In the 1880s, Frederick Courteney Selous travelled extensively through southern Africa where he acquired much knowledge of a region little known to Europeans. Forming good relations with Lobengula, king of the Northern Ndebele (formerly Matabele) people of Matabeleland (southwestern Zimbabwe), Selous claimed that the king had granted him exclusive hunting rights in the region. He hunted African elephants and other wildlife for sport, sending specimens back to Britain for display in museums and private collections. In 1890, Selous was hired by Cecil Rhodes’s British South Africa Company as a guide for the Company’s occupation of Mashonaland (northern Zimbabwe).

This book is an account of Selous’s travels in the region between 1882 and 1893. It describes his travels and hunting expeditions in Zimbabwe and Zambia. It also provides a description of Mashonaland following Rhodes’s occupation of the area in 1890 and the increasing influx of white settlers seeking their fortune in the gold mines nearby. In his preface, Selous praises Rhodes for his activities in the country, refers to the part that he himself had played in achieving that goal and states his hopes for the region:

‘That England owes the acquisition of this rich country … to the wisdom, foresight and strength of purpose of Mr Cecil Rhodes … is, I think, fully recognised in this country. The knowledge that many years of travel as a hunter and collector of natural history specimens had given me of the topographical features of the country, enabled me to play my part in the actual occupation of Mashunaland [sic] and that I may yet live to see that far-off country … grow and increase in prosperity … is my most earnest desire’

While the occupation and development of the region, renamed 'Rhodesia' by white settlers, made the area prosperous, the benefits it brought were unevenly distributed. Rhodes introduced policies that heavily favoured white settlers and forcibly removed the Indigenous Shona and Ndebele people from their lands. The effects of Rhodes's policies continue to have an impact in Zimbabwe to this day.