David Livingstone 2013

Wednesday 1 May 2013

David Livingstone: Imperial Obsessions, Imperial Imagination

In my first published piece in March, 2012, I had suggested that the 200th anniversary of the birth of David Livingstone might provide an opportunity to critically assess the Scottish traveller's original intention to go to Africa, his years spent in Central and Southern Africa and the subsequent legacy of his life and work.

So it has turned out that this suggestion had been taken up when, from the 19th to the 21st of April last, a three-day international conference, Imperial Obsessions: David Livingstone, Africa and world history: a life and legacy reconsidered, organised by the London School of Economics, took place in Livingstone, Zambia.

In December 1991, an article: David Livingstone and the imperial imagination, written by Brooke Allen, appeared on-line in The Free Library.

Here are the first two paragraphs from that article:

“David Livingstone had a lasting effect upon the way Britons in the nineteenth century and beyond would look at primitive peoples and at themselves. Today it is the man and not his writings that we remember, but the three books by Livingstone which were published during the Victorian era left a powerful mark on the public imagination and helped eventually to create an ethos that would become, temporarily, the accepted moral foundation of the British Empire in Africa. The books themselves, written before England had begun to think about Africa in fully imperial terms, were the product of a knowledgeable, eclectic, passionate and opinionated mind.

Livingstone was one of the last of the great Victorians to be debunked, and even at this late moment in the twentieth century that process continues to be a half-hearted one. Oliver Ransford's David Livingstone, the Dark Interior presents Livingstone, not altogether convincingly, as a manic-depressive; but the overall tenor of the book is that of hero-worship. Tim Jeal's 1973 biography is certainly the most comprehensive and credible work on Livingstone, and its portrait of a man driven by ambition and the egoism of his own vision to ruthlessness and sometimes cruelty is ultimately convincing. But even Jeal never puts into question the largeness of Livingstone's vision or the quality of his faith. His Livingstone, though human, is still a great man.” Full article.

Allen, Brooke. "David Livingstone and the imperial imagination." The Free Library 22 December 1991.

Those of us who couldn’t get the chance to be at the conference look forward to the publication of the proceedings.

Tuesday 19 March 2013

Chuma and Susi

As the 200th anniversary of the birth of David Livingstone is marked on this day, let's remember two people who, like countless other Africans, were very significant in ensuring his safety and comfort during his travels, and who seemed to have been forgotten.

Thursday 19 July 2012

Cambridge Town-Hall Lecture

David Livingstone delivered two lectures in Cambridge in early December, 1857. The second one was in the Town Hall a day after the lecture to an audience in Cambridge University.
Below is the full version as published in Dr Livingstone’s Cambridge Lectures, (ed.) William Monk (Cambridge: Deighton, Bell for the Editor, 1858).

The following Lecture was delivered in the Town-Hall, on the day after the delivery of the other. Although the notice was so short, crowds of persons came to hear, who could not gain admittance, Swann Hurrell, Esq., the Mayor, took the chair, and some members of the Town Council were present. The anxiety of all classes to see and hear Dr Livingstone is pleasing, since it shews the state of public opinion on several vital topics, especially the civilisation and evangelisation of Africa. After being introduced to the assembly, the Doctor, without any prefatory remarks, took his wand, and began to point towards some maps of Africa just above his head, in his usual manner speaking as follows : —

IN turning to the map of South Africa, I want to draw your attention to three imaginary zones, on the southern part, all different in population and climate. You will see that this part of Africa forms a kind of cone. This cone can be divided into three longitudinal bands or zones, just spoken of: the eastern band comprises what is generally known as Kafirland, which has been rather a difficult nut to crack for the English nation. However, the Kafir war has at length ended, both parties owning themselves tired ; only we had to pay two millions of money, and lost a great many valuable lives as well. That part of the country is mountainous and well watered. The central zone, or Bechuana country, is comparatively dry, being seldom visited by rain ; and its inhabitants, the Bechuanas, Bushmen, and Bakalahari, &c., are not nearly so warlike as the Caffres. Passing towards the West, we come to a level plain called the Kalahari desert, not consisting of barren sands, like the generally received notions of deserts, but covered with grass, bushes and trees, and containing a population of Bushmen and other people called the Bakalahari. I lived sixteen years on the borders of the Kalahari desert ; and having gone to the country in 1841, I was naturally anxious to ascertain the effect the teaching of the missionaries had produced.

I must own that I was disappointed in what I saw, having formed rather sanguine expectations. I forwarded the result of my inquiries to the London Missionary Society, by whom I was sent out, and after a little time went to the country beyond, where I found the people in just the same state as the missionaries found those I had left ; and when I compared those I had just come amongst with the people with whom I had recently lived, the benefit of the missionary teaching then appeared great indeed. True, the African when Christianised is not so elevated as we who have had the advantages of civilisation and Christianity for ages; but still, when rescued from the degradation and superstitions of heathenism, he evinces improvement in an eminent degree. We should compare new converts who are still surrounded with all their old associations of heathenism, rather with the churches first planted by the Apostles, than with ourselves. Public opinion, law, custom, and general manners, with us who have enjoyed the inestimable blessings of the Gospel so long, are so essentially different from those which governed the converts of the first Christian age, and which still influence those new disciples of the better way among whom our modern Missionaries labour. If these latter soldiers of the cross have sometimes to mourn over the inconsistencies of their converts, it must be remembered that such was also the case with the Apostles, as their writings prove; especially those of St Paul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles.

I was not at all anxious to enter on the labours of other men ; for I consider that the young missionary should devote himself as much as possible to his own field of duty, and not interfere with any other man's labour, but go to the real heathen, who may not as yet have heard Christ's name, or received his Gospel. Through the instrumentality of Mr Moffat, the Bechuanas have the Bible in their own language. To shew the value put on the sacred volume, in the first editions there were two sorts, one rather cheaper than the other and the binding less costly. The natives, who are rather inclined to be niggardly, purchased the cheap edition, thinking the binding stronger; but finding it was not so, they soon bought all the more costly Bibles with avidity.

Mr Moffat's labours, for the first ten years of his ministration, were not attended with any apparent success ; and a large body of the tribe left the district in which he preached ; and went a hundred miles away, in order to get out of the reach of his preaching, thinking to live in their own way without any stings of conscience ; but in the latter respect they were mistaken, for the seed of the Gospel had taken root in their hearts, and they were obliged to send to the missionaries for assistance, and their chiefs used to go backwards and forwards for teaching: there was a constant relay going to the missionaries and coming back to teach those whom they left at home. When first visited by the missionary, one hundred were considered proper subjects for baptism, and the Church there now numbers upwards of three hundred in that one village. Many native missionary stations are dispersed around. It is an indisputable fact that when a man feels the value of the Gospel himself, in his own heart, he is ever anxious to impart its blessing to others. Travelling still in the south, I determined to visit a tribe called the Bakwains, resolving to go to the country beyond Kuruman, and when I commenced preaching the Gospel to them, I seemed as one who came with a lie or with some political object in view; hence they received me with suspicion, saying, " It is too good to be true," adding, "this man has some other design, which we shall soon see;" for they thought it strange that a man should leave his own tribe to preach to others: this caution was rather a good trait in their character, for it prevented them making sudden professions like the South Sea Islanders.

Their chief [Sechele] is a remarkable man, not an average specimen of his people. He resolved at once to learn to read ; and on the very first day of my visit acquired the alphabet. Sechele one day said to me, after I had been preaching to the tribe, "Do you imagine you will get these people to believe by just talking to them ? I can do nothing without thrashing them. If you want them to believe, I, and my under-chiefs, will get our whips of Rhinoceros hide, and soon make them all believe." That was before he understood the Gospel; he soon after began to feel its influence, but, as he expressed himself, could not disentangle himself from his country's custom of having more wives than one. This was a source of disquietude to him. Feeling the Gospel at heart, he talked no longer of thrashing his people, but suggested frequent prayer-meetings. Accordingly, when he consulted me on the subject pressing so much on his mind, and especially about baptism, for which he applied about two years after he professed Christianity, I simply asked him if he thought he was doing right? What he thought he ought to do? I never preached against polygamy, but left the matter to take its course. Sechele went away, and sent home four of his wives, giving each a new dress, &c., saying he had no fault to find with them, but the sole reason for parting with them was conviction in the truth of the Gospel, and therefore the separation was a relief to his mind ; hence I was saved from many anxious thoughts on this matter. These women and their friends henceforth became the determined enemies both of myself and Sechele. Now, among the Africans, if a chief is fond of hunting, dancing, or drinking, his people are ever anxious to follow in the same pursuits; but with Christianity this was not the case. Sechele was both astonished and disappointed at finding the people stand aloof from his meetings, and his under-chiefs oppose both him and me, I and my cause were now unpopular. Unfortunately at this time there was a four years' drought ; and the people believed implicitly that their chief had the power of making rain, and since none had come for so long a time, they suspected me of having thrown a charm over him, and would not allow him to make the rain. He was the rain-maker of the tribe ; and this fact was easily connected with my instruments and movements, to them so unfathomable. If Sechele was thus the accredited rain-maker of the tribe, I was now the self-appointed necromancer, and he had become my unconscious victim.

Many of these people waited on me, begging me to allow them to make only a few showers, really thinking that I was purposely preventing the rain from descending. One old man used to come to me, and say, "The corn is yellow for want of rain; the cattle want grass; the children require milk; the people lack water, therefore only let our chief make the showers to come, and then he may sing and pray as long as he likes." Looking at my peculiar circumstances, this drought was remarkable. I watched the clouds as anxiously as they ; and many a cloudy morning, promising refreshing showers, turned into a cloudless day as parching as ever. They declared that the people would starve, or all leave the district, and I should have no one to preach to. It was quite heart-rending to hear them, seeing their distress ; and especially keeping in mind their mental, moral, and spiritual degradation.

I endeavoured to persuade them that no mortal could control the rain, and their argument was, "We know very well that God makes the rain; we pray to him by means of medicines. You use medicines to give to a sick man, and sometimes he dies: you don't give up your medicine, because one man dies; and when any one is cured by it, you take the credit. So, the only thing we can do is to offer our medicines, which, by continued application, may be successful." The only way to eradicate such absurdities from the minds of these poor people is to give them the Gospel. They entertain a horror of Christianity, because they imagine that every one who becomes a Christian does not want rain, regarding me as the leader of the anti-rain faction. Those who became converted, therefore, cannot be regarded as hypocrites; for hypocrites do not generally take the line that ensures an empty stomach. I have no doubt the Gospel is entering into their hearts ; for when I have been passing their houses, I have frequently heard them engaged in prayer, in a loud tone of voice. It is considered very disgraceful for men to cry in Africa; a stoical indifference to all sorrow or suffering is their educated practice. Yet have I seen stern men in public assemblies, crying out, like the jailor at Philippi, and weeping in the most piteous manner about the concerns of their souls. I doubt not, though I may not live to see it, but that God will bring my ministry in that region to a good result.

The difficulty of the chief Sechele, as I said before, was with regard to his five wives. The father of this man had been murdered, and four of the principal men had assisted in restoring the son to the chieftainship of the tribe : to shew his gratitude for which service, he had married a daughter of each of his benefactors; now, he could not very well put them away without appearing ungrateful. I found great difficulty in this matter: the wives were my aptest scholars, and I wished to save them as well as the Chief. In consequence of being sent away, these women and their friends became bitter enemies of Christianity. Furthermore, the African has a passion for an alliance with great men; on being introduced, he is sure to tell you that he is the remote cousin, relation or descendant, of some noted man; or some friend or hanger-on will tell you for him. Such alliances too have a political importance for the chief himself; since they attach powerful men to his interests and service. Hence my difficulties were increased by these facts. But the most difficult opponents I had to contend against were the Dutch Boers.

Two hundred years ago, a number of Dutch and French people, the descendants of pious families, fled from the persecutions in Holland and France, and settled at and around the Cape. But their descendants fled from the British dominion in Cape Colony, on account of the emancipation by the government of their Hottentot slaves. They said, they did not like a government that made no difference between a black man and a white one : they therefore made forays and slavery incursions, and established themselves where they could pursue their slave-holding propensities with impunity. No fugitive slave-law being in operation, hundreds of Africans fled from the Boers to Sechele, and the Dutch consequently desired to get rid of that chief. They attacked the Bakwains while I was staying among them; and had frequent battles with the people, killing many of them in these unequal conflicts. As an illustration as to how far exaggeration can be carried, on one occasion, I lent the chief a cooking-pot, which the Boers afterwards magnified into a cannon! and 5 guns into 500 ; writing to the English authorities, to inform them that I was protecting the Bakwains with cannon; and even some Boers were killed with guns. The reputation of this cannon kept the Boers away for seven years; but when their independence was declared by the Colonial government, they again made war upon the Bakwains, and being mounted and possessing guns, had the advantage, but it so happened that the Bakwains killed some of the Boers in one foray, and the latter gave me all the credit for it: asserting as a reason, "These people knew nothing of shooting till this Englishman came among them, and he has taught it them," The Boers, however, ultimately were victorious, and carried off 200 children of the Bakwains into slavery, killing 60 adults.

Sechele, knowing that such a proceeding was contrary to their engagements, and all law, set off to go to the Queen of England, to tell her of their conduct, I met him on his way to the Cape, and endeavoured to persuade him from going any further; on explaining the difficulties of the way, and endeavouring to dissuade him from the attempt, he put the pointed question: — " Will the Queen not listen to me, supposing I should reach her?” I replied, "I believe she would listen, but the difficulty is to get to her." He had many conversations with me on the subject, but he was determined, however, in his course, and proceeded to Cape Town.

Now, it so happened, that the Governor of Cape Colony had just sent home a flaming account of the peace and happiness that would prevail under his plan, and had he taken any notice of Sechele it would have been a virtual confession, that he had made a mull: consequently the chief and myself met with little encouragement. He had an interview with the Governor, to whom he delivered a letter from me, offering to point out the whole of the children, but all to no purpose: it is convenient sometimes for governors to be deaf, and shrug their shoulders, and to put political expediency before individual right. The British officers at the Cape, however — for English officers, wherever they are, are always fond of fair play — advised Sechele to go on, and subscribed £113 for him; but not knowing the value of money, he soon spent it all, giving a sovereign where sixpence would do, and so on ; so that he found himself, at length, a thousand miles from home, and as poor as when he started. Instead of feeling angry at the ill-success of his mission, he began to preach to the natives around, and many anti-slavery tribes enlisted under him : consequently he has now many more people than he had before, and finds it hard work to be both priest and king. He opened a prayer-meeting, and, in fact, became his own missionary among his own people. He built himself a house and a school, and was the means of converting his wife. The people clustered around him, and there is every reason to believe that he is a sincere Christian.

What we greatly need is more missionaries to sow the seed of spiritual truth. The fields are white to the harvest. Glorious is the prospect of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all the ends of the earth. Labourers are wanted in the heathen vineyard of the Lord. As yet the missionary has only put in the thin end of the wedge towards the advancement of the kingdom of heaven in those dark places of the earth, which are still "full of the habitations of cruelty — Africa, especially. Where, as yet, are the mission stations of North or South central Africa? Yet there are numbers of tribes,

" In those romantic regions men grow wild.

There dwells the negro, Nature's outcast child."

As an encouragement to those who think of being missionaries, I need not say more than call to remembrance those Reformers who founded our Colleges here. The missionary’s work is one of the most honourable a man can desire. Think of those Reformers ; who would not like to be one of them ? The missionaries now are just in their position. Those who now go forth as missionaries, and endeavour to advance the knowledge of Christ and His Gospel, are pre-eminently their representatives. Like the morning star before the dawn, they entered into the thick darkness, and began the glorious work of making known the promises of Christ, for which posterity will bless their name. Indeed to be a missionary is a great privilege and honour. The work is so great and glorious, that it has this promise of Him who " is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever:” — " I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee," — encouraging both itself and its promoters.

Finding that I could not successfully carry on the work of a missionary among the Bakwains, I conceived the idea of becoming a traveller. The question came across my mind, Whither will you go, to the North or to the South ? I resolved to go to the North, to endeavour to open the country to the coast. Having got into the country beyond the Kalahari desert, bounded to the South by Lake Ngami, I came into quite a different country, where there are a great many rivers which flow from the sides into the centre. They form a very large river. The Zambezi is very much broader than the Thames at London Bridge. This large river flows out at the east end until it gets into the central basin by means of a fissure, which is 600 feet above the level of the sea. It was highly necessary for that fissure to be made. If it had not, a lake would have had to be formed for the purpose of getting away the very large amount of water which flows into the central basin. The rivers there are not like those in our country, since their sides are perpendicular. The region beyond the Kalahari desert is in the form of a basin, covered with a layer of calcareous tufa, intersected by the course of the Zambezi, which flows Southward until it reaches near Linyanti, and then branches off to the East. In the Kalahari desert there is not a single flowing stream, and the only water there is found in deep wells ; but at certain periods of the year water-melons are found in abundance, upon the fluid of which oxen and men have subsisted for days, obviating thereby the necessity for canning water. Animals are also plentiful ; and though they took care to keep out of bow-shot, I found that with my gun I could kill as many as were wanted. In my journey beyond the desert, I met with many antelopes of a kind before unknown to naturalists, besides elephants, buffaloes, zebras, &c.

The chief of the central basin I have described, is named Sekeletu. I proposed to teach him to read, but he said he was afraid it would change his heart, and make him content with only one wife, like Sechele. I told him if he were content, with one, what did it matter? But he said, " No, no ; I always want to have five. I intend to keep them," Seeing I was anxious that he should learn to read, he subjected his father-in-law to learn first, as some men like to see the effect of medicines on other people, before they imbibe them themselves ; and finding that it did him no harm, Sekeletu was taught long enough to gain the ability to read.

I entered this central basin, in order to find out a path to the sea : I might have gone to the West from Linyanti, but the country in that direction is infested with an insect called Tsetse, whose bite is fatal to most tame animals. To escape the insect plague, I resolved to go northwards and westwards to Loanda, the capital of Angola, a large city containing 12,000 inhabitants, a cathedral, and a Jesuit college. Having got down to the West coast, I found I had not accomplished my object of finding a path to the sea, the way being beset with difficulties and almost impassable. In fact, the only conveyance was ox-back, and dense forests had to be passed through by tortuous paths. I resolved, therefore, to go back, and try if the Zambezi did not furnish a good pathway to the eastern coast.

I did not find the people in that direction quite so well disposed towards me as the western tribes : the former were accustomed to the slave-trade, and asked payment for every thing : they prayed to the departed spirits of dead men, and believed that the deceased had power to influence the living. When I was at Cassange, the farthest inland station of the Portuguese, the governor, with whom I was stopping, had a sick child, and the nurse sent for a diviner to tell the cause of its illness. This man worked himself into frenzy, foamed at the mouth, and, pretending to be speaking under the influence of the fit, said the child was being killed by the soul of a trader, whose goods its father had stolen, and he said he should make an offering to appease the vengeance of the departed spirit. Now, it so happened that a native of Cassange had recently died, leaving an assignment, under which the governor had taken his goods ; and the natives, not understanding the circumstances, said he had robbed him. This was the diviner's cue. The governor quietly sent to a friend of his, and they each took a stick, and applied them with such force to the back of the diviner, that he fled in the most undignified manner. I have never read of clairvoyance or spirit-rapping being tested similarly, but probably the trial would be equally successful.

My journey to Loanda was productive of delight among the natives whom I had left, and on returning to Linyanti the chief sent several tusks to Loanda for sale ; the men also got goods, but by the time they got back to Linyanti, had been so afflicted with fever, that they were all expended. Only 27 accompanied me to Loanda, but when the people found I was going to find a path to the East, 114 volunteered to join me.

The people of that central part were anxious to have intercourse with white men, and their productions of cotton, indigo, &c. cannot fail to render commerce with them advantageous. Without the central basin, also, besides cotton, there are extensive coal-fields, with nine seams upon the surface, as well as an abundance of iron ore of the best quality. There is also produced a fibrous plant worth £50 or £60 a ton; and I have the authority of an English merchant to state, that a fabric finer and stronger than flax might be woven from it. The wild vine grows here in great luxuriance, and might be brought, by cultivation, to bear the most delicious grapes.

On each side of the southern portion of Africa is an elevated ridge, in the centre of which flows the Zambezi, forming an oblong inclosure. The climate on the sides of each elevation is different to that of the centre ; Mr Moffat having found a species of the Angola goat, which flourishes in the Northern part of Asia, on the high-land; wheat also grows there well. This climate is, therefore, not open to the usual objection that Europeans could not live there. Some of the elevations in this part are about 5000 feet above the level of the sea. The country hereabout is one of gradual elevation ; still there are different climates, ridges, and elevations, and the heat at times very great; the high-lands generally are cool and salubrious, and fit for European residence. The Zambezi was full when I passed it, but even at low water it was as deep as the Thames in London, and therefore, might be traversed by a tolerably sized steamer. At the junction of other rivers with the Zambezi there is a rapid, and the coal-field to which I have alluded is near it; but the river is otherwise free from obstruction, and I trust will be the means of conveying the productions of that country to this, and thus opening the way for commerce and civilisation to the benighted Africans upon its banks.

The people of the interior are very desirous to hold intercourse with white men. Having been cradled in wars' alarms, they ask, " When will you bring us sleep?" " We want sleep!" meaning peace. One reason of my being well received in the country was, because it had got noised abroad that I had come for that purpose. One report told to the Portuguese governor at Teté was, " That the Son of God was coming, with the moon under his arm," alluding to me and my sextant. Several deputations from towns and villages in the interior, in waiting on me, asked for “sleep.” Such was also the topic of the songs, and talk of the women.

All this evidences a certain preparedness for receiving the Gospel, and it is for Christian England to answer the inquiry with the pure Gospel of the Prince of Peace. Already Providence is clearing the way for that Gospel; the hand of God has been at work in a striking manner. When I first went to that country, I found Providence paving the way before me : a chieftain had invaded the central basin, before I went there; had conquered the country, discovered Lake Ngami; and the language of the Bechuanas, into which Mr Moffat had translated the Scriptures, had become diffused in the district.

The natives formerly used to cut off the heads of strangers, and stick them on poles; but the chief [Sebituane] who conquered them had made the country safe, otherwise my cranium might have adorned one of their villages. I am convinced that the Portuguese have never gone into this district, because their maps gave a different course to the Zambezi; and I am strengthened in that opinion from the quantity of ivory tusks I saw adorning the graves of chieftains, and put to other uses, thereby proving that there was no market for them. Another reason is, that they sent all the way to Mozambique for lime, when there were large marble quarries within a comparatively short distance. I therefore believe that I am the first European who has entered that region. But now they have the Bible in their own language, it is the fashionable language, and the missionary has no difficulty in communicating with them; thus shewing that the hand of Providence has been at work.

When I was at Loanda, I was laid up with the fevers of the country, and being very weak, Captain Bedingfield, with whom I was upon intimate terms, strongly persuaded me to go home, offering a free passage ; however, I having brought the twenty-seven men from Sekeletu, had no desire to leave them ; and committing certain papers and maps to the care of that officer, bade him farewell. Soon after, I received intelligence that the ship had gone down off Madeira, and my papers with it. Several lives were lost, but my friend was saved; but probably had I gone with the ship, I should have been drowned ; and had I, on the other hand, first travelled eastward, I should have gone in the midst of the skirmishes that were then going on between the Portuguese and the Kafirs, and might have been cut off among them. Even when I travelled in that direction, I was in some danger; but when I said I was an Englishman, I was allowed to pass. I was told that if I went to the East, the people who were for the support of the Portuguese government would perhaps kill me; I said that I loved a black man as well as a white man. I often found that I rose in the estimation of the people among whom I passed, when it was told I was an Englishman, one of that country which is engaged in putting down slavery : they called me " the right sort of white man."

In the middle of the country they passed me off in a way that I scarcely liked. The people imagine that all white people, and the manufactures they import, come out of the sea, and suppose that the whites live under the water ; also, that if they leave slaves, fruits, &c. on the sea-shore, that then the white men come up and take them away. My men were asked. Whether I came out of the sea ? “ Yes,” said they, " don't you see how-straight the water has made his hair?” Not relishing the idea of being passed off as a merman, I endeavoured to dissipate the idea, but the story was too good to be easily got rid of. The Africans, whose hair is all wool, could not understand my head, and some of them declared that I wore a wig made of a lion's mane.

My object in labouring as I have in Africa, is to open up the country to commerce and Christianity. This is my object in returning thither. I contend that we ought not to be ashamed of our religion, and had we not kept this so much out of sight in India, we should not be now in such straits in that country. Let us appear just what we are. For my own part, I intend to go out as a missionary, and hope boldly, but with civility, to state the truth of Christianity and my belief that those who do not possess it are in error. My object in Africa is not only the elevation of man, but that the country might be so opened, that man might see the need of his soul's salvation.

I propose in my next expedition to visit the Zambezi, and to propitiate the different chiefs along its banks, endeavouring to induce them to cultivate cotton, and to abolish the slave-trade: already they trade in ivory and gold-dust, and are anxious to extend their commercial operations. There is thus a probability of their interests being linked with ours, and thus the elevation of the African would be the result.

I believe England is alive to her duty of civilising and Christianising the heathen. We cannot all go out as missionaries, it is true ; but we may all do something towards providing a substitute: moreover, all may especially do that which every missionary highly prizes, viz. COMMEND THE WORK IN THEIR PRAYERS. I HOPE THAT THOSE WHOM I NOW ADDRESS, WILL BOTH PRAY FOR, AND HELP THOSE WHO ARE THEIR SUBSTITUTES.

Monday 7 May 2012

Cambridge Speech of December 1857

In December 1856, David Livingstone returned to England after spending fifteen years in Southern and Central Africa. A year later on the 4th of December, he gave a speech to students at Cambridge University. Below is that speech, with an introductory paragraph written by a commentator:

FROM Cambridge Speech of 1857

David Livingstone (1813-1873), the Scottish missionary and explorer of Africa, personified for Britain the higher cause of imperialism. Between 1840 and 1873, Livingstone traversed nearly a third of Africa, missionizing Christianity, opposing the persistent slave trade, and recording thegeography and ethnographic customs of its peoples. His achievement and his self-effacing devotion to opening up Africa to commerce and Christianity provided inspiration to a nineteenth-century British public in search of a moral center to its imperialist policies in Africa.

My object in going into the country south of the desert was to instruct the natives in a knowledge of Christianity, but many circumstances prevented my living amongst them more than seven years, amongst which were considerations arising out of the slave system carried on by the Dutch Boers. I resolved to go into the country beyond, and soon found that, for the purposes of commerce, it was necessary to have a path to the sea. I might have gone on instructing the natives in religion, but as civilization and Christianity must go on together, I was obliged to find a path to the sea, in order that I should not sink to the level of the natives. The chief was overjoyed at the suggestion, and furnished me with twenty-seven men, and canoes, and provisions, and presents for the tribes through whose country we had to pass.

In a commercial point of view communication with this country is desirable. Angola is wonderfully fertile, producing every kind of tropical plant in rank luxuriance. Passing on to the valley of Quango, the stalk of the grass was as thick as a quill, and towered above my head, although I was mounted on my ox; cotton is produced in great abundance, though merely woven into common cloth; bananas and pineapples grow in great luxuriance; but the people having no maritime communication, these advantages are almost lost. The country on the other side is not quite so fertile, but in addition to indigo, cotton, and sugarcane, produces a fibrous substance, which I am assured is stronger than flax.

The Zambesi has not been thought much of as a river by Europeans, not appearing very large at its mouth; but on going up it for about seventy miles, it is enormous. The first three hundred miles might be navigated without obstacle: then there is a rapid, and near it a coal-field of large extent. The elevated sides of the basin, which form the most important feature of the country, are far different in climate to the country nearer the sea, or even the centre. Here the grass is short, and the Angola goat, which could not live in the centre, had been seen on the east highland by Mr Moffat.

My desire is to open a path to this district, that civilization, commerce, and Christianity might find their way there. I consider that we made a great mistake, when we carried commerce into India, in being ashamed of our Christianity; as a matter of common sense and good policy, it is always best to appear in one's true character. In travelling through Africa, I might have imitated certain Portuguese, and have passed for a chief; but I never attempted anything of the sort, although endeavouring always to keep to the lessons of cleanliness rigidly instilled by my mother long ago; the consequence was that the natives respected me for that quality, though remaining dirty themselves.

I had a pass from the Portuguese consul, and on arriving at their settlement, I was asked what I was. I said, "A missionary, and a doctor too." They asked, "Are you a doctor of medicine?" "Yes ... . .. Are you not a doctor of mathematics too?" - "No ... . .. And yet you can take longitudes and latitudes." - Then they asked me about my moustache; and I simply said I wore it, because men had moustaches to wear, and ladies had not. They could not understand either, why a sacerdote should have a wife and four children; a joke took place upon that subject. I used to say, "Is it not better to have children with than without a wife?" Englishmen of education always command respect, without any adventitious aid. A Portuguese governor left for Angola, giving out that he was going to keep a large establishment, and taking with him quantities of crockery, and about five hundred waistcoats; but when he arrived in Africa, he made a 'deal' of them. Educated Englishmen seldom descend to that sort of thing.

A prospect is now before us of opening Africa for commerce and the Gospel. Providence has been preparing the way, for even before I proceeded to the Central basin it had been conquered and rendered safe by a chief named Sebituane, and the language of the Bechuanas made the fashionable tongue, and that was one of the languages into which Mr Moffat had translated the Scriptures. Sebituane also discovered Lake Ngami some time previous to my explorations in that part. In going back to that country my object is to open up traffic along the banks of the Zambezi, and also to preach the Gospel. The natives of Central Africa are very desirous of trading, but their only traffic is at present in slaves, of which the poorer people have an unmitigated horror: it is therefore most desirable to encourage the former principle, and thus open a way for the consumption of free productions, and the introduction of Christianity and commerce. By encouraging the native propensity for trade, the advantages that might be derived in a commercial point of view are incalculable; nor should we lose sight of the inestimable blessings it is in our power to bestow upon the unenlightened African, by giving him the light of Christianity. Those two pioneers of civilization - Christianity and commerce - should ever be inseparable; and Englishmen should be warned by the fruits of neglecting that principle as exemplified in the result of the management of Indian affairs. By trading with Africa, also, we should at length be independent of slave-labour, and thus discountenance practices so obnoxious to every Englishman.

Though the natives are not absolutely anxious to receive the Gospel, they are open to Christian influences. Among the Bechuanas the Gospel was well received. These people think it a crime to shed a tear, but I have seen some of them weep at the recollection of their sins when God had opened their hearts to Christianity and repentance. It is true that missionaries have difficulties to encounter; but what great enterprise was ever accomplished without difficulty? It is deplorable to think that one of the noblest of our missionary societies, the Church Missionary Society, is compelled to send to Germany for missionaries, whilst other societies are amply supplied. Let this stain be wiped off. - The sort of men who are wanted for missionaries are such as I see before me; men of education, standing, enterprise, zeal, and piety. It is a mistake to suppose that any one, as long as he is pious, will do for this office. Pioneers in every thing should be the ablest and best qualified men, not those of small ability and education. This remark especially applies to the first teachers of Christian truth in regions which may never have before been blest with the name and Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the early ages the monasteries were the schools of Europe, and the monks were not ashamed to hold the plough. The missionaries now take the place of those noble men, and we should not hesitate to give up the small luxuries of life in order to carry knowledge and truth to them that are in darkness. I hope that many of those whom I now address will embrace that honourable career. Education has been given us from above for the purpose of bringing to the benighted the knowledge of a Saviour. If you knew the satisfaction of performing such a duty, as well as the gratitude to God which the missionary must always feel, in being chosen for so noble, so sacred a calling, you would have no hesitation in embracing it.

For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay?- Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? - Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink, but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in, and for, us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk, when we remember the great sacrifice which HE made who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself for us.

Speech to students at Cambridge University (4 December 1857)

Saturday 31 March 2012

David Livingstone in His Own Words

The following is the introduction to David Livingstone's book, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (London: Murray, 1857). This, perhaps, is the best way to set the scene for subsequent discussions about David Livingstone's life and work in Southern and Central Africa.

My own inclination would lead me to say as little as possible about myself; but several friends, in whose judgment I have confidence, have suggested that, as the reader likes to know something about the author, a short account of his origin and early life would lend additional interest to this book. Such is my excuse for the following egotism; and, if an apology be necessary for giving a genealogy, I find it in the fact that it is not very long, and contains only one incident of which I have reason to be proud.

Our great-grandfather fell at the battle of Culloden, fighting for the old line of kings; and our grandfather was a small farmer in Ulva, where my father was born. It is one of that cluster of the Hebrides thus alluded to by Walter Scott:

"And Ulva dark, and Colonsay,

And all the group of islets gay

That guard famed Staffa round."*

* Lord of the Isles, canto 4.

Our grandfather was intimately acquainted with all the traditionary legends which that great writer has since made use of in the "Tales of a Grandfather" and other works. As a boy I remember listening to him with delight, for his memory was stored with a never-ending stock of stories, many of which were wonderfully like those I have since heard while sitting by the African evening ﬁres. Our grandmother, too, used to sing Gaelic songs, some of which, as she believed, had been composed by captive islanders languishing hopelessly among the Turks.

Grandfather could give particulars of the lives of his ancestors for six generations of the family before him; and the only point of the tradition I feel proud of is this: One of these poor hardy islanders was renowned in the district for great wisdom and prudence; and it is related that, when he was on his death-bed, he called all his children around him and said, "Now, in my lifetime, I have searched most carefully through all the traditions I could find of our family, and I never could discover that there was a dishonest man among our forefathers. If, therefore, any of you or any of your children should take to dishonest ways, it will not be because it runs in our blood: it does not belong to you. I leave this precept with you: Be honest." If, therefore, in the following pages I fall into any errors, I hope they will be dealt with as honest mistakes, and not as indicating that I have forgotten our ancient motto. This event took place at a time when the Highlanders, according to Macaulay, were much like the Cape Caffres, and any one, it was said, could escape punishment for cattle-stealing by presenting a share of the plunder to his chieftain. Our ancestors were Roman Catholics; they were made Protestants by the laird coming round with a man having a yellow staff, which would seem to have attracted more attention than his teaching, for the new religion went long afterward, perhaps it does so still, by the name of "the religion of the yellow stick".

Finding his farm in Ulva insufficient to support a numerous family, my grandfather removed to Blantyre Works, a large cotton manufactory on the beautiful Clyde, above Glasgow; and his sons, having had the best education the Hebrides afforded, were gladly received as clerks by the proprietors, Monteith and Co. He himself, highly esteemed for his unﬂinching honesty, was employed in the conveyance of large sums of money from Glasgow to the works, and in old age was, according to the custom of that company, pensioned off, so as to spend his declining years in ease and comfort.

Our uncles all entered his majesty's service during the last French war, either as soldiers or sailors; but my father remained at home, and, though too conscientious ever to become rich as a small tea-dealer, by his kindliness of manner and winning ways he made the heart-strings of his children twine around him as firmly as if he had possessed, and could have bestowed upon them, every worldly advantage. He reared his children in connection with the Kirk of Scotland—a religious establishment which has been an incalculable blessing to that country—but he afterward left it, and during the last twenty years of his life held the office of deacon of an independent church in Hamilton, and deserved my lasting gratitude and homage for presenting me, from my infancy, with a continuously consistent pious example, such as that ideal of which is so beautifully and truthfully portrayed in Burns's "Cottar's Saturday Night". He died in February, 1856, in peaceful hope of that mercy which we all expect through the death of our Lord and Saviour. I was at the time on my way below Zumbo, expecting no greater pleasure in this country than sitting by our cottage ﬁre and telling him my travels. I revere his memory.

The earliest recollection of my mother recalls a picture so often seen among the Scottish poor—that of the anxious housewife striving to make both ends meet. At the age of ten I was put into the factory as a "piecer", to aid by my earnings in lessening her anxiety. With a part of my first week's wages I purchased Ruddiman's "Rudiments of Latin", and pursued the study of that language for many years afterward, with unabated ardor, at an evening school, which met between the hours of eight and ten.

The dictionary part of my labours was followed up till twelve o'clock, or later, if my mother did not interfere by jumping up and snatching the books out of my hands. I had to be back in the factory by six in the morning, and continue my work, with intervals for breakfast and dinner, till eight o'clock at night. I read in this way many of the classical authors, and knew Virgil and Horace better at sixteen than I do now. Our schoolmaster—happily still alive—was supported in part by the company; he was attentive and kind, and so moderate in his charges that all who wished for education might have obtained it. Many availed themselves of the privilege; and some of my school fellows now rank in positions far above what they appeared ever likely to come to when in the village school. If such a system were established in England, it would prove a never-ending blessing to the poor.

In reading, every thing that I could lay my hands on was devoured except novels. Scientific works and books of travels were my especial delight; though my father, believing, with many of his time who ought to have known better, that the former were inimical to religion, would have preferred to have seen me poring over the "Cloud of Witnesses", or Boston's "Fourfold State". Our difference of opinion reached the point of open rebellion on my part, and his last application of the rod was on my refusal to peruse Wilberforce's "Practical Christianity". This dislike to dry doctrinal reading, and to religious reading of every sort, continued for years afterward; but having lighted on those admirable works of Dr. Thomas Dick, "The Philosophy of Religion" and "The Philosophy of a Future State", it was gratifying to find my own ideas, that religion and science are not hostile, but friendly to each other, fully proved and enforced.

Great pains had been taken by my parents to instil the doctrines of Christianity into my mind, and I had no difficulty in understanding the theory of our free salvation by the atonement of our Savior, but it was only about this time that I really began to feel the necessity and value of a personal application of the provisions of that atonement to my own case. The change was like what may be supposed would take place were it possible to cure a case of "colour blindness". The perfect freeness with which the pardon of all our guilt is offered in God's book drew forth feelings of affectionate love to Him who bought us with his blood, and a sense of deep obligation to Him for his mercy has influenced, in some small measure, my conduct ever since. But I shall not again refer to the inner spiritual life which I believe then began, nor do I intend to specify with any prominence the evangelistic labors to which the love of Christ has since impelled me. This book will speak, not so much of what has been done, as of what still remains to be performed, before the Gospel can be said to be preached to all nations.

In the glow of love which Christianity inspires, I soon resolved to devote my life to the alleviation of human misery. Turning this idea over in my mind, I felt that to be a pioneer of Christianity in China might lead to the material benefit of some portions of that immense empire; and therefore set myself to obtain a medical education, in order to be qualified for that enterprise.

In recognising the plants pointed out in my first medical book, that extraordinary old work on astrological medicine, Culpeper's "Herbal", I had the guidance of a book on the plants of Lanarkshire, by Patrick. Limited as my time was, I found opportunities to scour the whole country-side, "collecting simples". Deep and anxious were my studies on the still deeper and more perplexing profundities of astrology, and I believe I got as far into that abyss of phantasies as my author said he dared to lead me. It seemed perilous ground to tread on farther, for the dark hint seemed to my youthful mind to loom toward "selling soul and body to the devil", as the price of the unfathomable knowledge of the stars. These excursions, often in company with brothers, one now in Canada, and the other a clergyman in the United States, gratified my intense love of nature; and though we generally returned so unmercifully hungry and fatigued that the embryo parson shed tears, yet we discovered, to us, so many new and interesting things, that he was always as eager to join us next time as he was the last.

On one of these exploring tours we entered a limestone quarry—long before geology was so popular as it is now. It is impossible to describe the delight and wonder with which I began to collect the shells found in the carboniferous limestone which crops out in High Blantyre and Cambuslang. A quarry-man, seeing a little boy so engaged, looked with that pitying eye which the benevolent assume when viewing the insane. Addressing him with, "How ever did these shells come into these rocks?"

"When God made the rocks, he made the shells in them," was the damping reply.

What a deal of trouble geologists might have saved themselves by adopting the Turk-like philosophy of this Scotchman!

My reading while at work was carried on by placing the book on a portion of the spinning-jenny, so that I could catch sentence after sentence as I passed at my work; I thus kept up a pretty constant study undisturbed by the roar of the machinery. To this part of my education I owe my present power of completely abstracting the mind from surrounding noises, so as to read and write with perfect comfort amid the play of children or near the dancing and songs of savages. The toil of cotton-spinning, to which I was promoted in my nineteenth year, was excessively severe on a slim, loose-jointed lad, but it was well paid for; and it enabled me to support myself while attending medical and Greek classes in Glasgow in winter, as also the divinity lectures of Dr. Wardlaw, by working with my hands in summer. I never received a farthing of aid from any one, and should have accomplished my project of going to China as a medical missionary, in the course of time, by my own efforts, had not some friends advised my joining the London Missionary Society on account of its perfectly unsectarian character. It "sends neither Episcopacy, nor Presbyterianism, nor Independency, but the Gospel of Christ to the heathen." This exactly agreed with my ideas of what a missionary society ought to do; but it was not without a pang that I offered myself, for it was not quite agreeable to one accustomed to work his own way to become in a measure dependent on others; and I would not have been much put about though my offer had been rejected.

Looking back now on that life of toil, I cannot but feel thankful that it formed such a material part of my early education; and, were it possible, I should like to begin life over again in the same lowly style, and to pass through the same hardy training.

Time and travel have not effaced the feelings of respect I imbibed for the humble inhabitants of my native village. For morality, honesty, and intelligence, they were, in general, good specimens of the Scottish poor. In a population of more than two thousand souls, we had, of course, a variety of character. In addition to the common run of men, there were some characters of sterling worth and ability, who exerted a most beneficial influence on the children and youth of the place by imparting gratuitous religious instruction.* Much intelligent interest was felt by the villagers in all public questions, and they furnished a proof that the possession of the means of education did not render them an unsafe portion of the population. They felt kindly toward each other, and much respected those of the neighbouring gentry who, like the late Lord Douglas, placed some confidence in their sense of honour. Through the kindness of that nobleman, the poorest among us could stroll at pleasure over the ancient domains of Bothwell, and other spots hallowed by the venerable associations of which our school-books and local traditions made us well aware; and few of us could view the dear memorials of the past without feeling that these carefully kept monuments were our own. The masses of the working-people of Scotland have read history, and are no revolutionary levellers. They rejoice in the memories of "Wallace and Bruce and a' the lave," who are still much revered as the former champions of freedom. And while foreigners imagine that we want the spirit only to overturn capitalists and aristocracy, we are content to respect our laws till we can change them, and hate those stupid revolutions which might sweep away time-honoured institutions, dear alike to rich and poor.

*The reader will pardon my mentioning the names of two of these

most worthy men—David Hogg, who addressed me on his death-bed

with the words, "Now, lad, make religion the every-day business

of your life, and not a thing of fits and starts; for if you do

not, temptation and other things will get the better of you;"

and Thomas Burke, an old Forty-second Peninsula soldier, who has

been incessant and never weary in good works for about forty

years. I was delighted to find him still alive; men like these

are an honor to their country and profession.

Having finished the medical curriculum and presented a thesis on a subject which required the use of the stethoscope for its diagnosis, I unwittingly procured for myself an examination rather more severe and prolonged than usual among examining bodies.

The reason was, that between me and the examiners a slight difference of opinion existed as to whether this instrument could do what was asserted. The wiser plan would have been to have had no opinion of my own. However, I was admitted a Licentiate of Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons. It was with unfeigned delight I became a member of a profession which is pre-eminently devoted to practical benevolence, and which with unwearied energy pursues from age to age its endeavours to lessen human woe.

But though now qualified for my original plan, the opium war was then raging, and it was deemed inexpedient for me to proceed to China. I had fondly hoped to have gained access to that then closed empire by means of the healing art; but there being no prospect of an early peace with the Chinese, and as another inviting ﬁeld was opening out through the labors of Mr. Moffat, I was induced to turn my thoughts to Africa; and after a more extended course of theological training in England than I had enjoyed in Glasgow, I embarked for Africa in 1840, and, after a voyage of three months, reached Cape Town. Spending but a short time there, I started for the interior by going round to Algoa Bay, and soon proceeded inland, and have spent the following sixteen years of my life, namely, from 1840 to 1856, in medical and missionary labors there without cost to the inhabitants.

As to those literary qualifications which are acquired by habits of writing, and which are so important to an author, my African life has not only not been favourable to the growth of such accomplishments, but quite the reverse; it has made composition irksome and laborious. I think I would rather cross the African continent again than undertake to write another book. It is far easier to travel than to write about it. I intended on going to Africa to continue my studies; but as I could not brook the idea of simply entering into other men's labors made ready to my hands, I entailed on myself, in addition to teaching, manual labor in building and other handicraft work, which made me generally as much exhausted and unﬁt for study in the evenings as ever I had been when a cotton-spinner. The want of time for self-improvement was the only source of regret that I experienced during my African career. The reader, remembering this, will make allowances for the mere gropings for light of a student who has the vanity to think himself "not yet too old to learn". More precise information on several subjects has necessarily been omitted in a popular work like the present; but I hope to give such details to the scientific reader through some other channel.

Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa. London: Murray, 1857.

Monday 19 March 2012

Zambian Plans For David Livingstone's 200th Anniversary of His Birth

The 19th of March marks the 199th anniversary of the birth of the Scottish missionary, David Livingstone, and a year to the date of his bi-centenary in 2013.

In December 2011, Zambian media carried reports of plans to "celebrate" this bi-centenary from March to October 2013. See Zambia to host 200th David Livingstone celebrations and DAVID LIVINGSTONE - 200TH ANNIVERSARY.

It may be recalled that David Livingstone was the one who gave the world the concept of the 'three Cs' - civilization, commerce, and Christianity - which he intended to bring to the African.

The next twelve months should therefore provide the current generation of Africans with the opportunity to critically assess David Livingstone's original intention to go to Africa, his years spent in Central and Southern Africa and the subsequent legacy of his life and work in terms of African history.