From the Cape to Cairo: The First Traverse of Africa from South to North

Project GutenbergProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.4
Word count
539K words
Chapters
54

Tags

English Originals Historical GeographyTravel Human GeographyHistorical ReappraisalNature ObservationAdventure JourneyInspirationDocumentary NarrativeEclectic ReadingExotic CultureSocial ObservationCross-Cultural View

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.From the Cape to Cairo: The First Traverse of Africa from South to North by Grogan et al.Author: ,Language: English, Class: DT: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Africa, Release Date: Apr 14, 2014

Editor's review

This book is an important record of early trans-African travel, narrating the first traverse from Cape Town northward to Cairo, and partakes of both geographical exploration and travel literature. Readers can see the transport conditions, scenery along the way, and the colonial-era traveler's perspective in the African interior from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, which is valuable for understanding African historical geography and the tradition of exploration writing. As a public-domain e-book from Project Gutenberg, the text is easily accessible and suitable as research material or an introductory read in travel literature. It is best read as a historical document rather than a modern travel guide; noting its period limitations and narrative stance and comparing the itinerary with a map will better convey the spatial span of crossing Africa and the hardships of travel at the time.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Mark the itinerary points on a map of Africa while reading to build a sense of space
  2. Read the preface and chapter titles first, then closely read the sections that interest you
  3. Compare the book's observations with present-day African geography and take brief notes
  4. Read from the perspective of a historical document and be alert to period stances and biases

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
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  11. 11
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  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a travel record? It is a record of travel and geographical exploration, telling of the traverse from Cape to Cairo; it is not a work of fiction. Read it as a historical travel document, focusing on the route, observations along the way, and historical context rather than expecting plot development.
Can I read it without a background in African history? You can, but it is advisable to first learn the general background of late-nineteenth-century African colonization and exploration and to have a map of Africa at hand. Place names and routes are dense in the book, and without background it is easy to get lost; a little common knowledge will make the reading much smoother.
How is the e-book best read? Public-domain e-books are easy to search and excerpt, and are suitable for reading on a computer or e-reader alongside a map. You can browse the table of contents to choose chapters, then take notes; for research, organize place names and a timeline as you read.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Project Gutenberg Author

Project Gutenberg is not a single author but a nonprofit digital library founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and one of the world's earliest free ebook platforms. It relies on volunteers to digitize, proofread, and freely distribute public-domain works and is now operated by the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Its collection contains 2,692 works, mainly religious texts, epics, and story collections, including the King James Bible and the Douay-Rheims volumes, the epic Mahabharata, a literal translation of the Arabian Nights, and Danish editions of the Old and New Testaments. Public information is limited, and its nature is closer to a public-interest compiling and dissemination body; these texts are open to the public, easy to consult and circulate, and have had a profound influence on the spread of ebooks and the preservation of public-domain resources.