This week in History & Politics we introduce: Sir Richard Francis Burton.

Sir Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890)

This British explorer and “renaissance man” represents the best the 19^th century had to offer. Burton possessed an extraordinary range of personal attributes. Among other things, he was probably the most formidable linguist of the era. Combined with his omnivorous interest in foreign cultures, his way with languages enabled him to travel to the holy cities of Mecca, Medina and Harar (in modern-day Somalia). He adopted various disguises including that of a Pashtun to account for any oddities in his speech making him 001, Britians first spy. Burton was a Freemason, who was initiated in Hope Lodge, Kurrachee, India. Throughout his life, Burton continually sought passionately for “Gnosis,” which he pursued around the world in myriad forms. He was a student of the Kaballah and of Hermeticism. He was an initiated Nagar Brahmin and Kadiri Dervish; he became a member of the Ismaili sect, which claimed decent from the Assassins; and he was at various times a formal convert to Hinduism, Tantrism, Roman Catholicism, Sikhism and Islam. After he left Arabia, Burton’s next adventure was to trek to the land of the Somalis, where his encounter with the natives was written in his famous book “First Footsteps in East Africa”, in the book, agent 001 writes:

In mind the Somal are peculiar as in body. They are a people of most susceptible character, and withal uncommonly hard to please. They dislike the Arabs, fear and abhor the Turks, have a horror of Franks, and despise all other Asiatics who with them come under the general name of Hindi (Indians). The latter are abused on all occasions for cowardice, and a want of generosity, which has given rise to the following piquant epigram:

“Ask not from the Hindi thy want:
Impossible that the Hindi can be generous!
Had there been one liberal man in El Hind,
Allah had raised up a prophet in El Hind!”

They have all the levity and instability of the Negro character; light-minded as the Abyssinians,—described by Gobat as constant in nothing but inconstancy,—soft, merry, and affectionate souls, they pass without any apparent transition into a state of fury, when they are capable of terrible atrocities. At Aden they appear happier than in their native country. There I have often seen a man clapping his hands and dancing, childlike, alone to relieve the exuberance of his spirits: here they become, as the Mongols and other pastoral people, a melancholy race, who will sit for hours upon a bank gazing at the moon, or croning some old ditty under the trees. This state is doubtless increased by the perpetual presence of danger and the uncertainty of life, which make them think of other things but dancing and singing. Much learning seems to make them mad; like the half-crazy Fakihs of the Sahara in Northern Africa, the Widad, or priest, is generally unfitted for the affairs of this world, and the Hafiz or Koran-reciter, is almost idiotic. As regards courage, they are no exception to the generality of savage races. They have none of the recklessness standing in lieu of creed which characterises the civilised man. In their great battles a score is considered a heavy loss; usually they will run after the fall of half a dozen: amongst a Kraal full of braves who boast a hundred murders, not a single maimed or wounded man will be seen, whereas in an Arabian camp half the male population will bear the marks of lead and steel. The bravest will shirk fighting if he has forgotten his shield: the sight of a lion and the sound of a gun elicit screams of terror

Even though I personally agree with alot of his observations, however I didn’t agree with the last part. On Saturday April 7, 1855 his camp was attacked by a group of Somali warriors, Richard and his comrades fired their guns and to their surprise the Somalis did not shirk in terror and run. In the ensuing fight, his partner Stroyan was killed and his friend Speke was captured and wounded in eleven different places before he manageed to escape. Burton was impaled with a spear, the point entering one cheek and exiting the other.

Click on the image to read “First Footsteps in East Africa”