Mungo Park's Ghost
The Haunted Hubris of British Explorers in Nineteenth-Century Africa

The forgotten story of two British expeditions to Africa that went disastrously wrong and left a hidden legacy.

Dane Kennedy (Author)

9781009392983, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 January 2024

270 pages, 25 b/w illus. 5 maps
22.4 x 14.8 x 1.8 cm, 0.43 kg

'Mungo Park's Ghost cements Dane Kennedy's reputation as the leading historian of British exploration. … The book retrieves a major episode from neglect and should be essential reading for anyone interested in exploration and empire.' Max Jones, American Historical Review

In 1816 the British sent two large, ambitious expeditions to Africa, one to follow the Niger River to its outlet, the other to trace the Congo River to its source. Their shared goal was to complete the unfinished mission of Mungo Park, who had disappeared during a journey to determine whether the Niger and the Congo were the same river. Both quests ended disastrously and were soon forgotten. Telling the full story of these failed expeditions for the first time, Dane Kennedy argues that they provide fresh insight into British ambitions in Africa. He places them in the contexts of the imperial rivalry with France, the slave trade and the abolition campaign, and the independent power wielded by African states and peoples. He also shows that they were haunted by the same sense of hubris that would afflict many of the expeditions that followed. This hubris was Mungo Park's ghost.

Introduction: Mungo Park's ghost
1. In the shadow of the slave trade
2. Grand ambitions
3. Hopes and hubris
4. Futility and folly
5. The second time as farce
6. Inquest
7. Eating the country
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1]