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White hunter is a literary term used for professional big game hunters of European descent, from all over the world, who plied their trade in Africa, especially during the first half of the 20th century. The activity continues in the dozen African countries which still permit big-game hunting. White hunters derived their income from organizing and leading for paying clients, or from the sale of ivory.
The term " great white hunter" emphasizes the racial and Colonialism aspects of the profession, as well as its colorful aspects. Depending on the author and intention, the term can be used straightforwardly, in parody, or as a criticism.
There were many factors that led to the spread of big-game hunting in East Africa, but two were foremost among them: first, a romantic European conception of hunting that combined Aristocracy privilege and sportsmanship, and second, the desire by the colonizing powers to create new agricultural economies, to which unchecked animal populations posed a serious threat.
Although the origins of the phrase cannot be confirmed, the first European to go by the title of "white hunter" is generally considered to have been Alan Black. Black was hired in the 1890s by Lord Delamere. Delamere employed both Alan Black and a native Somali people hunter to lead in Somaliland. As the story goes, in order to avoid confusion, the Somali was referred to as the "black hunter", and Black was called the "white hunter".Brian Herne, White Hunters: The Golden Age of Safaris, Henry Holt & Co., 1999, pages 6–7.
Typically, the hunter was hired or booked by an outfitting company (the first and most famous of these was Newland, Tarlton & Co. in Nairobi); the outfitter would make the local arrangements, gathering and packing supplies and hiring the many African workers without whom a safari was impossible. Porters, tent attendants, armed guards (known as askaris), horse-trainers, and gun-bearers all worked under the supervision of a "headman".Peter Hathaway Capstick, Safari: The Last Adventure, St. Martin's Press, 1984, pp. 11–12 Before the mass importation of motor vehicles, most safaris traveled on foot and horseback and could employ anywhere from 50 to several hundred African workers.Penelope Bodry-Sanders, "Carl Akeley, Africa's Collector, Africa's Savior" Paragon House, 1990, pp. 53–54
The British colonial government also turned big-game hunting into a source of revenue, charging the tourists and hunters licensing fees for permission to kill the game animals. In 1909, a £50 hunting license () in the East Africa Protectorate entitled its purchaser to kill two buffaloes, two hippopotamus, one Common eland, 22 , six , four , one greater kudu, four , 10 , 26 , 229 other antelope, 84 colobus monkeys, and unlimited and (lions and leopards killed livestock and were classified as vermin).Penelope Bodry-Sanders, "Carl Akeley, Africa's Collector, Africa's Savior" Paragon House, 1990, p. 114
Among the better-known white hunters who succeeded Cunninghame's generation were W. D. M. Bell, later known as "Karamoja" Bell; Oxfordjournals.org Bror von Blixen-Finecke, who was, between 1914 and 1926, married to Out of Africa author Karen Blixen; Denys Finch-Hatton, later her lover; Frederick Russell Burnham, Chief of Scouts in the Second Boer War to Lord Roberts and known as "England's American Scout"; John A. Hunter; and Philip Percival and Bunny Allen, whose safaris with Ernest Hemingway led the author to write Green Hills of Africa, True at First Light, "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro."
Perhaps the first fictional Victorian adventure hero was Allan Quatermain, a white hunter who appeared in books by H. Rider Haggard, starting with King Solomon's Mines (1885). In 1924, Richard Connell published his short story "The Most Dangerous Game", in which an American big-game hunter finds himself being hunted by a Russian aristocrat who has tired of hunting in Africa. Alex Raymond created the Jungle Jim comic strip in 1934 that later lead to a comic book, film serial, film series, and television show. Geoffrey Household's novel Rogue Male (1939) featured a white hunter going after Adolf Hitler; it was filmed twice, first as Man Hunt (1941) and, a generation later, under the original title (1976). Captain C. G. Biggar (Cuthbert Gervase 'Bwana' Brabazon-Biggar), a supporting character in the P. G. Wodehouse comic novel Ring for Jeeves (1953), is another example of the white hunter.
Not surprisingly, actual white hunters were often involved in the filming of the exploits of their fictional counterparts: Bunny Allen led many film companies on safari to enable location filming for King Solomon's Mines, Mogambo (1953), and Nor the Moon by Night (1958). The white hunter on safari in his Safari jacket and pith helmet became an instantly recognizable stock character.
Abbott and Costello lampooned the type in Africa Screams (1949), which was a parody of a 1930 documentary, Africa Speaks! (1930). Bob Hope parodied the safari genre in Road to Zanzibar (1941) and Call Me Bwana (1963).
Ernest Hemingway's safari story "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" (1936) richly addresses the questions of courage, cowardice, racism, and power on safari. The story was made into a film titled The Macomber Affair (1947), but it was reissued in the United States under the title, The Great White Hunter. The title character is an American tourist looking to find his own courage by facing danger on safari. In the story, Hemingway accurately refers to the professional hunter leading the safari, a character named Wilson, as a "white hunter". (Wilson is said to have been based on Hemingway's own guides, Philip Percival and Bror von Blixen-Finecke).Baker, Carlos, Ernest Hemingway, A Life Story, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1969, pp. 284–285
In Congo (1995), Ernie Hudson introduces himself as the unexpectedly black "white hunter" hired to guide a jungle expedition.
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