Publisher's Synopsis
Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890) was a British explorer, writer and ethnologist best known for his travels in Asia and Africa in the nineteenth century. This is his account, originally published in 1863, of his mission to investigate mortality in West Africa. Volume 1 discusses the landscapes, buildings, cultures and cuisines that characterized his journey from Liverpool through Madeira and Tenerife, before recalling his first impressions of Africa on arriving in Bathurst on the Eastern Cape. In Volume 2 he examines West Africa's culture, traditions, and living and working environments, showing how slaves were exploited in the gold trade, dwellings were overcrowded and unclean, and poverty and starvation were rife, in the midst of enduring inequality between Europeans and native Africans. Set within a fascinating historical, political and cultural context, and written in vivid detail, Burton's memoirs remain of great interest and relevance to anthropologists, historians and geographers today.
