Writing David Livingstone Back into South African History

Abstract

Very little of the vast literature on David Livingstone treats his decade as a missionary in South Africa, focusing instead on his later expeditions to central Africa. Described as a failed missionary who gave up evangelism for exploring, he came under fire in the second half of the 20th century for leading European imperialism in Africa. A deeper look into Livingstone’s mission experience from 1841 to 1857 shows that his highly original writing on theology, missiology and colonialism ranks alongside the better-known work of South African churchmen such as Johannes van der Kemp, John Philip and J.W. Colenso. His analysis and experience of settler colonialism on the Cape frontier and in the Transvaal were not incidental but central to his decision to seek an east–west corridor for the introduction of commerce and Christianity to a region he hoped might be free of colonial aggression and human trafficking.