I was scheduled to visit Livingstone, Zambia for a meeting (22nd AETFAT 2020) in March 2020. In preparation for the trip, I read a number of travel guides and accounts of the area. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the trip was cancelled (but currently rescheduled for later in 2020).
In preparation for that trip, I read a great piece of fiction (The Old Drift) by Namwali Serpell, skimmed a number of historical travel accounts, read some guidebooks, and went deep into the story of David Livingstone.
The accounts from roughly the same time period that I skimmed were:
A Popular Account of Dr. Livingstone's Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries And of the Discovery of the Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa (1858-1864) by David Livingstone (1861)
Explorations in South-west Africa. Being an account of a journey in the years 1861 and 1862 from Walvisch bay, on the western coast, to lake Ngami and the Victoria Falls by Thomas Baines (1864)
The Victoria Falls, Zambesi River: sketched on the spot (during the journey of J. Chapman & T. Baines) by Thomas Baines (1865)
Travels in the interior of South Africa, comprising fifteen years' hunting and trading; with journeys across the continent from Natal to Walvis Bay, and visits to Lake Ngami and the Victoria Falls (Volume 2) by James Chapman (1868)
For those interested, I highly recommend the Livingstone Online project from the University of Nebraska.
Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (1857) by David Livingstone
Livingstone is an excellent writer and sensitive and attuned to the environment he travels in. No modest person would undertake the work he did.
“I think I would rather cross the African continent again than undertake to write another book. It is far easier to travel than to write about it.” -- Missionary travels and researches in South Africa by David Livingstone (1857)
Read: January 26, 2020 | Find Online
Milbrandt writes an excellent account of Livingstone’s true mission to Africa, not to make converts, but to end the East African slave trade. Milbrandt doesn’t gloss over Livingstone’s failings as a person nor valorize him as a saint. As he notes in his introduction:
“If David Livingstone pursued one purpose, it was freedom from the African slave trade. This vile desecration bled Africa—“the open sore of the world”—and Africa’s wounds ran deep into Livingstone’s soul. His search for the mighty Nile River merely powered Livingstone’s wheel of abolition.” -- The Daring Heart of David Livingstone: Exile, African Slavery, and the Publicity Stunt That Saved Millions (2014) by Jay Milbrandt
Read: January 26, 2020 | Buy on Kindle
More reading from 2020:
- See my complete 2020 Reading list on Goodreads.
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