Tuesday 26 February 2013

David Livingstone (1813-1873) Part 2


In the last post we saw the early influences on the life of David Livingstone, one of Congregationalism’s finest figures, born two hundred years ago this month.  We also saw how he came to faith in Christ, and was led to full time missionary service in Africa. This article deals with his three spells in Africa.  

David Livingstone set sail for Africa at the end of 1840.  This would be where, with the exception of two brief spells back in Britain, he would spend the rest of his life.  The first of his three spells on that continent lasted fifteen years, and began at the Kuruman Mission Station, 650 miles north east of Cape Town, where he worked for two years.  Immediately he became convinced of two principles. Firstly, native Christians needed to be trained to evangelise their own people.  Secondly that rather than having a large number of missionaries operating from a mission station it was better that some went to unexplored areas of the land, and reached people yet to hear the Gospel.  He moved further into the interior, and was encouraged when his young bride, Mary was able to join him.  The pattern of his years in Africa was set, as time and again he moved further and further into unreached areas, reaching Kolobeng in modern day Botswana, where he would spend some five years.  It was here that he had the joy of seeing his first (and perhaps only) convert, Sechele, who was baptized on confession of his faith in Christ.
          
From his base at Kolobeng, Livingstone made many long journeys to visit and bring the Gospel to other tribes.  These were hazardous, especially in terms of the health of him and his growing family.  His wife almost died and the children suffered dreadfully from the mosquitos.  At this time, Livingstone became the first European to discover Lake Ngami and the Zambesi River, but also became more and more aware of the evils of the slave trade which was bringing great misery to so many on the continent.  Livingstone realized that African tribes were engaging in the slave trade out of a desire to possess European goods, especially guns.  If only legitimate commerce could be established, Livingstone believed that the slave trade would cease to exist.  It could be argued that from then on Livingstone lost sight of the primacy of bringing the Gospel to people, such was his desire to find and open up trade routes in, until then, unknown tracts of Africa.  But, Livingstone felt that the three controlling forces of his life worked hand in hand.  He wanted to explore, evangelise and emancipate.  Finding new paths and new tribes would mean he and others could bring the Gospel, but along with this would come European civilization and commerce which would bring freedoms for those who were now oppressed.

Livingstone set out, therefore, on the ambition of finding a trade route to the coast. Though this necessitated sending his wife and children back to England, and caused some to think that he was now more of an explorer than a missionary, the London Missionary Society, at first, accepted his plan.  Between 1853 and 1855 he went first west and then east from Linyanti in the Upper Zambesi, seeking a suitable route.  It was at this time that he famously discovered the Victoria Falls.  Wherever he went, he sought to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the locals, but by this time the LMS felt unable to support his new style of working, and Livingstone left the service of the Mission.

His second spell in Africa saw him lead a government-sponsored expedition to the Zambesi and to the Shire Highlands of Lake Niassa.  At the same time a Universities Mission in the area had been established by some English Churchmen, which Livingstone gladly assisted in.  But the Mission was not a success and the failure coincided with a series of other disappointments which brought the pioneer missionary to his lowest point.  The expedition itself achieved little, and cost the life of Livingstone’s wife, Mary, and others who succumbed to fever. Mistakes in decision-making, and a failure to work with other team members, meant that Livingstone was at least partly responsible for the failure, and he returned to Britain for his second furlough a sad man.

Livingstone returned for a third spell on the continent encouraged by a friend to search for the source of the River Nile.  Though some have thought he ceased, in reality, from being a true missionary at this point, his letters at the time show that he still thought that evangelization, discovery of new trade routes, and the emancipation of those in the grip of the slave trade went hand in hand.  He sought to tell people about Christ wherever he went. 

Again, however, Livingstone met with continued trials and discouragements.  The brutal reality of the slavery he saw being perpetrated by Arab traders in particular appalled him. He was witness to a number of terrible events, including one massacre at Nyangwe, when some four hundred people were killed, many of them women and children.  He likened what he saw to being in hell itself.  He was more convinced than ever that his days should be spent on the three goals that had inspired him throughout.

But his health was failing, so much so that his two faithful servants, Susi and Chuma, had to carry him from place to place.  It was they who famously carried his body some 1,500 miles to the coast so that it could be transported back to England, following his death, whilst in prayer, on or around May 1st 1873.  His internal organs, however, including his heart, were removed and buried in Africa.  The rest of his remains now lie in Westminster Abbey.

(To be continued)

No comments:

Post a Comment