The Livingstone Memorial

By: Nicky Dunnington-Jefferson Photos: Nicky Dunnington-Jefferson

Beneath the sod, entombed in a foreign field, rests the heart of a truly great man: David Livingstone. A magnificent mpundu tree (Parinari curatellifolia) used to shade the site of the interment, but the tree is long gone. However, in the precincts of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) in London, part of this tree has been preserved and is on display; I pass it every time I visit the Society. It is inscribed with the words: [Dr] Livingstone May 4 1873 followed by the names of his faithful African attendants. The words were carved into the bark by Jacob Wainwright, another loyal African follower, before the explorer’s embalmed body was carried carefully to the coast for shipment back to England.

In 1899 Mr. Robert Codrington, Deputy Administrator for Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), was assigned the task of assessing the rapidly decaying tree. He decided that the section bearing the inscription be dispatched by ship to London and thence to the RGS. Above this artefact hangs a photograph of the tree in its full glory – but how different the site looks now.

I visited the Livingstone Memorial site last year accompanied by my guide, the esteemed Zambian artist Quentin Allen. It is easy to reach and not far from Kasanka National Park, off the D235 on a reasonable dirt road – look out for green railings. However, if you’re not looking carefully, you might miss the off-road sign to the memorial. The entrance fee for nonZambians is a hefty US$15. We were greeted by Barbara, a charming lady and knowledgeable guide, with Clare Pettitt’s book Dr. Livingstone, I presume? She took us first to what is alleged to be the site of Livingstone’s actual death aged 60 on 1st May 1873, in a hut in Chief Chitambo’s village. A plaque marks the spot.

The missionary and explorer was travelling south with his followers through the swampy Bangweulu region of what was then Northern Rhodesia. After crossing the Lulimala River, with their leader very sick and weak, the party arrived at Chief Chitambo’s village. Livingstone was unable to go on. I quote a statement: 1‘When the people arrived they used the huts in the village. They made a house of cloth, a tent, for the Bwana. It was a tent but smaller than the District Officer’s’. Livingstone died that night, and was found kneeling by his bed in the morning, on his knees in a praying position – but not under the mpundu tree.

Livingstone’s heart and viscera were buried where the mpundu tree once stood. The statement continues: ‘In the morning they carried the Bwana’s body to a Mpundu tree where the Monument is now. They carried it on a large flat iron plate. Then they pulled out his stomach and heart and lungs and put them in a hole in the ground near the Mpundu tree. Then Chitambo called all his villages to bring food and they brought meal and goats and chickens and the Bwana’s people mourned for three days’.

There is still a mpundu tree here, an offshoot of the original, and nearby

1. The two quotes are taken from a translated statement made by Lupoko, a headman, and certified by T.S.L. Fox Pitt, District Commissioner, Mpika, on 30/10/1936. Lupoko was a young boy when Livingstone arrived in Chief Chitambo’s village in 1873. Statement courtesy of the Shiwa archives, by kind permission of Charlie and Jo Harvey. stands the monument to Livingstone, built in 1902 from burnt brick covered in smooth cement. A bronze cross surmounts the obelisk and the main body is embedded with bronze tablets. One of the tablets informs that on 1st May 1973, exactly 100 years after Livingstone’s death, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, the then President of Zambia, led a gathering here to honour the memory of ‘the Father of Zambia’.

Chief Chitambo’s village, known as Old Chitambo, has been relocated for many years. Native dwellings and many trees are gone from the site, leaving a cleared space in which the plaque and obelisk stand. There aren’t even benches to rest upon. Barbara is very keen for an Information Centre to be established and for the area to be made more visitor-friendly.

As I stood by the memorial plaque to Livingstone, simply inscribed with the details of his birth and death, I was suddenly overcome with emotion. Not wishing to appear this way in front of Quentin, I turned away to compose myself. Later in the day, as we were discussing our visit, I confessed. He told me he had felt the same. History’s hand had touched each of us on the shoulder.

Livingstone’s powerful spirit lives on. This extraordinary man broke the bounds of human endeavour to follow his beliefs and to spread the message of Christianity and freedom to a benighted continent still in the throes of slavery, which he called ‘an immense evil’. His geographical discoveries are legendary and his words spring to mind: ‘If you have men who will come if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.’

Above, left: One of the tablets embedded into the main body of the Livingstone Memorial. The words of the inscription at the bottom were carved into the trunk of the original mpundu tree pictured in the Royal Geographical Society image.