First Footsteps in East Africa (1856): Richard Burton in Zeila, Harar and Berbera

What the book is

First Footsteps in East Africa, or, An Exploration of Harar was written by the British officer and traveller Richard Francis Burton and published in London in 1856 (Shapero Rare Books, first edition; Project Gutenberg). It tells the story of an expedition sent from Bombay and Aden by the East India Company in 1854.

The journey

• Zeila. The expedition ran from 29 October 1854 to 9 February 1855. Burton spent much of that time in Zeila as the guest of the governor, El Hajj Sharmarke Ali Saleh (Richard Francis Burton, Wikipedia). The book gives a long portrait of Sharmarke and his family (Project Gutenberg).
• Harar. Burton reached Harar on 3 January 1855 and stayed about ten days, the first European known to have entered the city (Wikipedia; Powell's).
• Berbera. He reached Berbera on 31 January 1855. In April 1855, while the expedition was camped near Berbera, it was attacked. Lieutenant William Stroyan was killed, John Hanning Speke was wounded, and Burton was struck by a spear that passed through both cheeks (Wikipedia; Bauman Rare Books). The British then blockaded Berbera in 1855 and 1856 (Wikipedia).

What it says about Somalis

The book is full of description of Somali life in the north: towns, trade, dress, food, clans and the way travellers were protected by an abbaan (a local guide and protector) (Project Gutenberg). Burton's own judgements are often harsh; he called the Somalis a "fierce and turbulent race" (Wikipedia).

His most quoted lines are about Somali poetry. He wrote that there were "thousands of songs" on every subject, from loading camels to drawing water, and that "the country teems with 'poets, poetasters, poetitos, and poetaccios'", with every man's place in poetry "as accurately defined as though he had been reviewed in a century of magazines". He added that many poems were so idiomatic that Arabs who had lived among Somalis for years could not follow them (First Footsteps, Project Gutenberg text). More on the poetry itself is on Somali poetry.

The appendix includes Speke's diary of his attempt to reach the Nugaal valley, a sketch grammar of the Harari language and weather records from the winter of 1854 to 1855 (Project Gutenberg).

How it was received

The Spectator reviewed the book on 2 August 1856 (Spectator Archive). After the attack at Berbera the expedition ended. A two-year inquiry largely cleared Burton, but his career suffered (Wikipedia). The book has been reprinted many times, including an 1894 memorial edition and a 1966 edition by Gordon Waterfield (Internet Archive, 1894 edition; Internet Archive, 1966 edition). Historians of the Somali north still use it for its detail on Zeila, Berbera and the trade routes, reading it alongside Somali sources.

Where to read it

• Full text, free: Project Gutenberg
• Scans of the 1894 edition: Internet Archive
• In a library: WorldCat

Related pages

• Books about Somalis, 1500 to 1884
• Books about Somalis: every era