Name: Nils Astrup's 1889 Trek Translated
SKU: 1-5275-2902-9
Availability: InStock

Nils Astrup’s 1889 Trek Translated

A Missionary Journey to the Limpopo

Edited By: Frederick Hale

From £29.99

In 1889, at a critical historical juncture, Nils Astrup journeyed through Zululand and Swaziland as empires vied for control. His diary, now in its first English translation, offers a unique eyewitness account of colonialism’s impact on a region in dramatic flux.

This book is the long-awaited, English translation and edition of Nils Astrup’s account of his 1889 trek from the British colony of Natal through Zululand…

This book is the long-awaited, English translation and edition of Nils Astrup’s account of his 1889 trek from the British colony of Natal through Zululand and Swaziland to Portuguese East Africa. Based on a diary which Astrup kept while travelling, his book was published in Norwegian as En Missionsreise til Limpopo gjennem Zululand, Swaziland og Tongaland ind i Riget Umgaza in 1891. This three-month excursion was undertaken to explore possibilities for expanding the geographical scope of Norwegian Lutheran missionary endeavours among the various Nguni-speaking peoples of south-eastern Africa.

The excursion took place at a critical historical juncture when the British Empire, Portuguese East Africa, and the South African Republic were vying for economic influence in a rapidly changing region of Africa. The erudite Astrup recorded his observations about a broad spectrum of topics, among them the impact of colonialism on indigenous Africans, tensions between colonising powers, itinerant Indian traders, African migratory labour, the extension of railways, and interracial marriage.

Frederick Hale is an internationally known theologian, historian, and literary scholar. He earned a series of doctorates and other degrees at Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Oslo, and other universities in the United States of America, the Republic of South Africa, and Norway. He has held teaching and research positions at the University of Uppsala (Sweden), the University of Oslo (Norway), Tsinghua University (China), the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa), and other institutions. To date he has published seventeen books and contributed approximately 250 articles to scholarly journals in twenty-one countries. A considerable part of his research and writing has focussed on topics in South Africa, which he has visited more than forty times since 1979. Professor Hale presently teaches at Fjellhaug International University College in Oslo, Norway.