Sir. H. Stanley

A long and detailed account (in very small print!) that is nevertheless a compelling tale for modern readers. Stanley's text is simultaneously an adventure story and at the same time a justification of Western exploration, exploitation and colonialism. It is also a depressingly inspirational account of enduring hardships (for the explorers and for the variety of native peoples they encountered or entrained), stoicism and a catalogue of unquestioned but unjustifiable decisions (e.g. collaboration with slave traders as guides having knowledge of, and connections in, central Africa). In retrospect, and in light of the subsequent horrors of the Belgian control of the Congo, this is a chilling account.… (meer)