| Event type: | Meeting |
| Date: | 18th January 2024 |
| Venue: | Kenilworth Methodist Church |
A talk by Fran Sandham
Most people know about the meeting in Africa in 1871 between the explorer Doctor David Livingstone and the journalist Henry Morton Stanley and the famous greeting by Stanley ‘ Doctor Livingstone, I presume?’ But few people know the story of what led to the meeting and what happened subsequently. Our speaker Fran Sandham gave a very interesting talk to enlighten the audience about the lives of both Livingstone and Stanley. Livingstone was born in Scotland in 1813 and became a well-known medical missionary and explorer. In 1841 he arrived in South Africa primarily as a missionary but by 1852 was spending more time heading north trying to find the source of the Nile and by 1860 had vanished into the African jungle. Stanley was born in Wales and at the age of six was dumped by his family into an orphanage. On leaving the orphanage he reinvented himself as an American and took on a wide variety of jobs.
By the age of 26 he became the Ethiopian war reporter for the New York Herald, a sleazy American newspaper edited by James Gordon Bennet. Bennet wanted a scoop for the Herald and decided Stanley should be shipped off to Africa to find the missing explorer – Livingstone. Stanley arrived in Zanzibar and despite never having set foot in Africa before assembled a caravan of 100 porters within 3 months and headed towards the last known siting of the missing explorer. By now Livingstone was the most renowned of all African explorers. Among other exploits he had survived a lion attack, chartered the Zambesi River and walked from one side of the continent to the other, but by 1871 six years had passed with only scattered news on his whereabouts. In reality Livingstone was 1000 miles away from Zanzibar, he was ill and broke. Stanley’s search continued. On hearing rumours of a white man living in the village of Ujiji, Stanley donned his finest clothes and entered the town with his small band of followers. Stanley spied a sick looking European with an unruly beard and white hair. Sensing he had met his man Stanley extended his hand and asked the now famous question – ‘Dr Livingstone, I presume?’
When the stranger answered in the affirmative Stanley let out a sigh of relief and cried ‘I thank God, doctor, I have been permitted to see you.’ The two explorers had a natural rapport. Stanley viewed Livingstone as the father figure he had not had before. Livingstone recognised Stanley as a fellow explorer. Stanley wanted Livingstone to return to London but Livingstone still wanted to find the source of the Nile. So Stanley returned alone to the UK to come up against hostility as to whether he had actually found Livingstone. Livingstone died in 1873 and his body was transferred back to England for a 21-gun salute prior to being buried in Westminster Abbey. As an explorer he was not the best, but he did a lot to expose the slave trade abomination. He was also a gifted writer with a wit and light approach to writing. Stanley continued as an African explorer and solved many geographical questions. He was introduced to Queen Victoria and was knighted. He died in 1904. When finally asked why he greeted Livingstone as he did, Stanley advised ‘he could not think of anything else to say’. A very interesting talk and much appreciated by the audience.