LITR 5831 Colonial-Postcolonial
Literature
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Veronica Ramirez
11/20/2011
Changing Perceptions and Livingstone
My last research post regarding the Museum of Central Africa
impressed upon me the magnitude of the Belgian Congo atrocities, and I proposed
writing my second research post about activists against the anti-colonialism
movement of Africa. I discovered several
authors and activists that wrote about the colonization effects on Africa: Mark
Twain wrote King Leopold’s Soliloquy,
Arthur Conan Doyle wrote the pamphlet The
Crime of the Congo, and Joseph Conrad wrote
The Heart of Darkness. Roger David
Casement and his Casement Report exposed the atrocities in the Congo and was
instrumental in inciting the Belgian parliament to take over the Congo from King
Leopold’s direct rule. These authors
became engaged as a result of the reports that came out of the Belgian Congo,
directly related to King Leopold’s rule, but one name kept coming up as a
general advocate for Africa’s colonial plight even before the Belgian Congo, Dr.
David Livingstone.
Dr.
Livingstone, a missionary, scientist and explorer “traveled twenty-nine thousand
miles in Africa, and added to the known part of the globe about a million square
miles” (Blaikie 486) Even though Livingstone deviated from strictly missionary
work to a scientific exploration of Africa, he still aimed “at two things: at
teaching some of the great truths of Christianity, and rousing consciences on
the atrocious guilt of the slave trade” (Blaikie 392). Dr. Livingstone pursued
the ideas of Christianity and commerce and believed that legitimate trading with
the individual tribes instead of middlemen would eliminate the need for slave
trading in Africa, and his exploration of Africa would result in opening trade
routes with tribes in the interior along river banks.
Livingstone fought against the slave trade “through his
published writings, by correspondence, by the ceaseless noting of information
that might ultimately be used as evidence” (Simmons 157). In a letter written by
Dr. Livingstone originally published in The London Times in Feb.20 1863, Dr.
Livingstone believed that slavery “has kept this region shut up from all good
influences” and then writing to his son Thomas, February 1, 1867 Dr. Livingstone
states “We have not had any difficulties with the people, made many friends,
imparted a little knowledge sometimes, and raised a protest against slavery very
widely” (Blaikie 400). The perception of
Dr. Livingstone as a tireless anti-slavery crusader comes from not only his
letters and writings, but also from his journals.
Dr.
Livingstone’s journals have been in the news recently because a field journal
documenting an important and particularly violent event was found, in which the
language and details differed from his official published journal. The article
published in October 2011, describes how this new journal was found, and how the
writing was deciphered, but the importance of the document is that it really
gives you a different view of Livingstone and his intricate dealings in Africa.
This event was known the world, and “based
on Livingstone’s verbal account and his master journal, Stanley wrote articles
about the massacre that helped fuel a successful movement to halt the East
African slave trade” (Marc Shrope).
This new journal seems to imply that Livingstone possibly had
participated in events leading up to the massacre, that may have influenced the
events, and that his followers may have had a hand in the massacre.
Just as the newly discovered personal journals offer a
different view of Livingstone, knowing something about Blaikie’s biography in
1880 is important in establishing perceptions. The biography may not provide an
impartial view of Livingstone, as it was commissioned by his family, and the
personal documents used at that to compile it have not been provided to any
other biographer since. The most
recent book I found in my research regarding Dr. Livingstone discusses this
perception, and how complicated Dr. Livingstone’s impact was.
Pettitt explains that Livingstone “often
cooperated with the Arab traders,” his “missionary activities had been a
failure: he made only convert in Africa who subsequently lapsed” and his
missions “were misconceived and badly planned, and resulted in the miserable
deaths of more than half of the missionaries and their families” (Pettitt 11).
Even though
Livingstone’s direct impact may be looked upon now with a skeptic eye, and the
new journals may discern Livingstone’s actual thoughts, the perception of what
Livingstone accomplished, is what lived on and helped the world understand what
was going on in Africa. Livingstone’s intentions or impact should not be looked
at lightly. His modification of his own language and perception in his
journals, shows that even within the
basic prejudice that he worked within, an
African as an uneducated heathen, that he truly believed that they deserved
basic human rights and the opportunity to succeed within the new age of
colonialism. Simmons explains that an
Englishmen’s point of view of Africa, had to be learned from reading
missionaries’ journals, and that “the missionaries’ assumption of the truth of
Christianity, and the falsehood and wickedness of all pagan beliefs and
practices, had the effect of making Englishmen complacently certain of their own
superiority to Africans, in matters of the spirit as well as in technical and
political accomplishment” (Simmons 16). Livingstone
should be commended if he realized his own views needed to be framed differently
to take into account the effect on the public, and in order to avoid sending out
condescending and perturbing information.
Livingstone’s own ability to place his initial
reactions aside, and rewrite an event within a moral construct to fight for the
end of slave trading and other human atrocities, seems minor to the thousands
who participated in the slave trade, and those who chose to look away.
Livingstone Resources:
Simmons, Jack.
Livingstone and Africa. London: English Universities Press LTD, 1955.
Blaikie, Garden W.
The Personal Life of David Livingstone.
New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1880.
Pettitt, Clare.
Dr. Livingstone, I Presume? Missionaries,
Journalists, Explorers, and Empire.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.
Livingstone Letter:
Dr. Livingstone's African Expedition: EFFECTS OF THE
SLAVE-TRADE A PANIC, DROUGHT AND FAMINE THOUSANDS OF LIVES LOST.. (1863, August
17). New York Times (1857-1922),p. 2. Retrieved November 7, 2011, from ProQuest
Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2007). (Document ID: 80289665).
Article on newly found journals:
Marc Shrope Washington Post :
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/dr-livingstones-diary-on-19th-century-africa-now-uncensored/2011/10/31/gIQAUsB2aM_story_2.html
Location of new journals: UCLA digital
collection:
http://livingstone.library.ucla.edu/1871diary/
( Digital Collection of newly
discovered Livingstone Journals)
Backup online sources:
http://crawfurd.dk/africa/livingstone.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Casement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Reform_Association
