The True Story of the Abyssinian Liar: How James Bruce Found the Source of the Nile and Lost His Reputation

EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES

SPEAKER: Rebekah Mitsein, Boston College

At the end of the eighteenth century, the explorer James Bruce needed no introduction. As Frances Burney put it, “the narrations, and even the sight of Mr. Bruce, were at this time vehemently sought, not only by all of London, but, as far as written intercourse could be stretched, by all of Europe.” And yet within the year, Bruce went from “the immediate lion of the day” to the “Abyssinian Liar,” his reputation in shreds. Today few people have heard of him. This talk, which comes from a biography project on Bruce and the Ethiopian women who authorized his presence at court, explores one of the reasons for this fall from grace: his sought-after narrations unapologetically remediated local sources, both written and human, at a time when scientific communities were growing suspicious of the reliability of African self-representation. It makes the case that the reason why Bruce is forgotten is the very reason he’s worth remembering, and it resuscitates the question his life and work have always provoked: what does it mean to tell a true story about the self and the world?