The Many Minds of Sir Halford J. Mackinder: Dilemmas of Historical Editing

Abstract

While doing research in Rhodes House Library I cam across a magnificently detailed description of parts of Kikuyuland in 1899 in the travel notebooks of Sir Halford John Mackinder. In this work Mackinder recounted his expedition's successful effort to be the first recorded group to ascend Mount Kenya. He is also one of the few travelers to leave a detailed account of this area for the nineteenth century. Furthermore, I discovered he had compiled a typescript of his notebooks clearly intended for possible publication. I did not compare the two closely at the time, as I relied on the notebooks, but when the African Studies Association announced a program to publish valuable unpublished primary sources, I immediately thought of Mackinder's work as being an important unpublished source for central Kenyan History. Here I discuss some of the implications of that thought that I have so far discovered.Mackinder (1861–1947) was one of the intellectual founders of modern political geography. He read both natural science and modern history as a student at Christ Church College, Oxford and went on to study law and qualify as a barrister in London. Mackinder also traveled widely in 1885 as part of the Oxford extension movement, lecturing on his ideas concerning a “new geography.” He believed that there was a growing rift between the natural sciences and the humanities and that geography could act as a bridge between the two. Physical geography could aid in understanding and explaining human activities.