The Race for Timbuktu: In Search of Africa's City of Gold

A few years ago I was contacted by Deni Cooperrider, who's husband was staying in a hotel in Timbuctu. Bob Coopperrider, her husband, had discovered that the host at the hotel was Miranda Dodd. Now Miranda was the daughter of Terry Dodd who had rented our old house for some years. To a great extent Miranda had grown up on our property and with our books. I knew that she had visited Africa while she was in College, or afterward, but I didn't know that she had married a Timbuctu chieftan and that they had a hotel. Bob Cooperridder and I had collected firewood together in the 70s and shared an old Farmall Cub tractor. Bob was a teacher then but was interested in organic farming. He later edited a Tilth periodical. He eventually retired and found himself helping Africans set up grain cleaning operations and other agricultural functions. At the hotel in Timbuctu, Miranda and Bob found that they had lived on the same road less than a mile apart. When this book became available I thought that perhaps I should know more about Timbuctu. I knew that it was solely or mostly made of earthen structures and was a very old crossroad city of importance. And there was a hint of an ancient library there something like that in Ethiopia, full of ancient scrolls that exist no where else.Well, this book is not about the details of what remains in Timbuctu but about the British search for the source of the Niger River and Timbuctu. Timbuctu is near to and possibly once on the river. Africa was basically closed in the early 1800s to Westerners. And then there was that Sahara Desert to cross. Or maybe one could go up the Niger River from the coast. But no one knew where the Niger River went! This book is about the Brits who died trying to get to Timbuctu and to find the route of the Niger. Mostly they failed and suffered greatly in the process. The excrutiating British hierarchy that created these explorers is well displayed. And this drama takes place in preparation for the colonization of Africa, which followed these explorations, orchestrated by men in plush armchairs in private clubs in London. The book has a great amount of detail about the other men with boots on the ground or on camel back struggling through the sand and rocks, and drinking bad water.

The Race for Timbuktu is an interesting history of the fabled city and the Niger River. However, I would suggest that you find some maps of WestAfrica to follow the routes of the various expeditions. I read the e-book version, and like nearly every e-book there are errors in the grammar, and spelling. It is also a slow ponderous read much like the camels crossing the Sahara desert. Much of the book contains correspondence from the expeditions leaders to the British consul in Tripoli, also to tribal leaders, and the French and American consulates. The book captures the characteristics of the time period, people and terrain in much detail, including the ongoing distrust between expedition leaders, tribal leaders, the British, and French personnel. The author also covers the ongoing war of words between the French and British as to who ultimately found Timbuktu first. In the end Timbuktu was not at all the city of golden streets and walls of precious gems, but more like current day Mogadishu. Finally, would I tell a friend this is a must read? No.

Sit was a good story with footnotes to say where the evidence came from. The author told the story in detail, but in the way a story teller would tell an exciting story and with feeling for the character and places. It brings to life a story that was not well know to our modertime. The stories of Burton,Speke, Livingston, and Stanley are better known because the lived and wrote wonderful books. Now the other side of Africa's exploration by Europeans is brought to our modern times.

The book presents us the 19th century race to reach Timbuktu and return for a major prize. Only the British attempts are covered in this volume, eventhought the French were the winners. The explorers were trying to reach the African Eldorado, the City of Gold. This sounds just like the US Congress in 2010: trying to attain the City of Gold. In the 19th century they did not really know better. In 2010, the US Congess should know better. There is no City of Gold. Just a great Ponzi scheme to redistribute wealth. The Race for Timbuktu is not a fast read, but the time spent is well woth the insight into another time when men took chances for the sake of advancing their careers.Bob Lay[...]

If you like true stories of adventure and exploration, this book is for you. My one complaint is that the author unnecessarily reveals the end pretty early in the book, which diminished the potential for drama and suspense.

Interesting story and description of Tripoli and its politics in the 1700's. Has anything changed? Incredible that Britain sent out so many adventurers and many came to a sad ending. I also found the descriptions of the slave traders very interesting. It was fairly well written considering the book had to jump around quite a bit between explorers and continents.

This is a fine well researched book on a portion of early 19th Century African exploration by Gordon Laing and other courageousexplorers of from the 1820's . Most of these explorers died by Arab guides or thieves or suffered unbearable hardships fromthe Sahara Desert or disease solely to be the first to reach Timbuktu and discover the source of the Niger River. The author'sability to form a coherent and convincing narrative is truly extraordinary.

Not a bad book by any means, but the story did not grab me like other historic stories have. The book was half boring and half awesome which is why I give it a 3.

I won’t comment on the writing or story as I have not fully read the book - however the images in the are such poor resolution, they can hardly be understood. What is the point in printing pictures if they are so terrible? It really lowers the quality of the book. The paperback cover is also very thin, and lacks the rigidity that a normal paperback has. This looks very much like a poor homemade print job...

enjoyed this book, felt very much like i was on the journey with these victorian gentlemen. It was brutal at times but quite real in the discriptions of every day life for the explorers

Tout est correct.

アフリカ探検といえば19世紀後半，スタンレー，リヴィングストンが有名であるが，これに先立つこと約30年，1820年代に西アフリカの秘境トンブクトゥに挑んだイギリス人探検家たちを描くノンフィクション．西アフリカの奥地，現在はマリ共和国にあるトンブクトゥは，16世紀には多量の金を産出し，交易の中心として栄えたが，ヨーロッパ人は足を踏みいれたことがなく幻の都市であった．1824年，フランス地理協会がトンブクトゥへの到達，生還に1万フランの賞金を提唱したことをきっかけに，多くの探検家がこれに挑戦した．イギリス人のライング(Alexander Gordon Laing)，クラッパートン(Hugh Clapperton)の探検行と競争を軸に，その前後の少なからぬ探検家の事績が語られている．灼熱と砂嵐のサハラ砂漠，疫病が蔓延する熱帯雨林，敵対的な原住民など，二重三重の艱難苦難に挑戦する探検家の様子とともに，当時のアフリカ各地を支配するイスラーム領主，ライバル国フランスとの間に繰り広げられる複雑な政治的，外交的駆け引きが描かれる．それにしても驚異的なのは，度重なる疫病に苦しみ，原住民に殺されかかったりと，想像を絶する厄難を経験しながらも，2度，3度とアフリカを訪れて，冒険に再挑戦したり，様々な形でアフリカに関わっていった探検家が少なくなかったことである．命からがら本国に戻っても，またアフリカに渡るのである．当時の未知の世界へのチャレンジ精神の莫大なエネルギーに圧倒される．トンブクトゥの発見と並んで，その近くを流れるニジェール川の水源，河口の位置も当時の大きな関心事で，どの探検家もこの問題に挑んでいる．アフリカの地図よりも，望遠鏡で見える月面の地図を作る方がずっと簡単．．． という下りがあるが，人工衛星による写真を誰もが簡単に参照できる現在，先人の艱難辛苦を思うとまさに万感こもごも到る．ノンフィクションであるが，次はどうなるか．．．，冒険小説のような興味で一気に読ませる筆力がある．著者はアフリカ在住歴も長いイギリス人で，歴史の専門家ではないが，現地取材を怠らず，入手しうる限りの原典資料に基づいて，その内容，引用についても巻末にかなりのページを割いて付記されている点，好感が持てる．歴史小説としても，冒険小説として読んでも充実の1冊である．