Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T17:36:29.025Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Literary Legacy of Frederick Courteney Selous

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

E. Mandiringana  and
T.J. Stapleton
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the works of many generations of white writers on Africa, the “Great White Hunter” has remained one of the most powerful and enduring images. A model of Caucasian masculinity, he quickly masters a hostile and wild environment in ways which amaze the aboriginal population, who are usually portrayed as savage and incompetent. Perhaps the best known real-life example of this classic image was Frederick Courteney Selous, a product of the English public school system, who hunted elephants in southern and central Africa during the 1870s and 1880s. Never having made much money from the ivory trade because of the dwindling number of elephants, Selous became an employee of Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company (BSAC) in the 1890s and worked towards the colonization of Southern Rhodesia. After fighting against the Ndebele in 1893 and 1896, Selous eventually based himself in England and became a recognized environmental expert, safari guide, and collector/seller of zoological specimens.

Through writing six books and numerous articles from 1881 to the 1910s, Selous successfully created and popularized an image of himself as a skilled, yet sporting, hunter, a painfully honest gentleman of the bush, and a friend, as well as leader, of Africans. He was an adventurer with a dramatic habit of narrowly escaping danger and these episodes were often illustrated through drawings in his books. Discussing one such incident, a writer of hunting stories once remarked that “throughout Lobengula's country the story went that Selous was the man even the elephants could not kill. It helped to build the ‘Selous Legend’ among the Rhodesian tribes.”

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 25 , 1998 , pp. 199 - 218
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Cattrick, A., Spoor of Blood (Cape Town, 1959), 131.Google Scholar

2 MacKenzie, J.M., Empire of Nature: Hunting, Conservation and British Imperialism (Manchester, 1988), 43.Google Scholar Rowland Ward was a London taxidermist and publisher who produced books on hunting, including Selous' works, and records of game trophies such as lengths and widths of horns.

3 Millais, J.G., Life of Frederick Courtenay Selous, DSO: Captain 25th Fusiliers (London, 1918).Google Scholar

4 Taylor, S., The Mighty Nimrod: a Life of Frederick Courteney Selous, African Hunter and Adventurer, 1851-1917 (London, 1990), xiii.Google Scholar

5 Ibid., xii.

6 Cousins, Tim, “A Tale of Two Mysteries: The Patterson Embassy to King Lobengula,” Brenthurst Archives, 2 (1995), 33–42.Google Scholar

7 National Archives of Zimbabwe (hereafter NAZ) SE1/5/1; Illustrated Sport and Dramatic News (13 January 1917).

8 Tidrick, K., Empire and the English Character (London, 1990), 56.Google Scholar

9 Taylor, , Mighty Nimrod, 89.Google Scholar

10 Gray, S., Southern African Literature: An Introduction (Cape Town, 1979), 100.Google Scholar

11 Selous, , A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa (London, 1881), x.Google Scholar

12 Haggard, H. R., King Solomon's Mines (London, 1956[1885]), 8.Google Scholar

13 Selous, , Hunter's Wanderings, 33Google Scholar; Haggard, , King Solomon's Mines, 36.Google Scholar

14 Selous, , Hunter's Wanderings, 74Google Scholar; for the quotation see Haggard, , King Solomon's Mines, 36.Google Scholar

15 Noted by Gray, , Southern African Literature, 127.Google Scholar

16 Haggard, , King Solomon's Mines, 39Google Scholar; Selous, , Hunter's Wandering, 357.Google Scholar

17 Ibid., 65-67; Haggard, , King Solomon's Mines, 92.Google Scholar

18 McClintock, A., Imperial Leather (New York, 1996), 420.Google Scholar

19 (NAZ) SE 1/5/1, Town Topics (13 January 1917). This obituary of Selous noted that “I do not know that Rider Haggard has ever said who his model was, but I have always believed him to be John Dunn, who for many years was Cetewayo's white man. He was a quiet bronzed, little man with a clipped beard who was just as quiet and retiring as Selous and had done just as wonderful things as Selous had done.” The physical description of Dunn is similar to Haggard's vision of Quatermain.

20 Selous, , Hunter's Wanderings, 12Google Scholar; Haggard, , Allan Quatermain (London, 1956[1887]).Google Scholar

21 Selous, , Hunter's Wanderings, 73Google Scholar; Haggard, , Allan Quatermain, 23.Google Scholar

22 Selous, , Hunter's Wanderings, 286Google Scholar; Haggard, , Allan's Wife (London, 1959[1889]), 178.Google Scholar

23 Selous, , Hunter's Wandering, 296–97.Google Scholar

24 Haggard, , Mian's Wife, 180.Google Scholar

25 Selous, , Hunter's Wandering, 276.Google Scholar

26 Haggard, , Allan's Wife, 209.Google Scholar

27 Selous, , Hunter's Wandering, 275Google Scholar; Haggard, , Allan's Wife. 230.Google Scholar

28 Selous, , Hunter's Wanderings, 49Google Scholar; Haggard, , Allan's Wife, 169.Google Scholar

29 (NAZ) SE 1/1/1, Selous to mother, 7 March 1880.

30 Selous, F.C., Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia (London, 1896), viii.Google Scholar

31 (NAZ) SE 1/5/1, Obituaries, Liverpool Courier (8 January 1917) and The Times (10 January 1917).

32 Haggard, , Child of Storm (London, 1952 [1913]), 18.Google Scholar

33 Ibid., 83.

34 Ibid., 111.

35 Haggard, , She and Allan (London, 1960[1921]), 8.Google Scholar

36 Selous, , Hunter's Wanderings, 293–94.Google Scholar

37 Haggard, , Child of Storm, 57.Google Scholar

38 Selous, , Hunter's Wanderings, 461.Google Scholar

39 Haggard, , She and Allan, 76.Google Scholar

40 Millais, , Life of Selous, 331.Google Scholar

41 Haggard, , She and Allan, 112.Google Scholar

42 Vambe, L., An Ill-fated People (London, 1972), 90Google Scholar; Taylor, , Mighty Nimrod, xiv.Google Scholar

43 Selous, , Hunter's Wanderings, 34.Google Scholar

44 Selous, , Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa (London, 1893), 59.Google Scholar

45 Ibid., 97.

46 Selous, F.C., “The History of the Matabele, and Cause and Effect of the Matabele War,” Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute, 25 (1894), 259.Google Scholar

47 Haggard, , She and Allan, 225.Google Scholar

48 Tidrick, , Empire, 57.Google Scholar

49 Ibid.

50 Selous, , Travel and Adventure, 135.Google Scholar

51 Haggard, , Allan Quatermain, 141.Google Scholar

52 Haggard, , King Solomon's Mines, 74–75.Google Scholar

53 Selous, , Travel and Adventure, 206.Google Scholar

54 Haggard, , Allan Quatermain, 99–100.Google Scholar

55 Selous, , Travel and Adventure, 235.Google Scholar

56 Haggard, , Allan Quatermain, 88–89.Google Scholar

57 Selous, F.C., Africa Nature Notes (London, 1908), 260.Google Scholar

58 Haggard, , Allan Quatermain, 3Google Scholar; for Selous see Taylor, Mighty Nimrod.

59 Carruthers, Jane, “Frederick Courteney Selous: Letters to Henry Anderson Bryden, 1889-1914,” Brenthursl Archives, 2 (1995), 10.Google Scholar

60 Ranger, T.O., “The Re-Writing of African History During the Scramble: The Matabele Dominance in Mashonaland”, Seminar Paper, Rhodes-Livingstone Institute, Lusaka, 1963.Google Scholar

61 Blair, R., “Selous—A Reassessment”, Rhodesiana no. 17 (December 1967), 23.Google Scholar

62 Smith, , When the Lion Feeds (London, 1964).Google Scholar

63 Ibid., 227.

64 Selous, , Hunter's Wanderings, 411.Google Scholar

65 Smith, , When the Sparrow Falls (London, 1977), 759.Google Scholar

66 Smith, , Rage (London, 1988[1987]), 125.Google Scholar

67 Millais, , Life of Selous, 13.Google Scholar Smith might have also read Selous-Phillips, Bertha and Walsh, Elizabeth, “Selous and his Road—Rhodesia's Debt to a Great Pioneer,” Africa World Annual, 47 (1951), 46.Google Scholar

68 Smith, , Rage, 161.Google Scholar

69 Selous, , Hunter's Wanderings, 46–47.Google Scholar

70 Smith, , Men of Men (London, 1981), 243.Google ScholarPubMed

71 For the scar see Selous, , Hunter's Wanderings, 116Google Scholar, and Pycraft, W.P., “A Great Hunter,” Journal of the African Society, 16 (1917), 203Google Scholar; for Mount Hampden see Selous, , Travel and Adventure, 293.Google Scholar

72 Smith, , Men of Men, 242.Google Scholar

73 For example, Selous, F.C., “Journeys in the Interior of South Central Africa,” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 3 (1881)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem., “Further Exploration in Mashunaland Country,” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 5 (1883); and idem., “Maps and Narratives,” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 5 (1995).

74 Smith, , Men of Men, 293.Google Scholar

75 Selous, , Hunter's Wanderings, 36.Google Scholar

76 (NAZ) SE 1/5/1, Obituaries, Western Morning Neivs (8 January 1917).

77 Smith, , Men of Men, 333.Google Scholar

78 Carruthers, , “Selous,” 29.Google Scholar

79 (NAZ) SE 1/1/4, Roosevelt, T.: Foreword.

80 Smith, , Men of Men, 334.Google Scholar

81 (NAZ) Ct 1/6/8, Mapondera/Temaringa Concession, 25 September 1889. Rotberg, Robert, The Founder (New York, 1989), 295.Google Scholar

82 Smith, , Men of Men, 338.Google Scholar

83 Ibid., 413.

84 Ibid., 413-14.

85 Ibid., 417.

86 (NAZ) CT 1/20/3, Selous to Dr. Harris, 5 July 1890; Selous, , Travel and Adventure, 375Google Scholar; Hoste, H.F., “Rhodesia in 1890,” Rhodesiana no. 12 (September 1965), 11.Google Scholar

87 Smith, , Angels Weep (London, 1992[1982]), 387.Google Scholar

88 Ibid., 413.

89 Ibid., 414.

90 Selous, , Sunshine and Storm, 90, 161.Google Scholar

91 Smith, , A Leopard Hunts in Darkness (London, 1984).Google Scholar

92 Woodcroft, Richard, Will the Real Rhodesia Please Stand Up? (Bulawayo, n.d.).Google Scholar

93 Godwin, P. and Hancock, I., “Rhodesians Never Die”: The Impact of War and Political Change on White Rhodesia, c.1970-1980 (London, 1993), 7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

94 Ibid., 9.

95 Lowry, D., “South Africa Without the Afrikaners: The Creation of a Settler Identity in Southern Rhodesia”, Seminar Paper, South African Historical Society Conference, July 1995, 18.Google Scholar

96 Ibid.

97 Mason, P., Birth of a Dilemma (London, 1958), 181.Google Scholar

98 Godwin, /Hancock, , Rhodesians Never Die, 20.Google Scholar

99 Swynerton, C.F.M., “The Late Captain Selous—His Work as Naturalist,” The Rhodesian Herald (4 May 1917).Google Scholar

100 (NAZ) A/3/28/70, Maurice Heany to Secretary of the Administration Salisbury, 28 September 1918.

101 Ibid, Heany to Campbell, 28 June 1918.

102 Ibid, F.J. Newton to Heany, 18 February 1918.

103 Jollie, E.T., The Real Rhodesia (London, 1924)Google Scholar, dedication.

104 (NAZ) M3/10/257 and T8/5/1. Aker, M., Encyclopedia of Rhodesia (Salisbury, 1973), 324.Google Scholar

105 Stiff, P., Selous Scouts: Top Secret War (Johannesburg, 1982), 46.Google Scholar

106 Ellert, H., The Rhodesian Front War (Gweru, 1993), 124.Google Scholar

107 Taylor, , Mighty Nimrod, 296.Google Scholar

108 For examples see Selous, , Travel and Adventure, 109, 286.Google Scholar

109 For the murder of the envoys see Tidrick, , Empire, 78–79Google Scholar; Selous, F.C., “The Shooting of the Envoys,” African Revieio, 3 (1894), 168.Google Scholar

110 Selous, , Sunshine and Storm, 64, 137, 192.Google Scholar

111 Kriger, Norma J., “The Politics of Creating National Heroes: The Search for Political Legitimacy and National Identity” in Bhebe, N. and Ranger, T., eds., Soldiers in Zimbabwe's Liberation War (Harare, 1995), 139–62.Google Scholar

112 Ibid., 141.

113 “Selous' Namesake,” Sawubona (September 1997).

114 Gray, , Southern African Literature, 125.Google Scholar

115 Patterson, J.H., The Man-Eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures (London, 1907).Google Scholar