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Summary:
A noble rescue mission descends into a nightmare of cruelty, starvation, and cannibalism, bringing to a close the European exploration of Africa. "Liebowitz and Pearson have written an illuminating saga of the dark days of colonialism."—National Geographic Adventure
Henry Morton Stanley undertook the greatest African expedition of the nineteenth century to rescue Emin Pasha, last lieutenant of the martyred General Gordon and governor of the southern Sudan. Emin had been cut off by an Islamic jihad to the north and was at the mercy of brutal slave traders. Instead of ten months, the trip took three years and cost the lives of thousands of people, as Stanley's column hacked its way across the last great, unexplored territory in Africa.
Stanley's secret agenda was territorial expansion on the model of Leopold's Congo or the British East India Company, and what is revealed so vividly in the diaries of those who accompanied him is the dark underside of both the man and the colonial impulse. The expedition took whatever it wanted from the Africans, and when Africans were killed defending their possessions, they didn't even rate an entry in Stanley's journal. 8 pages of illustrations, 2 maps.
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Stanley's Mad Arrogance
Customer Rating:
The author's do a decent job here, but I kept asking to what extent it was worth doing. Stanley proves to be a self serving, vain, even repellent character. It was hard to enjoy a journey with such a companion and hard to see that his journey, difficult as it was, could be said to be of importance.
This book is paired with The River of Doubt, which is far superior. In fact, I noticed in the 25 similar books list several candidates that I've read recently that were more enjoyable books, among them Blood and Thunder and Mayflower.
Henry Morton Stanley's bumbling misadventures in Africa make interesting reading.
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Subtitled "Stanley's Mad Journey through the Congo", this book appealed to the historian in me. It also appealed to my armchair-traveler sense of adventure and exploration. There was much to learn here too because, prior to reading this book, all I knew about Henry Morton Stanley is that he is often remembered for searching for the explorer, David Livingstone in Africa and, upon finding him uttering the words "Mr. Livingstone I presume". This was in 1870. Years later, in 1886, Stanley went back to Africa with a huge expedition, the stated purpose of the mission to rescue Emin Pasha, the governor of the southern Sudan. This book is about that mission, the unstated nature of which was territorial expansion and a hoard of ivory. It makes fascinating reading.
Filled with details taken directly from some of the diaries of the men on the expedition, this is a story of one bumbling misadventure after another. Stanley started out with more than 700 men; barely 200 returned. There was illness, warfare, wrong judgments and mistakes. And through it all, Stanley was absolutely convinced that he was right in all things and had no trouble putting the blame on others. Perhaps it was this very pigheadedness that helped them survive at all. After all, Stanley had something to prove because he was an illegitimate child who was brought up in an orphanage. Later, he went to America and briefly fought for the confederacy in the Civil War but he deserted, became a journalist and eventually went back to England.
There are a lot of characters in this book and I must say I sometimes got confused about all the players. There were officers who tried their best to follow orders in horrible situations. There were hundreds of African natives who acted as porters and who often deserted. Then there were the sponsor with big money and nations looking for glory.
There was never enough food. Disease was everywhere. They had to deal with a notorious slave trader. They also had to deal with the conflicting ambitions of several nations, most notably the Belgians. They had to leave most of their provisions and belongings along the trail. There were wars with hostile natives. They were attacked by poisoned arrows to which they responded by using their guns and burning villages. There was the heat and the bugs and the wrong decisions and illnesses which added an extra two years to their trip. And then, when they finally found Emin Pasha, he didn't really want to be rescued. But he finally joined them along with about 600 Egyptians fleeing the Sudan with their families, slaves and household goods. Mostly, I felt sorry for the poor porters.
This book was a slow read but I kept coming back to it, mostly because it was an escape from my day-to-day life and added some perspective to my knowledge of history. It doesn't read like a novel though. It's full of facts and figures and conflicting points of view. I enjoyed it. However, I stop short of recommending it to everyone. It is for history buffs only.
You can't make this stuff up
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These explorer stories are amazing in the ordeals they endured. Given how soft humankind is nowadays, I doubt any of us transported back to these times would have survived. How they did it is beyond me.
The Darkness of Henry Morton Stanley (nee John Rowlands)
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Liebowitz and Pearson have done a masterful job of skimming through the memoirs of all the members of the "Emin Pasha Relief Expedition" and bringing to us the most 'unadulterated' narrative of what might have actually happened. Stanley who spent time in a poor/workhouse in Wales as an unwanted 'bastard', never recovered from this disasterous childhood. It is a shame that he couldn't put it behind him, because it colored and ruined the real things that he accomplished.
He never stopped 'reinventing' himself or being the snake oil/confidence man he had to become to make his way in the world from an early age. He had to constantly 'CYA' and make sure (to himself) that he was always in the right (at least in print), and that all kudos and accolades would come to him along. His search for Livingston and Emin Pasha, lead to the first exploration of Central Africa by a European; but these accomplishments were never enough for Stanley who "failed" to return with either man (who it is questionable ever needed 'saving').
He was much like a street kid who goes around "tagging" buildings to show the world that he exists. Wherever he could he 'claimed' to have been the 'first' to see all types of geographical phenomenon, and where he could put his name on it (or some English Royal), Stanley Pool, Stanleyville, Stanley Falls, Mt.Stanley, etc. For example, he claimed to be the first to see the Ruwenzori/Mountains of the Moon (the largest which was called Mt.Stanley), when two of his officers saw it and told him of their discovery, not to mention that Emin Pasha had written to a friend in Germany about them two years before Stanley went looking for him. It reminds one that Sir Hilary didn't climb Mt.Everest by himself, not did Perry or Amundsen reach either of the Poles by themselves.
Besides being a self-booster and braggart, he was a viscious slave driver (literally), who flogged his people when it suited him, and treated his African porters more like slaves than workers. While he brought along his own food and entourage (which he never shared), his officers and porters were left to fend for themselves and many died of starvation and disease (because of malnourishment). The majority of people who went with him died, as they did on his other three expeditions, and of the people that he ended 'rescuing', more than sixty percent died; and were taken back to Egypt where most of them didn't want to go in the first place.
He then spent the rest of his life complaining about everyone and everything (except for one officer, who he said reminded him of himself as a young man), trying to discredit anyone who might have a claim to any of "his" glory. A tale of a man driven by more devils than any one man should have to handle.
"Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?"
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Stanley's Mad Journey: The Last Expedition
Even by the standards of nineteenth- century Imperialism, Henry Morton Stanley was excessive. His career, detailed in "The Last Expedition: Stanley's Mad Journey through the Congo," encompasses the worst of colonialism: racism, elitism, and opportunism, among others.
It is ironic that Stanley's life would be forever linked with that of Livingstone, who he found and addressed with the immortal words: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" (Like: What other White Man would be in the middle of Darkest Africa?) Stanley encouraged the popular perception of the Great White Hunter through his colorful, and self-serving, journalism for the tabloids of the day. He had no qualms in serving as Front Man for King Leopold of Belgium, who wanted to get on the African bandwagon with his own colony.
A European adventurer with the unlikely name of Mehemet Emin, who had adopted Arabic attire and manners, much like T.E. Lawrence, needed reinforcements, and it was agreed upon that Stanley would lead a rescue mission. Stanley developed a plan which, while it looked good on paper, was incredibly inefficient and downright foolhardy. His officers were the wrong men for the job: his equipment was inadequate; and his timing was wrong.
But the biggest problem was Stanley himself: arrogant, grandiose, disdainful of the Natives, and willful -he didn't have the right character traits for a leader. Illness, accident and murder claimed the lives of many of his men, yet he remained aloof and regal. It was a wonder than anyone survived the operation. Like another reviewer, I read this book shortly after reading "The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey." It provided an interesting contrast in styles of leadership and character: Roosevelt saw his expedition as a test of his own mettle; Stanley (like some other American presidents, although not TR), was thinking how his Legacy would hold up. Not well.
The Last Expedition is well-researched, entertaining, and well written. (****)
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