A General Account of The Mackie Ethnological Expedition. First edition. Folding, coloured map & 56 plates. 8vo. Armorial bookplate on front pastedown endpaper. Some sporadic foxing throughout. Small nick to upper board. Very good otherwise in the original cloth, with gilt cover vignette. xvi, 336pp. London, Cassell & Company, 1922.
Having previously spent twenty-five years in Africa as a missionary, Roscoe was asked to return in order to lead the Mackie Ethnological Expedition under the auspicies of the Royal Society. Aware that tribal life in central Africa was “fast disappearing under the rising flood of civilization” Roscoe compiled the information to preserve the details of traditional indigenous culture as well as to “be of some help to those who rule this part of our Empire and, through them, the tribes that inhabit it” (Preface).
