Africana Books

I am currently reading about South Africa and this title intrigued me. A Victorian spinster accompanied her brother to the unsettled regions of South Africa in the 1850's and lived to tell the tale. The enterprising spirit and stamina she discovered in herself surprised all her contemporaries --- including herself. It was a time when women were beginning to realize that they, too, could live intelligently and comfortably in the world and could experience lives of value without a husband.

If all the merit of this book lay in seeing the world through the opening eyes of a Victorian woman, it would be interesting, but it could have been set in an English garden or in the middle of the ocean. This book also allows us to look at the society of the Zulu tribe before they were impacted so heavily by white colonists. Feared warriors they were, but they were also hospitable to travelers, shrewd cattle herders and traders, and excellent managers of the environment surrounding them. Their outposts served as wayside inns for the hunters and travelers of the times. Because their wealth was concentrated in cattle, the center of their society was extinguished by the bovine flu. Only after that disaster was the tribe vulnerable to integration by other societies. Catherine Barter's observations of them as she traveled are as valuable as they are rare.

Any novel written by an immigrant with the colonizing spirit is bound to be one-sided. Is it racist? Yes. Is it autocratic? Yes. Is it historically accurate? As far as one can tell. Is it worth reading? If you are willing to wade through cultural arrogance to glimpse a tribe as it was. I'd do it again.