This is a story of European, specifically British, exploration of the African interior in the late 18th and early 19th century. At one point the book shows a 1829 map of Africa, and it was striking how much white space was on it. The Moon was better mapped--because you could study the Moon with a telescope--trying to get to the interior of Africa if you were a European was a different story. (The slave trade wasn’t conducted by Europeans in the African interior but by Africans themselves. Europeans primarily only hugged the coasts of Sub-Saharan Africa until late in the 19th century.) The Race for Timbuktu is a story of exploration and cultures colliding worthy of Star Trek--only without the Prime Directive and not just the Red Shirts drop like flies.

I thought the book did well on several levels. The explorers themselves come across as distinct personalities. Kryza quotes one historian of African exploration in the 1960s as saying that: “It remains difficult, in the checkered history of geographical discovery, to find a more odious man than Dixon Denham.” Having read Hochschild’s King Leopold’s Ghost, I would have thought it was hard to beat Henry Morton Stanley on that score, but I think Denham as portrayed by Kryza at least comes close. Other explorers such as Mongo Park, Lyons, Clapperton and Laing were more sympathetic, but just as interesting. I was also fascinated by the delineation of the connections between the loss of the American colonies, the push to end the slave trade, and how it drove British expeditions to find the lost city of Timbuktu and trace the course of the Niger River. The author does a great job in conveying what a barrier the Sahara Desert on one side and the tropical diseases of the Congo River basin on the other side presented and how they isolated Timbuktu.

Timbuktu, in what is today Mali is on the banks of the Niger and the southern border of the Sahara was a legendary city where “camel met canoe.” It was “likely founded around 1100” and at one point had a population reaching 100,000, was in its heyday fabulously wealthy, and had boasted an important center of Islamic scholarship in Medieval times. If I had one disappointment, it is we actually don’t spend much time or space on Timbuktu itself--this is a book about the journey, not the destination. Kryza claims he is “no scholar, and this is not a scholarly book” but he does include a bibliography and extensive notes on each chapter pointing to his sources. The book was entertaining, but felt solid in its facts.

Content warning: animal cruelty

Pretty interesting book, however for me some of the details of cosular politics dragged on too much.

Let's see. We need someone to explore a new region with zero possibility of returning. You will die through contraction of awful tropical disease, starvation in a vast desert or murder at the hands of xenophobic desert nomads. Volunteers?
Well, yes, there are, if you want to count 18th century Brits. I don't know what compelled them to go, but I do not think you would get any moderns to do so unless they had been told they only had six months to live. However, for the pre-Victorian Brits, the desire to explore new regions and the attendant fame compelled them to try to be the first to visit the fabled city of Timbuktu in what is now Mali.
Timbuktu was believed to be filled with treasures and no white man had seen it since the Roman era. That an American had actually been there and reported what he'd found in the 1790s did not count-He was a freedman and not white. Also, he said there was nothing much there-and that couldn't right.
The "Race" mentioned in the title was the competition to reach Timbuktu to win a prize offered by the French Geograhical Society in 1824. Earlier than that, however, two members of the Royal Society in London formed "The African Association," and that is what started the attempts to find Timbuktu.
An explorer, Mungo Park, beginning from the West coast of Africa and attempting to find the origin of the Niger River (The other goal besides that of reaching Timbuktu) was the most successful of the early explorers. He seems to have been killed in an ambush, which he seems to have brought on himself by fighting with natives along the route.
The two who were featured in the race presented here were Clapperton and Laing. Clapperton was favored as he had already been part of an expedition which had penetrated pretty far into the continent. Laing had the support of the British ambassador to Tripoli, Warrington. Laing married Warrington's daughter the night before he left and

never saw her again. They did write to each other and although no European had made the journey between Timbuktu and Tripoli there were plenty of Arabs who had done so routinely. They delivered communications between the explorers and their benefactors. Laing made it to Tripoli, wrote all about it and then was murdered when he left for home. There was some fear of the explorers since the leaders of the various cities, tribes and nations had heard what had happened in India and considered the Europeans point men for future expansion. They were prescient on that of course.

Besides exploration, the British had one more reason to penetrate the heart of Africa. It was their desire to stop the slave trade pursued by most of the tribes of the reason. Of course, the Brits had been all for the trade a few decades before, but had banned it and like an ex-smoker trying to get his friends to give up, must have seemed insufferable and hypocritical to the slavers.

Did I like the book? I thoroughly enjoyed it. Kryza switched back and forth between other explorers and Laing to give the race drama. This was a little difficult at first because the figures mentioned here are not remembered, so it was a little hard to keep straight who was who. But, once you got that out of the way it was a smooth and enjoyable read.

I don't know if Frank Kryza made much money from this. I suspect a lot of the historical writers I have been reading have not made a ton off of their books, but I certainly respect and enjoy their efforts even if they are not making the bucks of a John Grissom. It is this kind of effort that now and then brings fascinating people like Laing, Clapperton and Warrington to us 21st century readers and keep their names from being forgotten.
Herodotus said history is written so great men and their deeds are not forgotten-or something like that.
Thanks Frank, I appreciated the book and the effort.

I’m a sucker for tales of British derring-do, especially those in which feature gentleman explorers setting off into the ghastly blanks of continents heretofore unknown and unrecorded by western man. And Frank Kryza’s “Race for Timbuktu” is just such a story, largely focusing on rival adventurers (Hugh Clapperton and Alexander Laing) who are both keen to plant their proverbial flag in Africa’s “El Dorado” (the aforementioned Timbuktu). To do so, they chart courses over the some of the most hostile and rugged terrain on the planet, including a grueling, moonscape slog through the Sahara. Murderous Touareg tribesmen? Check. Parasitic, diarrheal diseases? Check? Extreme deprivation? Also check. Murderous machinations by French rivals? Of course.

Kryza’s is a bang up tale and makes for a great read, not to mention a poignant and well researched tribute to those swashbuckling giants of yesteryear (who — for the most part — are as forgotten and tumbledown as the mud-hutted town they so desperately sought).

Well documented but sloooow. Too many trivialities and I'm guessing just not enough meat for a full length book. Parts were semi - interesting and the concept was enough to get me to buy the book ( very cheap I might add), but I was glad to finish. 2 stars for readable but just O.K..

I agree with many of the reviews. Especially praiseworthy were the details provided by the explorers as they progressed little by little through treacherous, north Africa. The processes of getting their letters and field notes back to their sponsors was enlightening. I enjoyed reading about other discoveries including that of Lake Chad which I had never heard of.
But, regarding the race, I was so disappointed that I was reading about the losing team! Even though, Laing might have arrived in Timbuktu before the French team, but we may never know.

The book provides some interesting history of pre-colonial Africa. However, the detail is a little tedious.

This book gives a good feel for the place, people and the dawning of imperialism in Africa. The stories of the incredibly dangerous travel in northeastern Africa are richly detailed.

This book is about Europeans in the early 19th century trying to get to the storied city of Timbuktu as well as trace the course of the Niger River. This opening of previously unknown territory would lead to the Scramble for Africa.
At first I was turned off by how these European men were being glorified for traveling where Arab travelers went all the time. But the author did well to explain the significance of their maps and journals in setting up the infiltration of Western Africa for global politics.
It was also striking to learn about the hardships of crossing the Sahara. Besides the lack of water and extreme heat, there were bandits. Didn't make me want to rush out and book a trip to Mali.
The book was rather a slow read.

If you did not know the terror of Africa for early European explorers, after this book, you will...you will. In all seriousness, what these men accomplished, the horrors they had seen, and their disdain for slavery was an incredible read. In part because of their letters, the common man in Europe became more aware of the horrors of the slave trade.

A bit hit-and-miss, mostly missing the more interesting points, and too bogged down in trivialities.