Using the writings of prominent European explorers, this volume provides an exceptional introduction to the history of African exploration and the resulting European perspectives and beliefs. Offering a unique approach to the study of history, this book showcases the writings of more than a dozen explorers whose impressions of Africa during the "Age of Exploration" influenced not only their own generation, but generations to come. Well-known explorers such as David Livingstone, Richard Burton, and Henry Morton Stanley are featured, as are lesser-known individuals like Paul du Chaillu and Mary Kingsley. Several of the explorers generated the first written accounts of African cultures, societies, and geographies, informing-and forming-European understanding of Africa and its diverse peoples. Each of the main chapters in the book begins with a brief biography of a featured explorer followed by a set of primary source documents written by that individual. Each document is preceded by a short introduction and followed by an analysis. The selected writings highlight particular contributions or experiences important to the explorer's voyages, as well as common themes about social attitudes, global political interests, and knowledge of Africa gained from the explorer's personal context. * Provides readers with the actual writings and impressions of explorers who first probed Africa * Balances breadth and depth by providing enough material to present a well-rounded understanding of each explorer, while also featuring an adequate number of explorers to speak to the broad history of African discovery * Offers analysis of primary sources to reveal how each document influenced foreigners' attitudes on Africa at the points of first contact * Integrates the narratives of lesser-known explorers who have often been overshadowed by the attention paid to their more-famous contemporaries

Author Biography

Toyin Falola, PhD, is Distinguished Teaching Professor and Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities at the University of Texas at Austin. Ben Weiss is a doctoral student in the African history program at the University of Texas at Austin.