Berezin, N.I.: In the Land of Thirst and Slavery. Nachtigal’s Journey Through Sahara and Sudan

Title

V strane zhazhdy i rabstva. Puteshestvie Nakhtigalia cherez Sakharu i Sudan, Sankt-Peterburg 1904

In the Land of Thirst and Slavery. Nachtigal’s Journey Through Sahara and Sudan

Keywords

Summary

Divided into seventeen illustrated chapters, the book delves into Gustav Nachtigal’s expedition to Central Africa (south-Saharan regions, Bornu, Bagirmi, Sudan) between 1869 and 1874. Mixing together different genres (travel literature, ethnography, adventure novel), the volume is part of the series “Library of travels by land and sea”, which promised the reader “illustrated books containing […] lively descriptions of the most remarkable journeys and adventures in different countries […] without room for fiction. Everything described in each book was and is real, as the editors are strict in their choice of material and in their descriptions of remarkable natural phenomena, curious customs of wild tribes and barbarian peoples”. While these descriptions are grounded in science, the editors nevertheless tried to “ensure a popular presentation”.

The illustrations are taken from various Western sources.

Bio

The son of the renowned Orientalist Il’ia Berezin, professor at Kazan and Saint Petersburg universities, Nikolai Berezin was a writer, geographer and schoolteacher, who dedicated himself to popularise the life and works of many Western explorers, like Nils Nordenskiöld, James Cook, Gustav Nachtigal. He also translated the adventurous accounts of Joachin von Brenner-Felsach’s travel to Sumatra and Sven Hedin’s to Central Asia. A passionate traveller himself, he thoroughly documented some of his experiences, writing, for instance, a reportage of a journey through Karelia, complete with photos. In addition to popular literature, he also compiled several geography textbooks and manuals for schoolchildren and teachers.

Sources

Ukazatel’ nauchno-populiarnykh knig po geografii, Sankt-Peterburg 1914², p. 119;

I. Masanov, Slovar’ psevdonimov russkikh pisatelei, uchenykh i obshchestvennykh deiatelei, t. 4, Moskva 1960, p. 63.

A.F.

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