Unique perspective: Until 1893, Mary Kingsley led a secluded life in Victorian England. At age 30 however, Kingsley defied convention and arranged a trip to west Africa to collect botanical samples for a book left unfinished by her father. Such a daring adventure was unheard of for women at the time[...]
On the death of her parents, Mary Kingsley set out to study native religion and law in West Africa, and to complete the work done by her father in the study of comparative sacrificial rites and fetishes. Her story is remarkable because she had, till then, led the sheltered, middle-class life of a Vi[...]