In 1895 three African chiefs traveled to England to persuade Queen Victoria not to give their lands to Cecil Rhodes. Appealing to the middle-class morality of Victorian society, the chiefs began a tour of the British Isles for their cause.

They were remarkably successful in gaining support, eventually swaying Secretary of State for the Colonies Joseph Chamberlain into drafting the agreement that secured their territories against the encroachment of Rhodesia, leading indirectly to the independence of present-day Botswana.

Historian Neil Parsons has reconstructed this unusual journey with the help of African archival materials and press clippings from British newspapers, gathered by a clippings service the chiefs had the foresight to employ. A full record of an African Journey of exploration in the nineteenth century, the book provides as well a view from the other side of colonialism and imperialism, and does so with the richness and depth of a fully realized novel.