Images of Africa and Africans in the fiction of John Buchan

Olivia Coyle

---

The education reforms of 1870 dramatically improved literacy in Britain and extended the readership of adventure publications. Some journals claimed a circulation of more than one million a week (Mackenzie 1994, 206). The activities in Africa of explorers such as Livingstone, and the discovery of diamonds in South Africa in 1867 whetted the British appetite for stories about Africa (McClintock 1990, 97). British military adventures against the Zulus and Boers, devoured as newspaper reports (Eldridge 1996, 67), and scientific works, such as Darwin's Origin of Species, meant that Africa was a topic of avid public debate. John Buchan wrote non-fiction about Africa, such as The African Colony (1903) which discussed the African peoples as well the political problems, and his imperial treatise, A Lodge in the Wilderness (1906). During this period of high imperialism, what could British people discern from Buchan's portrayals in his fiction of Africa and Africans?

originally published in JBJ 29 (Autumn 2003)

---

This website is © The John Buchan Society 2006. Permission must be asked before using any material from this site, but no fee will be charged.