Weekend Talk: Meet David Livingstone
WHY travel back to the early 19th century to peep into the life of a missionary and an explorer for readers in the 21st Century?
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Historian Ben Alex, who wrote about Dr David Livingstone’s harsh travels in Africa, supplies the answer to that question when he says, “Great men and women are not in need of praise. We, today’s readers, are the ones in need of getting to know them."
And the purpose of getting to know them, Ben Alex further states in an introduction to the heroes he wrote about, “is value-building and character-shaping.”
Shaping our faith
Such heroes, who changed the world with their heroism, “shaped our faith and times in the tradition of biblical standards,” says Ben Alex. It is this description of David Livingstone that interests me.
Indeed, when a life is well-lived, the lasting legacy for posterity shapes our faith and times in the tradition of biblical standards, despite their struggles.
Dr David Livingstone (1813-1873) was a Scottish pioneer missionary with the London Missionary Society who began his travels in Africa to discover the source of the world’s longest river, the Nile.
Before him, explorers had attempted in vain to unravel the mystery of the middle belt of our great continent.
“Africa is like a chest,” David Livingstone said when he arrived in South Africa from Scotland. “The top and bottom drawers have been pulled open, but the centre drawer is locked tight.” Therefore, “I go back to Africa to try to open a path for commerce and Christianity.”
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While the Arabs explored the north in their trading expeditions, the Boers consolidated their explorations in the south and finally settled there.
The middle part of the continent, through which the Nile flowed over 6,400 km and emptied into the Mediterranean Sea, was unexplored.
Nile River
For centuries, the Nile provided a source of irrigation to transform the dry area around it into lush agricultural land. Moreover, it served the ancient Egyptians as an important sea route.
Hence, it is inferred that the Nile is the cradle of civilisation. In fact, Egypt is called “Gift of the Nile,” because without the Nile the country would be an unproductive desert.
For centuries, the source of the Nile eluded earlier explorers. What they failed to find, David Livingstone set out to discover.
According to historians, “If Livingstone could find the Nile’s source and trace the river up to Lake Victoria in the north, then the interior of this ‘dark continent’ would become open to European trade and colonisation.”
‘Dark continent’
But David Livingstone, who was a Christian explorer and missionary, had an eternal reason why the opening of the middle section of Africa along the Nile was paramount.
For, then, the “dark continent” would be open to missionaries and the Good News of the Gospel could be brought to the millions of African people who had never heard of Jesus Christ.
One of Livingstone’s favourite quotes was: “God, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me.”
Such a laudable venture was bound to be successful in the long run, for it was a mission for God, and whatever is done for the Lord and for the eternal good of mankind would not lack divine backing.
Many years later, people around the world would know that Africa, after all, has never been a dark continent but one that has its own cultures and civilisations. Since “darkness” is a metaphor for humanity’s evils, it is not only Africa but the entire world that is steeped in darkness.
Slave trade
For example, Livingstone encountered a most heinous crime when Arab slave traders burst upon an African village market shooting and killing women and children.
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Livingstone saw how these slavers captured Africans and marched them off to slave markets in Zanzibar. The cruelty of these slavers and those who acquired the slaves were those living in darkness.
It is estimated that 12,000 slaves were exported from Zanzibar every year in slave ships to Arab countries and the West. Livingstone felt troubled about such savage treatment of Africans.
As a physician, whenever he encountered slaves who had been abandoned to die, he attended to them.
About Arab slavers, Livingstone wrote in his journal, “Like being in hell, I’m sick at heart. This place is a den of the worst kind of hunters!” He urged the world to fight the horrible slave trade, pointing out the long-term effect on Africa.
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“For it was a barrier to peaceful trade and the spreading of the Christian faith,” he said. He was thus instrumental in forcing the abolition of slave trade in East Africa while pursuing his goal to discover the source of the Nile.
Next week: The good Lord willing, next week we will explore Livingstone’s other travelling hardships and the result of his voyages.
The writer is a publisher, author, writer-trainer and CEO of Step Publishers.
E-mail: [email protected]