author
A. B. (Alfred Burdon) Ellis
1852–1894
A soldier, traveler, and prolific observer of West Africa, this 19th-century writer turned military experience into books on history, religion, language, and custom. His work helped introduce many English-speaking readers to West African societies, even as it reflects the limits and assumptions of its colonial era.
2 Audiobooks
The History of the First West India Regiment
by A. B. (Alfred Burdon) Ellis
The Land of Fetish
by A. B. (Alfred Burdon) Ellis
About the author
Born in Woolwich on January 10, 1852, Alfred Burdon Ellis was a British Army officer who later became known for his writing on West Africa. Contemporary reference sources describe him as both a soldier and a writer, and note that he was educated at the Royal Naval School before entering the army in 1872.
Ellis served in several parts of the British Empire, including West Africa, and drew heavily on that experience in his books. He wrote works such as West African Islands, A History of the Gold Coast of West Africa, and studies of the Tshi-, Ewe-, and Yoruba-speaking peoples. Those books brought together history, religion, language, and social customs, and they remain part of the historical record for readers interested in 19th-century European accounts of the region.
He died on March 5, 1894. Today, Ellis is remembered mainly for his ethnographic and historical writing: useful and often detailed, but also shaped by the attitudes of his time, which modern readers may want to keep in mind.