The books listed here are the latest additions to the Shakari Connection Bookshelf. In no particular order, there are books on African hunting, African exploration, hunting firearms and more. All the books newly added to the website will be listed on this page before going into their various categories and into the author index.
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Doctors, Drums And Dances by Andreas E Laszlo MD (1955) is an account of the author's time, in the now former Portuguese colony, Angola where he, with his companion George Wurzburger, explored the ancient customs of such native tribes as the Cunhamas. It includes an interesting chapter about stalking a herd of giant sable (Hippotragus niger variani) in order to film them - the giant sable was royal game and hunting them was not allowed. There is also an account of the author hunting a leopard which was terrorising a village - killing dogs first before taking a child. There is much about the vast numbers of elephants in Angola at that time. Free eBook
Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (b.1931) is an American author of fiction and non-fiction books and articles on animal behavior, Paleolithic life and African native peoples.
Warrior Herdsmen by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas (1965) is an account of the author's life amongst the Dodoth people who lived in northern Uganda, near the Kenyan border. They had been herdsmen for thousands of years with cattle being their only source of wealth.
Slaves and Ivory Continued: Letters of R C R Whalley British Consul, Maji, SW Ethiopia 1930-1935 by Cynthia Salvadori (2010) contains the letters (directed to his superiors) of the last British consul in the remote border town of Maji in the south-west of Ethiopia. The letters detail the consular life in this region and the of life of the indigenous local populations. The title is based on the 1926 book 'Slaves And Ivory' by Major Henry Darley, who was an elephant hunter and a British frontier agent in Maji in 1909 and later, in 1919-20. Whalley and the previous consuls were assigned there to report on problems in frontier regions, such as livestock raiding, slave trading, gun-running, border incursions and to mediate and negotiate solutions to local conflict. However, the letters are a detailed illustration of how difficult these tasks were in such a volatile frontier area ruled by exploitative, autonomous rulers who lived off the land and suppressed the local populations.
Abyssinia: Through The Lion-Land To The Court Of The Lion Of Judah by Herbert Vivian (1901) is a detailed travel memoir about Abyssinia, Ethiopia today, including chapters on the history of the country, life of its people, British Somaliland, Menelik, religious beliefs, political state and more. The author is not particularly keen on hunting himself but feels obliged to include information about hunting in Abyssinia for prospective sportsman. He met Major Percy Powell-Cotton on the road who allowed Vivian to publish his hunting photographs in this book.
Henry Adelbert Snow (1869 - 1927) was an American adventurer, film maker and big game hunter who, in 1919, went on African hunting expedition to collect African animal specimens for a new natural history museum in Oakland. He returned with 169 mammals, 1500 birds, 5000 bird eggs and 40000 insects for the museum, hoping that a large museum building would be built to house the collection. However, Oakland purchased the Cutting Mansion to serve as a temporary location for the collection which opened in 1922, named the 'Snow Museum of Natural History'.
The eccentric Snow had further grand schemes for the city of Oakland such as digging a 40' deep cave on the shore of Lake Merritt, which he would stock with lions, rhinos, hippos and "a giraffe or two". There would be no animal cages - just a wide, deep water-filled moat to stop the animals escaping. The idea did not get city approval.
Henry Snow died of blackwater fever, a severe complication of malaria, he picked up while hunting in Africa. Read more about Henry A Snow.
Hunting Big Game In Africa by H A Snow (1922) is a 24 page, privately published booklet possbly as a promotional piece for Winchester guns ... "which were used exclusively in the film 'Hunting Big Game In Africa'..." . Snow travelled to Kenya to film a movie with the same title as this booklet which contains photographs from the movie of Snow and his son, Sidney A Snow (1898 – 1959) with a lion, elephant and rhino, as well as camp scenes. (Sidney A Snow is mistakenly referred to as Henry's brother by some booksellers).
Pride Of Lions: With 68 Photographs By The Author by Bertram F Jearey (1936) is an account of the author's years spent photographing African big game at close quarters in the then Kruger National Reserve and in the region of Addo. This scarce book is frequently confused by booksellers with another book called 'Pride Of Lions' by Brian C R Bertram which was published in 1978.
As we are fast running out of new books to add to the Bookshelf, here are some suggestions of great books that you may have missed ...
Strange Tales From The African Bush by Hannes Wessels (2006) is a collection of tales from his 20 year career as a professional hunter in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania, which will make you laugh out loud.
Major Gordon Henry Anderson (1881 - 1946), better known as Andy Anderson, was a renowned professional hunter and one of the founders of the East African Professional Hunters Association (EAPHA). In 1946 he suffered a major malaria attack and while recovering from it, he completed the manuscript for this volume and delivered it for publication. He died shortly after from pneumonia at the age of 68 before the book came out.
African Safaris by Major G H Anderson (1946) are classic hunting adventures in the African wilds, some of his elephants carried tusks weighing over 200 lbs. The author also recalls his companionship with other great hunters like George Rushby and James Sutherland.
Douglas Tatham Collins (d. 1999) became a professional hunter in 1956 after ten years as a District Commissioner in Somalia. He initially joined Safariland, hunting with colleagues, Philip Percival and J A Hunter and then founded his own company Kenya Safaris Ltd.
A Tear For Somalia by Douglas Collins (1960) is a fascinating account of the land where Douglas Collins was to spend ten years and in which he became a District Commissioner. It started when Douglas Collins was drafted to the Somalia Gendarmerie at the age of 22 and given command of a detachment of 30 Abyssinians newly released from jail. He and his detachment were ordered up-country on a punitive expedition. All went well until the second night, when his Abyssinians forgot they were upholding the law and raided a Somali village. Those first few days set the scene for adventure he was to find and which he describes as..."sometimes gay, sometimes grim, always exciting and filled with appeal for those who hanker for something away from the beaten track".
Originally based in Rhodesia, Marcus Daley was a professional game trapper and ivory hunter. He became an early professional hunter in East Africa with the likes of Bill Judd and Tom Murray Smith.
Big Game Hunting and Adventure 1897-1936 by Marcus Daly (1937) is a memorable big game hunting book that should be required reading for all hunters. Daly hunted for in Africa for nearly 40 years - in Kenya and Congo in 1926, followed by Nyasaland and Portuguese East Africa. In 1927, he went to hunt gorilla in the Virunga region after which he moved to French Congo and met James Sutherland who was nearing the end of his hunting career. Daly was arrested by the French and deported but continued hunting for ivory on the French and Belgium side of Congo. While there, Daly was tossed by a bull elephant, just as he shot it and landed on the dead elephant, surviving the serious injuries. He moved on to southern Sudan as the French were still after him in the Congo. The book includes chapters on rifle selection and shooting.
In Ethiopia: A Game Warden's Adventures In Haile Selassie's Medieval Empire by John Blower (2005) is the author's account of his four years as first senior warden of the Ethiopian National Parks and Nature Reserves and advisor to the emperor, Haile Selassie. This book is currently unavailable and scarce.
Inside Safari Hunting With Eric Rundgren by Dennis Holman (1969) is the biography of Eric Rundgren (1918 - 1992), a booming, boisterous, quick-tempered second-generation white hunter of Swedish extraction who reached the height of his volcanic career in 1958. A man of undisputed hunting prowess, he first worked for the Kenya Game Department, for whom he shot buffalo, elephant and lion, and later for Ker & Downey Safaris, eventually relocating his operations to Botswana.