Will I love Travels in West Africa?

Even among this indomitable breed of women, Mary stands out for her daring. She came to Africa almost a century after Anne Barnard with a keen interest in natural history and the eye of an early anthropologist while traveling in places synonymous with dangerous disease – from Sierra Leone to Angola, Congo, and Niger.

She was barely less bold as a standard bearer for African culture, challenging perceptions about the colonial mission before dying as nobly as she had lived, nursing Boer prisoners of war at the Cape in 1900.

Among my favourite great women explorers of the past, her intrepid streak brings wild adventures which she handles with earthy common sense and humour – her writing makes me smile. I recommend it because it’s a superb escape into the once-real world of a woman explorer in the 1890s.

I particularly loved her voyage by dugout canoe downriver in the Ogowe rapids, and her bartering of lacy shirts with Fang tribesmen when her trade goods ran out. It all seemed so normal. It taught me not to fear the outside world, and that the wildest rainforests are safe compared to… show more.

The Victorian era had no shortage of European men marching into Africa to plant flags and stake claims. However, there were extremely few women exploring the ‘dark continent’ at the same time, and none who related their experiences with the understated humour of Mary Kingsley. Her writing is frank, funny, and without self-interest. Alone and utterly indomitable, she pursues her anthropological and botanical interests and even makes the first female ascent of West Africa’s highest mountain.