David Livingstone

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David Livingstone bigraphy, stories - Scottish missionary and explorer

David Livingstone : biography

19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873

David Livingstone (19 March 1813 – 1 May 1873) was a Scottish Congregationalist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and an explorer in Africa. His meeting with H. M. Stanley on 10 November 1871 gave rise to the popular quotation "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

Perhaps one of the most popular national heroes of the late 19th century in Victorian Britain, Livingstone had a mythic status, which operated on a number of interconnected levels: Protestant missionary martyr, working-class "rags to riches" inspirational story, scientific investigator and explorer, imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate of commercial empire.

His fame as an explorer helped drive forward the obsession with discovering the sources of the River Nile that formed the culmination of the classic period of European geographical discovery and colonial penetration of the African continent. At the same time his missionary travels, "disappearance" and death in Africa, and subsequent glorification as posthumous national hero in 1874 led to the founding of several major central African Christian missionary initiatives carried forward in the era of the European "Scramble for Africa".John M. Mackenzie, "David Livingstone: The Construction of the Myth," in Sermons and Battle Hymns: Protestant Popular Culture in Modern Scotland, ed. Graham Walker and Tom Gallagher (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1990).

Death

David Livingstone died in that area in Chief Chitambo’s village at Ilala southeast of Lake Bangweulu in present-day Zambia on 1 May 1873 from malaria and internal bleeding caused by dysentery. He took his final breaths while kneeling in prayer at his bedside. (His journal indicates that the date of his death would have been 1 May, but his attendants noted the date as 4 May, which they carved on a tree and later reported; this is the date on his grave.) His two followers, Susi and Chuma on the morning of his death made the decision to remove the heart and prepare the body for carrying to the coast for subsequent shipping to England.http://www.biographyonline.net/adventurers/david-livingstone.htm Livingstone’s heart was buried under a Mvula tree near the spot where he died, now the site of the Livingstone Memorial. His body together with his journal was carried over a thousand miles by his loyal attendants Chuma and Susi to the coast to Bagamoyo, and was returned to Britain for burial. After lying in repose at No.1 Savile Row—then the headquarters of the Royal Geographical Society, now the home of bespoke tailors Gieves & Hawkes— his remains were interred at Westminster Abbey, London.

Places named in his honour and other memorials

In Africa

  • The Livingstone Memorial in Ilala, Zambia marks where he died.
  • The city of Livingstone, Zambia which includes a memorial in front of the Livingstone Museum and a new statue erected in 2005., 15 November 2005 – 23 November 2005. Website accessed 26 April 2007.
  • The Rhodes–Livingstone Institute in Livingstone and Lusaka, Zambia, 1940s to 1970s, was a pioneering research institution in urban anthropology.
  • David Livingstone Teachers’ Training College, Livingstone, Zambia.
  • The David Livingstone Memorial statue at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, erected in 1954 on the western bank of the falls.Ian Michler (2007). "Victoria Falls and Surrounds: The Insider’s Guide". p. 11
  • 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, Kampala, Uganda.
  • The town of Livingstonia, Malawi.
  • The city of Blantyre, Malawi is named after his birthplace in Lanarkshire, Scotland, and includes a memorial.
  • The David Livingstone Scholarships for students at the University of Malawi, funded through Strathclyde University, Scotland.
  • The David Livingstone Clinic was founded by the University of Strathclyde’s Millennium Project in Lilongwe, Malawi.
  • The Kipengere Range in south-west Tanzania at the north-eastern end of Lake Malawi is also called the Livingstone Mountains.
  • Livingstone Falls on the River Congo, named by Stanley.
  • The Livingstone Inland Mission, a Baptist mission to the Congo Free State 1877–1884, located in what is now Kinshasa.
  • A memorial in Ujiji commemorates his meeting with Stanley.
  • The Livingstone–Stanley Monument, Mugere, Burundi 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
  • There is a memorial to Livingstone at the ruins of the Kolobeng Mission, 40 km west of Gaborone, Botswana.
  • The church tower of the Catholic Holy Ghost Mission in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, is called Livingstone Tower because his body was laid down there for one night before it was shipped to London.
  • Livingstone House in Stone Town, Zanzibar, provided by the Sultan 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 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 Harare, Zimbabwe.
  • David Livingstone Secondary School in Ntabazinduna about 40 km from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.
  • David Livingstone Senior Secondary School in Schauderville, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
  • Livingstone House in Harare, Zimbabwe, designed by Leonora Granger.