Tom Burnaby: A Story of Uganda and the Great Congo Forest

The sun beats down on the Congo's edge, where slavery wears the mask of peace. In this gripping adventure from the early twentieth century, young Tom Burnaby arrives in Kisumu searching for his uncle, Major Burnaby, only to find him preparing for a punitive expedition into the Great Congo Forest. But before Tom can prove himself to his skeptical uncle, he witnesses something that will change everything: a Portuguese overseer brutalizing a young black boy named Mbutu. Tom intervenes, and in saving the boy, earns his trust. Mbutu reveals a plot against Major Burnaby's expedition, and suddenly the naive youth must grow up fast, racing through dangerous territory to warn his uncle. What follows is both a ripping adventure through uncharted African wilderness and an unflinching portrait of colonial brutality, where the real darkness is not in the forest but in what men do to each other. Tom's journey from inexperienced boy to determined young man mirrors the violent awakening of conscience that empire demands its young men to suppress.