Geography Cat’s friend Jane took Ike to the David Livingstone Birthplace Museum recently, and Ike was interested to find out more about this famous Scot.
Livingstone was born in Blantyre, South Lanarkshire Scotland, in 1813. He worked in a local factory from the age of ten, attending the company school in the evenings, before studying medicine at Glasgow University. He traveled to Africa as a medical missionary in 1841 and for the next nearly 30 years he was the first European to explore much of central and southern Africa. When he died in Chitambo (Modern Zambia) aged 60, Livingstone’s heart and viscera were buried beneath a mvula tree. The rest of his remains were carried 930 miles (1500km) to the coast and transported back to Britain for interment at Westminister Abbey with full state honours.
Ike loved it, whilst Geography Cat can highly recommend the birthplace museum website which has fabulous online resources.
David Livingstone was a great explorer who found the source of the Nile River. He was the first person to traverse southern and central Africa. He was also on the expedition that reached Lake Nyassa, Nyassaland (Malawi). Victoria Falls in Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) was named after him and the town closest to it, Livingstone. I recognise the Ndebele warrior shields he collected from Matabeleland when the British occupied Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabe). Thank you GC, I was not aware that he was a missionary and medical physician and was a lead figure in abolishing slavery in East Africa.
Hi, I live near his birthplace and we learned all about him as a child.