LIVINGSTONE AND AFRICA
By A. M. CHIRGWIN
HUNDRED years ago—on December 8th, i84o—David Livingstone set out for Africa, where, after a century, his influence abides and the movements he initiated are even now going forward. His achievement as an explorer places him amongst the greatest of the race. He added a million square miles to the known territory of the continent, discovered half-a-dozen lakes of the first magnitude, mapped scores of mountains and rivers, and was the first white man to look upon the world's greatest waterfall. This achievement is all the more surprising when it is recalled that he never intended to be an explorer. It was his missionary zeal that made an explorer of him. In his own mind there was never any doubt about his primary task. " I would not consent," he said, " to go simply as a geographer, but as a missionary, and do geography by the way."
Perhaps this scale of values explains why he travelled so light. He never seemed to take the work of exploration seriously, save in so far as he made careful scientific observa- tions and kept accurate records. On his most hazardous journey he had no white companion, and took with him only five guns, one of which was a fowling-piece, a few pounds of tea, coffee and sugar, forty shillings' worth of beads, some medicines and scientific instruments, a magic lantern, a change of clothes and a few books. Did any explorer ever set out with so little and achieve so much? The one exception to his rule of travelling light was the expedition up the Shire which he undertook with Government assistance, half a dozen white companions, and a mass of impedimenta. As it turned out, this was his least successful and least happy journey. Livingstone accomplished most when he went light and went alone.
His contribution to empire still abides. The parts of Africa where he spent most time are now, almost without exception, within the British Commonwealth. With the single exception of Cecil Rhodes, Livingstone ranks as the chief founder of British rule in Africa. No one would have been more surprised at this than Livingstone himself. He never thought of himself as an empire-builder, much less did he deliberately set out to be one. He always carried a Union Jack with him, but it was characteristic that he kept it in his trunk. One of the few occasions on which he took it out was to unfurl it over a crowd of terrified villagers to save them from the clutches of the Arab slavers. The only times when he appealed to the British Government were when he urged them to protect the native Africans against the Boers, the Arabs or the Portuguese.
Livingstone's greatest contribution to empire, however, is not that he added to its extent, but that he helped to put forward a new concept. The policy of trusteeship, now the acknowledged principle of British rule in Africa, is indirectly his creation. It was he . who gave the notion to Kirk, and Kirk who handed it on to Lugard; and these three, more than any others, worked it out and applied it in the public policy of British Equatorial Africa. It is Livingstone's dis- tinction that, in the service of Africa, he
" drew Christian gentlemen a few Hotly to attend her."
This is the only kind of imperialism that is likely to survive in this day of destruction, an imperialism that is prepared to accept responsibility for the less developed peoples and to regard them as a trust to the more advanced.
The most permanently fruitful service that Livingstone rendered is his discovery of the African. It was this that liberated the influences that were slowly to change men's attitude towards the peoples of Africa. Livingstone's long years devoted to their service showed that he thought them worthy of all that he had to give ; while his bearing and his courtesy towards them helped to raise them in the popular regard from beasts of burden to fellow-men. The service for which he is best known is his long struggle with the slave-trade, a struggle into which he was led, not by some vague humanitarianism but by his clear-cut Christian principles. To him it was intolerable that any man should be enslaved. He had scarcely arrived in Africa when he came upon the traffic and began to write strongly-worded letters home. That first encounter is a landmark in African history. There came a fire in his bones, and when he found himself face to face with the Arab slave-trade in the interior, his words became urgent and aflame, until at last they were concentrated into a single prayer. " I can only say in my solitude, may God's rich blessing come down on everyone, American, English or Turk, who will help to heal this open sore of the world." That cry stirred Britain to the depths and made the anti-slavery move- ment a national crusade All of these—his opening up of the continent, his new concept of empire, his discovery of the African, his fight with the slave-trade—had their origin in his sense of religious vocation. First and last Livingstone was a missionary.
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