All Around the World with the Most Travelled Indian
By Nitin Gairola
Lifting the veil on Africa
The seas had been charted, more or less, during the age of discovery. And with all continents found (except Antarctica), now there was a need for explorers to search for secrets further inland. This was the time of exploration of Africa. These early explorers of Africa were more and more driven by a curiosity to understand, something we as modern-day travelers and tourists can better relate to. However, the reason why the explorers got funded by their European governments was far more sinister. It was, as before, to size up the opportunity for colonisation and carve out Africa amongst them.
In the 1500s, the coast of Africa was well mapped by seafarers, but no one knew what lay inside. In particular there was a great mystery about the sources of their mighty rivers such as the Congo, Zambezi, Nile and Niger. There were only tales of the once great empires of Kush and Axum (Ethiopia), the gold in the city of Timbuktu (kingdom of Mali), the Pygmies found in tropical rainforests, the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert and of the various tribes making the savannah their nomadic home. The one major known kingdom in Africa to the men of this time was that of Benin in West Africa, with whom the Portuguese had made contact during their voyages along the African west coast.
With all the changes in the political and economic landscape of Europe post the industrial revolution, the European rulers looked at what was right below them, literally in a way and metaphorically in a different way. The continent of Africa was right there, ready to be cut up and served to their to-be masters.
This veil would first be lifted by intrepid explorers who accidentally were the front line in the reshaping of the political order. Between the 100 years from 1795 to 1895 there were adventurers like the Mungo Park (explored the Niger River), Hugh Clapperton and Lander brothers (travelled from Tripoli to Lake Chad), Rene Caillie (explored Sahara and the fabled gold city of Timbuktu), Heinrich Barth (Tripoli and Sahara Desert), James Bruce (River Nile), Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke (Lake Victoria and source of Nile) and James Grant (source of Nile, with Speke). Then there was the greatest and most celebrated African explorer of them all – Dr David Livingstone and the story of how he met American journalist Henry Morgan Stanley – who would become one of the great explorers himself. In our 2019 trip to Africa, we followed the footsteps of Livingstone.
Doctor Livingstone, I presume
Of all the African exploration tales, possibly the greatest ever told was that of finding Dr David Livingstone (who had gone missing for 3 years) by the young American journalist, Henry Morgan Stanley. Dr Livingstone, besides being a great explorer, was first a doctor and a missionary. He made four epic journeys into the ‘dark continent’ (dark as in unexplored, it must be clarified) and brought Africa into popular culture both in Europe and across the Atlantic in the post-independence USA. Livingstone was also the front runner for the abolishment of slave trade in Africa and during his time he set up schools and hospitals for the locals, beside churches. This is his true legacy and what has given him his exalted status years after his departure.
Livingstone first arrived in Africa in 1841 in Cape Town, South Africa. Later he went to the Kalahari Desert and started the first Christian mission besides extensively exploring the land to get to know the people. He was the first European to see the mighty Zambezi River and of course the most majestic of waterfalls in the world – Victoria Falls or Mosi-oa-Tunya, i.e., ‘the smoke that thunders’. Livingstone also wanted to find a route from the Indian Ocean on the east coast of Africa to the Atlantic on the west coast via the Zambezi so as to open the continent to trade and development and, hence, to end slavery.
In 1865, David Livingstone set out once again and this time the objective was to find the source of the three great African rivers – the Congo, Zambezi and the Nile. While the source of the Nile was considered found, there was some controversy over it. Livingstone wanted to find the source for himself but sadly he was not successful in doing so. But during the three years of his final ‘mission improbable’ in Africa, the outside world had not heard from him at all. He became the most famous missing person, something that didn’t go unnoticed across the pond in USA. Every paper wanted the story as every reader wanted to hear about the great missionary and humanitarian, lost in the jungles of the mighty continent.
The New York Herald put their reporter, Stanley, on the job to find this missing saint, the way the world had started to know him. While Stanley was not an explorer, he had covered many battles in America during the time of the Civil War between the Union of the North and the Confederates of the South. This war was incidentally centered on the abolishment of slavery in the USA. So, when Stanley arrived on the east coast of Africa, he along with his army of locals, moved westwards from Zanzibar to Lake Tanganyika and finally to Ujiji, a journey of 600 odd kilometres. Fully exhausted from his journey, as he battled malaria, floods, droughts and all things Africa could throw at him, Stanley finally met Livingstone in Ujiji. That fateful date was 10 November 1871, and the world finally had found the doctor. Upon shaking hands with Livingstone, Stanley uttered the now famous words “Doctor Livingstone, I presume?’. These four words have been used in countless movies, books and songs and are part of travel and journalism history now.
Dr Livingstone never came back to England to get the welcome as befits a hero since he was now close to the end of his journey on Earth. Perhaps he would have been happiest for it to end in Africa. And, while during his lifetime he wasn’t able to find the source of any river, his legacy would be to connect Africa to the world and to be a champion of humanity.
Just a month after Livingstone’s death, the British closed the slave market in the island of Zanzibar, which was the biggest such ‘market’ in Africa. Livingstone’s heart, his literal heart, was fittingly buried in Chitambo in Zambia (near Congo) and the wood from the tree that grew next to his grave, was used to make a cross. That cross is placed on the interior wall of the Anglican Cathedral in Stone Town, Zanzibar. Such is how he is honoured in Africa, despite being a white man and from a country that caused much suffering to the people of the continent.
In July-August 2019, Richa and I did our ‘Z-trip’ to Zimbabwe, Zambia and Zanzibar and we followed the great man’s trail. In Zanzibar, we had a few drinks in Livingstone House and African House (where he would spend his evenings) and then went to the Anglican Cathedral where we saw the cross that I mentioned above. We also walked inside the dark cells where the slaves were locked up in, and it was disturbing to say the least. And, of course, we saw the Zambezi River and Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Zambia where Dr Livingstone still stands proud (albeit in the form of a statue). In fact, in Zambia there is a town that’s called Livingstone and it is very close to the Victoria Falls.
We had seen the source of the Nile River too (in an earlier visit to Uganda). This same source had eluded and haunted many explorers, including Livingstone, till their last days. Recently, in January 2024, I went to the Royal Geographical Society in London as well. This society had funded many a British expedition to Africa including the ones to the Nile.
Besides Livingstone, the reporter Stanley himself rose to exploration immortality. Just as Africa has a hold on many of us in the 21st century, Stanley too was not able to leave her and would continue expeditions of his own into the Congo. After the encounter with Livingstone, Stanley’s life would never be the same and, in 1874, he set off to explore the Congo River. He left from Zanzibar and sailed down the Congo and in 1877 reached the Atlantic coast. Stanley then sent stories of his exploratory exploits to European newspapers and Congo was all over the news.
However, other than the exploration of Africa and the media coverage that both men got, the similarities between Livingstone and Stanley ended. While Livingstone travelled relatively light and in the pursuit of higher ideals, Stanley came with an entourage, often of slaves and was a cruel taskmaster. His goal was the destination and not the journey. The darkest part of Stanley’s legacy will be his colonising the Congo for King Leopold II of Belgium, who paid him a royal sum to do so. Stanley did this by negotiating treaties with local chiefs and it was a harbinger for the dark times of colonisation which were about to descend on the continent. I thought it was important to show this side of the great man, who sadly wasn’t a good man.
The mad scramble for Africa
Since the start of the 19th century, besides the heroic exploits of these explorers, Europeans had begun to move in, but slowly at first. But by the time the century was halfway through, the French had claimed Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco and quite a few other countries of Western Africa. A few decades later, the British took over Egypt, after being commissioned to build the Suez Canal to greatly reduce the sea travel time and the cost of trade between Europe and Asia. Now, ships from Europe could cross via the Mediterranean Sea and through the Suez Canal into the Arabian Sea and eventually Asia. Earlier they had to go all the way around the west and southern coast of Africa in order to enter Asian waters.
Towards the south of the continent, the Dutch had come to South Africa all the way back in 1652 and set up the Cape Colony, but an international treaty handed over the colony to the Brits. So, in order to not be under English rule, by the mid-1830s they (called Boers or farmers in Dutch) moved away in their wagons in search of other lands and this mass movement itself was called the ‘Great Trek’. Over the years, the Boers faced many challenges and were attacked often by the local Zulu tribes; however, in 1879, the British supported the Boers and defeated the Zulus. This increased the British influence over them and with the discovery of gold, more and more British migrated to South Africa.
Later, Britain would gain hold over Sudan and Matabeleland which was later called Rhodesia (present day Zimbabwe and Zambia combined). The country’s name was changed by a gentleman named Cecil Rhodes who made millions from gold and diamond mines. He also built a railway from the British Cape Colony to the mining areas in the north, thereby aiding the movement of the settlers. In a way, Rhodes was a ‘business traveller’ of the 19th century and we visited his grave in Zimbabwe, not to mention we took the old train from Bulawayo in Zimbabwe to Victoria Falls.
Besides the French and British colonisation, the Italians took over Libya and Somalia, the Germans grabbed Cameroon, Namibia and Tanzania, and Portuguese got Mozambique and Angola. The Belgians, of course, took Congo bang in the centre of the continent with the aid of Stanley. The Spanish, who were the great conquistadors of America, this time around only got a small bite of the slender Western Sahara country (below Morocco). In all this slash and grab, it must be said that Ethiopia in the north-east maintained its independence throughout, although the country is going through a terrible civil war right now (and we have deferred our plans to visit this part of the world presently).
But Africa is indeed rising fast from the dark colonial days of the recent past and I strongly advise everyone to visit this last haven for spectacular wildlife and the most open-hearted people. In 2019, it was also our fourth trip to Africa and like Stanley we were also in the search of the most famous explorer. I believe, at the Africa House in Zanzibar, while sipping our gin & tonic, we did find Dr Livingstone.
Nitin Gairola is from Dehradun and has travelled the natural world more than almost any Indian ever. He has set world travel records certified by India Book of Records, has written for Lonely Planet, and holds National Geographic conservation certifications. He is also a senior corporate executive in an MNC and in his early days, used to be a published poet as well. More than anything else, he loves his Himalayan home. Reach him at: www.facebook.com/MostTravelledIndian/ ; www.instagram.com/MostTravelled_Indian/
