David Livingstone

David Livingstone (19 March 1813 – 4 May 1873) was a Scottish medical missionary with the London Missionary Society. He wanted to be a missionary, but he could not get many people to convert to Christian beliefs, so instead, he explored and charted much of southern and eastern Africa. He gave the Victoria Falls their name. He named them after his queen, Queen Victoria.

David Livingstone
Born	(1813-03-19)19 March 1813 Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, Scotland
Died	4 May 1873(1873-05-04) (aged 60) near Lake Bangweulu, Zambia
Occupation	Missionary and explorer

In Africa

As an explorer, Livingstone had some advantages. He usually travelled lightly, and he was able to reassure chiefs that he was not a threat. Other expeditions had many soldiers armed with rifles, and even more people hired to carry supplies. They were often seen as military incursions or were mistaken for slave-raiding parties. Livingstone travelled on most of his journeys with a few servants and porters, bartering for supplies along the way. He only had a couple of guns for protection. He preached a Christian message but did not force it on unwilling ears. He understood the ways of local chiefs, and got permission to go through their territory. He was often hospitably received and aided, even by Mwata Kazembe.

Livingstone believed in trade, and wanted to see Christian missions established in central Africa. His motto on the base of the statue dedicated to him at Victoria Falls, was "Christianity, Commerce and Civilization". The reason he emphasised these three was that they would form an alternative to the slave trade, which was still rampant in Africa at that time. It would give the Africans some dignity when they met Europeans. The abolition of the African slave trade was his main hope. Around this time he believed the key to achieving these goals was the navigation of the Zambezi River as a Christian commercial highway into the interior. He returned to Britain to try to get support for his ideas, and to publish a book on his travels. The book brought him fame as one of the leading explorers of the age.

Livingstone died near a lake, in what is now Zambia.

The journeys of Livingstone in Africa between 1851 and 1873

Works

• Livingstone, David (1905) [1857]. Journeys in South Africa, or travels and researches in South Africa. London: Amalgamated Press.
• Livingstone, David and Waller, Horace (ed) 1874. The last journals of David Livingstone in Central Africa from 1865 to his death. Two volumes, London: John Murray.

David Livingstone Media

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  Livingstone's birthplace in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, Scotland

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  David Livingstone's birthplace, with period furnishings

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  Zulu dance, at Shupanga on the Zambesi to collect tribute from Portuguese merchants.

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  Livingstone Memorial Sculpture in Blantyre, Scotland

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  Livingstone preaching the gospel to unconverted Africans. Like other missionaries of the era he had a low success rate and is credited with a single conversion.

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  Slave traders and their captives bound in chains and collared with 'taming sticks'. From Livingstone's Narrative

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  The grave of Livingstone’s wife, Mary Moffat Livingstone, in Chupanga, Mozambique. She died in 1862.

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  This house in Mikindani in southern Tanzania was the starting point for Livingstone's last expedition. He stayed here from 24 March to 7 April 1866.

Sources

• Holmes, Timothy 1993. Journey to Livingstone: exploration of an imperial myth. Edinburgh: Canongate Press. ISBN 978-0-86241-402-3; scholarly biography
• Jeal, Tim 1973. Livingstone. London: Heinemann. ISBN 0-434-37208-0

Other websites

• Works written by or about David Livingstone at Wikisource
• Works by David Livingstone at Project Gutenberg
• A brief biography of David Livingstone