author
M. W. (Melville William) Hilton-Simpson
1881–1938
A British traveller and ethnologist, he wrote vivid accounts of journeys in the Congo and North Africa during the early 20th century. His work blends exploration, field observation, and the period's growing interest in anthropology.
1 Audiobook
Land and peoples of the Kasai : Being a narrative of a two years' journey among the cannibals of the equatorial forest and other savage tribes of the south-western Congo
by M. W. (Melville William) Hilton-Simpson
About the author
Born in 1881, Melville William Hilton-Simpson became known as a traveller, collector, and ethnographer with a strong interest in North and Central Africa. Records from archives and learned societies describe him as an anthropologist and African traveller, and his surviving papers show that his research focused especially on Algeria as well as the Congo region.
He took part in the Congo expedition associated with Emil Torday and later published travel and ethnographic writing drawn from those experiences, including Journal of the Congo Expedition and Land and Peoples of the Kasai. He also wrote about North Africa, with work connected to his studies of Algeria and the Shawia Arabs.
Hilton-Simpson served in the Royal Army Service Corps during the First World War. He died on March 17, 1938, and was remembered in Nature as an anthropologist and African traveller whose fieldwork and writing had made him a recognizable figure in British anthropology.