Explorers' Tales: Stanley Presumes – Again

Journey out of darkness? Images of Africa in American travelogues at the turn of the millennium

“…In a review of a recent popular biography of the nineteenth century explorer Henry Stanley -the man perhaps most responsible for promulgating a popular stereotype of 'darkest Africa' -historian A.G. Hopkins laments the inability of scholars of Africa to orient their research for a more general readership. 75 Instead, popular audiences are limited to books on African history and contemporary affairs by writers who often ignore academic scholarship and wind up perpetuating old tropes and images of Africa for the sake of entertainment value. Indeed, Howard W. French, who worked as a correspondent covering Africa for the New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Economist, peppered his travelogue with history lessons which were sometimes ahistorical, misleading or even false.…”