Stanley [Hardcover]

Historian Jeal has done a very commendable job in setting the historical record right on who Henry Morton Stanley really is in history. By carefully piecing together the true story of this enigmatic man's life, Jeal comes to the conclusion that this explorer cum journalist cum adventurer cum rascal was actually more a hero than the villain Victorian society would like us to believe. Sure, Stanley (not his birth patronym) repeatedly lied about a lot of things to the point that many historians find it very hard to discern the true story amidst all the apocrypha. Jeal effectively side-steps that problem by establishing motives for why Stanley, a foundling of sorts, would fabricate stories about attachments to father figures in his early life. He was a young man in a desperate search of love, security, and respect and realized like Pip in "Great Expectations" that the only way to achieve it was by ingratiating himself in the eyes of his superiors. That would mean venturing out into the new world in search of fame and fortune, parlaying his limited skills to become a journalist, an explorer, and an influential social figure. The historic times were right for Stanley's type to make their fortune. It was the middle of the nineteenth century and much of the world was still unexplored and unsettled. In this context, a young, footloose Stanley headed to America and New Orleans for a new start. What ensued became the hallmark of Stanley's life that helps explain why he was to become a very controversial historical figure. As an opportunist in his early life, Stanley travelled extensively across the American, European and African landscapes, becoming known as someone who was fearless, resourceful and determined. Each step of the way, Stanley, like many free-booters of the time, shamelessly inflated his accomplishments. This book does a wonderful job in setting the record straight as to what Stanley actually accomplished in making society aware about how the dark continent of Africa was gradually being opened to the good and bad of European civilization. This is where the story gets very interesting. Stanley's mission to find Livingstone on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in 1869, while seen by many as an epic event, receives considerable scrutiny by Jeal as to its real significance. It is quite likely that the New York Herald roped Stanley, an eager young reporter on staff, into heading up this largely romantic mission to sell newspapers by firing up the American appetite for adventure tales. Like many things in Stanley's life, he became the willing participant, partner, and pawn in ventures that went beyond his daily romps through the African jungle. While Stanley always believed that the real stories in life were the ones captured in the accounts of those facing danger, discovering new wonders, and becoming famous, there was a part of the myth he couldn't control regardless of how much he tried to spruce up the details like getting married and vying for a key administrative position in Africa. European powers like Belgium were ruthlessly taking over Africa and Stanley, based on his supposed reputation for being harsh and his prowess to organize and lead expeditions in to the wilds, would be easily co-opted into becoming their willing servant, only to be dumped when he no longer served their sinister purposes. From what Jeal is able to establish about the man, Stanley was never the cruel bogeyman Victorian society hypocritically and conveniently made him out to be as it elevated its own hero, the late Dr. Livingstone, missionary extraordinaire to the heathen. Jeal's analysis of the facts shows that Stanley probably did more than any other person of this time in opening up a dark continent to the rest of the world; it just so happens that in doing so his name has become complicit with a subsequently darker chapter for Africa.

Born John Rowlands, Henry Morton Stanley was his own worst enemy. He lied about his name, his Welsh origins, his age, his military career, and details of his explorations in Africa. He married the wrong woman. His greatest achievements were not believed. The King of the Belgians used him but he naively trusted his imperial betters. All to simply be accepted into a society he was far superior to.
Author Tim Jeal has done a great justice to Stanley, who make no mistake, loved Africa and Africans.
Everybody remembers Dr. Livingstone, lost in the heart of Africa, but found by Stanley, an ambitious journalist for the New York Herald. Livingstone, the great hero of east Africa, was an utter failure as an explorer, and a failure as a missionary. His discovery made headlines around the world. But Livingstone chose to not return to England, where the truth would have been learned and died thirteen months later, a saint to his family and his nation.
Stanley's two other expeditions are largely forgotten, but the Trans-Africa Journey and the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition were far greater achievements. What Stanley did was almost impossible to believe: he traveled, for the first time, from one side of Africa to the other. And then back. The continent was "opened up" by him and his African men. And Stanley, in order to boast in his dispatches of how important his Trans-Africa Expedition was, lied about the number of members. He actually had far less men, which makes his accomplishments even more astounding. The white English officers on the Emin Pasha Relief were for the most part wretched leaders who had no respect for their porters and bearers. After massive hardships, they made it back to "civilization", their health ruined, their crimes buried. Half the Africans died en route. Yet Stanley, aside from some diseases, did not suffer a single injury. In fact, the only injury he ever suffered was a silly fall in a hotel in Switzerland.
After King Leopold's betrayal, Stanley remained in England, pushed by his society wife to stand for Parliament, a career he loathed. He missed Africa, and would have made an excellent governor. But the appointment never came and his wife would not have let him go anyway. The only consolation in later life, on his estate, was his adopted son Denzil, who was actually his nephew. Another lie, like his own adoption by a Mr Stanley in America.
Perhaps the greatest irony of the Stanley saga is that in a fit of spite against the British government, Denzil, and his son, Richard turned over all Stanley's papers and artifacts to the Belgians. The monstrous King Leopold, whose atrocities in the Congo were hidden for years, controlled Stanley to the end. For access by historians to these papers, and the truth, was sealed until 2002 in the Stanley Pavilion of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, where the author was finally able to do his research. One can only hope that previous biographies of Stanley will be forgotten.