Round the Black Man's Garden

Zélie Isabelle Colville (1864-1930) was an aristocratic, class-conscious, sheltered woman of her time and place. Accompanied by her husband Major-General Henry E. Colville, she circumnavigated Africa. The trip was marked by hardship, sickness, even danger, but as her husband wrote, “If she is as good at writing as she is at roughing it, we have a treat before us.” Indeed! She describes Africans and Europeans—their clothing and manner, with a close eye for the personal detail and a tolerant sense of humor.

Landscapes, towns, and cities come alive with 52 illustrations based on the author’s photographs and sketches. The journey, taken on doctors’ advice to “winter in a warm climate,” began in September 1888 and lasted eight months, taking the couple down the Red Sea, across Madagascar, around the Cape and back up Africa’s west coast.

The original blue cloth cover bears a reproduction of a cartoon satirizing Europe’s clamor for the continent’s ownership. The photographs, mostly views of cities, towns, and landscapes but with some portraits, are quite fine.