John Harming Speke: Negotiating a Way to the Nile

Victorian Field Notes from the Lualaba River, Congo

“…11 Moorehead's books (1960Moorehead's books ( , 1962 remain the best accounts of the European dimension of this quest, although Jeal (2011) has recently filled in some key details. Three recent articles by the present author (2008a, 2008b, 2010) elaborate the non-Western contexts of Burton's, Speke's, and Baker's expeditions, although it is also important to cite the earlier efforts of Bridges (1970) to link Speke's travels to the lives of the African groups he encountered. Finally, Kennedy (n.d.) provides the best short introduction to the topic, particularly as he places the Nile quest within the context of British global initiatives, sketches both the Western and non-Western dimensions of the quest, and outlines the impact of British celebrity culture in the shaping individual explorer legacies.…”