Dark Safari : The Life Behind the Legend of Henry Morton Stanley
Author:
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Book Type: Hardcover
Author:
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Book Type: Hardcover
This was an very depressing and often disturbing biography. Many people think of Henry Morton Stanley as a courageous individual who overcame great odds to locate Dr. Livingston in Africa, when he had been "missing" for several years. But that's only part of the man.
Considering what the author of this book states, and is also stated on Stanley's Wikipedia page, it might have been better for a great many people if Stanley had been drowned at birth.
Despite supposedly being opposed to the slave trade in Africa, Stanley often treated the people who worked for him---black and white---as slaves. His gross mistreatment and often uncaring attitude for their physical condition makes you wonder how black a heart he had. And what he did to native villages which wouldn't sell him food was despicable.
Stanley was a fraud and scammer from almost the beginning of his life. In fact, Henry Morton Stanley wasn't even his real name. Even his story of how why he assumed that name may be a lie. His entries in his diaries often contradict what he published in his books. Eventually, he was scammed himself when he went to work for King Leopold of Belgium. The king used Stanley to created a "Congo Free State" that inflicted such horrors on the natives in that area that they probably weren't surpassed until the rise of the Nazis in Europe.
What did interest me is the author's description of the Arab slave trade in Africa. Not many people know this, but---and I have read of this in other books---for every black slave European slave traders killed or sold in their slave trading, the Arab slave traders did far worse, often ten times worse. The Arab slave traders essentially destroyed African civilizations in east and central Africa. If they had a "slave train" of 2,000 people, they underfed them on their way to the slave markets. If 1,000 died on the way, why worry, as there were many more to take later. In fact, the author of this book, in his final chapters, states one of the benefits Stanley brought to Africa was to open it up to Western control which limited the Arab slave trade before it depopulated central Africa.
Considering what the author of this book states, and is also stated on Stanley's Wikipedia page, it might have been better for a great many people if Stanley had been drowned at birth.
Despite supposedly being opposed to the slave trade in Africa, Stanley often treated the people who worked for him---black and white---as slaves. His gross mistreatment and often uncaring attitude for their physical condition makes you wonder how black a heart he had. And what he did to native villages which wouldn't sell him food was despicable.
Stanley was a fraud and scammer from almost the beginning of his life. In fact, Henry Morton Stanley wasn't even his real name. Even his story of how why he assumed that name may be a lie. His entries in his diaries often contradict what he published in his books. Eventually, he was scammed himself when he went to work for King Leopold of Belgium. The king used Stanley to created a "Congo Free State" that inflicted such horrors on the natives in that area that they probably weren't surpassed until the rise of the Nazis in Europe.
What did interest me is the author's description of the Arab slave trade in Africa. Not many people know this, but---and I have read of this in other books---for every black slave European slave traders killed or sold in their slave trading, the Arab slave traders did far worse, often ten times worse. The Arab slave traders essentially destroyed African civilizations in east and central Africa. If they had a "slave train" of 2,000 people, they underfed them on their way to the slave markets. If 1,000 died on the way, why worry, as there were many more to take later. In fact, the author of this book, in his final chapters, states one of the benefits Stanley brought to Africa was to open it up to Western control which limited the Arab slave trade before it depopulated central Africa.
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