A Voice From the Congo: Comprising Stories, Anecdotes And Descriptive Notes

by Herbert Ward

It was no high motive that took me to Africa. I went there simply and solely to gratify my love of adventure. At the age of fifteen I commenced my travels, and during the course of my wanderings in New Zealand, Australia, and in unknown regions of northern Borneo, I experienced many ups and downs. These vicissitudes only whetted my appetite, and led me to Central Africa, where I passed the five most impressionable years of my life. I took to Africans from the first. I was young, full of life and high spirits, and regarded every one I met as a friend. My confidence was sometimes checked, but never shaken. With youthful exuberance of spirits I fraternized with every one I met, and I soon found there was a fund of good-humor in the African composition. There was a good side to even the most villainous-looking savage, and I generally found it.

In this free and easy way I entered into the lives of the natives. My sympathy, which was with them at the commencement, ripened with time. They appealed strongly to me by reason of their simplicity and directness, their lack of scheming or plotting, and by the spontaneity of everything they did. Hence my efforts to learn their language, in order that I might know them better. Commencing in this casual manner I found myself gradually drawn into serious reflections, and I became imbued with a profound sympathy for African human nature.

H. W.

Genres: Africa

478 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1910

About the author

Herbert Ward was a British sculptor, illustrator, writer, and explorer of Africa. In 1884, Ward met Henry Morton Stanley in London, when he was interviewed for a post as an officer in the independent Congo State, Stanley recommended Ward for a position, and he worked for the next two years along the upper and lower Congo River, where he first met Roger Casement. The latter was working on construction of a railroad to bypass the cataracts of the lower Congo river. After being replaced by a Belgian officer, Ward joined the Sanford Exploring Company, where he became a member of Henry Morton Stanley's Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. Ward later became a sculptor. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre, and became a member of the Royal Society of British Sculptors.

Reviews

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Herbert Ward was an English explorer, once employed by the Congo Free State. He was a member of Henry M. Stanley's Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. Ward's attitudes and actions stand in stark contrast with those of Stanley, and he was (for me) by far the most sympathetic character in the infamous Pasha Relief Expedition. Ward's notes and observations from Africa are more enlightened than many of those of his contemporaries, and while he does tend to romanticize/exoticize native Africans, he at least seems to be cognizant of the fact that they have bona fide societies and are not mere "savages." (In this respect, he reminds me a bit of Mary Kingsley, another African explorer who was ahead of her time.)

Herbert Ward later became a sculptor, specializing in African subjects, and many of his bronzes and artifacts are now part of the African collection of the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology. His adoring wife penned a biography of him, A Valiant Gentleman, which, though obviously biased, gives a good idea of his talents and character.