author
A. B. (Alfred Burdon) Ellis
1852–1894
Best known for vivid, early studies of West African societies, this British army officer turned his military postings into books that were widely read in the late 19th century. His work remains closely tied to the history of the Gold Coast, Dahomey, and Yoruba-speaking regions.
2 Audiobooks
The Land of Fetish
by A. B. (Alfred Burdon) Ellis
The History of the First West India Regiment
by A. B. (Alfred Burdon) Ellis
About the author
Born on 10 January 1852, he was a British Army officer who became known as an ethnographer and writer on West Africa. He served in the army and used his firsthand experience in the region as the basis for a series of books on local religions, customs, law, and language.
Among the works most often associated with him are The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa and other studies of West African societies, as well as writing connected with military campaigning in the region. Those books helped shape how many British readers of his time understood West Africa, even though they also reflect the attitudes and limits of a 19th-century colonial observer.
He died on 5 March 1894, at just 42 years old. Reliable sources consulted here confirm his importance as a soldier-writer and specialist on West Africa, but they did not provide a usable portrait photograph from a dependable page.