Overview

Officially commissioned to explore the Zambezi river for mineral deposits and opportunities for trade, David Livingstone left England in 1858 and discovered an area whose sharp contrast between misery and natural beauty left him bewitched. Outraged by the racial injustice he found during the eight year expedition, Livingstone wrote this account.

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9780715630877

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The Zambesi rises in northern Zambia, and flows for 650 miles, through eastern Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, to the Indian Ocean. In 1858 David Livingstone, the first white man to see (and name) Victoria Falls, was commissioned to explore (or, if you prefer, exploit) the Zambesi for its mineral deposits and trading rights. He duly set off, with brother Charles, and only returned - in a coffin - 16 years later. This reprint of the Livingstones' classic travelogue covers the eight years they spent in what is now Zimbabwe. It is a model of 19th-century travel writing at its best, detailing in prose as rich and languid as the land they travelled through not only the flora and fauna of southern Africa but also the overwhelming hospitality and bravery of its inhabitants, the appalling conditions in which many lived, and the obscenity of the slave trade, to which Livingstone was vehemently opposed. There is, refreshingly, none (or, at least, precious little) of the condescending tone of their contemporaries when writing about non-white peoples. The Livingstones were ahead of their time, impressed and enchanted by what they encountered, be it man-made or natural. That over-riding sense of wonder reaches its apogee on arrival at Victoria Falls (known to the indigenous people as Mosioatunya, or Smoke Sounding) where the Livingstones confess that 'it is rather a hopeless task to endeavour to convey an idea of it in words' - but proceed to do so nonetheless, with customary elegance. David Livingstone's love of Africa was reciprocated. When he died, in 1873, his black companions buried his heart at the foot of a tree, mummified his body, and carried it for nine months to the island of Zanzibar, whence it was returned to England. Livingstone is buried in Westminster Abbey, but this book, with its fecund prose and lavish illustrations, is the true testament to his indomitable spirit. (Kirkus UK)

Author Information

David Livingstone (1813-73) was a Scottish missionary and traveller who became world famous for his search for the origins of the Nile, a search which tragically ended in his death. The Zambezi expedition preceded the troubled Nile expedition.

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