White hunter

White hunter is a literary term used for professional big game hunters of European or North American backgrounds 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 safaris for paying clients, or from the sale of ivory.

The popular term Great White Hunter emphasizes the racial and colonial 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.

White men from Western countries had been hunting big game in Africa throughout the 19th century, particularly in the more settled southern portion of the continent. But the region most associated with the term "white hunters" is East Africa. By the start of the 20th century, as part of the "scramble for Africa", Great Britain and Germany had taken colonial possession of territories on the eastern half of the continent—territories now recognized as the nations of Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania.

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 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 Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Baron Delamere. Delamere employed both Alan Black and a native Somali hunter to lead safaris 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".

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