Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone

The meeting of Dr David Livingstone and Henry Morton Stanley in the middle of Africa in 1871 is perhaps one of the most remarkable and dramatic events in history. Like the Miracle of Dunkirk, when a flotilla of civilian boats rescued the British army from Nazi forces early in WWII, the near impossible odds of success and eventual epic victory seem to be pulled from a Tolkien book rather than real history. Thus Martin Dugard’s Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone, is rightfully a story first and a history second. In Dugard’s story, Stanley is the true protagonist, who will survive Africa to become Livingstone’s successor as the world’s greatest explorer. However, he ends up working counter to the Doctor’s goal of a slavery-free Africa, tragically helping to make the Dark Continent... darker.The book begins at the start of Livingstone’s third and final trek into Africa in 1866. The world renowned, prototypical explorer and paragon of Victorian virtue is desperate to redeem his reputation and finances after his disastrous 1858 Zambezi expedition. He sets out to find the source of the Nile, an elusive mystery since 460 BC when the ancient Greek Herodotus failed to find the source. However, despite setting out with his usual exhilaration, writing in his journal that Africa is “a tonic to the system”, the trials of Africa quickly overwhelm the now older man. His porters desert him, taking irreplaceable supplies. He constantly fights all manner of African diseases, often so weakened by fever and dysentery that his few remaining porters have to carry him.Completely obsessed with finding the source, he relies on the Arab slave traders he despises to continue his quest. Dugard writes that “it was as if he had sold a part of his soul in the name of ambition.” After staying with the slavers for five years, he witnesses the Arabs massacre a village of Africans deep in the center of the continent. Faced with the evil of the slave trade, he leaves for the small village of Ujiji, where, sick and without supplies, he helplessly and hopelessly waits for a “good Samaritan” to rescue him.Livingstone has been gone for nearly four years and is presumed dead by many when the New York Herald’s owner, James Gordon Bennett, seeking an exciting story to distract the public from a gold market scandal, assigns Stanley, his foreign correspondent, the task of finding Livingstone. An unlikely African explorer, Stanley was born in England to a prostitute and the town drunk. Abandoned at the age of five, he was sent to live in a orphanage where he was regularly sexually violated until, at the age of 17, he escaped to America. In the States he fights for both the Confederacy and Union in the Civil War, where he discovers his talent for writing. After an ill-fated adventure in Turkey, he dedicates himself to journalism, eventually joining the staff of the Herald.Ironically, Stanley’s horrific upbringing prepares him well for the brutalities of an African expedition. After months of preparation, facing almost no chance of success, he sets out with a large caravan from Zanzibar. Struggling to lead his recalcitrant men, Stanley resorts to whipping them constantly, at one point writing in his journal “The virtue of a good whip was well tested by me”. Overcoming multiple mutiny attempts, a near fatal case of cerebral malaria, a war with “The African Bonaparte”, crocodile attacks, and worst of all the unforgiving African landscape itself, Stanley finds the strength and confidence he has always lacked. Miraculously, he also finds Livingstone. Upon their meeting he asks the now famous question, “Doctor Livingstone, I presume?”Stanley and Livingstone spend weeks together in Ujiji. Stanly, “basking in the older man’s grace”, writes of the doctor:“I grant that he is not an angel, but he approaches to that being as near as the nature of a living man will allow.”Stanley tries to convince Livingstone to return to England with him but the Doctor refuses. Weeks after one of the most improbable meetings in history, Stanley returns to Zanzibar and Livingstone continues his quest for the source. He dies shortly after, his body destroyed by years of African hardship and disease, in a village almost 600 miles south of the actual source. Stanley takes up Livingstone’s mantle as the world’s greatest explorer, finding the source of the Congo and following the dangerous river all the way to the West coast of the continent.Dugard tells this story with great care and skill. He is himself an adventurer and while researching Into Africa, he followed Stanley’s path across what is today Tanzania, getting thrown into an African prison while doing so. This is, presumably, what helps him understand his explorers’ relationship with the African landscape, leading to wonderful insights such as the following after Stanley’s near miss with a crocodile:“Africa had soothed him and calmed him and made him feel as if he were its master. But it was all a myth. The continent had no equal.”Dugard also enhances his story with an epic style. Like a gifted movie director, he cuts chapters back and forth between Stanley, Livingstone, and the rest of the world, creating dramatic scope and pacing. Little details, for instance starting each Stanley-focused chapter by counting down the “Miles to Livingstone”, gives an intense sense of urgency to his relentless quest. But Dugard never loses the intimacy of his characters. For example, when he describes Stanley “striving desperately to say exactly the right thing” when meeting Livingstone.If Dugard loses anything in his account, it is the different impacts Stanley and Livingstone will have on Africa after their meeting. Livingstone’s fervent abolitionist beliefs and his graphic description of the horrific slave trade, especially the massacre he witnesses, will spur the British Empire to use its superpower status to end the slave trade. Stanley, however, tragically uses his knowledge of the Congo to enforce the brutal Belgian regime of King Leopold II, failing to continue the true legacy of Livingstone. The two explorers serve as contrasting symbols, the best and worst of Western action in Africa.

Here's what I knew (or thought I knew) before I read this book: David Livingstone was a missionary who, after many years of trying, converted almost no Africans to Christianity. He got sidetracked into trying his luck at exploration....and didn't have much luck. He mainly wandered around, not accomplishing much. Henry Morton Stanley went looking for Livingstone as a newspaper "publicity stunt." He had a lot of money behind him and found Livingstone without too much trouble. Later on in life he went back to Africa and debased himself by working for the notorious King Leopold of Belgium, helping to set up the infamous slave-labor colony in the Congo. He was, even before he went to the Congo, a cruel racist. Although maybe I shouldn't admit to my ignorance, that's pretty much what I "knew." Some of the above turned out to be true, some of it didn't, as I discovered after reading this book. It is true Livingstone didn't have much luck with conversions, even though he spent a good portion of the last 30 years of his life in Africa. He was, however, a better explorer than I realized. He was the first white man to walk across Africa, doing so from east to west. From 1841-1851 he explored the deserts, rivers and lakes of Southern Africa. From 1858-1863 he explored the Zambezi river and the area to the north of the river. It is true that he didn't accomplish 2 of the main goals he had set for himself. He hoped, by his explorations, to open up the African interior to economic development which would eliminate the slave trade. This didn't happen during his lifetime. He even compromised his principles and accepted food and hospitality from Arab slave traders as his second goal became his primary goal, and even an obsession- to find the source of the Nile. He was about 600 miles too far to the south, and never found what he was looking for. Indeed, after being found by Stanley, Livingstone remained in Africa and died in pursuit of his obsession. Despite these failures, Livingstone did map quite a bit of Africa and measured the height of, and gave the English name to, Victoria Falls. Stanley, while undoubtedly a racist- he beat his porters for little or no reason- did not have an easy time finding Livingstone. As Mr. Dugard makes clear, Stanley relentlessly made his way through jungles, swamps and savannah, having to deal with crocodiles, lions, hyenas, and tsetse flies along the way. He survived bouts of malaria and dysentery, encounters with cannibals, an attempted rebellion by his men, and porters running off with essential supplies. He also wound up in the middle of a war between Arab slave traders and various African tribes. He was genuinely fond of Livingstone and didn't just stick around to say, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" He spent five months with Livingstone, bringing essential supplies so that Livingstone could go on with his explorations. Stanley later, in 1874, returned to Africa and circumnavigated both Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika and followed the Congo River all the way to the Atlantic. These were remarkable achievements. Do they absolve Stanley of the sin of helping to establish Leopold's nightmarish Belgian Congo? No they don't....but they were still remarkable achievements. This book works very well as an adventure story, but it is more than that. The author didn't just look at the books that Stanley and Livingstone wrote for public view. He also looked at the journals of the two men. Thus, we are privy to their most inner thoughts and disappointments. Livingstone was guilty about not having spent more time at home in England with his wife and children. (His wife was so lonely she came to Africa to join him in 1861. She died from malaria in 1862.) He also, however, despite his reputation as a "pure of heart" missionary, was very sexually active with African women. He himself estimated that he had enjoyed the favors of 300 natives. Stanley was the result of a liaison between his prostitute mother and one of her customers. He was dumped in a workhouse by uncaring relatives and was sexually abused by his fellow inmates. His journals, unsurprisingly, show a man wracked by insecurity and depression, warding off thoughts of suicide by keeping himself constantly busy. Mr. Dugard speculates that part of the appeal for Stanley in finding Livingstone (and his affection for Livingstone once they met) was his desperate need for a father figure. (Livingstone was about 30 years older than Stanley.) Considering Stanley's upbringing, this speculation does not seem far-fetched. One problem this otherwise fine book does have is that is suffers from a lack of maps. The only map in the book is printed on the inside cover. It is ok but not really detailed, and it is awkward to get to. As most of the chapters get into a lot of detail regarding where Stanley and Livingstone are at any particular moment, it would have been much better to have more maps scattered throughout the book. In any event, after reading this excellent combination of adventure tale/ dual biography, I feel a little less ignorant than before. Not a bad thing!

Having previously lived for many years in Africa, I was curious to delve deeper into the Livingstone legends. This book is a great account of the man and his explorations, is engaging and very well written.

Good book. Enjoyed reading it.

Die Geschichte der Entwicklung Afrikas und des großen Einflusses der Araber und des Islams ist ein interessantes Nebenprodukt dieses Werkes. Exakt und ohne lästigen Kommentar geschrieben.

This was a wonderful read, really enjoyed the two characters, such endurance and bravery, in a time long gone

Consiglierei questo libro a chiunque fosse interessato all'appassionante vicenda di Stanley e Livingstone o a chi volesse semplicemente sapere cosa significava essere un esploratore nell'Africa nera in quegli anni. Il racconto è molto scorrevole ed allo stesso tempo ricco di interessanti dettagli. Sarebbe stato bello trovare a fine libro o all'inizio dei capitoli le mappe dei luoghi descritti.