Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?
A meeting of two famous African explorers.
I have been writing a series of articles about European explorers during the "Age of Exploration and Discovery" from the 1400s to the 1700s. These explorations led to the "discovery" of the Americas and new shipping routes around South America and South Africa.
In these articles, I wrote about the Great Silk Road in Mongolia, the Ottoman Empire, Marco Polo, Christopher Columbus, the Pinzon brothers, Spanish conquistadors (Hernan Cortes and Francisco Pizarro), Pacific Ocean explorers (Vasco da Gama, Ferdinand Magellan, and Captain Cook), and a few explorers in the United States. You can read all these articles on my Substack Archive page.
In this article, I am going to write about a couple famous and influential explorers in Africa.
Dr. Livingstone
David Livingstone was a Scottish doctor and Christian missionary who explored southern Africa in the mid 1800s during the Victorian era. Livingstone travelled to the area of modern day Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia as a missionary for the London Missionary Society. He became famous in 1852 when he explored the Zambezi River and he became the first European to see the great waterfall, which he named Victoria Falls. When he returned to England, he published his African travel journal, and it became an instant best-seller. He became a public speaker and a celebrity, and he also became an advisor for Queen Victoria.
Livingstone was interested in exploring the rivers in Africa because he believed shipping commerce along the African rivers was the key to Africa's economic prosperity. Then, once the economy improved, Livingstone believed Africans would be financially secure, and they would no longer need to participate in the slave trade. He also believed that a faith in Christianity would help everyone see that they are "brothers" and "one people." His famous motto was "Christianity, Commerce, and Civilization."
Livingstone returned to Africa again in the late 1850s. Over a five-year period, he explored the rivers to identify useful shipping routes. But the boats kept running into dangerous waters, and many of his companions, including his wife, died of tropical malaria. Nevertheless, his expedition documented many botanical and geological discoveries.
Livingstone's failed explorations of the rivers reminds me of a YouTube video by Thomas Sowell. Thomas Sowell has become a controversial political figure, but I don't want to comment on his political ideas. Instead, I learned a lot about the geography of Africa from this video. Sowell explains that the rivers are difficult to navigate, and the continent has many steep cliffs along the ocean. These geographic features make international shipping through Africa difficult, and Sowell says this is one of the reasons why Africa has never developed a strong economy for international commerce. Livingstone's explorations of the Zambezi River made me think of this video.
In 1866 Livingstone set out to discover the source of the Nile River. This mission lasted six years. He failed to find the source, but he discovered, documented, and provided detailed information about other rivers and lakes.
Overall, though, the expedition was very disastrous for him. Livingstone's African assistants abandoned him, his supplies were stolen, and he caught many tropical illnesses. In 1871, he witnessed a massacre of 400 African slaves who were killed in response to an attack on a village. This event demoralized Livingstone, and he "disappeared" into the African wilderness.
Finding Livingstone
Livingstone's "disappearance" led to a very famous "meeting" between him and Henry Morton Stanley. Stanley was a writer for the New York Herald newspaper, and he set out to find the missing Livingstone. When he did find him, Stanley famously asked, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Many historians say that this statement is made up. They point out that it is too comical … because Stanley is trying to maintain a sense of Victorian gentility in the African wilderness. Anyway, this has become a very famous scene, and I remember hearing about it, so I wanted to learn the details.
In many ways, Livingstone failed in his religious missionary work and also in his geographic expeditions to find the source of the Nile and to find safe passages for shipping commerce on the African rivers. But Stanley's story made Livingstone popular again. His story portrayed Livingstone as a dedicated religious missionary and abolitionist, and readers respected him for his commitment and willingness to suffer physically for a cause.
Livingstone also paved the way for future interactions between Africans and Europeans. Livingstone was respected both in England and in Africa, and tribal leaders welcomed European explorers who followed Livingstone and spoke about him. Unfortunately, as with the South American conquistadors, Livingstone's path-making exploration both established a relationship between two continents and also it led to Africa's colonization by European countries. As you know, colonization became a major problem for Africa for over 100 years. Even as late as the 1990s, South Africa was still trying to overcome the system of apartheid.
Henry Stanley
Henry Stanley was originally an orphan from Wales (Britain), and he moved to the United States at age 18. He served in the Civil War (at first for the Confederacy, then for the Union), then he became a war correspondent in the Middle East and North African region. In 1871, he led an expedition through Africa to find Dr. Livingstone. Stanley wrote a popular book about this effort, and it made both him and Livingstone famous.
In the mid-1870s, Stanley adopted Livingstone's mission to find the source of the Nile River and to draw maps of central Africa. As with Livingstone, Stanley's explorations led to many disasters. Many of his partners died of illness, or they drowned in the dangerous waters, or they were attacked by hostile tribes. From this experience, Stanley wrote a book called "Through the Dark Continent." This book is famous for calling Africa the "Dark Continent," and that name has stuck with Africa probably even to the present day.
In the 1880s, Stanley led expeditions in the Congo on behalf of Leopold of Belgium. Many historians criticize Stanley's work in the Congo, because he expressed imperialist and colonial attitudes towards Africa. In his writings, Stanley commented that "we are superior to the savages" and that "it is necessary for their own well-being" to be controlled by European powers. During this time, Stanley was also charged in Europe with excessive violence, slavery, sexual exploitation, and plunder.
With this attitude, Stanley, Leopold, and other European countries convinced Africans to give up their "sovereign rights" as rulers of their own territory and to hand over that authority to the Europeans. This practice justified and promoted decades of colonialism in Africa.
The map below shows how quickly Europeans took control of Africa. They colonized the whole continent in only about 30 years. (The Congo that Stanley colonized is the purple country in the middle.)
Stanley sounds like a typical 19th century colonialist. In fact, some historians have speculated that Stanley inspired Joseph Conrad's novel called "Heart of Darkness." This novel was published in 1899, and it is set around the Congo River. Many high school students today read the novel as a critique of colonialism.
Next Time
I have finished the review of ocean and land explorers I wanted to study. As I said in the beginning, I was familiar with the names of these explorers, but I didn’t know specifically what they had accomplished. I hope you enjoyed learning alongside me.
In my next post, I will write some reflections and lessons learned from this series.
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My name is Lirim Neziri, and I am an educator and a writer. I love to read and learn, and this newsletter (which I call Lirim’s Learning Club) lets me share interesting things I am learning. I write about History, Literature, Writing, Education, Technology, Leadership, and Personal Productivity. Please join my learning adventure.