Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
DR LIVINGSTONE, ANTI-SLAVERY CRUSADER
The three 'Cs' - Christianity, colonisation and commerce - were the watchwords of Dr David Livingstone, Scot-
tish explorer and missionary. With the convergence of all three, he hoped he could put an end to the plague of
African slavery, what he was to refer to in the case of Nkhotakota as 'bloodshed and lawlessness'. Indeed, as his
paddlesteamer headed up the Shire River the sight of bloated bodies - victims of rampant butchering - was a daily
occurrence, and Livingstone would later publish accounts of the atrocities he'd witnessed that would sensitise and
heighten public disgust in the West.
In 1878 the Livingstonia Central African Mission Company (later renamed the African Lakes Corporation) was
formed, and it built a trading centre in Blantyre. The company then established a commercial network along the
Shire River and the shores of Lake Nyasa, which due to its vigilance and presence had a serious effect on the
slave trade in the region; after several clashes many slave traders were forced to leave.
Missions were established at Cape Maclear (1874), but due to malaria the mission was forced to relocate to
Bandawe (1881) and then to the chilly heights of Livingstonia (1894). The most important base, however, was on
Likoma Island, where the remarkable St Peter's Cathedral can still be seen today. In many ways the influence of
the Scottish missionaries was to shape the future fabric of the country, bringing with it literacy, carpentry skills,
farming methods, new crops, and altruism, in sharp contrast to the self-serving interests of many other colonial-
ists. Furthermore, unlike missions from other churches, the Scottish missionaries never used violence to convert
people and they risked their own lives to stop slavery, end local internecine wars and even oppose the cruelty of
colonialism. In 1895, twenty-one years after Livingstone's death, slavery was finally abolished; his benign presen-
ce still looms large even today.
The Colonial Era & National Resistance
By the 1880s the competition among European powers in the area was fierce. Colonial
rule brought with it an end to slave-traders and interethnic conflicts, but it also brought a
whole new set of problems. As more and more European settlers arrived, the demand for
land grew, and the local inhabitants found themselves labelled as 'squatters' or tenants of
a new landlord. The 'hut tax' (a levy per household paid to the British administration with
grain, labour or money) was introduced here too and traditional methods of agriculture
were discouraged. Increasing numbers of Africans were forced to seek work on the white-
settler plantations or to become migrant workers in Northern and Southern Rhodesia
(present-day Zambia and Zimbabwe) and South Africa. By the start of the 19th century
some 6000 Africans were leaving the country every year. (The trend continued throughout
the colonial period: by the 1950s this number had grown to 150,000.)
Fomented by Scottish missionaries, protest against British colonial rule bubbled to the
surface shortly before WWI. Sparks of revolt initially erupted in Nyasaland (the British
name for Malawi) out of the Laws Mission School in Blantyre. Edward Kamwana organ-
ised the first protests against forced taxation. Then John Chilembwe, another student from
