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John Boyes
1874–1951
An adventurer, trader, and memoirist, he became famous for vivid firsthand accounts of colonial East Africa and his unusual ties with Kikuyu communities. His books promise the pace of a travel yarn, while also capturing the mindset of a controversial frontier era.
1 Audiobook
A White King in East Africa
by John Boyes
About the author
Born on May 11, 1874, in Hull, John Boyes spent much of his life in East Africa and died in Nairobi on July 19, 1951. Records from the Europeans in East Africa database describe him as a trader, soldier of fortune, farmer, and later a commandant in the Legion of Frontiersmen.
He is best known as the author of John Boyes, King of the Wa-Kikuyu (also published as A White King in East Africa) and The Company of Adventurers. Contemporary reference material portrays him as one of the early British figures moving through parts of what is now Kenya, and as a man who built unusually close, if deeply colonial, relationships with Kikuyu leaders and communities.
Today, Boyes is remembered less as a literary stylist than as a colorful firsthand witness to the world he wrote about. His work can be engaging for listeners interested in exploration, empire, and East African history, especially when read with an awareness that his books reflect the assumptions and attitudes of their time.