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What’s His Name?

Why should we care about an illiterate 19th-century teenager from Borneo named Ali? More to the point, why should we spend time trying to learn his full name?

A lad simply named Ali, spent six years travelling with Alfred Russel Wallace throughout Southeast Asia.

The primary source for information about Ali comes from Wallace, who mentions Ali 42 times in his classic book The Malay Archipelago and again in his autobiography My Life. In addition, there are three elements of (convincing) second-hand evidence that add context to Ali’s life, but none of them mention Ali’s family name. Spenser St. John, a close friend of James Brooke, the first White Rajah of Borneo, employed a competent young cook named Ali, and it appears that Ali left St. John’s service to work with Wallace. Brothers Frederick and Arthur Boyle, young English adventurers who explored Sarawak, hired Ali as guide and camp manager. They called him Ali Kasut, Ali of the Shoes, in recognition of the black leather shoes he always wore. And in 1907, Thomas Barbour, a respected American naturalist, met a “wizened od Malay man” on Ternate island who called himself Ali Wallace. The idea that Ali described himself as son-of-Wallace is poignant, but doesn’t help with genealogical research.

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