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‘The Bitter Thraldom of Dependence’: Negotiating the Hunt

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Hunting Africa

Part of the book series: Britain and the World ((BAW))

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Abstract

Hunters liked to refer to Africa as a land of ‘trackless wilds’, ‘peopled only by the whispering memories of primitive man’, but their publications belied these claims at every turn.1 Hunting expeditions required numerous men’s cooperation to carry out, which meant that big game hunters, particularly in the nineteenth century, had to build working relationships with African people. They had to negotiate with rulers for access to the land and its animal resources and find men willing to guide them, to serve as porters and to manage their camps. At times, hunters travelled with whole communities or established their base camps alongside a village. This physical proximity reflected hunters’ broader reliance on local communities for labour, resources and knowledge and facilitated the many exchanges that were critical to the practice of big game shooting in this period.

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Notes

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  1. The College at Brockport, SUNY, USA

    Angela Thompsell (Assistant Professor of History)

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© 2015 Angela Thompsell

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Thompsell, A. (2015). ‘The Bitter Thraldom of Dependence’: Negotiating the Hunt. In: Hunting Africa. Britain and the World. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137494436_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137494436_3

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-49442-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-49443-6

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