Travel literature on the African continent in the 19th century

The act of travelling and the urge to report about travels has always been popular among humans. However, with the rise of Imperialism in England the genre of travel writing became incredibly popular. It is a genre that is more than any other genre, open to influence. Especially travel writing of the 19th century on the African continent was highly influenced by external aspects. Such aspects were varied and included historically developed ones as well as social, political and personal. It is through the different influences that travel writing of that time was granted such great importance within imperial England. Still, such influences also gave rise to criticism and travel writing offered a fairly safe ground for that. The works of Joseph Conrad and Mary Kingsley are good examples of what was widely read in 19th century England. These two works fit neatly into the conception of travel writing and therefore offer great space for the analysis of the various influences on travel writing.