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

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.

Table of Contents:
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.

About the Author :
Dane Kennedy is a historian of the British imperial world who has written eight books, including The Last Blank Spaces: Exploring Africa and Australia (2013), and has edited or co-edited three others. An emeritus professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University, he has served as Director of the National History Center and President of the North American Conference of British Studies and he has been awarded Guggenheim and National Humanities Center fellowships.

Review :
'Mungo Park's Ghost is a brilliantly executed account of the most ambitious expeditionary bids ever made by the British government to explore the African continent - and almost certainly the most disastrous. Written with verve and rigour, Kennedy wonderfully documents geographical exploration as imperial hubris.' Charles W. J. Withers, Professor Emeritus in University of Edinburgh and former Geographer Royal for Scotland 'Dane Kennedy creatively and insightfully depicts the ignorance and ineptitude of Britain's early, all-but-forgotten attempts to explore an African interior torn apart by the brutality of the slave trade. What initially appears comically misguided evolves into a tale of rapaciousness and aggression that set the tone for later British misadventures in Africa.' Stephanie Barczewski, Carol K. Brown Scholar in the Humanities and Professor of History, Clemson University 'Few historians can match Dane Kennedy's mastery of British imperial mythology. In this witty, gripping and often tragicomic history of failed expeditions in search of a confluence of the Congo and the Niger, Kennedy shows the intricacies and influence of British scientific societies, the complexities of imperial masculinity and the extent of British imperial ambitions in West Africa in the early nineteenth century. Attentive to the many ways that hired African labourers and local kings and chiefs held the lives of British military officers in their hands, and to how West African politics shaped the expeditions, Kennedy explores the gulf between imperial grandiosity, the colossal reputation and mysterious death of Mungo Park, and the fly-blown, shambolic reality of British imperialism in West Africa in the early nineteenth century. Mungo Park haunted the British empire in unexpected ways, and this excellent book makes an elegant case for the importance of close attention to 'heroic failure' in British imperial and colonial history.' Padraic X. Scanlan, Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources, University of Toronto 'Dane Kennedy is the best historian of imperial exploration writing today. Mungo Park's Ghost foregrounds African actors and states in the story of British intervention in West Africa, to deliver fresh insights into the dynamics of slavery and anti-slavery and an unvarnished exposé of the overweening power of imperial hubris.' Maya Jasanoff, Coolidge Professor of History, Harvard University '… offers an excellent corrective to the blockbuster biographies of 'great British explorers' that continue to appear. It shows us how a version of imperial nostalgia was created long before African countries were fully colonized, and helps us to reflect on how powerfully that imperial nostalgia still circulates in Britain today.' Clare Pettitt, The Times Literary Supplement '… Kennedy has succeeded in writing a book that is well worth reading. It is not only recommended for readers who are interested in journeys of exploration, but also for anyone who is generally interested in British activities in Africa in the 19th century or who is looking for methodological inspiration for topics that, due to the history of research and the availability of sources, are often accused of being Eurocentric or of reproducing colonial narratives.' Albert Feierabend, H-Soz-Kult 'Kennedy has produced a book that challenges conventional narratives of exploration and discovery at a time when this sort of rhetoric is being redeployed in new guises on the African continent. It is a timely check on our inherited assumptions and received narratives, and as such, I hope lays the foundation for renewed attention on this pivotal moment in the history of the continent and African people's encounters with shifting forms of European imperial ambition in the nineteenth century.' Jennifer Hart, International Journal of African Historical Studies '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