Faith and Knowledge

The Life of David Livingstone


 "He was Mother Teresa, Neil Armstrong, and Abraham Lincoln rolled into one." [1]

David Livingstone was born on 19 March 1813 in Scotland. He lived in a pious home, his father and mother attended the Independent congregation in nearby Hamilton. ‘The strong religious atmosphere of the Livingstone house in which David grew up, and for which he often expressed himself to be deeply grateful, is fundamental to any understanding of the person he became.’ [2] David Livingstone’s early work experiences and spiritual knowledge would guide him to his future quests in Africa. From his father’s guidance, Livingstone was taught the “religious theory that free salvation was guaranteed to all by the atonement of our Saviour.” [3] His first jobs were industrialist in nature, a “piecer” at a cotton mill and next, a spinner. Livingstone showed early interest in travel books and nature.

When he was twenty one years old, he saw a pamphlet of Karl Gutzlaff, which called for missionaries to come to China. Especially they want to call the missionary doctor, it did not exist before. This was new concept to the Protestant missionary in Europe. So Livingstone wants to study medicine in order to become a missionary. And he could enter at Anderson’s College in Glasgow, studied two years. And then he applied at the London Missionary Society (LMS), it was the major missionary society in the United Kingdom.

 ‘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.’ [4]

He wanted to go to China. But it was failed that there a break of Opium war in China. So he had been waiting for the ending of the Opium war in order to enter China. But there was another chance came by Moffat. Within six month, he met Robert Moffat, who was being an South Africa missionary. Livingstone changed his mind, and he made decision to go to Southern Africa. In 1840, he ordained medical doctor, set out for South Africa, it took a long time. Three month later, his voyage was over. When David Livingstone arrived in Cape Town (the main British colony) in March 1841, the LMS had been in southern Africa for forty-two years. [5] And already there were several Companies of Europe. He spent the next several years journeying around southern Africa.

At that time, all the missionaries concentrated in a small area, he turned his attention to the interior land. His intense desire that all the people of Africa should have get the Christianity. So he located his place at Mabotsa, northward in the interior, where there was more than adequate pasture for their herds and flocks in 1843.



After that time he was mauled by a lion by 1884. The lion left eleven teeth wounds on the upper part of his arm. But fortunately he was saved by his friends. Ever after he could not raise his gun to shoot without great pain.

He went to Kuruman for three weeks of real convalescence in the care of Mrs. Moffat. And then he proposed to Mary Moffat and it was accepted. She was the first child of Robert Moffat, she can speak Tswana as well as English. In January 1845, he married with Mary Moffat. They had many hours away from each other in their lives. They had six children but one was dead in infancy.

In 1845 the Livingstone moved to Chonuane, where Sechele, the chief of the tribes became his first convert. He was baptized and admitted to communion. (1848) He discovered Lake Nagami, also he discovered that Central Africa was not a great desert.

Taking his wife and children to Cape Town, where amidst many tears and heart struggles he saw them sail for England on April 23, 1852, he set his face to his new purpose. But there were many obstacles. The Dutch Boers, who had robbed and subjected the natives to the worst slavery, opposed his efforts to the extent of destroying his home and carrying away his household goods.

And he went back to England in 1856. In England, he was welcomed as a national hero. His book ‘Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa’, written in six months, became an immediate best-seller, with seven editions published in rapid succession. Livingstone was suddenly a wealthy man. He lectured about the commercial possibilities of Africa and convinced the government to sponsor an expedition up the Zambezi River to gain knowledge of natural resources and to encourage the natives to trade with England as an alternative to the slave trade. [6]

He returned to Africa in 1858. This time was second time of expedition. His object was to open a “Missionary Road”, ”God’s Highway,” he also called it, 1,500 miles north into the interior. [7]

In 1861, he explored the river Rovuma and assisted in establishing the Universities Mission. In 1862 she joined her husband in Africa and then she died. Livingstone returned to England in 1864. In 1865, he returned to Africa for his third expedition. He wanted to find the source of the Nile. By 1866, Livingstone had become more than a missionary helping a less developed area; he became the grand explorer and guiding figure in British exploration. From his popularity he was able to publish a letter in the New York Herald which explained the slave trade and the interpretations of African culture and landscape. He voiced his opinion on the cruelties he viewed on his journey, from the massacres over a stolen chicken to the conditions and treatment of the slaves. He believed the Africans evidently died of broken heartedness from the Arabs and that slaving hardened their hearts. [8] The raids from Arabs for women and children resulted in twelve to twenty thousand slaves murdered a year; they were “not traded for, but murdered, for they are not slaves, but free people made captive.” [9] He claimed that Livingstone’s belief was “it would be better to lessen human woe than discover the sources of the Nile.” [10]

His last journey ended with his death in1873 from dysentery near the Molilamo River and the village Chitambo in Ilala. The last few months of his adventures, Livingstone “seemed to be conducting research on the slave trade; at times obsessively seeking the true source of the Nile, the Holy Grail of Victorian exploration; at times just trudging through the jungle for its own sake.” [11] He died in a mud hut, kneeling beside his cot in prayer. As honor for his life’s devotion to Africa from through his missionary travels and his quest for the Nile source, his heart was buried under a mvula tree in Ilala. His African friends, former slaves he had freed, buried his heart under a tree. Then they carried his body back to London, an 11-month journey through jungle and seas. He was Mother Teresa, Neil Armstrong, and Abraham Lincoln rolled into one. He was a legend of missionary. His heart was filled with all passion and love. It is true that Southern Africa history divided by Livingstone’s mission, Before Livingstone and After Livingstone. (B.L. / A.L.) When he arrived in 1841, Africa was called the “Dark Continent”, “White man’s graveyard.” Africa land was unexplored. There was no roads, no countries, no landmarks. [12]

David Livingstone is often misunderstood as being a conscious promoter of European colonization of Africa. On the contrary, he believed that the key to Africa's future was the stimulation of indigenous development and good government. Such 'civilization' could only be achieved by the combination of Christianity with legitimate commerce, to replace the Slave Trade which had been the bane of Africa's development for centuries. [13] He saws three parts of important things for mission: commerce, Christianity, and Civilization (good government, education, etc.). Christian mission should be look around social conditions, economic, political and spiritual needs. Livingstone believed that human suffering could only be alleviated by introducing genuine and legitimate commerce, and good government guided by Christian principles.

It was while addressing a series of meetings throughout Britain, notably his Cambridge lectures of December 4th. and 5th., 1857, that Livingstone uttered his important maxim: 'The end of the geographic fact is but the beginning of the missionary enterprise'. In his Cambridge addresses, attended by very large audiences consisting of graduates, undergraduates and visitors from the town and neighborhood, Livingstone called on professional men to go to Africa as missionaries, with the view of promoting commerce, Christianity and civilization. He concluded:

“I beg to direct your attention to Africa…. I know that in a few years I shall be cut off in that country, which is now open; do not let it be shut again! I go back to Africa to make an open path for commerce and Christianity; do you carry out the work which I have begun. I leave it with you!” [14] He argued that their united effect would improve the life and prosperity of Africans, stem the loss of population caused by slave trade, and transform the more violent institutions of African society. [15] He thought that Africa needed a good system of government, to ensure civil rights for the people. Livingstone saw the problems of slave trade and illiteracy to be among the greatest blocks to Christian progress and economic progress in Africa. The introduction of education, he thought, would prepare African people for development and would also provoke African initiatives in the development of their natural resources. Livingstone believed that the development of agriculture and industry would raise people's standards of living and eventually overcome their greatest enemy, "slavery". What he worked hard for, was to open Africa for genuine commerce, education, etc. and to make it a peaceful environment for the spreading of Christianity. [16] His experience in Africa had taught him that for there to be progress in Christian enterprise these matters could not be ignored: “The desire of the Makololo for direct trade with the sea-coast concided with my own conviction, that no permanent elevation of a people can be effected without commerce. Neither could there be a permanent mission here, unless the missionaries should descend to the level of the Makololo, for, even at Kolobeng, we found that traders demanded three times the price of the articles we needed, and expected us to be grateful to them besides, for letting us have them at al1.” [17]

His mission has a lot of meaning, whether it was good or bad. But obviously I am sure about that God called him and used him for the people of Africa. He had been working with the glorious Lord, he never changed his mind so that easy going for his life. He was forceful man for the kingdom of heaven. (Mt 11:12) 


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[1] Austin, Alvyn, Christian history & Biography : Discovering livingstone, No.56 (1997 Nov. 1), 10-19

[2] Andrew C. Ross, David Livingstone (Hambledon Continuum, 2002) p.6

[3] Dorothy O. Helly, Livingstone’s Legacy (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1987), 9.

[4] David Livingstone, Missionary journeys and researches in South Africa, p. 24

[5] Andrew C. Ross, David Livingstone (Hambledon Continuum, 2002) p.27

[6] http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bliving2.html

[7] Austin, Alvyn, Christian history & Biography : Discovering livingstone, No.56 (1997 Nov. 1), 10-19

[8] David Livingstone, Livingstone’s Africa (Philadelphia and Boston: Hubbard Bros), 521.

[9] Ibid., 530.

[10] Ibid., 526.

[11] Niall Ferguson, Empire: the Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (London: Allen Lane, 2002), 133.

[12] Austin, Alvyn, Christian history & Biography : Discovering Livingstone, No.56 (1997 Nov. 1), 10-19

[13] Botswana Journal of African Studies, vo1.12, nos.1 & 2 (1998)

[14] W. Monk, (ed.) (1860), Dr. Livingstone's Cambridge Lectures, 24.

[15] A.F. Walls, 'The Legacy of David Livingstone' International Bulletin of Missionary Research, vol. 11, No.3, July, 1987, 126.

[16] Botswana Journal of African Studies, vo1.12, nos.1 & 2 (1998)

[17] D. Livingstone, (1857), Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa, 228.