Three Years In Savage Africa – Lionel Decle

Description

Lionel Decle’s captivating Three Years in Savage Africa combines elements of travelogue, adventure story, and scientific study. Chosen for inclusion in the Rhodesiana Reprint Series, this work holds significance for two main reasons. First, Decle was commissioned by the French Government to observe and report on the lifestyles, customs, and character of the indigenous peoples of southern, central, and east Africa. His 7,000-mile journey across the continent yielded valuable insights, though some of his observations are superficial or inaccurate. Despite this, his accounts remain both interesting and largely valid.

Published in the early 1890s, Decle’s narrative offers a glimpse of Africa on the cusp of immense change. As noted by Henry Morton Stanley in his Introduction, when Decle began his journey, the Great South African trunk railway had only reached Vryburg, the Chartered Company had just taken control of Mashonaland, and Lobengula still ruled from his kraal in Bulawayo. At that time, many of the regions Decle visited had yet to be fully explored and were on the brink of colonisation. Decle’s work captures a world soon to be transformed by European influence, making this a fascinating snapshot of Africa during a pivotal historical moment—before the continent underwent the profound and often exploitative changes of colonisation. As Stanley concludes, “A last look around cannot fail to be interesting.”