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Born: 19 March 1813(1813-03-19)Blantyre, South Lanarkshire, Scotland
Died: 1 May 1873 (aged 60)near Lake Bangweulu, Zambia
Cause of death: Malaria & dysentery
Resting place: The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, 51°29′58″N 0°07′39″W / 51.499444°N 0.1275°W / 51.499444; -0.1275
Nationality: British
Known for: Exploration of Central Africa
Title: Dr. Livingstone
Religious beliefs: Congregationalist
David Livingstone was a Scottish Baptist pioneer medical missionary with the London Missionary Society and explorer in Africa. He was the first European to see the Victoria Falls, to which he gave the English name in honour of his monarch, Queen Victoria. Livingstone had a numerous mythic status: Protestant missionary martyr, working-class "rags to riches" inspirational story, scientific investigator and explorer, imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate of commercial empire.
Born to Neil Livingstone (1788-1856) and his wife Agnes (1782-1865), David, along with many of the Livingstones, was at the age of ten employed in the cotton mill of H. Monteith - David and brother John working 12-hour days as "piecers," tying broken cotton threads on the spinning machines. The mill offered their workers schooling of which David took advantage. His father was the one who influenced David to be an avid reader. David had an deep interest in nature and science which led him to investigate the relationship between religion and science. David's experience from age ten to twenty-six in H. Montieth's Blantyre cotton mill, first as a piecer and later as a spinner, was also important. Necessary to support his impoverished family, this work was monotonous but gave him persistence, endurance, and a natural empathy with all who labour.
Livingstone was assigned to Kuruman by the LMS and sailed in December 1840, arriving at Moffat's mission, now part of South Africa, in July 1841. Dr. Robert Moffat arrived in Kuruman with his family in December 1843, and shortly afterward Livingstone married Moffat's eldest daughter Mary on January 2 1845. She was also Scottish but had lived in Africa since she was four. Mary travelled with Livingstone for a brief time at his insistence. Livingstone always emphasized the importance of understanding local custom and belief as well as the necessity of encouraging Africans to proselytize, but he always faced acute difficulties finding converts he considered best fitted for training to be missionaries. As Livingstone began to plan for new missionary initiatives, due to the difficulties presented by his growing family, he sent his family back to Kuruman as he planned further inland travels. Later Mary and the rest of David's family returned to England, but came to Africa again on the Zambezi Expedition.
David was the first westerners to travel across Africa to Indian Ocean. Livingstone traveled on most of his journeys with a few servants and porters, bartering for supplies along the way, with 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 successfully negotiated passage through their territory, and was often hospitably received and aided, even by Mwata Kazembe, while other Europeans usually met resistance by the chief tribes. David did many expeditions like the Zambezi Expedition, finding the source of Nile River, and numerous of other geographical features and he was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society of London and was made a fellow of the society, with which he had a strong association for the rest of his life.
In Africa, David did lose contact with the outside world for about 6 years and was ill for most of his last 4 years of life. Henry Morton Stanley was sent to find him by the New York Herald newspaper in 1869, and found Livingstone in the town of Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika 2 years later. David Livingstone died in that area in Chief Chitambo's village at Ilala southeast of Lake Bangweulu in 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. David's body was sent back to Britain for proper burial but his heart was dug out and planted in Africa before his body was sent to his home country.
Although Livingstone had many failures, his achievements were worth mentioning as well. He had made geographical discoveries for European knowledge. He inspired abolitionists of the slave trade, explorers and missionaries. He opened up Central Africa to missionaries who initiated the education and health care for Africans, and trade by the African Lakes Company. He was held in some esteem by many African chiefs and local people and his name facilitated relations between them and the British. Two other aspects of his legacy paradoxically helped end the colonial era , indirectly, in Africa without excessive bloodshed.
Although Livingstone had a great impact on British Imperialism, he did not care much about his family. In his absences, his children grew up fatherless, and his wife Mary eventually became an alcoholic and died of malaria trying to follow him in Africa. His one regret in later life was that he did not spend enough time with his children. Achievements at the cost of his own family.
Source : wikipedia.com
