David Livingstone (; 19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish physician,
Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
with the
London Missionary Society
The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational miss ...
, an
explorer
Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians.
Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...
in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of the late 19th-century
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
. David was the husband of Mary Moffat Livingstone, from the prominent 18th Century missionary family, Moffat. He had a mythic status that operated on a number of interconnected levels:
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
missionary martyr, working-class "
rags-to-riches
Rags to riches refers to any situation in which a person rises from poverty to wealth, and in some cases from absolute obscurity to heights of fame, fortune and celebrity—sometimes instantly. This is a common archetype in literature and popul ...
" inspirational story, scientific investigator and explorer, imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate of British commercial and colonial expansion.
Livingstone's fame as an explorer and his obsession with learning the sources of the
Nile River
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...
was founded on the belief that if he could solve that age-old mystery, his fame would give him the influence to end the
East African Arab–Swahili slave trade. "The Nile sources", he told a friend, "are valuable only as a means of opening my mouth with power among men. It is this power
ith
The Ith () is a ridge in Germany's Central Uplands which is up to 439 m high. It lies about 40 km southwest of Hanover and, at 22 kilometres, is the longest line of crags in North Germany.
Geography
Location
The Ith is immediatel ...
which I hope to remedy an immense evil." His subsequent exploration of the central African watershed was the culmination of the classic period of European geographical
discovery and colonial penetration of Africa. At the same time, his missionary travels, "disappearance", and eventual death in Africaand subsequent glorification as a posthumous national hero in 1874led to the founding of several major central African Christian missionary initiatives carried forward in the era of the European "
Scramble for Africa
The Scramble for Africa, also called the Partition of Africa, or Conquest of Africa, was the invasion, annexation, division, and colonisation of Africa, colonization of most of Africa by seven Western Europe, Western European powers during a ...
".
Early life
![David Livingstones birthplace (geograph 4530192)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/David_Livingstones_birthplace_%28geograph_4530192%29.jpg)
Livingstone was born on 19 March 1813 in the mill town of
Blantyre
Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...
, Scotland, in a
tenement
A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...
building for the workers of a cotton factory on the banks of the
River Clyde
The River Clyde ( gd, Abhainn Chluaidh, , sco, Clyde Watter, or ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland. It runs through the major cit ...
under the bridge crossing into
Bothwell
Bothwell is a conservation village in the South Lanarkshire council area of Scotland. It lies on the north bank of the River Clyde, adjacent to Uddingston and Hamilton, east-south-east of Glasgow city centre.
Description and history
An ancie ...
.
He was the second of seven children born to Neil Livingstone (1788–1856) and his wife Agnes (née Hunter; 1782–1865).
David was employed at the age of ten in the cotton mill of Henry Monteith & Co. in
Blantyre Works. He and his brother John worked twelve-hour days as
piecers, tying broken cotton threads on the spinning machines.
Neil Livingstone was a
Sunday school
A Sunday school is an educational institution, usually (but not always) Christian in character. Other religions including Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism have also organised Sunday schools in their temples and mosques, particularly in the West.
Su ...
teacher and
teetotaller
Teetotalism is the practice or promotion of total personal abstinence from the psychoactive drug alcohol, specifically in alcoholic drinks. A person who practices (and possibly advocates) teetotalism is called a teetotaler or teetotaller, or is ...
who handed out Christian tracts on his travels as a door-to-door tea salesman. He read books on theology, travel, and missionary enterprises extensively. This rubbed off on the young David, who became an avid reader, but he also loved scouring the countryside for animal, plant, and geological specimens in local limestone quarries. Neil feared that science books were undermining Christianity and attempted to force his son to read nothing but theology, but David's deep interest in nature and science led him to investigate the
relationship between religion and science
The relationship between religion and science involves discussions that interconnect the study of the natural world, history, philosophy, and theology. Even though the ancient and medieval worlds did not have conceptions resembling the modern u ...
. In 1832, he read ''Philosophy of a Future State'', written by
Thomas Dick, and he found the rationale that he needed to reconcile faith and science and, apart from the Bible, this book was perhaps his greatest philosophical influence.
Other significant influences in his early life were Thomas Burke, a Blantyre
evangelist
Evangelist may refer to:
Religion
* Four Evangelists, the authors of the canonical Christian Gospels
* Evangelism, publicly preaching the Gospel with the intention of spreading the teachings of Jesus Christ
* Evangelist (Anglican Church), a c ...
, and David Hogg, his Sunday school teacher.
At age fifteen, David left the
Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...
for a local
Congregational church
Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...
, influenced by preachers like
Ralph Wardlaw
Ralph Wardlaw (22 December 1779 – 15 December 1853) was a Scottish Presbyterian minister and writer. He was known as an abolitionist campaigner.
Life
He was born in Dalkeith, just south of Edinburgh, but his family moved to Glasgow when he w ...
, who denied
predestinarian
Predestination, in theology, is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, usually with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul. Explanations of predestination often seek to address the paradox of free will, whereby Go ...
limitations on salvation. Influenced by
revivalistic teachings in the United States, Livingstone entirely accepted the proposition put by Charles Finney, Professor of Theology at Oberlin College, Ohio, that "the Holy Spirit is open to all who ask it". For Livingstone, this meant a release from the fear of eternal damnation. Livingstone's reading of missionary
Karl Gützlaff
Karl Friedrich August Gützlaff (8 July 1803 – 9 August 1851), anglicised as Charles Gutzlaff, was a German Lutheran missionary to the Far East, notable as one of the first Protestant missionaries in Bangkok, Thailand (1828) and in Korea (1 ...
's ''Appeal to the Churches of Britain and America on behalf of China'' enabled him to persuade his father that medical study could advance religious ends.
Livingstone's experiences in H. Monteith's Blantyre cotton mill were also important from ages 10 to 26, first as a piecer and later as a
spinner Technology
*Spinner (aeronautics), the aerodynamic cone at the hub of an aircraft propeller
* Spinner (cell culture), laboratory equipment for cultivating plant or mammalian cells
* Spinner (computing), a graphical widget in a GUI
* Spinner (MIT Med ...
. This monotonous work was necessary to support his impoverished family, but it taught him persistence, endurance, and a natural empathy with all who labour, as expressed by lines that he used to hum from the egalitarian
Rabbie Burns song: "When man to man, the world o'er/Shall brothers be for a' that".
Education
Livingstone attended Blantyre village school, along with the few other mill children with the endurance to do so despite their 14-hour workday (6 am–8 pm). Having a family with a strong, continuing commitment to study reinforced his education.
At the age of 21, he was excited by a pamphlet his father got from the church setting out
Gützlaff's call for missionaries to China, with the new concept that missionaries should be trained as medical doctors. His father was persuaded and, like many other students in Scotland, Livingstone was to support himself, with the agreement of the mill management, by working at his old job from Easter to October, outwith term time. He joined
Anderson's University
The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...
, Glasgow, in 1836, studying medicine and chemistry, as well as attending theology lectures by the anti-slavery campaigner Richard Wardlaw at the Congregational Church College, where he may also have studied
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
.
To enter medical school, he needed some knowledge of Latin, and was tutored by a local Roman Catholic man, Daniel Gallagher (later a priest, founder of St Simon's,
Partick
Partick ( sco, Pairtick, Scottish Gaelic: ''Partaig'') is an area of Glasgow on the north bank of the River Clyde, just across from Govan. To the west lies Whiteinch, to the east Yorkhill and Kelvingrove Park (across the River Kelvin), and to t ...
). Livingstone worked hard, got a good grounding in science and medicine, and made lifelong friends including
Andrew Buchanan and
James Young.
The
London Missionary Society
The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational miss ...
(LMS) was at the time the major organisation in the country for missionary work, and unlike others was open to
Congregationalists
Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...
. He applied to the LMS in October 1837, and in January was sent questions which he answered. He got no reply until invited to two interviews in August 1838. He was then accepted as a probationary candidate, and given initial training at
Ongar, Essex
Ongar is a civil parish in the Epping Forest District in Essex, England. Other than the town of Chipping Ongar it also includes Greensted, Greensted Green, Marden Ash and Shelley. The local council of the parish is Ongar Town Council. Located a ...
, as the introduction to studies to become a minister within the
Congregational Union
Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...
serving under the LMS, rather than the more basic course for an
artisan
An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...
missionary. At Ongar, he and six other students had tuition in Greek, Latin, Hebrew and theology from the Reverend Richard Cecil, who in January 1839 assessed that, despite "heaviness of manner" and "rusticity", Livingstone had "sense and quiet vigour", good temper and substantial character "so I do not like the thought of him being rejected." A month later, he still thought Livingstone "hardly ready" to go on to theological studies at
Cheshunt College
Cheshunt ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London on the River Lea and Lee Navigation. It contains a section of the Lee Valley Park, including much of the River Lee Country Park. To the north lies Broxbourne and Wormley, Wal ...
, and "worthy but remote from brilliant". In June 1839 the LMS directors accepted Livingstone, and agreed to his request to continue studying with Cecil at Ongar until the end of the year, then have LMS support for medical studies in London.
To gain necessary clinical training he continued his medical studies at the
Charing Cross Hospital Medical School
Charing Cross Hospital Medical School (CXHMS) is the oldest of the constituent medical schools of Imperial College School of Medicine.
Charing Cross remains a hospital on the forefront of medicine; in recent times pioneering the clinical use of ...
, with his courses covering medical practice, midwifery, and botany.
He qualified as a Licentiate of the
Faculty (now Royal College) of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow on 16 November 1840 (in 1857 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Faculty).
On 20 November 1840 Livingstone was
ordained
Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...
a
minister of the church, as was another missionary to South Africa, William Ross, in a service at the
Albion Chapel
Albion Chapel was a Scottish Presbyterian chapel in the City of London, near Finsbury Circus, on the corner of London Wall and Finsbury Pavement. It was established by Reverend Alexander Fletcher on the site of the old Bethlem Royal Hospital in 18 ...
, Finsbury. The ordination service was conducted by Cecil and J. J. Freeman.
Vision for Africa
![Dance of Landeens](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Dance_of_Landeens.jpg)
Though Livingstone had responded to
Gützlaff's call for missionaries to China, the looming
First Opium War
The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...
made the LMS directors cautious about sending recruits there. When he asked to extend his probationary training at Ongar, Cecil told him of their wish that he should be employed in the
West Indies
The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...
"in preference to South Africa". On 2 July 1839 he wrote to the LMS directors that the West Indies was by then well served by doctors, and he had always been attracted to other parts of the world rather than a settled
pastor
A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...
ate. With LMS agreement, he continued to get theological tuition from Cecil until the end of the year, then resumed medical studies.
On beginning his clinical training in January 1840, he returned to Mrs. Sewell's missionary
boarding house in
Aldersgate
Aldersgate is a Ward of the City of London, named after one of the northern gates in the London Wall which once enclosed the City.
The Ward of Aldersgate is traditionally divided into Aldersgate Within and Aldersgate Without, the suffix denot ...
, where he had stayed previously when in London.
Others staying there were visited occasionally by the missionary
Robert Moffat, who was then in England with his family to publicise the work of his LMS mission at
Kuruman
Kuruman is a small town with just over 53,000 inhabitants in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is known for its scenic beauty and the Eye of Kuruman, a geological feature that brings water from deep underground. The abundance of water ...
in South Africa. Livingstone questioned him repeatedly about Africa, and as Moffat later recalled; "By and by he asked me whether I thought he would do for Africa. I said I believed he would, if he would not go to an old station, but would advance to unoccupied ground, specifying the vast plain to the north, where I had sometimes seen, in the morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages, where no missionary had ever been."
He was excited by Moffat's vision of expanding missionary work to the north of
Bechuanaland, and by the hotly debated topic of Christianity and commerce. The LMS missionary
John Philip, after discussion with the
abolitionist
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people.
The British ...
Fowell Buxton
Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet (1 April 1786Olwyn Mary Blouet, "Buxton, Sir Thomas Fowell, first baronet (1786–1845)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online ed., May 201accessed 25 April 20 ...
, published ''Researches in South Africa'' in 1828, proposing that Christianity would always bring "civilisation" including
free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econo ...
and
free labour. This argument was reinforced for Livingstone when he attended the
Exeter Hall meeting of 1 June 1840 where Buxton powerfully made the case that the African slave trade would be ended if chiefs, instead of having to sell slaves, could obtain desired European goods through "legitimate trade", its effect augmented by Christian missions preaching the gospel and introducing school education.
Mission stations
Livingstone left London on 17 November
1840, passenger on a sailing
brig
A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...
bound for the
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa.
A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
, along with two other LMS missionaries: Ross, who had been
ordained
Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...
at the same service as him, and Ross's wife. During the long voyage he studied Dutch and
Tswana language
Tswana, also known by its Endonym and exonym, native name , and previously spelled Sechuana in English, is a Bantu language spoken in Southern Africa by about 8.2 million people. It belongs to the Bantu languages, Bantu language family withi ...
, and the captain gave him extensive tuition in navigation. At
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
, unlike the other two, he ventured ashore and was impressed by
the cathedral and scenery, but not by drunkenness of British and American sailors so he gave them
tracts in a dockside bar.
On 15 March 1841 the ship arrived at
Simon's Bay
Simon's Town ( af, Simonstad), sometimes spelled Simonstown, is a town in the Western Cape, South Africa and is home to Naval Base Simon's Town, the South African Navy's largest base. It is located on the shores of False Bay, on the eastern sid ...
, and for a month while it unloaded and loaded, the three stayed at
Cape Town
Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...
with Mr and Mrs
Philip
Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...
. As resident director of the LMS, Philip had continued their policy that all people were equal before God and in law, leading to disputes with
Boers
Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled this area ...
, and with
British settlers
The 1820 Settlers were several groups of British colonists from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, settled by the government of the United Kingdom and the Cape Colony authorities in the Eastern Cape of South Africa in 1820.
Origins
After the ...
as Philip held that
Xhosa people
The Xhosa people, or Xhosa language, Xhosa-speaking people (; ) are African people who are direct kinsmen of Tswana people, Sotho people and Twa people, yet are narrowly sub grouped by European as Nguni people, Nguni ethnic group whose traditi ...
were not to blame for the
Xhosa Wars
The Xhosa Wars (also known as the Cape Frontier Wars or the Kaffir Wars) were a series of nine wars (from 1779 to 1879) between the Xhosa people, Xhosa Kingdom and the British Empire as well as Trekboers in what is now the Eastern Cape in Sout ...
over extending the
Cape Colony
The Cape Colony ( nl, Kaapkolonie), also known as the Cape of Good Hope, was a British Empire, British colony in present-day South Africa named after the Cape of Good Hope, which existed from 1795 to 1802, and again from 1806 to 1910, when i ...
. Missionary factions disagreed over this, and over his emphasis on missionary work among
Griqua people
The Griquas (; af, Griekwa, often confused with ''!Orana'', which is written as ''Korana'' or ''Koranna'') are a subgroup of heterogeneous former Khoe-speaking nations in Southern Africa with a unique origin in the early history of the Cape ...
of the colony, while others like Moffatt wanted more focus on new areas. There were also tensions between
artisan
An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...
missionaries engaged for lay expertise, and ordained missionaries.
The ship took Livingstone and the Rosses on to
Algoa Bay
Algoa Bay is a maritime bay in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It is located in the east coast, east of the Cape of Good Hope.
Algoa Bay is bounded in the west by Cape Recife and in the east by Cape Padrone. The bay is up to deep. The harbour c ...
, from 19 May to 31 July they were on the long trek by
ox-cart to the
Kuruman Mission. The Moffats had not yet returned from Britain, and he immersed himself in Tswana life. From September to late December he trekked with the artisan missionary Roger Edwards, who had been at Kuruman since 1830 and had been told by Moffat to investigate potential for a new station. They visited and discussed the area called
Mabotsa, Botswana, near
Zeerust
Zeerust is a commercial town situated in Ngaka Modiri Molema district North West Province, South Africa. It lies in the Marico valley, approximately 240 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg. It lies on the N4, the main road link between South ...
, North West Province, South Africa.
In 1842 Livingstone went on two treks with African companions, the principals were mission members Paul and Mebalwe, a
deacon
A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian churches, such as the Catholic Churc ...
. In June 1843, Edwards got LMS approval to set up a mission station with his wife at Mabotsa. Livingstone moved there by agreement, and joined them in the physical work of building facilities. He wrote to tell LMS secretary Arthur Tidman, saying he would be delighted to call Mabotsa "the centre of the sphere of my labours", but would try to hold himself "in readiness to go anywhere, provided it be forward".
The Moffats, accompanied by two new missionary families, reached the
Vaal River
The Vaal River ( ; Khoemana: ) is the largest tributary of the Orange River in South Africa. The river has its source near Breyten in Mpumalanga province, east of Johannesburg and about north of Ermelo and only about from the Indian Ocean. ...
in January 1844, Livingstone rode out to meet them there, then sat in the Moffat's ox-cart talking with Robert for hours during the seventeen or eighteen days it took to get home to Kuruman. For the first time, he met their daughter
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
, who had been born and brought up in Africa.
Lion
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...
s often attacked herds of the Mabotsa villagers, on 16 February, Mebalwe and Livingstone joined them defending sheep.
Livingstone got a clear shot at a large lion, but while he was re-loading it attacked, crushing his left arm, and forced him to the ground. His life was saved by Mebalwe diverting its attention by trying to shoot the lion. He too got bitten. A man who tried spearing it was attacked just before it dropped dead.
Livingstone's broken bone, even though inexpertly set by himself and Edwards, bonded strongly. He went for recuperation to Kuruman, where he was tended by Moffat's daughter Mary, and they became engaged. His arm healed, enabling him to shoot and lift heavy weights, though it remained a source of much suffering for the rest of his life, and he was not able to lift the arm higher than his shoulder.
Livingstone and Mary were married on 9 January 1845.
Livingstone was obliged to leave his first mission at Mabotsa in Botswana in 1845 after irreconcilable differences emerged between him and his fellow missionary, Rogers Edwards, and because the Bakgatla were proving indifferent to the Gospel. He abandoned Chonuane, his next mission, in 1847 because of drought and the proximity of the Boers and his desire "to move on to the regions beyond". At
Kolobeng Mission
Kolobeng Mission (also known as the Livingstone Memorial), built in 1847, the third and final mission of David Livingstone, a missionary and explorer of Africa. Located in the country of Botswana, west of Kumakwane and west of Gaborone off the ...
Livingstone converted
Chief Sechele in 1849 after two years of patient persuasion. Only a few months later Sechele lapsed.
Exploration of southern and central Africa
![Map livingstone travels africa](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Map_livingstone_travels_africa.jpg)
To improve his
Tswana language
Tswana, also known by its Endonym and exonym, native name , and previously spelled Sechuana in English, is a Bantu language spoken in Southern Africa by about 8.2 million people. It belongs to the Bantu languages, Bantu language family withi ...
skills and find locations to set up mission stations, Livingstone made journeys far to the north of Kolobeng with
William Cotton Oswell
William Cotton Oswell (27 April 1818 – 1 May 1893) was an English explorer in Africa and other areas.
He was born in Leytonstone, Essex and attended Rugby School. In 1837 he secured a position with the East India Company in Madras through h ...
. In 1849 they crossed the
Kalahari Desert
The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa.
It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal de ...
and reached
Lake Ngami
Lake Ngami is an endorheic lake in Botswana north of the Kalahari Desert. It is seasonally filled by the Taughe River, an effluent of the Okavango River system flowing out of the western side of the Okavango Delta. It is one of the fragmented remn ...
. In 1850, he was recognised by the
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
which presented him a
chronometer watch
A chronometer (; Literally, a measurer of time) is an extraordinarily accurate timepiece, with an original focus on the needs of maritime navigation. In Switzerland, timepieces certified by the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres ( COSC) ...
for 'his journey to the great lake of Ngami'.
He heard of a river which could potentially become a "Highway" to the coast, and in August 1851 they reached the
Zambezi
The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...
which he hoped would be a "key to the Interior".
In 1852, after sending his family to Britain, Livingstone travelled north to the village of Linyanti on the Zambezi river, located roughly midway between the east and west coast of the continent, where
Sekeletu
Sekeletu (c. 1835–1863) was the Makololo King of Barotseland in western Zambia from about 1851 to his death in 1863.
Biography
Sekeletu was a son of the King Sebetwane and Queen Setlutlu. He succeeded his half-sister Mamochisane, who had ...
, chief of the
Kololo
Kololo is a hill in Kampala, the largest city and capital of Uganda. The name also applies to the upscale residential and commercial neighbourhood that sits on that hill.
Location
Kololo is close to the centre of Kampala, bordered by Naguru, U ...
, granted Livingstone authority as a "
nduna" to lead a joint investigation of trade routes to the coast, with 27 Kololo warriors acting as interpreters and guides. They reached the Portuguese city of
Luanda
Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...
on the Atlantic in May 1854 after profound difficulties and the near-death of Livingstone from fever. Livingstone realized the route would be too difficult for future traders, so he retraced the journey back to Linyanti. Then with 114 Kololo men, loaned by the same chief, he set off east down the Zambezi. On this leg he became the first European to see the Mosi-oa-Tunya ("the smoke that thunders") waterfall, which he named
Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls ( Lozi: ''Mosi-oa-Tunya'', "The Smoke That Thunders"; Tonga: ''Shungu Namutitima'', "Boiling Water") is a waterfall on the Zambezi River in southern Africa, which provides habitat for several unique species of plants and animal ...
after
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...
. Eventually he successfully reached
Quelimane
Quelimane () is a seaport in Mozambique. It is the administrative capital of the Zambezia Province and the province's largest city, and stands from the mouth of the Rio dos Bons Sinais (or "River of the Good Signs"). The river was named when V ...
on the Indian Ocean, having mapped most of the course of the Zambezi river.
For this, Livingstone became famous as the first European to cross south-central Africa at that
latitude
In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north– south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pol ...
and was hailed as having "opened up" Africa, but there was already a long-established trans-regional network of trade routes.
Portuguese traders had penetrated to the middle of the continent from both sides, in 1853–1854 two Arab traders crossed the continent from
Zanzibar
Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...
to
Benguela
Benguela (; Umbundu: Luombaka) is a city in western Angola, capital of Benguela Province. Benguela is one of Angola's most populous cities with a population of 555,124 in the city and 561,775 in the municipality, at the 2014 census.
History
Por ...
, around 1800 two native traders crossed from Angola to Mozambique.
Livingstone advocated the establishment of trade and religious missions in central Africa, but abolition of the
African slave trade
Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa. Systems of servitude and slavery were common in parts of Africa in ancient times, as they were in much of the rest of the Ancient history, ancient world. When the trans-Saharan slave trade ...
, as carried out by the Portuguese of
Tete
Tete is the capital city of Tete Province in Mozambique. It is located on the Zambezi River, and is the site of two of the four bridges crossing the river in Mozambique. A Swahili trade center before the Portuguese colonial era, Tete continues ...
and the Arab Swahili of
Kilwa
Kilwa Kisiwani (English: ''Kilwa Island'') is an island, national historic site, and hamlet community located in the township of Kilwa Masoko, the district seat of Kilwa District in the Tanzanian region of Lindi Region in southern Tanzania. K ...
, became his primary goal. His motto—now inscribed on his statue at Victoria Falls—was "", a combination that he hoped would form an alternative to the slave trade, and impart dignity to the Africans in the eyes of Europeans.
He believed that the key to achieving these goals was the navigation of the
Zambezi River
The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...
as a Christian commercial highway into the interior.
Author and campaigner
He returned to Britain in December 1856. The
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
awarded him their
Patron's Medal
The Royal Geographical Society's Gold Medal consists of two separate awards: the Founder's Medal 1830 and the Patron's Medal 1838. Together they form the most prestigious of the society's awards. They are given for "the encouragement and promoti ...
in 1855 for his explorations in Africa.
Encouraged by the
London Missionary Society
The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational miss ...
, he wrote up his journal, but unconventionally had his ''Missionary Travels'' published in 1857 by
John Murray, making it a bestselling travelogue. The book included his field science, and exceptionally sympathetic descriptions of African people. He proposed that missions and "legitimate commerce" by river into central Africa would end slave trading.
![Gang of Captives at Mbame’s](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Gang_of_Captives_at_Mbame%E2%80%99s.jpg)
Livingstone was encouraged by the response in Britain to his discoveries and support for future expeditions. He proposed to do more exploration, primarily to find routes for commercial trade which he believed would displace slave trade routes, more so than for solely missionary work. The London Missionary Society (LMS) on learning of his plans sent a letter which Livingstone received at Quelimane, congratulating him on his journey but said that the directors were "restricted in their power of aiding plans connected only remotely with the spread of the Gospel". This brusque rejection for new mission stations north of the Zambesi and his wider object of opening the interior for trade via the Zambezi, was not enough to make him resign from the LMS at once. When
Roderick Murchison
Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, 1st Baronet, (19 February 1792 – 22 October 1871) was a Scotland, Scottish geologist who served as director-general of the British Geological Survey from 1855 until his death in 1871. He is noted for investigat ...
, president of the Royal Geographical Society, put him in touch with the Foreign Secretary, Livingstone said nothing to the LMS directors, even when his leadership of a government expedition to the Zambezi seemed increasingly likely to be funded by the Exchequer. "I am not yet fairly on with the Government," he told a friend, "but am nearly quite off with the Society (LMS)." Livingstone resigned from the London Missionary Society in 1857, and in May of that year he was appointed as Her Majesty's Consul with a roving commission, extending through Mozambique to the areas west of it. In February 1858 his area of jurisdiction was stipulated to be "the Eastern Coast of Africa and the independent districts in the interior".
While he negotiated with the government for his new position as Consul, the LMS thought that he would return to Africa with their mission to the Kololo in
Barotseland
Barotseland ( Lozi: Mubuso Bulozi) is a region between Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zimbabwe including half of eastern and northern provinces of Zambia and the whole of Democratic Republic of Congo's Katanga Province. It is the homeland of the ...
, which Livingstone had promoted. That mission eventually suffered deaths from malaria of a missionary, his wife, a second missionary's wife and three children. Livingstone had suffered over thirty attacks during his previous journey but had understated his suffering and overstated the quality of the land they would find, and the missionaries set out for the marshy region with wholly inadequate supplies of quinine. Biographer Tim Jeal considered this episode a major failing for Livingstone, and indicative of a pattern of putting his goals and career above the lives of those around him.
Livingstone was now a celebrity, in great demand as a public speaker, and was elected to the
Royal Society
The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
. He gained public backing for his plans, and raised finances for his next expedition by public subscription, as well as £5,000 from the government to investigate the potential for British trade via the Zambezi.
Zambezi expedition
In December 1857 the
Foreign Office
Foreign may refer to:
Government
* Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries
* Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries
** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government
** Foreign office and foreign minister
* Unit ...
proposed a huge expedition. Livingstone had envisaged another solo journey with African helpers, in January 1858 he agreed to lead a
second Zambezi expedition with six specialist officers, hurriedly recruited in the UK.
The prefabricated iron river steamer ''Ma Robert'' was quickly built in portable sections, and loaded onto the
Colonial Office
The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created to deal with the colonial affairs of British North America but required also to oversee the increasing number of col ...
steamer ''Pearl'', which took them out on its way to Ceylon. They left on 10 March, at
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...
collected twelve
Kru seafarers to man the river steamer, and reached the Zambezi on 14 May. The plan was for both ships to take them up the river to establish bases, but it turned out to be completely impassable to boats past the
Cahora Bassa
The Cahora Bassa lake—in the Portuguese colonial era (until 1974) known as Cabora Bassa, from
Nyungwe ''Kahoura-Bassa'', meaning "finish the job"—is Africa's fourth-largest artificial lake, situated in the Tete Province in Mozambique. In Afr ...
rapids, a series of
cataracts
A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble w ...
and
rapids
Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence.
Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. ...
that Livingstone had failed to explore on his earlier travels. ''Pearl'' offloaded their supplies on an island about upstream. From there, ''Ma Robert'' had to make repeated slow journeys, getting hauled across shoals. The riverbanks were a war zone, with Portuguese soldiers and their slaves fighting the
Chikunda Chikunda, sometimes rendered as Achicunda, was the name given from the 18th century onwards to the slave-warriors of the Afro-Portuguese estates known as Prazos in Zambezia, Mozambique. They were used to defend the prazos and police their inhabitan ...
slave-hunters of Matakenya (Mariano), but both sides accepted the expedition as friends.
![MaryMoffatGravestone](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/MaryMoffatGravestone.JPG)
The experts, stuck at Shupanga, could not make the intended progress, and there were disagreements. Artist
Thomas Baines
(John) Thomas Baines (27 November 1820 – 8 May 1875) was an English artist and explorer of British colonial southern Africa and Australia.
Life and work
Born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, on 27 November 1820, Baines was apprenticed to a coach ...
was dismissed from the expedition. Others on the expedition became the first to reach
Lake Nyasa
Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.
It is the fifth largest fre ...
and they explored it in a four-oared
gig
Gig or GIG may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Gig'' (Circle Jerks album) (1992)
* ''Gig'' (Northern Pikes album) (1993)
* ''The Gig'', a 1985 film written and directed by Frank D. Gilroy
* GIG, a character in ''Hot Wheels AcceleRacers'' ...
. In 1861 the Colonial Office provided a new wooden paddle survey vessel, ''Pioneer'', which took the
Universities' Mission to Central Africa
The Universities' Mission to Central Africa (c.1857 - 1965) was a missionary society established by members of the Anglican Church within the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and Dublin. It was firmly in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of t ...
(UMCA) led by Bishop
Charles MacKenzie up the Shire river to found a new mission.
Livingstone raised funds for a replacement river steamer, ''Lady Nyasa'', specially designed to sail on Lake Nyasa. It was shipped out in sections, contrary to his request, with a mission party including Mary Livingstone, and arrived in 1862. The ''Pioneer'' was delayed getting down to the coast to meet them, and there were further delays after it was found that the Bishop had died. Mary Livingstone died on 27 April 1862 from
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
.
Livingstone took ''Pioneer'' up the coast and investigated the
Ruvuma River
Ruvuma River, formerly also known as the Rovuma River, is a river in the African Great Lakes region. During the greater part of its course, it forms the border between Tanzania and Mozambique (in Mozambique known as ''Rio Rovuma''). The river is ...
, the physician
John Kirk wrote "I can come to no other conclusion than that Dr Livingstone is out of his mind and a most unsafe leader".
When ''Pioneer'' returned to Shupanga in December 1862, they paid (in cloth) their "Mazaro men" who left and engaged replacements. On 10 January 1863 they set off, towing ''Lady Nyasa'', and went up the Shire river past scenes of devastation as Mariano's Chikunda slave-hunts caused famine, and they frequently had to clear the paddle wheels of corpses left floating downstream. They reached
Chibisa's and the
Murchison Cataracts in April, then began dismantling ''Lady Nyasa'' and building a road to take its sections past the cataracts, while explorations continued.
He brought the ships downriver in 1864 after the government ordered the recall of the expedition. The Zambezi Expedition was castigated as a failure in many newspapers of the time, and Livingstone experienced great difficulty in raising funds to further explore Africa. John Kirk, Charles Meller, and Richard Thornton, scientists appointed to work under Livingstone, contributed large collections of botanical, ecological, geological, and ethnographic material to scientific Institutions in the United Kingdom.
Nile River
In January 1866, Livingstone returned to Africa, this time to
Zanzibar
Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...
, and from there he set out to seek the source of the
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...
.
Richard Francis Burton
Sir Richard Francis Burton (; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, orientalist scholar,and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary kn ...
,
John Hanning Speke
Captain John Hanning Speke (4 May 1827 – 15 September 1864) was an English explorer and officer in the Indian Army (1895–1947), British Indian Army who made three exploratory expeditions to Africa. He is most associated with the search ...
, and
Samuel Baker
Sir Samuel White Baker, Order of the Bath, KCB, Royal Society, FRS, Royal Geographical Society, FRGS (8 June 1821 – 30 December 1893) was an English List of explorers, explorer, Officer (armed forces), officer, naturalist, big game hunter, ...
had identified either
Lake Albert or
Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after ...
as the source (which was partially correct, as the Nile "bubbles from the ground high in the mountains of
Burundi
Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili language, Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French language, French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the ...
halfway between
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika () is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. ...
and
Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. With a surface area of approximately , Lake Victoria is Africa's largest lake by area, the world's largest tropical lake, and the world's second-largest fresh water lake by surface area after ...
"), but there was still serious debate on the matter. Livingstone believed that the source was farther south and assembled a team to find it consisting of freed slaves,
Comoros
The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...
Islanders, twelve
Sepoy
''Sepoy'' () was the Persian-derived designation originally given to a professional Indian infantryman, traditionally armed with a musket, in the armies of the Mughal Empire.
In the 18th century, the French East India Company and its oth ...
s, and two servants from his previous expedition,
Chuma and Susi
James Chuma and Abdullah Susi were people from central Africa who took part in the second Zambesi expedition led by the explorer David Livingstone, and were employed by him in his last expedition. They had significant roles in organisation, and w ...
.
![Livingstone House, Mikindani, Tanzania](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Livingstone_House%2C_Mikindani%2C_Tanzania.JPG)
Livingstone set out from the mouth of the Ruvuma river, but his assistants gradually began deserting him. The Comoros Islanders had returned to Zanzibar and (falsely) informed authorities that Livingstone had died. He reached Lake Malawi on 6 August, by which time most of his supplies had been stolen, including all his medicines. Livingstone then travelled through swamps in the direction of Lake Tanganyika, with his health declining. He sent a message to Zanzibar requesting that supplies be sent to
Ujiji
Ujiji is a historic town located in Kigoma-Ujiji District of Kigoma Region in Tanzania. The town is the oldest in western Tanzania. In 1900, the population was estimated at 10,000 and in 1967 about 41,000. The site is a registered National Histo ...
and he then headed west, forced by ill health to travel with slave traders. He arrived at
Lake Mweru
Lake Mweru (also spelled ''Mwelu'', ''Mwero'') is a freshwater lake on the longest arm of Africa's second-longest river, the Congo. Located on the border between Zambia and Democratic Republic of the Congo, it makes up of the total length of th ...
on 8 November 1867 and continued on, travelling south to become the first European to see
Lake Bangweulu
Bangweulu — 'where the water sky meets the sky' — is one of the world's great wetland systems, comprising Lake Bangweulu, the Bangweulu Swamps and the Bangweulu Flats or floodplain.Camerapix: ''Spectrum Guide to Zambia.'' Camerapix Internation ...
. Upon finding the
Lualaba River
The Lualaba River flows entirely within the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It provides the greatest streamflow to the Congo River, while the source of the Congo is recognized as the Chambeshi. The Lualaba is long. Its headwaters are in ...
, Livingstone theorised that it could have been the high part of the
Nile River
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest rive ...
; but realised that it in fact flowed into the
River Congo
The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...
at
Upper Congo Lake.
The year 1869 began with Livingstone finding himself extremely ill while in the jungle. He was saved by Arab traders who gave him medicines and carried him to an Arab outpost. In March 1869, Livingstone suffered from
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
and arrived in Ujiji to find his supplies stolen. He was coming down with
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
and had
tropical ulcer
Tropical ulcer, more commonly known as jungle rot, is a chronic ulcerative skin lesion thought to be caused by polymicrobial infection with a variety of microorganisms, including mycobacteria. It is common in tropical climates.
Ulcers occur on ...
s on his feet, so he was again forced to rely on slave traders to get him as far as Bambara—where he was caught by the wet season. With no supplies, Livingstone had to eat his meals in a roped-off enclosure for the entertainment of the locals in return for food.
On 15 July 1871,
Livingstone recorded in his field diary his immediate impressions as he witnessed around 400 Africans being massacred by Arab slavers at the
Nyangwe
Nyangwe is a town in Kasongo, Maniema on the right bank of the Lualaba River, Lualaba in the Democratic Republic of Congo (territory of Kasongo). It was an important hub for the Arabs for trade goods like ivory, gold, iron & slaves: it was one of ...
market on the banks of the
Lualaba River
The Lualaba River flows entirely within the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It provides the greatest streamflow to the Congo River, while the source of the Congo is recognized as the Chambeshi. The Lualaba is long. Its headwaters are in ...
, while he was watching next the leading Arab trader Dugumbe who had given him assistance.
The cause behind this attack is stated to be retaliation for actions of Manilla, the head slave who had sacked villages of Mohombo people at the instigation of the Wagenya chieftain Kimburu. The Arabs attacked the shoppers and Kimburu's people.
Researchers from the
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) is a public research university in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. As of fall 2021, the university enrolled 7,044 undergraduates and 1,865 postgraduates, for a total enrollment of 9,009 students. The univ ...
who scanned Livingstone's diary suggest that in putting his fragmentary notes about the massacre into the narrative of his journal, he left out his concerns about some of his followers, slaves owned by
Banyan merchants
Banyan merchants is an expression used widely in the Indian Ocean trade to refer to Indian merchants who are clearly distinguished from others, by their clothing, by their religious and cultural dietary choices, and by the manner in which they co ...
who had been hired by
John Kirk, acting Consul at Zanzibar, and sent to get Livingstone to safety. These slaves had been liberated and added to his party, but had shown violent conduct against local people contrary to his instructions, and he feared they might have been involved in starting the massacre. His diary noted "Dugumbe's men murdering Kimburu and another for slaves" and implied that the slave Manilla played a leading part, but looking back at the events, he says Dugumbé's people bore responsibility, and started it to make an example of Manilla. In the diary he described his sending his men with protection of a flag to assist Manilla's brother, in his journal version it was to assist villagers. The version edited by Waller in the "Last Journals", published in 1874, left out the context of Livingstone's earlier comments about Kirk and bad behaviour of the hired Banyan men, and omitted the villagers' earlier violent resistance to Arab slavers, so it portrayed the villagers as passive victims. The section on the massacre itself had only minor grammatical corrections. Further research into diary notes continues.
The massacre horrified Livingstone, leaving him too shattered to continue his mission to find the source of the Nile. Following the end of the wet season, he travelled from Nyangwe back to Ujiji, an Arab settlement on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika – violently ill most of the way – arriving on 23 October 1871.
Geographical discoveries
Livingstone was wrong about the Nile, but he identified numerous geographical features for Western science, such as
Lake Ngami
Lake Ngami is an endorheic lake in Botswana north of the Kalahari Desert. It is seasonally filled by the Taughe River, an effluent of the Okavango River system flowing out of the western side of the Okavango Delta. It is one of the fragmented remn ...
,
Lake Malawi
Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.
It is the fifth largest fre ...
, and
Lake Bangweulu
Bangweulu — 'where the water sky meets the sky' — is one of the world's great wetland systems, comprising Lake Bangweulu, the Bangweulu Swamps and the Bangweulu Flats or floodplain.Camerapix: ''Spectrum Guide to Zambia.'' Camerapix Internation ...
, in addition to Victoria Falls mentioned above. He filled in details of
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika () is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. ...
,
Lake Mweru
Lake Mweru (also spelled ''Mwelu'', ''Mwero'') is a freshwater lake on the longest arm of Africa's second-longest river, the Congo. Located on the border between Zambia and Democratic Republic of the Congo, it makes up of the total length of th ...
, and the course of many rivers, especially the upper Zambezi, and his observations enabled large regions to be mapped which previously had been blank. Even so, the farthest north he reached was the north end of Lake Tanganyika – still south of the
Equator
The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...
– and he did not penetrate the rainforest of the
River Congo
The Congo River ( kg, Nzâdi Kôngo, french: Fleuve Congo, pt, Rio Congo), formerly also known as the Zaire River, is the second longest river in Africa, shorter only than the Nile, as well as the second largest river in the world by discharge ...
any farther downstream than Ntangwe near
Misisi
Misisi Compound is a shanty town or komboni located in Lusaka, Zambia. In 2008, it was estimated to have 10,000 inhabitants. Plans for redevelopment were announced by President Edgar Lungu in 2019.
Foundation
Misisi was established in the mid ...
.
Livingstone was awarded the gold medal of the
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
of London and was made a Fellow of the society, with which he had a strong association for the rest of his life.
Stanley meeting
![Livingstone and the Lion](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Livingstone_and_the_Lion.jpg)
Livingstone completely lost contact with the outside world for six years and was ill for most of the last four years of his life. Only one of his 44 letter dispatches made it to
Zanzibar
Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...
. One surviving letter to
Horace Waller was made available to the public in 2010 by its owner Peter Beard. It reads: "I am terribly knocked up but this is for your own eye only... Doubtful if I live to see you again..."
Henry Morton Stanley
Sir Henry Morton Stanley (born John Rowlands; 28 January 1841 – 10 May 1904) was a Welsh-American explorer, journalist, soldier, colonial administrator, author and politician who was famous for his exploration of Central Africa
Cen ...
had been sent to find him by the ''
New York Herald
The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the ''New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''.
His ...
'' newspaper in 1869. He found Livingstone in the town of
Ujiji
Ujiji is a historic town located in Kigoma-Ujiji District of Kigoma Region in Tanzania. The town is the oldest in western Tanzania. In 1900, the population was estimated at 10,000 and in 1967 about 41,000. The site is a registered National Histo ...
on the shores of
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika () is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. ...
on 10 November 1871,
apparently greeting him with the now famous words "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Livingstone responded, "Yes", and then, "I feel thankful that I am here to welcome you." These famous words may have been a fabrication, as Stanley later tore out the pages of this encounter in his diary.
Even Livingstone's account of this encounter does not mention these words. However, the phrase appears in a ''New York Herald'' editorial dated 10 August 1872, and the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' and the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' both quote it without questioning its veracity. The words are famous because of their perceived humour, Livingstone being the only other white person for hundreds of miles, along with Stanley's clumsy attempt at appearing dignified in the bush of Africa by making a formal greeting one might expect to hear in the confines of an upper-class London club. However, readers of the ''Herald'' immediately saw through Stanley's pretensions.
As noted by his biographer Tim Jeal, Stanley struggled his whole life with a self-perceived weakness of being from a humble background, and manufactured events to make up for this supposed deficiency.
Stanley's book suggests that this greeting was truly motivated by embarrassment, because he did not dare to embrace Livingstone.
Despite Stanley's urgings, Livingstone was determined not to leave Africa until his mission was complete. His illness made him confused and he had judgment difficulties at the end of his life. He explored the Lualaba and, failing to find connections to the Nile, returned to
Lake Bangweulu
Bangweulu — 'where the water sky meets the sky' — is one of the world's great wetland systems, comprising Lake Bangweulu, the Bangweulu Swamps and the Bangweulu Flats or floodplain.Camerapix: ''Spectrum Guide to Zambia.'' Camerapix Internation ...
and its swamps to explore possible rivers flowing out northwards.
Christianity and Sechele
Livingstone is known as "Africa's greatest missionary," yet he is recorded as having converted only one African:
Sechele, who was the chief of the
Kwena people of
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...
(Kwena are one of the main Sotho-Tswana clans, found in South Africa, Lesotho, and Botswana
in all three Sotho-Tswana language groupings). Sechele was born in 1812. His father died when Sechele was 10, and two of his uncles divided the tribe, which forced Sechele to leave his home for nine years. When Sechele returned, he took over one of his uncle's tribes; at that point, he met Livingstone. Livingstone immediately became interested in Sechele, and especially his ability to read. Being a quick learner, Sechele learned the alphabet in two days and soon called English a second language. After teaching his wives the skill, he wrote the Bible in his native tongue.
Livingstone was known through a large part of Africa for treating the natives with respect, and the tribes that he visited returned his respect with faith and loyalty. He could never permanently convert the tribesmen to Christianity, however. Among other reasons, Sechele, by then the leader of the African tribe, did not like the way that Livingstone could not demand rain of his God like his rainmakers, who said that they could. After long hesitation from Livingstone, he baptised Sechele and had the church completely embrace him. Sechele was now a part of the church, but he continued to act according to his African culture, which went against Livingstone's teachings.
Sechele was no different from any other man of his tribe in believing in
polygamy
Crimes
Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...
. He had five wives, including MmaKgari (SeTswana for “mother of Kgari"), Mokgokong and Masebele When Livingstone told him to get rid of four of them, it shook the foundations of the Kwena tribe. After he finally divorced the women, Livingstone baptised them all and everything went well. However, one year later one of his ex-wives became pregnant and Sechele was the father. Sechele begged Livingstone not to give up on him because his faith was still strong, but Livingstone left the country and went north to continue his Christianizing attempts.
After Livingstone left the Kwena tribe, Sechele remained faithful to Christianity and led missionaries to surrounding tribes as well as converting nearly his entire Kwena people. In the estimation of Neil Parsons of the University of Botswana, Sechele "did more to propagate Christianity in 19th-century southern Africa than virtually any single European missionary". Although Sechele was a self-proclaimed Christian, many European missionaries disagreed. The Kwena tribe leader kept
rainmaking
Rainmaking, also known as artificial precipitation, artificial rainfall and pluviculture, is the act of attempting to artificially induce or increase precipitation, usually to stave off drought or the wider global warming. According to the cloud ...
a part of his life as well as polygamy.
Death
![David Livingstone Medal (p](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/David_Livingstone_Medal_%28p.60%29_-_Copy.jpg)
Livingstone died on 1 May 1873 at the age of 60 in Chief Chitambo's village at
Chipundu, southeast of
Lake Bangweulu
Bangweulu — 'where the water sky meets the sky' — is one of the world's great wetland systems, comprising Lake Bangweulu, the Bangweulu Swamps and the Bangweulu Flats or floodplain.Camerapix: ''Spectrum Guide to Zambia.'' Camerapix Internation ...
, in present-day
Zambia
Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most cent ...
, from
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
and internal bleeding due to
dysentery
Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
. Led by his loyal attendants
Chuma and Susi
James Chuma and Abdullah Susi were people from central Africa who took part in the second Zambesi expedition led by the explorer David Livingstone, and were employed by him in his last expedition. They had significant roles in organisation, and w ...
, his expedition arranged funeral ceremonies. They removed his heart and buried it under a tree near the spot where he died, which has been identified variously as a
mvula tree or a
baobab tree
''Adansonia'' is a genus made up of eight species of medium-to-large deciduous trees known as baobabs ( or ). They are placed in the Malvaceae family, subfamily Bombacoideae. They are native to Madagascar, mainland Africa, and Australia.Tropi ...
but is more likely to be a
mpundu tree, as baobabs are found at lower altitudes and in more arid regions.
That site, now known as the Livingstone Memorial,
lists his date of death as 4 May, the date reported (and carved into the tree's trunk) by Chuma and Susi; but most sources consider 1 May—the date of Livingstone's final journal entry—as the correct one.
The expedition led by Chuma and Susi then carried the rest of his remains, together with his last journal and belongings, on a journey that took 63 days to the coastal town of
Bagamoyo
Bagamoyo, is a historic coastal town founded at the end of the 18th century, though it is an extension of a much older (8th century) Swahili settlement, Kaole. It was chosen as the capital of German East Africa by the German colonial administra ...
, a distance exceeding . The caravan encountered the expedition of English explorer
Verney Lovett Cameron
Verney Lovett Cameron (1 July 184424 March 1894) was an English traveller in Central Africa and the first European to cross (1875) equatorial Africa from sea to sea.
Biography
He was born at Radipole, near Weymouth, Dorset, son of Rev Jonatha ...
, who continued his march and reached Ujiji in February 1874, where he found and sent to England Livingstone's papers. Seventy-nine followers completed the journey, the men were paid their due wages, and Livingstone's remains were returned by ship to Britain for burial. In London, his body lay in repose at No.1
Savile Row
Savile Row (pronounced ) is a street in Mayfair, central London. Known principally for its traditional bespoke tailoring for men, the street has had a varied history that has included accommodating the headquarters of the Royal Geographical ...
, then the headquarters of the
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
, prior to interment at
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
.
Livingstone and slavery
While talking about the slave trade in East Africa in his journals:
Livingstone wrote about a group of slaves forced to march by Arab slave traders in the
African Great Lakes
The African Great Lakes ( sw, Maziwa Makuu; rw, Ibiyaga bigari) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. They include Lake Victoria, the second-largest fresh water lake in the ...
region when he was travelling there in 1866:
He also described:
Livingstone's letters, books, and journals did stir up public support for the abolition of slavery;
however, he became dependent for assistance on the very slave-traders whom he wished to put out of business. He was a poor leader of his peers, and he ended up on his last expedition as an individualist explorer with servants and porters but no expert support around him. At the same time, he did not use the brutal methods of maverick explorers such as
Stanley
Stanley may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Film and television
* ''Stanley'' (1972 film), an American horror film
* ''Stanley'' (1984 film), an Australian comedy
* ''Stanley'' (1999 film), an animated short
* ''Stanley'' (1956 TV series) ...
to keep his retinue of porters in line and his supplies secure. For these reasons, he accepted help and hospitality from 1867 onwards from Mohamad Bogharib and Mohamad bin Saleh (also known as "Mpamari"), traders who kept and traded in
slaves
Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
, as he recounts in his journals. They, in turn, benefited from Livingstone's influence with local people, which facilitated Mpamari's release from bondage to
Mwata Kazembe
Kazembe is a traditional kingdom in modern-day Zambia, Southeastern Congo. For more than 250 years, Kazembe has been an influential kingdom of the Kiluba- Chibemba, speaking the language of the Eastern Luba- Lunda people of south-central Africa ...
. Livingstone was furious to discover that some of the replacement porters sent at his request from Ujiji were slaves.
Livingstone's figures on slaves have however been criticised as highly exaggerated.
Legacy
![Livingstone statue2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Livingstone_statue2.jpg)
By the late 1860s Livingstone's reputation in Europe had suffered owing to the failure of the missions he set up, and of the Zambezi Expedition; and his ideas about the source of the Nile were not supported. His expeditions were hardly models of order and organisation. His reputation was rehabilitated by Stanley and his newspaper,
and by the loyalty of Livingstone's servants whose long journey with his body inspired wonder. The publication of his last journal revealed stubborn determination in the face of suffering.
In 1860, the
Universities' Mission to Central Africa
The Universities' Mission to Central Africa (c.1857 - 1965) was a missionary society established by members of the Anglican Church within the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and Dublin. It was firmly in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of t ...
was founded at his request. Many important missionaries, such as
Leader Stirling
Leader Dominic Stirling (19 January 1906 – 7 February 2003)["Leader Stirling"< ...](_blank)
and
Miss Annie Allen
Annie Allen was a Christian medical missionary from England. She worked in Zanzibar in the 1870s and 1880s.
Overview
Allen was the daughter and granddaughter of missionaries. She worked primarily with the Universities' Mission to Central Afr ...
, would later work for this group. This group and the medical missionaries it sponsored came to have major, positive impact on the people of Africa.
Livingstone made geographical discoveries for European knowledge. He inspired abolitionists of the slave trade, explorers, and missionaries. He opened up Central Africa to missionaries who initiated the education and healthcare for Africans, and trade by the
African Lakes Company
The African Lakes Corporation plc was a British company originally set-up in 1877 by Scottish businessmen to co-operate with Presbyterian missions in what is now Malawi. Despite its original connections with the Free Church of Scotland, it operated ...
. He was held in some esteem by many African chiefs and local people and his name facilitated relations between them and the British.
![David Livingstone statue, Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/David_Livingstone_statue%2C_Princes_Street_Gardens%2C_Edinburgh.jpg)
Partly as a result, within 50 years of his death, colonial rule was established in Africa, and white settlement was encouraged to extend further into the interior. However, what Livingstone envisaged for "colonies" was not what we now know as colonial rule, but rather settlements of dedicated Christian Europeans who would live among the people to help them work out ways of living that did not involve slavery.
Livingstone was part of an evangelical and nonconformist movement in Britain which during the 19th century helped change the national mindset from the notion of a divine right to rule 'lesser races', to more modernly ethical ideas in foreign policy.
The
David Livingstone Centre
The David Livingstone Birthplace Museum is a biographical museum in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, dedicated to the life and work of the explorer and missionary David Livingstone. The museum is operated by the David Livingstone Trust and ...
in Blantyre celebrates his life and is based in the house in which he was born, on the site of the mill in which he started his working life. His Christian faith is evident in his journal, in which one entry reads: "I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of Christ. If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, it shall be given away or kept, only as by giving or keeping it I shall promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes in time and eternity."
According to Alvyn Austin in 1997:
During the anti-colonial 1960s, Livingstone was debunked: he made only one certified convert, who later backslid; he explored few areas not already traveled by others; he freed few slaves; he treated his colleagues horribly; he traveled with Arab slave traders; his family life was in shambles—in short, to many he embodied the "White Man's Burden" mentality. Nonetheless, at a time when countries are being renamed and statues are being toppled, Livingstone has not fallen. Despite modern Africans' animosity toward other Europeans, such as Cecil Rhodes, Livingstone endures as a heroic legend. Rhodesia has long since purged its name, but the cities of Livingstone (Zambia) and Livingstonia (Malawi) keep the explorer's appellation with pride.
In 2002, David Livingstone was named among the
100 Greatest Britons
''100 Greatest Britons'' is a television series that was broadcast by the BBC in 2002. It was based on a television poll conducted to determine who the British people at that time considered the greatest Britons in history. The series included in ...
following a UK-wide vote.
Family life
![David Livingstone by Frederick Havill](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/David_Livingstone_by_Frederick_Havill.jpg)
While Livingstone had a great impact on the expansion of the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
, he did so at a tremendous cost to his family. In his absences, his children grew up missing their father, and his wife
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
(daughter of Mary and
Robert Moffat), whom he married in 1845, endured very poor health, and died of malaria on 27 April 1862.
He had six children:
# Robert died while serving in the
Union Army
During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...
during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
; He took the name Rupert Vincent and was the substitute for Horace Heath, and took his place in Company H of the
3rd New Hampshire Volunteers. Robert ended up being captured by the
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...
and died at the
Salisbury prison camp in
Rowan County, North Carolina
Rowan County is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of North Carolina that was formed in 1753, as part of the British Province of North Carolina. It was originally a vast territory with unlimited western boundaries, but its size w ...
,
which has since been termed, "North Carolina's
Andersonville."
# Agnes (born 1847 or 1857, died 1912; married A.L. Bruce, a wealthy Scottish brewery executive.)
# Thomas, died in Egypt in 1876 at the age of 27 from
bilharzia
Schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever, bilharzia, and Katayama fever, is a disease caused by parasitic flatworms called schistosomes. The urinary tract or the intestines may be infected. Symptoms include abdominal pain, diarrhea, bloody ...
, a disease he contracted as a child living in Africa.
# Elizabeth (who died at two months)
# William Oswell (nicknamed Zouga because of the river along which he was born, in 1851; died in 1892 in Trinidad where he practiced medicine.)
# Anna Mary (born 1858, died 1939)
Only Agnes, William Oswell and Anna Mary married and had children. His one regret in later life was that he did not spend enough time with his children.
Archives
The archives of David Livingstone are maintained by the
Archives of the University of Glasgow (GUAS). On 11 November 2011, Livingstone's 1871 Field Diary, as well as other original works, was published online for the first time by the David Livingstone Spectral Imaging Project.
Papers relating to Livingstone's time as a London Missionary Society missionary (including hand-annotated maps of South East Africa) are held by the Archives of the School of Oriental and African Studies.
Digital archives unifying these and other sources are made publicly available by the Livingstone Online project at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
.
Place names and other memorials
Africa
![David Livingstone memorial at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/David_Livingstone_memorial_at_Victoria_Falls%2C_Zimbabwe.jpg)
* The
Livingstone Memorial
The Livingstone Memorial, built in 1899, marks the spot where missionary explorer David Livingstone died on 1 May 1873, in Chief Chitambo's village at Chipundu (today in Chitambo District), near the edge of the Bangweulu Swamps in Zambia. His bod ...
in
Ilala, Zambia marks where David Livingstone died
* The city of
Livingstone, Zambia
Livingstone is a city in Zambia. Until 1935, it served as the capital city of Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia). Lying 10 km (6.2 mi) to the north of the Zambezi River, it is a tourism attraction center for the Victoria Falls, Zambia, Victo ...
, which includes a memorial in front of the
Livingstone Museum
The Livingstone Museum, formerly the David Livingstone Memorial Museum and after that, the Rhodes-Livingstone Museum, is the largest and the oldest museum in Zambia, located in Livingstone near Victoria Falls. The museum has exhibits of artifact ...
and a new statue erected in 2005.
* The
Rhodes-Livingstone Institute
The Rhodes-Livingstone Institute (RLI) was the first local anthropological research facility in Africa; it was founded in 1937 under the initial directorship of Godfrey Wilson. It is located a few miles outside Lusaka. Designed to allow for easie ...
, located a few miles outside
Lusaka, Zambia
Lusaka (; ) is the capital and largest city of Zambia. It is one of the fastest-developing cities in southern Africa. Lusaka is in the southern part of the central plateau at an elevation of about . , the city's population was about 3.3 millio ...
, 1937 to 1964, was a pioneering research institution in anthropology.
* David Livingstone Teachers' Training College, Livingstone, Zambia.
* The David Livingstone Memorial statue at
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
Victoria Falls, popularly known as Vic Falls, is a resort town and city in the province of Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe. It lies on the southern bank of the Zambezi River at the western end of Victoria Falls themselves. According to the 2022 Po ...
, erected in 1934 on the western bank of the falls.
quoted 1954 which is wrong. The statue was unveiled on 5 August 1934
* A new statue of David Livingstone was erected in November 2005 on the Zambian side of Victoria Falls.
* A plaque was unveiled in November 2005 at Livingstone Island on the lip of Victoria Falls marking where Livingstone stood to get his first view of the falls.
* Livingstone Hall, Men's Hall of residence at
Makerere University
Makerere University, Kampala (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922. It became an independent national university in 1970. Today, Makerere University is composed of ni ...
,
Kampala, Uganda
Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and Ruba ...
.
* The town of
Livingstonia, Malawi
Livingstonia or Kondowe is a town located in the Northern Region district of Rumphi in Malawi. It is north of the capital, Lilongwe, and connected by road to Chitimba on the shore Lake Malawi.
History
Livingstonia was founded in 1894 by miss ...
.
* The city of
Blantyre, Malawi
Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Li ...
is named after Livingstone's birthplace in Scotland, and includes a memorial.
* The ''David Livingstone Scholarships'' for students at the
University of Malawi
The University of Malawi (UNIMA) is a public university established in 1965 and until 4 May 2021, when the university underwent a delinking, was composed of four constituent colleges located in Zomba, Blantyre, and Lilongwe. Of the four colleges, ...
, funded through
Strathclyde University
The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...
, Scotland.
* The David Livingstone Clinic was founded by the University of Strathclyde's Millennium Project in
Lilongwe
Lilongwe (, , ) is the capital and most populated city of the African country of Malawi. It has a population of 989,318 as of the 2018 Census, up from a population of 674,448 in 2008. In 2020 that figure was 1,122,000. The city is located in th ...
, Malawi.
* The
Kipengere Range
The Kipengere Range, also known as the Livingstone Mountains, lies entirely in Njombe Region in southwest Tanzania at the northern end of Lake Nyasa. Near Lake Nyasa they are known as the Kinga Mountains. It is a plateau-like ridge of mountains r ...
in south-west Tanzania at the north-eastern end of
Lake Malawi
Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.
It is the fifth largest fre ...
is also called the Livingstone Mountains.
*
Livingstone Falls
Livingstone Falls ( French: ''Chutes Livingstone''; Dutch: ''Livingstonewatervallen''), named for British explorer David Livingstone, are a succession of enormous rapids on the lower course of the Congo River in west equatorial Africa, down ...
on the River Congo, named by Stanley.
* The
Livingstone Inland Mission
The Livingstone Inland Mission (LIM) was an evangelical missionary society that operated in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1878 and 1884.
Foundation
The moving spirit in founding the society in 1877 was the Baptist pasto ...
, a Baptist mission to the
Congo Free State
''(Work and Progress)
, national_anthem = Vers l'avenir
, capital = Vivi Boma
, currency = Congo Free State franc
, religion = Catholicism (''de facto'')
, leader1 = Leopo ...
1877–1884, located in present-day
Kinshasa, Zaire
Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one ...
.
* A memorial in
Ujiji
Ujiji is a historic town located in Kigoma-Ujiji District of Kigoma Region in Tanzania. The town is the oldest in western Tanzania. In 1900, the population was estimated at 10,000 and in 1967 about 41,000. The site is a registered National Histo ...
commemorates his meeting with Stanley.
* The
Livingstone–Stanley Monument in
Mugere (present-day
Burundi
Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili language, Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French language, French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the ...
) marks a spot that Livingstone and Stanley visited on their exploration of Lake Tanganyika, mistaken by some as the first meeting place of the two explorers.
* Scottish Livingstone Hospital in Molepolole 50 km west of
Gaborone, Botswana
Gaborone ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census.
Gaboron ...
* There is a memorial to Livingstone at the ruins of the
Kolobeng Mission
Kolobeng Mission (also known as the Livingstone Memorial), built in 1847, the third and final mission of David Livingstone, a missionary and explorer of Africa. Located in the country of Botswana, west of Kumakwane and west of Gaborone off the ...
, 40 km west of Gaborone, Botswana.
* The church tower of the Holy Ghost Mission (Roman Catholic) in
Bagamoyo
Bagamoyo, is a historic coastal town founded at the end of the 18th century, though it is an extension of a much older (8th century) Swahili settlement, Kaole. It was chosen as the capital of German East Africa by the German colonial administra ...
, Tanzania, is sometimes called "Livingstone Tower" as Livingstone's body was laid down there for one night before it was shipped to London.
* Livingstone House in
Stone Town
Stonetown of Zanzibar ( ar, مدينة زنجبار الحجرية), also known as Mji Mkongwe ( Swahili for "old town"), is the old part of Zanzibar City, the main city of Zanzibar, in Tanzania. The newer portion of the city is known as Ng'ambo ...
,
Zanzibar
Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...
, provided by the
Sultan
Sultan (; ar, سلطان ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it ...
for Livingstone's use, January to March 1866, to prepare his last expedition; the house was purchased by the Zanzibar government in 1947.
* Plaque commemorating his departure from
Mikindani
Mikindani (''Mji wa kale wa Mikindani'' in Swahili language, Swahili) is a historic coastal town located in Mtwara-Mikindani District of Mtwara Region in Tanzania. The name comes from the Swahili word ''mikinda'' which means "young coconut trees". ...
(present-day
Tanzania
Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...
) on his final expedition on the wall of the house that has been built over the house he reputedly stayed in.
* David Livingstone Primary School in
Salisbury, Rhodesia (present-day Harare, Zimbabwe).
* Dr Livingstone Primary School in
Nairobi
Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...
,
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
, ...
.
* David Livingstone Secondary School in Ntabazinduna about 40 km from
Bulawayo
Bulawayo (, ; Ndebele: ''Bulawayo'') is the second largest city in Zimbabwe, and the largest city in the country's Matabeleland region. The city's population is disputed; the 2022 census listed it at 665,940, while the Bulawayo City Council cl ...
, Zimbabwe.
* David Livingstone Senior Secondary School in Schauderville,
Port Elizabeth
Gqeberha (), formerly Port Elizabeth and colloquially often referred to as P.E., is a major seaport and the most populous city in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Sou ...
, South Africa.
* Livingstone House in Harare, Zimbabwe, designed by Leonora Granger.
* Livingstone House, Achimota School, Ghana (boys' boarding house).
Livingstone Street Dar es Salaam
Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...
, Tanzania.
* David Livingstone Museum in
Sangwali
Sangwali is a settlement in Namibia. It is situated in the Zambezi Region 129.3 kilometres out of the region’s capital, Katima Mulilo. It is the centre of Judea Lyaboloma Constituency and it is also the Royal Headquarters of the Yeyi people. T ...
, north-eastern
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
. Livingstone stayed at Sangwali in the 1850s before travelling further north.
* Livingstone Kolobeng College, a private secondary school in Gaborone, Botswana.
* Livingstone Hospital, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
New Zealand
*Livingstone Street in Westmere, Auckland
*Livingstone Road in Flaxmere, Hastings
Scotland
![David Livingstone statue, Glasgow](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/David_Livingstone_statue%2C_Glasgow.JPG)
* The
David Livingstone Birthplace Museum in
Blantyre, South Lanarkshire
Blantyre ( or ; gd, Baile an t-Saoir) is a town and civil parish in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, with a population of 16,900. It is bounded by the River Clyde to the north, the Rotten Calder to the west, the Park Burn to the east (denoting the bo ...
, is a museum in his honour, operated by the David Livingstone Trust.
* David Livingstone Memorial Primary School in Blantyre.
* David Livingstone Memorial Church of the Church of Scotland in Blantyre.
* A statue of Livingstone in
Cathedral Square,
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
.
* A
statue
A statue is a free-standing sculpture in which the realistic, full-length figures of persons or animals are carved or cast in a durable material such as wood, metal or stone. Typical statues are life-sized or close to life-size; a sculpture t ...
of Livingstone in
Princes Street Gardens
Princes Street Gardens are two adjacent public parks in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland, lying in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. The Gardens were created in the 1820s following the long draining of the Nor Loch and building of the New Town, ...
, Edinburgh.
* A bust of Livingstone is among those of famous Scotsmen in the
Wallace Monument
The National Wallace Monument (generally known as the Wallace Monument) is a 67 metre tower on the shoulder of the Abbey Craig, a hilltop overlooking Stirling in Scotland. It commemorates Sir William Wallace, a 13th- and 14th-century Scottish hero ...
near
Stirling
Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...
.
*
Strathclyde University
The University of Strathclyde ( gd, Oilthigh Shrath Chluaidh) is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal chart ...
, Glasgow (which evolved from Anderson's University, later the
Royal College of Science and Technology
The Royal College of Science and Technology was a higher education college that existed in Glasgow, Scotland between 1887 and 1964, and is the predecessor institution of the University of Strathclyde. Its main building on George Street now serve ...
), commemorates him in the David Livingstone Centre for Sustainability and the
Livingstone Tower
The Livingstone Tower is a prominent high rise building in Glasgow, Scotland and is a part of the University of Strathclyde's John Anderson Campus. The building was named after David Livingstone. The address of the building is 26 Richmond Street ...
where there is a statue of him in the building's foyer.
* The David Livingstone Room in the
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow
The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, is an institute of physicians and surgeons in Glasgow, Scotland.
Founded by Peter Lowe after receiving a royal charter by James VI in 1599, as the Glasgow Faculty, it originally exist ...
. A portrait of Livingstone by
Thomas Annan
Thomas Annan (1829–1887) was a Scottish photographer, notable for being the first to record the bad housing conditions of the poor.
Biography
Born in Dairsie, Fife he was one of seven children of John Annan, a flax spinner.
Career
After ...
(a photograph painted over in oils) hangs outside the room.
* The ''David Livingstone (Anderson College) Memorial Prize in Physiology'' commemorates him at the
University of Glasgow
, image = UofG Coat of Arms.png
, image_size = 150px
, caption = Coat of arms
Flag
, latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis
, motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita
, ...
.
* Livingstone Place, a street in the
Marchmont
Marchmont is a mainly residential area of Edinburgh, Scotland. It lies roughly one mile to the south of the Old Town, separated from it by The Meadows and Bruntsfield Links. To the west it is bounded by Bruntsfield; to the south-southwest by ...
neighbourhood of Edinburgh.
* Livingstone Street in
Addiewell
Addiewell ( sco, Aidieswall, gd, Tobar Adaidh) is a former mining village in the Scottish council area of West Lothian. Historically it lies within the County of Midlothian. A new prison, HMP Addiewell, opened in 2008.
There are two separate d ...
.
* A memorial plaque commemorating the centenary of Livingstone's birth was dedicated in
St. James's Congregational Church in Hamilton, the church he attended as a boy.
* Livingstone lived at 17 Burnbank Road in
Hamilton, South Lanarkshire
Hamilton ( sco, Hamiltoun; gd, Baile Hamaltan ) is a large town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It serves as the main administrative centre of the South Lanarkshire council area. It sits south-east of Glasgow, south-west of Edinburgh and nort ...
, for a short time in 1862. The house still stands and has a memorial plaque outside. He was awarded the
Freedom of the Town of Hamilton.
London
* A statue of David Livingstone stands in a niche on the outer wall of the
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
on Kensington Gore, London, looking out across Kensington Gardens. It was unveiled in 1953.
* Livingstone is one of the four houses at
Eltham College
Eltham College is an independent day school situated in Mottingham, southeast London. Eltham and Mottingham once formed part of the same parish, hence its name. It is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC).
Early his ...
.
Canada
* The
Livingstone Range of mountains in southern
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
.
* David Livingstone Elementary School,
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
.
* David Livingstone Community School,
Winnipeg
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...
.
* Bronze bust in
Halifax, Nova Scotia.
* Gold bust in the city of Borden, Ontario.
* Livingstone Avenue in Barrie, Ontario.
* Livingstone Street, St. John's,
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...
, Canada.
United States
* The town of
Livingston, California
Livingston is a city in Merced County, California, United States. Livingston is located west-northwest of Atwater, at an elevation of 131 feet (40 m). According to the 2020 census, the city population was 14,172, up from 13,058 in 2010. Living ...
*
Livingstone College
Livingstone College is a private, historically black Christian college in Salisbury, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Livingstone College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Sout ...
, Salisbury, North Carolina.
* Livingstone Adventist Academy,
Salem, Oregon
Salem ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County, Oregon, Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river ...
.
Livingston Falls, Busch Gardens, Tampa Bay
South America
*The Livingstone Healthservice in Jardín América, Misiones, Argentina is named in his honour.
Banknotes
In 1971–1998 Livingstone's image was portrayed on
£10 notes issued by the
Clydesdale Bank
Clydesdale Bank ( gd, Banca Dhail Chluaidh) is a trading name used by Clydesdale Bank plc for its retail banking operations in Scotland.
In June 2018, it was announced that Clydesdale Bank's holding company CYBG would acquire Virgin Money for ...
. He was originally shown surrounded by palm tree leaves with an illustration of African
tribesmen
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...
on the back. A later issue showed Livingstone against a background graphic of a map of Livingstone's Zambezi expedition, showing the
River Zambezi,
Victoria Falls
Victoria Falls ( Lozi: ''Mosi-oa-Tunya'', "The Smoke That Thunders"; Tonga: ''Shungu Namutitima'', "Boiling Water") is a waterfall on the Zambezi River in southern Africa, which provides habitat for several unique species of plants and animal ...
,
Lake Nyasa
Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania.
It is the fifth largest fre ...
and
Blantyre, Malawi
Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Li ...
; on the reverse, the African figures were replaced with an image of Livingstone's birthplace in
Blantyre
Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...
, Scotland.
Science
The following species have been named in honour of David Livingstone:
* Livingston's cichlid, ''
Nimbochromis livingstonii
''Nimbochromis livingstonii'', Livingston's cichlid or (locally) ''kalingono'', is a freshwater mouthbrooding cichlid native to Lake Malawi, an African Rift Lake. It is also found in the upper Shire River and Lake Malombe. They are found in i ...
''
* Livingstone's eland, ''
Taurotragus oryx
The common eland (''Taurotragus oryx''), also known as the southern eland or eland antelope, is a savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa. It is a species of the family Bovidae and genus ''Taurotragus''. An adult male is ...
livingstonii''
*
Livingstone's fruit bat
Livingstone's fruit bat (''Pteropus livingstonii''), also called the Comoro flying fox, is a megabat in the genus ''Pteropus''. It is an Old World fruit bat found only in the Anjouan and Mohéli islands in the Union of the Comoros in the western I ...
, ''Pteropus livingstonii''
The mineral
livingstonite
Livingstonite is a mercury antimony sulfosalt mineral. It occurs in low-temperature hydrothermal veins associated with cinnabar, stibnite, sulfur and gypsum.
It was first described in 1874 for an occurrence in Huitzuco de los Figueroa, Guerrer ...
is named in his honor. It was described in 1874 from Mexico.
Portrayal in film and books
* Livingstone has been portrayed by
M.A. Wetherell in
''Livingstone'' (1925),
Percy Marmont
Percy Marmont (25 November 1883 – 3 March 1977) was an English film actor.
Biography
Marmont appeared in more than 80 films between 1916 and 1968. A veteran film actor by 1923, he scored a big hit that year in ''If Winter Comes'', later rem ...
in
''David Livingstone'' (1936), Sir
Cedric Hardwicke
Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (19 February 1893 – 6 August 1964) was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned nearly 50 years. His theatre work included notable performances in productions of the plays of Shakespeare and Shaw, and ...
in ''
Stanley and Livingstone
''Stanley and Livingstone'' is a 1939 American adventure film directed by Henry King and Otto Brower. It is loosely based on the true story of Welsh reporter Sir Henry M. Stanley's quest to find Dr. David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary presu ...
'' (1939),
Bernard Hill
Bernard Hill (born 17 December 1944) is an English actor. He is well recognized for playing King Théoden in ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, Captain Edward Smith in ''Titanic'', and Luther Plunkitt, the Warden of San Quentin Prison in the ...
in
''Mountains of the Moon'' (1990) and Sir
Nigel Hawthorne
Sir Nigel Barnard Hawthorne (5 April 1929 – 26 December 2001) was an English actor. He is most known for his stage acting and his portrayal of Sir Humphrey Appleby, the permanent secretary in the 1980s sitcom '' Yes Minister'' and the Cabi ...
in the TV movie ''Forbidden Territory'' (1997).
*
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
' ''
The Young Allies'' #2 featured an explorer named "Martin Livingstone" who discovered a new territory he dubbed "New America" and claimed it for the United States.
Bucky Barnes
James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Originally introduced as a sidekick to Captain America, the character was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby and first appeared ...
greets him with the famous, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" The story was at least partially drawn by
, but the writer is unknown--
Otto Binder
Otto Oscar Binder (; August 26, 1911 – October 13, 1974) was an American author of science fiction and non-fiction books and stories, and comic books. He is best known as the co-creator of Supergirl and for his many scripts for '' Captain Ma ...
had written the preceding issue and
Stan Lee
Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber ; December 28, 1922 – November 12, 2018) was an American comic book writer, editor, publisher, and producer. He rose through the ranks of a family-run business called Timely Publications which ...
the following one.
[Stan Lee, Otto Binder, et al. '']Marvel Masterworks
''Marvel Masterworks'' is an American collection of hardcover and trade paperback comic book reprints published by Marvel Comics, with the main goal of republishing classic ''Marvel Comics'' storylines in a hardcover, premium edition, often with ...
: Young Allies''. New York: Marvel Publishing, 2009.
* The 1949
comedy film
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...
''
Africa Screams
''Africa Screams'' is a 1949 American Adventure film, adventure comedy film directed by Charles Barton (director), Charles Barton and starring Abbott and Costello that parodies the safari#Cinema genre, safari genre. The title is a play on the ti ...
'' is the story of a dimwitted clerk named Stanley Livington (played by
Lou Costello
Louis Francis Cristillo (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959), professionally known as Lou Costello, was an American comedian, actor and producer. He was best known for his double act with straight man Bud Abbott and their routine "Who's on First?" ...
), who is mistaken for a famous African explorer and recruited to lead a treasure hunt. The character's name appears to be a play on Stanley and Livingstone.
* Stanley Livingston, played by
Mort Marshall
''Mort'' is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett. Published in 1987, it is the fourth ''Discworld'' novel and the first to focus on the character Death, who only appeared as a side character in the previous novels. The title is the ...
, whose name invokes both Stanley and David Livingtone, was the zoo director on ''
Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales
''Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales'' is an animated television series that originally aired Saturday mornings on CBS from 1963 to 1966 as one of the earliest Saturday morning cartoons. It was produced by Total Television, the same company that prod ...
'', a 1963-66 animated series.
* ''Out of Darkness, Shining Light'' (2019) by
Petina Gappah
Petina Gappah (born 1971) is a Zimbabwean lawyer and writer. She writes in English, though she also draws on Shona, her first language. In 2016, she was named African Literary Person of the Year by ''Brittle Paper''. In 2017 she had a DAAD Arti ...
is a fictionalized account of how Dr. Livingstone's body, papers, and maps traveled 1,500 miles across the continent of Africa, so his remains could be returned to England and his work preserved there.
In popular culture
In the 1940
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Di ...
Looney Tunes
''Looney Tunes'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated comedy short film series produced by Warner Bros. starting from 1930 to 1969, concurrently with its partner series ''Merrie Melodies'', during the golden age of American animation. cartoon "
Africa Squeaks
''Africa Squeaks'' is a 1940 Warner Bros. ''Looney Tunes'' cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. The short was released on January 27, 1940, and stars Porky Pig.
The cartoon is a parody of the movie ''Stanley and Livingstone'' starring Spencer Tracy ...
", a caricature of
Spencer Tracy
Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor. He was known for his natural performing style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy was the first actor to win two cons ...
as
Henry Morton Stanley
Sir Henry Morton Stanley (born John Rowlands; 28 January 1841 – 10 May 1904) was a Welsh-American explorer, journalist, soldier, colonial administrator, author and politician who was famous for his exploration of Central Africa
Cen ...
erroneously presumes Porky Pig to be Dr. Livingstone in the heart of "Darkest Africa".
The
Moody Blues
Moody may refer to:
Places
* Moody, Alabama, U.S.
* Moody, Indiana, U.S.
* Moody, Missouri, U.S.
* Moody, Texas, U.S.
* Moody County, South Dakota, U.S.
* Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada
* Hundred of Moody, a cadastral division in South A ...
1968 single
"Dr. Livingstone, I Presume" paints the adventures of Livingstone,
Captain Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, , (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–1904 and the ill-fated ''Terra Nov ...
, and
Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio
Columbus may also refer to:
Places ...
with the refrain "What did you find there? Did you stand awhile and stare? Did you meet anyone?", followed by a repeated chorus of "We're all looking for someone".
The ABBA song "
What about Livingstone?"
mentions Livingstone "traveling up the Nile". Livingstone made 4 great journeys into Africa, three of them starting in Cape Town, South Africa and the last at Zanzibar. None of the routes traveled on the Nile which lay far to the north. He may have crossed sections of the headwaters of Nile on his final expedition but he would not have known so as these areas were not considered in the Nile watershed until much later.
A song from American
heavy metal band
Alcatrazz
Alcatrazz is a heavy metal band formed in 1983 by Graham Bonnet, Jimmy Waldo, and Gary Shea. Following an internal disagreement and split in 2020, there are currently two separate and distinct Alcatrazz line-ups, one featuring Bonnet, and ano ...
called Jet to Jet from 1983's
No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll
''No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll'' is the first album by American heavy metal band Alcatrazz led by veteran singer Graham Bonnet, released in 1983. It spent seven weeks on the ''Billboard'' 200 albums chart, peaking at No. 128. The album precip ...
contains the lyrics "Dr. Livingstone where are you, when We need you the most" which is in reference to the famed doctor and his expedition to
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
.
Stanley's search for and discovery of Livingstone is the subject of the
Hugh Masekela
Hugh Ramapolo Masekela (4 April 1939 – 23 January 2018) was a South African trumpeter, flugelhornist, cornetist, singer and composer who was described as "the father of South African jazz". Masekela was known for his jazz compositions and for ...
song "Witch Doctor" that appears on his 1976 album, ''
Colonial Man''.
See also
*
Thomas Baines
(John) Thomas Baines (27 November 1820 – 8 May 1875) was an English artist and explorer of British colonial southern Africa and Australia.
Life and work
Born in King's Lynn, Norfolk, on 27 November 1820, Baines was apprenticed to a coach ...
*
John Kirk
*
Livingstone Inland Mission
The Livingstone Inland Mission (LIM) was an evangelical missionary society that operated in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1878 and 1884.
Foundation
The moving spirit in founding the society in 1877 was the Baptist pasto ...
*
History of Christianity in Zambia
Christianity has been very much at the heart of religion in Zambia since the European colonial explorations into the interior of Africa in the mid 19th century. The area features heavily in the accounts of David Livingstone's journeys in Central Af ...
References
Notes
Citations
Sources and further reading
* Austin, Alvyn. "Discovering Livingstone" ''Christian History'' (1997) 16#4 pp. 10–19.
* Dritsas, Lawrence. ''Zambesi: David Livingstone and expeditionary science in Africa'' (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020).
*
*
* Gooding, Philip. "David Livingstone, UNESCO, and Nation-Building in 19th-21st-Century Scotland and East and Central Africa." ''Journal of Indian Ocean World Studies'' 5.2 (2021): 243–269
online* Groop, Kim Stefan. "Exploring Africa in the Nordic Press: David Livingstone, Henry Stanley and the Popular Fascination with Exploration and Adventure in Africa in the Late 19th Century." in ''Modernity, Frontiers and Revolutions: Proceedings of the 4th International Multidisciplinary Congress'' (CRC Press, 2018)
online* Holmes, Timothy (1993). ''Journey to Livingstone: Exploration of an Imperial Myth''. Edinburgh: Canongate Press. ; scholarly biography
*, scholarly biography
* , first American edition
*
* Kilbride, Daniel. "The Old South Confronts the Dilemma of David Livingstone." ''Journal of Southern History'' (2016) 82#4 p789-822; how he was seen in the American South.
* Lewis, Joanna. ''Empire of sentiment: the death of Livingstone and the myth of Victorian imperialism'' (Cambridge University Press, 2018) .
* Liebenberg, Elri. "‘I Will Open a Path into the Interior (of Africa), or Perish’: David Livingstone and the Mapping of Africa." ''Cartographic Journal'' 58.1 (2021): 29-49.
*
*
*
* Livingstone, David and James I. Macnair (eds) (1954). ''Livingstone's Travels''. London: J.M. Dent.
* Livingstone, David (1999)
875
__NOTOC__
Year 875 ( DCCCLXXV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar.
Events
By place
Europe
* August 12 – Emperor Louis II dies in Brescia, after having named his c ...
br>
''Dernier Journal'' Paris:
Arléa
Arléa is a French publishing house created in 1986.
Arléa publishes thirty new titles each year, including pocket ones. His catalog contains more than a thousand titles: the great classics of Antiquity (whether Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Sanskrit or ...
;
* Livingstone, Justin D. "Livingstone’s Life & Expeditions." in Adrian S. Wisnicki and Megan Ward, eds. "Livingstone Online'' (2015
online
* MacKenzie, John M. "David Livingstone, the Scottish cultural and political revival and the end of empire in Africa." in ''Scotland, empire and decolonisation in the twentieth century'' (Manchester University Press, 2017) pp. 180–199.
*
Maclachlan, T. Banks. ''David Livingstone,'' Edinburgh:
Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier
Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier was a Scottish publishing company based in the national capital Edinburgh.
It produced many hundreds of books mainly on religious and biographical themes, especially during its heyday from about 1880 to 1910. It is ...
, 1901, (
"Famous Scots Series").
* Martelli, George (1970). ''Livingstone's River: A History of the Zambezi Expedition'', 1858–1864. London: Chatto & Windus.
* scholarly biography
*
Mathews, Basil Joseph, ''Livingstone, the Pathfinder'', illustrated by
Ernest Prater
Ernest Prater (1864–1950) was a noted English artist and book illustrator, notable also for his work as a war correspondent and reportage artist during the Anglo-Boer War.
Life and works
Prater was born in Islington in London, of Cornish d ...
(Oxford and London: Henry Frowde Oxford University Press, 1913)
* Mkenda, Festo. "A Protestant Verdict on the Jesuit Missionary Approach in Africa: David Livingstone and Memories of the Early Jesuit Presence in South Central Africa." in ''Encounters between Jesuits and Protestants in Africa'' (Brill, 2017). 59-7
online
* Morrill, Leslie, and Madge Haines (1959). ''Livingstone, Trail Blazer for God''. Mountain View: Pacific Press Publication Association.
*
Philip, M. NourbeSe (1991). ''Looking for Livingstone: An Odyssey of Silence''. Stratford: The Mercury Press;
* Rea, W. F. "Livingstone's Rhodesian Legacy." '' History Today'' (Sept 1973), Vol. 23 Issue 9, pp. 633–639 online.
*
* Rotberg, Robert I. "His Brother’s Keeper: Charles Livingstone and the ‘Failure’ of David Livingstone's Zambezi Expedition." Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History'' 47.1 (2019): 76-99.
* Seaver, George. ''David Livingston: His Life and Letters'' (1957), a standard biography
* Shepperson, George. "David Livingstone 1813–1873: a centenary assessment." ''Geographical Journal'' (1973): 205–219.
* Stanley, Henry M. ''How I Found Livingstone'' (1872
famous primary source
* Stuart, John. "David Livingstone, British Protestant missions, memory and empire." in Dominik Geppert, ed., ''Sites of imperial memory'' (Manchester University Press, 2016).
* Waters, John (1996). ''David Livingstone: Trail Blazer''. Leicester: Inter-Varsity;
* Wisnicki, Adrian S. (2009). "Interstitial Cartographer: David Livingstone and the Invention of South Central Africa". ''Victorian Literature and Culture'' 37.1 (Mar.): 255–71.
External links
*
Livingstone OnlineLivingstone Spectral Imaging Project Many of Livingstone's original papers spectrally imaged.
Images of original documents alongside transcribed, critically edited versions
David Livingstone (c. 1956) Archive film from the National Library of Scotland: Scottish Screen Archive
*
**''
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa''
**
A Popular Account of Dr Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and its Tributaries''
**
The Personal Life of David Livingstone''
*
*
The Lost Diary of Dr. LivingstoneDocumentary produced by the
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
Series
Secrets of the Dead
''Secrets of the Dead'', produced by WNET 13 New York, is an ongoing PBS television series which began in 2000. The show generally follows an investigator or team of investigators exploring what modern science can tell us about some of the great m ...
How Livingstone discovered the Falls. by J. Desmond Clark M.A. PH.D. F.S.A. Curator of the Rhodes-Livingstone Museum. 1955Interactive map of Dr. Livingstone's Zambezi expedition
{{DEFAULTSORT:Livingstone, David
1813 births
1873 deaths
Alumni of Charing Cross Medical School
Alumni of the University of Glasgow
Big cat attack victims
Burials at Westminster Abbey
Congregationalist missionaries in Africa
Deaths from dysentery
Deaths from malaria
Explorers of Africa
Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society
Fellows of the Royal Society
Infectious disease deaths in Zambia
Medical missionaries
People from Blantyre, South Lanarkshire
Scottish Congregationalist missionaries
Scottish explorers
Scottish evangelicals
Deaths from bleeding
Scottish Congregationalist ministers