The Pathfinders: The Saga of Exploration in Southern Africa

by Peter Becker

When Jan van Riebeeck and three shiploads reached the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 - the first Europeans to propose settling there - southern Africa appeared on the maps of the world as a featureless blank, an unchartered subcontinent stretching for thousands of miles between the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans.
The saga of its exploration in the incredible story of a colourful and indomitable fraternity, a procession of pioneer hunters and traders, renegade sailors and jailbreakers, propectors, missionaries, scientists, artists and indeed dedicated explorers in the mould of Dr David Livingstone. All were amaVulindlela - Pathfinders - as the Zulu would say, all were destined to carve trails into the remotest reaches of the continent.

Genres: History

288 pages, Paperback

Published October 6, 1987

Reviews

[Gareth Williams]

An intriguing anthology or digest of early exploratory travels in southern Africa, based on the accounts composed at the time. From tentative forays in the environs of Cape Town in the seventeenth century to the bold treks of farmers and missionaries in the nineteenth century, this collection maps the discovery by europeans of peoples and places that challenged almost everything they believed.

[Wayne Jordaan]

Essentially a historical overview of the spread of colonialism throughout Southern Africa, but I appreciate the information about the indigenous people that necessarily have to be told as well, albeit not always sympathetically.