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OF ALEXINE By Penelope Gladstone Alexine Tinne (1835-1869) straddled the line between adventurous tourist and amateur explorer. She was one of very few European women to actively undertake journeys into the unexplored interior of Africa in the Victorian Era. She was an enormously wealthy Dutch heiress who left her mark in the boy’s club of white explorers. The mid-19th century was the high tide of European exploration and conquest in Africa. Successful explorers like Richard Burton, J.H. Speke, David Livingstone, and Henry Stanley were international celebrities and their journeys often had immense political repercussions. Their fame did not come easy, tropical diseases were ferocious killers, far more deadly than hostile natives. There were of course dozens of lesser-known explorers, Miss Tinne among them. Alas, she was not terribly successful. She had toured extensively in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria in the 1850s. Other than a love of travel, a desire to avoid an ex-suitor seems to have played a role. Her love of Arab culture seems genuine though. In 1861 she returned to Egypt, bringing her elderly mother, Henrietta Tinne, her aunt, Adriana van Capellen, two Dutch maids, Flora and Anna, and a whole lot of luggage. Then things got odd. The headstrong Alexine decided to go up the Nile as far as Gondokoro, a remote outpost in the Sudan. The Sudan was at the time an Egyptian colony. It was also fever-ridden slave-hunting ground. If Gondokoro was beyond the Baedeker guidebook, her next destination, the Bahr el-Ghazal was unexplored territory. Deep in the Sudan, Henrietta died suddenly, Flora and Anna went soon after. Aunt Addy died in Khartoum. Grief-stricken, Alexine dragged back to Cairo. She wasn’t done exploring yet. In 1868 she shifted to the Sahara, travelling in the remote areas of Algeria, and then into Libya, at the time ruled by Turkey. Alexine underestimated the volatile nature of Tuareg rivalries. Although the main chief was quite friendly, his nephew attacked Alexine’s camp, evidently to spite his uncle. In the melee, Alexine was killed. Although I love tales of exploration, I felt a bit at a loss here. Alexine left no diaries, wrote no books, and seemingly left behind few letters. She was well-known for her photography, but we have only a few examples here (perhaps much was destroyed in WWII). Alexine remains a blank, why did she feel compelled to go so far at such immense risk? Did she understand the awful risks she ran? Why did she disdain the advice of experienced professionals like Sir Samuel Baker and Capt. Speke? Author Penelope Gladstone relies on Henrietta’s diaries, so that one feels closer to her. Ironically her last entries show a real sense of connection to Africa and fulfillment, as having done something worthy in and of itself. Alas, we cannot get the same sense of Alexine, the restless spirit that entered Africa and never returned. -Dave Hardy
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