns Mungo Park, a well-known explorer, disparaging the latter with phrases such as "[s]o Park calls the Bomax," referring to the term "bentang" - even though a "bentenki" tree plays a role in the Lion of Manding in Courlanger's A TREASURY OF AFRICAN FOLKTALES. He also refers to Mumbo Jumbo (also mentioned by Francis Moore), which Park didn't come across until further from the coast, and coffles of slaves as "genius," implying they are fictional - notably, he fails to mention that Park wrote before the British interdiction on slave trading. The entire attack is sadly reminiscent of Burton's actions and statements in relation to J. H. Speke in Alan Moorehead's THE WHITE NILE. Here, we are also introduced to his rather curious views on Africans - (1) the "noble" race which includes Berbers and Mandingos, (2) the "ignoble" race which includes "pure-blood" or typical Africans and (3) Kaffirs or others he thinks may also be biracial. Later, we are treated to something of the history of the establishment of El Mina and Cape Coast Castle as well as the cruel type of slavery practiced by the Efiks of Calabar - a comparison with slavery in the contemporaneous South of the United States being quite to the benefit of the latter!

All in all, the work is highly entertaining if frequently superior and derogatory to any and all with whom Mr. Burton disagrees or whom he dislikes; however, where neither Mr. Burton's desire for glory nor his prejudices come into play, the book appears to be generally accurate and informative.