West African Countries and Peoples, British and Native: And a Vindication of the African Race - Paperbackby James Africanus Beale Horton (Author) This book, first published in 1868, became the best known work of medical officer and writer James Africanus Beale Horton (1835 1883), who was born in Sierra Leone to parents of Igbo descent. He was chosen by the British to train as an army medical officer and attended King's College, London, and Edinburgh University. He returned to West Africa and published his doctoral thesis, which was a medical topography