Travels in West Africa

Issued in 1897, this is Mary Kingsley's report of her journeys along the West African coast and into the Gabon interior. She moves by steamer and dugout among factory agents, missionaries, and African traders, collecting specimens and watching how credit, rum, and custom organise the rivers. Chapters describe mangrove creeks, a climb on Mount Cameroon, and encounters she presents as comedy as often as danger. She argues from observation about fetish and administration. The work is a Victorian travel book of rivers and markets, not a political history of the colonies she passed through.

Bound in cream cloth blocked with a design in green and orange. Dark orange slipcase.