How the "Seraphic" Became "Geographic":
Women Travellers in West Africa, 1840-1915
by
Cheryl McEwan
A Doctoral Thesis
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the
requirements
for the award of
Doctor of Philosophy of the Loughborough
University of Technology
(February 1995)
© byCheryl McEwan (1995)
Abstract
This thesis brings together two important developments in contemporary geography; firstly, the recognition of the need to write critical histories of geographical thought and, particularly, the relationship between modern geography and European imperialism, and secondly, the attempt by feminist geographers to countervail the absence of women in these histories. Drawing on recent innovative attempts by geographers to construct alternative, contextual perspectives in (re)writing histories of geographical thought, the thesis analyzes the travel narratives of British women travellers in West Africa between 1840 and 1915. Recent attempts by feminists to include women in histories of geography and imperialism have, all too often, failed to analyze critically the role of women in imperial culture, or have reproduced gender dichotomies in their analysis. This thesis seeks to overcome these problems in three ways. Firstly, it explores the contributions of women travellers to imperial culture, primarily through their production of popular geographies. Secondly, it analyzes the ways in which these women were empowered in the imperial context by virtue of both race and class. Thirdly, it frames the accounts of each woman within the specific spatial and temporal context of their journeys in order to explore the complexities in the popular geographies they produced. The thesis illustrates that while gender was an important factor in the construction of images in the travel narratives of Victorian women travellers, this cannot be divorced from the wider context of their journey, nor from other elements in power relations based on difference such as race and class. Using this framework, the study explores in detail the production of popular geographies of the landscapes and peoples of West Africa by British women travellers, and formulates an argument on how women and their experiences can be included in histories of geographical thought.
CONTENTS
Abstract
Acknowledgements
List of Maps
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - Britain and the Dark Continent"
Chapter 3 - Travel, Text and Empowerment
Chapter 4 - Paradise or Pandemonium?
Chapter 5 - White Women and Race
Chapter 6 - Slavery, Witchcraft and Caimibalism
Chapter 7 - Colonised Counterparts
Chapter 8 - Conclusions: The Geographical Significance
of Women's Travel Narratives
Bibliography
LIST OF MAPS
Map 1 - The Sierra Leone Protectorate 39
Map 2 - The Protectorates of Northern and Southern
Nigeria 41
Map 3 - Lagos and Yoruba in Relation to the Niger
and Benue River Systems 42
Map 4 - The Calabar Mission Field at the Time of
Mary Slessor's Arrival in 1876 58
Map 5 - Mary Slessor's Advance into the Lower Cross
River Region, 1876-1915 60
Map 6 - Zélie Colvile's Journey Around Africa 65
Map 7 - Mary Kingsley's Second Journey, 1894-5 71
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1 - Mary Slessor on Furlough in Scotland
with her adopted children 62
Figure 2 - Zélie Colvile: Frontispiece from Round
the Black Man's Garden 63
Figure 3 - Mary Kingsley 67
Figure 4 - Constance Larymore: Frontispiece and
Dedication of the Book to her Husband
from A Resident's Wife in Nigeria 75
Figure 5 - "Negress - Accra" [from Colvile, 1893] 182
Figure 6 - "Ju-ju Priest" [from Colvile, 1893] 182
Figure 7 - "Igaiwa Women" [from Kingsley, 1982] 184
Figure 8 - "Fan Chief and Family" [from Kingsley, 1982] 184
Figure 9 - "Fans" [from Kingsley, 1982] 185
Figure 10 - "Death Dance Costumes, Old Calabar" [from
Kingsley, 1982] 185
Figure 11 - "Caravan For Stanley Pool, Pallaballa
Mountains, Congo" [from Kingsley, 1982] 186
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1 - Biographical Information on British Women
Travellers to West Africa, 1840-1915 29
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