'Bold text'Mary jone brown Kingsley (October 13, 1862 - June 3, 1900) was an English writer and explorer who greatly influenced European ideas about Africa and African people. October 13 is the 286th day of the year (287th in leap years). ... 1862 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... June 3 is the 154th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (155th in leap years), with 211 days remaining. ... 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the British Isles Languages English (de facto) Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked 1st... The term writer can apply to anyone who creates a written work, but the word more usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, or those who have written in many different forms. ... Exploration is the act of searching or traveling for the purpose of discovery, e. ... Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to some dispute as to Europes actual borders. ... A satellite composite image of Africa Africa is the worlds second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia. ...

Kingsley was born in Islington. She was the daughter of George Kingsley (himself a travel writer) and Mary Bailey, and the niece of Charles Kingsley. Her father was a doctor and worked for George Herbert, 13th Earl of Pembroke. Her mother was an invalid and Mary was expected to stay at home and look after her. Mary had little formal schooling but she did have access to her father's large library and loved to hear her father's stories of foreign countries. Islington is an inner-city district in north London. ... Charles Kingsley (July 12, 1819 - January 23, 1875) was an English novelist, particularly associated with the West Country. ...

Her father died in june 1892. Her mother also passed away just five weeks later. Freed from her family responsibilities, and with an income of £500 a year, Mary was now able to travel. Mary decided to visit Africa to collect the material she would need to finish off a book that her father had started on the culture of the people of Africa. 1892 (MDCCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

Mary arrived in Luanda in Angola in August 1893. She lived with local people who taught her necessary skills for surviving in the African jungles, and often went into dangerous areas alone.-1... 1893 (MDCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

She returned to Africa in 1895 in order to study cannibal tribes. She traveled by canoe up the Ogowe River where she collected specimens of previously unknown fish. After meeting the Fang tribe she climbed the 13,760 feet Mount Cameroon by a route unconquered by any other European. 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Cannibalism is the act or practice of eating members of the same species, e. ... Aluminum canoe, Upper Klamath Lake Canoeing on the Concord River. ... The Ogooué (or Ogowe) is the principal river of Gabon in west central Africa. ... The Beti-Pahuin are a group of related peoples who inhabit the rain forest regions of Cameroon, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe. ... Mount Cameroon (also known as Cameroon Mountain or Fako) is an active volcano in Cameroon, near the Gulf of Guinea and is part of a general area of volcanic activity the Cameroon Volcanic Line, which also includes Lake Nyos, the site of the 1986 Lake Nyos tragedy. ... Europe is conventionally considered one of the seven continents of Earth which, in this case, is more a cultural and political distinction than a physiographic one, leading to some dispute as to Europes actual borders. ...

News of her adventures reached England and when she returned home in October 1895 she was greeted by journalists who were eager to interview her. She was now famous and over the next three years she toured the country, giving lectures about life in Africa.

Mary Kingsley upset the Church of England when she criticized missionaries for attempting to change the people of Africa. She talked about many aspects of African life that had shocked many English people, including polygamy. She argued that a "black man is no more an undeveloped white man than a rabbit is an undeveloped hare." She was, however, fairly conservative on other issues and did not support the women's suffrage movement. The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... A missionary is a propagator of religion, often an evangelist or other representative of a religious community who works among those outside of that community. ... The term polygamy (literally many marriages in late Greek) is used in related ways in social anthropology and sociobiology. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... White (collection: White people, White race or Whites) is a term used as a group lumping form of ethnic or racial classification of people. ... Genera Pentalagus Bunolagus Nesolagus Romerolagus Brachylagus Sylvilagus Oryctolagus Poelagus Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae, found in many parts of the world. ... Species Many, see text Hares and jackrabbits belong to family Leporidae, and mostly in genus Lepus. ... Suffrage parade, New York City, 1912 The movement for womens suffrage, led by suffragists (peaceful protestors) and suffragettes (violent protestors), was a social, economic and political reform movement aimed at extending the suffrage (the right to vote) to women, advocating equal suffrage (abolition of graded votes) rather than universal...

Kingsley wrote two books about her experiences: Travels in West Africa (1897), which was an immediate best-seller, and West African Studies (1899). 1897 (MDCCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...

During the Second Boer War, Kingsley volunteered as a nurse. She died of typhoid at Simon's Town, where she was treating Boer prisoners. In accordance with her wishes, she was buried at sea. The Second Boer War, also known as the South African War (outside of South Africa), the Anglo-Boer War (among some South Africans) and in Afrikaans as the Anglo-Boereoorlog or Tweede Vryheidsoorlog (Second War of Independence), was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902. ... This is about the disease typhoid fever. ...

Gender and race

Studying Kingsley is an interesting way to study the way women were expected to behave in Victorian era United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the British Empire. Kingsley believed that she was inherently inferior to the "superior sex", but that she was superior to native races: Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Accession to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of Great Britain is considered the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... The Union Flag, in its modern form, was first adopted in 1801. ... The British Empire in 1897, marked in red, the traditional colour for Imperial British dominions on maps. ...

"I...feel certain that a black man is no more an undeveloped white man than a woman is an undeveloped man. The difference in the comparative level of the black and the white is very much the same as between women and men among ourselves. A great woman, mentally or physically, will excel an indifferent man, but no woman has ever equalled a really great man."
Source: Dea (1992) p. 69

It is believed that Kingsley used her travel as a way to escape the confines of Victorian Britain, and to assume the status of the imperial ruler. However, through meeting African peoples, she believed in wrong to interfere with their lifestyle, and to try to 'civilise' them:

"I do not believe the African to be brutal, degraded, or cruel. I know from wide experience with him that he is often grateful and faithful... [he is] by no means the drunken idiot... [that] the Protestant missionaries are anxious... to make him out."
Source: 'The Negro Future' Spectator 28 December 1895 December 28 is the 362nd day of the year (363rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 3 days remaining. ... 1895 (MDCCCXCV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ...

Further reading

• Blunt, A. Travel, Gender and Imperialism: Mary Kingsley and West Africa, Gilford Press 1994
• Davidson, L.C. Hints to Lady Travellers, London 1889
• Dea, B. Mary Kingsley: Imperial Adventuress, Palgrave Macmillan 1992
• Kingsley, M.H. Travels in West Africa, Kessinger Publishing Co. 2004
• Kingsley, M.H. West African Studies, Frank Cass Publishers 1964
• Kingsley, M.H. 'Travels on the western coast of Equatorial Africa' Scottish Geographical Magazine, 12, p. 113-124, 1896
• Middleton, D. 'Some Victorian Lady Travellers' The Geographical Journal, 139(1), p. 65-75, 1973
• 'Kingsley, Mary Henrietta' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 2004