Stories of Alan Quatermain trekking to exotic locations in southern-central Africa in search of gold or other lost treasure, although unrealistic are nevertheless staples of our imaginations. Notions of the exotic feed our spiritual natures and provide nourishment for our dreams. Frederick Courtney Selous led a life that by all accounts fit this idealistic heroic model. The son of a middle-class Londoner, Selous attended Rugby in the 1870's, but rather than going on for a university education, he talked his father into letting him travel to South Africa where he undertook a career as an elephant hunter and explorer. His accounts of these years are found in two popular books, A Hunter's Wandering in Africa and Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa. Through his books and numerous lectures he delivered while visiting England, Selous became a respected and often idealized figure. He epitomized the English colonial out to expand Victoria's empire and penetrate the heart of unexplored territory.
What is overlooked is that part of this penetration was what we would call today property development. In the late 1880's Selous became acquainted with Cecil Rhodes and later worked for Rhodes and his British South Africa Company. Writing in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society and in Fortnightly Review, Selous recommends the high plateau area north-east of the Zambezi River (today the country of Zimbabwe) for real estate speculation, or as he says, investment. Though there were no European settlers in the region at the time and no roads to take them there, Selous speaks in glowing terms of a pristine and fertile land where English boys and girls would thrive in economic prosperity and good health. Selous does not point out that he would stand to gain financially if discontented, greedy, or even visionary Englishmen set out to purchase tracts of this land. After his articles and lectures, Selous returned to Africa where in further discussions with Rhodes it was determined that Selous would lead the first group of settlers opening a road into what was then called Mashonaland. He did this successfully leading several hundred Europeans on an easterly course that skirted hostile tribes bringing the settlers to a high fertile plateau where Fort Salisbury was built.
Although Selous' father was president of the London Stock Exchange, Frederick apparently did not inherit any of his father's financial acuity. It is unclear what Rhodes paid Selous for his work, but much of his compensation may have been in the form of stock in the South African Company. Regrettably the price of that stock fell, and Selous was forced to look for employment as a manager of a farm in the are he had opened. As he attempted to domesticate the land that he had praised so vigorously, he came to recognize the real and nearly overwhelming difficulties that come with attempting to open new and remote areas of Africa to agricultural production. Selous is representative of the numerous individuals who attempted to make large short term gains on others long term toil. Selous was not malicious or even greedy, he was only carried away by the moment of opportunity, by the prospect of a place in history, not to mention a tidy sum that would insure his financial future. His writings, which are filled with optimism and carry an underlying tone of wonder and innocence, are a case study in travel writing and empire expansion.
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