In 1894, long before his famous humanitarian investigations in the Congo Free State and the Putumayo region of Amazonia, Roger Casement wrote four accounts of his travels in West Africa as an employee of the Niger Coast Protectorate administration. These manuscripts have regularly been overlooked in research of Casement. In a close reading of these texts, which combines contextual information with literary theories of travel writing, this essay gives insights into Casement's early development as a traveller and writer. It is argued that, rather than simply projecting pre-established imperialist or anti-imperialist attitudes, Casement's reports show a traveller negotiating his political outlook on empire in descriptions of the societies and cultures that he encounters.
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