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Very entertaining read
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The Gates of Africa: Death, Discovery, and the Search for Timbuktu
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London, 1788: a group of British gentlemen---geographers, scholars, politicians, humanitarians, and traders---decide it is time to solve the mysteries of Africa's unknown interior regions. Inspired by the Enlightenment quest for knowledge, they consider it a slur on the age that the interior of Africa still remains a mystery, that maps of the "dark continent" are populated with mythical beasts, imaginary landmarks, and fabled empires. As well, they hoped that more accurate knowledge of Africa would aid in the abolition of the slave trade.
These men, a mixed group of soldiers and gentlemen, ex-convicts, and social outcasts, form the African Association, the world's first geographical society, and over several decades send hardened, grizzled adventurers to replace speculation with facts and remove the beasts from the maps. The explorers who ventured forth included Mungo Park, whose account of his travels would be a bestseller for more than a century; American John Ledyard; and Jean Louis Burckhardt, the discoverer of Petra and Abu Simbel. Their exploits would include grueling crossings of the Sahara, the exploration of the Nile, and---most dramatically---the search for the great River Niger and its legendary city of Timbuktu.
Anthony Sattin weaves the plotting of the London gentlemen and the experiences of their extraordinary explorers into a gripping account of high adventure, international intrigue, and geographical discovery. The Gates of Africa is a story of human courage and fatal ambition, a groundbreaking insight into the struggle to reveal the secrets of Africa.
These men, a mixed group of soldiers and gentlemen, ex-convicts, and social outcasts, form the African Association, the world's first geographical society, and over several decades send hardened, grizzled adventurers to replace speculation with facts and remove the beasts from the maps. The explorers who ventured forth included Mungo Park, whose account of his travels would be a bestseller for more than a century; American John Ledyard; and Jean Louis Burckhardt, the discoverer of Petra and Abu Simbel. Their exploits would include grueling crossings of the Sahara, the exploration of the Nile, and---most dramatically---the search for the great River Niger and its legendary city of Timbuktu.
Anthony Sattin weaves the plotting of the London gentlemen and the experiences of their extraordinary explorers into a gripping account of high adventure, international intrigue, and geographical discovery. The Gates of Africa is a story of human courage and fatal ambition, a groundbreaking insight into the struggle to reveal the secrets of Africa.
382 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1,2003
This edition
- Format
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382 pages, Hardcover
- Published
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January 1, 2005 by St. Martin's Press
- ISBN
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9780312336431
- ASIN
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0312336438
- Language
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English
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Rating(4.3 / 5.0, 15 votes)
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15 reviews All reviews
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Such a fun read! Half history book, half adventure/travel, the book tells the story of London's Africa Association, which financed early English exploration in search of the fabled golden city of Timbuktu.
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A good introduction to European exploration in West Africa at the end of the 18th-c. and the early years of the 19th-c., centered on Sir Jos. Banks and the British African Association, which dispatched a series of "travelers"--- Sattin loves the 18th-c. use of "missionary" for them, meaning not religious proselytizers but someone sent out on a particular assignment/mission ---into Africa. The African Association's "missionaries" were to follow the course of the river Niger and visit Timbuktu and...well...do the groundwork for a set of ill-defined and shape-shifting ultimate objectives: complete the Enlightenment project of filling in the blank spaces on the maps of the world; assist in suppressing the slave trade; open up British commerce with the African interior; and, eventually, allow for British dominion. "Gates of Africa" is a good, quick overview of the careers and fates (usually grim enough) of the explorers and the changing nature of exploration. Very competently written, though with a few odd slips in fact-checking around the edges.
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This book's title may mislead a subset of interested readers. The history's narrative details, with great clarity and sense of adventure, the efforts of British elites to fund an expedition to Timbuktu in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The British elites operated under the name of the African Association, which was later absorbed by the Royal Geographical Society. Their primary purpose was to obtain gold and riches, of course, but their curiosity extended to botany, mapmaking, and other forms of intellectual conquest. In the later years, national pride became a motivating factor in the expeditions, as the race to the center of the continent resulted in (post)colonial legacies still visible today.
Throughout the course of the book and for a diverse set of reasons, numerous expedition attempts failed to reach Timbuktu. Sometimes a later expedition received news of a previous party or explorer, and these insights provide credibility in the author's conclusions, but also fascinating clues about the interconnectivity of kingdoms across vast distances by trade routes, pilgrimages, etc. Some explorers approached the journey as directly as they could. Some explorers opted for disguises that took years and years to cobble together. Following each party is a pleasure, though outcomes are fraught by death after death.
Where Sattin's book is lacking, in my view, is in the descriptions of Timbuktu. Certainly, the elites in Britain lamented the state of Timbuktu once information about the city became available. Nonetheless, Sattin could have done a better job detailing what Timbuktu, and various other cultural hubs in the region, did and do offer the inquisitive mind. The manuscripts preserved by Timbuktu's climate, alone, warrant a mention, as does additional dialogue about the history of intellectualism in the city, however decayed by the time Britain arrived at the scene. I realize that these artifacts and traditions did not interest British chrysophilists; however, readers are told that all Timbuktu promised was heat and sand. That is, The Gates of Africa is exceedingly Anglocentric, in narration and valuation. Reading the text proved an entertaining and informative experience, and I do recommend it to readers of world history. Despite the work's many strengths, I wish the book featured a slightly broader purview, with greater coverage of settings like Timbuktu, Cairo, Tripoli, and other centers of civilization visited by expeditions on their journeys inland.
Lastly, the quality of the writing is a little inconsistent, but not enough to impact my rating.
Throughout the course of the book and for a diverse set of reasons, numerous expedition attempts failed to reach Timbuktu. Sometimes a later expedition received news of a previous party or explorer, and these insights provide credibility in the author's conclusions, but also fascinating clues about the interconnectivity of kingdoms across vast distances by trade routes, pilgrimages, etc. Some explorers approached the journey as directly as they could. Some explorers opted for disguises that took years and years to cobble together. Following each party is a pleasure, though outcomes are fraught by death after death.
Where Sattin's book is lacking, in my view, is in the descriptions of Timbuktu. Certainly, the elites in Britain lamented the state of Timbuktu once information about the city became available. Nonetheless, Sattin could have done a better job detailing what Timbuktu, and various other cultural hubs in the region, did and do offer the inquisitive mind. The manuscripts preserved by Timbuktu's climate, alone, warrant a mention, as does additional dialogue about the history of intellectualism in the city, however decayed by the time Britain arrived at the scene. I realize that these artifacts and traditions did not interest British chrysophilists; however, readers are told that all Timbuktu promised was heat and sand. That is, The Gates of Africa is exceedingly Anglocentric, in narration and valuation. Reading the text proved an entertaining and informative experience, and I do recommend it to readers of world history. Despite the work's many strengths, I wish the book featured a slightly broader purview, with greater coverage of settings like Timbuktu, Cairo, Tripoli, and other centers of civilization visited by expeditions on their journeys inland.
Lastly, the quality of the writing is a little inconsistent, but not enough to impact my rating.
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Compelling journey into Africa in the age of "discovery". Educational and entertaining.
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A riveting account of the many explorers who tried to get to Timbuktu. The hardships they endured, the distances they traveled, the people they met. Just fascinating. Before I read this book I knew nothing at all about the Sahel region of Africa. As I read, I kept looking things up online about the region - in some ways, it hasn't changed very much since Mungo Park's time there. Very interesting.
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This wasn't really what I was hoping for in terms of general exploration, it's more of a history of one specific Society that organised expeditions. It was still interesting though
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I was looking for a great adventure book filled with description and fact. This was not the book for me. I felt it wandered off too much on the London politics.
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