Mary Henrietta Kingsley (1862–1900)
Author of Travels in West Africa
About the Author
Works by Mary Henrietta Kingsley
Associated Works
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Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1862-10-13
- Date of death
- 1900-06-03
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Islington, London, England, UK
- Place of death
- Simon's Town, South Africa
- Places of residence
- Highgate, London, England, UK
Bexley, Kent, England, UK
Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, UK
Angola
South Africa - Education
- self-educated
- Occupations
- traveller
writer
nurse
explorer - Relationships
- Kingsley, Charles (uncle)
Kingsley, Henry (uncle)
Kingsley, George (father) - Short biography
- Mary Henrietta Kingsley was the daughter of Dr. George Kingsley and the niece of Charles Kingsley and Henry Kingsley. She was educated at home with a governess and kept house for her invalid parents until their deaths. She then embarked upon two famously adventurous trips to Africa in 1893–1895, which included visits to Zaire, Nigeria, the French Congo, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea, among others. She wrote two books about her experiences, both bestsellers, Travels in West Africa (1897) and West Africa Studies (1899). These works, which defended the humanity and character of the people she met and observed, came to have a great influence on the way the English public viewed Africans. She died of a fever in South Africa at age 38 while working as a volunteer nurse during the Boer War. The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine founded an honorary medal in her name.
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Statistics
- Works
- 8
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 867
- Popularity
- #29,521
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 18
- ISBNs
- 58
- Languages
- 4
The book combines accounts of unbelievably arduous forest, river and mountain journeys (which she made in sole charge of her local bearers and guides) with disturbing comments on cannibalism, witchcraft and the fate of twins born in West Africa. She died aged only 38 – of enteric fever from nursing Boer prisoners of war – and was (at her earlier request) buried at sea off Simon’s Town.
Her account is lively, amusing and often self-deprecating although I was disturbed that she found the murderous colonial governor of Cameroon, Herr von Puttkamer “exceedingly good company”.… (more)