Medical Missions played a crucial role in the colonization of Africa by opening up the continent to others wanting to spread commerce and Christianity. Dr. David Livingstone was the crusading medical missionary who, by spreading the words of the bible was one of the first men to open up Africa to these ideas. He held the popular belief that Africans needed to be saved from their savagery and cannibalism by the superior moral power, the British (Brantlinger, P.178). The stories and lives of medical missionaries such as Dr. Livingstone help to explain how the British viewed themselves as superior and that it was their duty to help pitied Africans through enlightening them about the diving healing of God in the bible as well as through medicine.
Dr. David Livingstone was born in 1813 in Blantyre, Scotland where his interest in science and traveling the world started at an early age. His parents were very strict about him being involved in the church which started his interest in the word of God. From 1836-1840, he attended the University of Glasgow studying both medicine and theology. During this time he read a lot about missionary enterprises and travel (Dr. Livingstone, P.5). He became a member of the London Mission Society with an interest in going to China. When this plan was disrupted by a War, an opportunity came up for him to embark on a journey to Cape, South Africa (Dr. Livingstone, P.7). He then went to Algoa Bay for a short period before proceeding to Kuruman. In total he spent 16 years in Africa from 1840-1856 (Dr. Livingstone, P.8)
While in Kuruman, he met the first tribe that he encountered called the Bakuena. The chief of this tribe, Sechele, was very accepting to Christianity and even wanted to teach it to the people in his tribe. Dr. Livingstone claims that during his time with these people “we exercised no authority” (Dr. Livingstone, P.17) Although he may have not “exercised authority” the way that he spoke about Africans shows how he believed that the British were superior. In his book, Dr. Livingstone speaks of Africans that he was educating about the bible by saying, “In general they were slow, like all the African people… They were stupid in matters which had not come within the sphere of their observation, but in other things they showed more intelligence than our own uneducated peasantry.” (Dr. Livingstone, P.17) Although he viewed Africans as “children” and “savages”, unlike other missionaries, Dr. Livingstone had some respect for Africans (Brantlinger, P.178). After his time with this tribe, Chief Sechele went back on and abandoned his Catholic beliefs. After this failed attempt at conversion, he continued inward in Africa and met many tribes along the way.
Throughout this journey he discovered 28 new tribes (Lovett, P. 609). He mapped the rivers and through these journeys is how he came to the idea of opening up Africa for trade. He was a strong advocator for trade, and abolition of the slave trade. He said that his desire was “to open a path to this district, that civilization, commerce, and Christianity might find their way there” (Dr. Livingstone, P.1). Because of Dr. Livingstone and his ambition to discover Africa, the door was opened for europeans to come in and expand. The fact that Dr. Livingstone was using evangelical motives and had an education in medicine “provided the moral basis for massive imperial expansion” (Brantlinger, P.178).
Dr. Livingstone held common beliefs about illness and medicine during this time. He believed that illnesses were caused by blood disorders and by disturbances in the GI tract (Etherington, P.278). Because of this belief, he would make his patients bleed by applying leeches to “balance” them and rid the body of bad substances (Etherington, P. 278). During his time in Africa he was convinced that he developed a cure for all tropical fevers but then people ended up dying from taking his developed pills. During this time the pathology of diseases were not known which is why the “cures” being used such as making people vomit, defecate, and bleed, were not successful (Etherington, P.279). Medical cures were not always guaranteed and it was a common belief that if something was successful it was an act of God. This is because evangelical ideas guided these missions and the role of divine healing was very prevalent (Etherington, P.277). Many medical missions made disease worse and sometimes even caused disease, and these doctors had very little, if any, training in a clinical setting (Etherington, P. 276). There were three victories that medical missionaries had in Africa, pulling teeth, simple surgeries to remove tumors and cataracts, and the most important, vaccinations and injections, specifically to smallpox (Etherington, P. 280). Many Africans accepted the vaccinations to smallpox with “surprisingly little fuss.” (Etherington, P.281) Medicine during this time period was very contradictory. On one hand, European doctors wanted to believe that they were helping people with new “cures” to illness because they were smarter than Africans. On the other hand, they relied on God to provide cures by using divine healing. Using God meant that if a cure did not work then it was not their fault, but rather that the person was too big of a sinner or did not know God so it was their own fault. This was very convenient for doctors during this time and tells us how they may not have had the patient's best interest in mind when offering treatment. This also shows us how racial hierarchy and divide was further developed using knowledge of medicine to back it up.
Before going to Africa Dr. Livingstone was a factory boy and by going to Africa he became a great white leader and teacher (Brantlinger, P.181). Once he returned home from Africa, he wrote a book that “took the Victorian reading public by storm” (Brantlinger, P.176). His Missionary Travels sold seventy thousand copies in the first couple of months. He was considered a “national hero” for his observations made about the “Dark Continent” (Brantlinger, P.176). The europeans saw Dr. Livingstone as one of the bearers of “light” of civilization (Brantlinger, P.178). This tells us how in the empire, people respect and believe the words of the educated, white men.
His accounts had a very big effect on not only the British culture but also on the course of modern history in the sense that he opened the door for expansion into Africa. Others followed in his footsteps after he mapped various rivers and routes for expansion. The things that he said about Africans allowed for greater racial divide between blacks and whites. People had more misconceptions that ever before about the way in which Africans lived. Through the life of Dr. Livingstone we see how the power of words have influence on others, where roots of racism started, and how the role of science and people in power created cultural differences. Many stereotypes emerged from these writings such as Africans being savages and “Ape like” cannibals who are demon possessed using witchcraft, Africa being “Dark”, and needing european help (Brantlinger, P.198). Ideas also emerged for the first time in Europe about races and some people being higher than others. The concept of racial division was something that began to develop further during this time. Although he believed that Africans were actually healthier than the people back in Europe, he still took part in perpetuating racial stereotypes (Etherington, P.278). One of the things that Livingstone claimed that would influence public opinion back in Europe was his belief of Africans being in need of saving from, “their own savagery” (Brantlinger, P.198). By instilling this belief in the minds of his fellow whites, Livingstone was furthering the division between the two races. Although David Livingstone did not instigate the deeply rooted racism between Europeans and Africans, his actions and words as a doctor had a huge influence on public opinion and the furthering of beliefs.
Medical missionaries, such as Dr. David Livingstone, played a major role in the imperial colonization in Africa; their influence on the religion and medicinal practices of native tribes assisted the British in solidifying their position as the superior race. Dr. Livingstone did not start his life believing that he would end up in Africa, he originally was set on travelling to Asia to preach the gospel and practice medicine. However, due to a chain of events this dream never came to fruition and he began his journey in South Africa. During his sixteen years in Africa as part of the London Missionary Society, Livingstone accomplished things that most missionaries and explorers failed to do in a lifetime (Dr. Livingstone, P.8). His explorations uncovered countless uncharted areas, lakes, rivers and even native tribes that had never had interactions with white men (Lovett, P. 609). These discoveries aided in opening up trade routes for Europeans and allowed for the interior of Africa to be more porous for British colonization. His emphasis on the value of religion to the people he met also was in line with the British civilizing mission; they believed that these “savages” could only be saved from themselves with the help of white men and Christianity. Along with his religious teachings, Livingstone also focused his efforts on his medical practice in Africa. Although many of his methods may be irrational by today’s standards and sometimes caused more harm than good, he did make some positive strides during his time in Africa. Medical missionaries did this through implementation of simple surgeries, tooth extraction and vaccinations were key victories that ultimately improved medical treatments in a place where the tribes previously relied on medicine men with no training. The combination of David Livingstone’s religious teachings, medical implementation and discoveries of new lands and tribes have solidified him as one of the most successful British missionaries of the 1800’s, and the effects of his work helped further the imperial colonization of Africa.
References
Brantlinger, Patrick. “Victorians and Africans: The Genealogy of the Myth of the Dark Continent.” Critical Inquiry, vol. 12, no. 1, 1985, pp. 166–203. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1343467.
Etherington, Norman. Missions and Empire. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Image 1. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/PSM_V02_D342_David_Livingstone.jpg
Image 2. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Chief_Sechele%2C_Africa%2C_ca.1840-ca.1860_%28imp-cswc-GB-237-CSWC47-LS16-022%29.jpg
Livingstone, David. A Popular Account of Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa. 1861.
Livingstone, David. Speech at Cambridge University, December 4, 1857.
Lovett, Richard. 1899. The History of the London Missionary Society, Vol 1. Oxford University Press: Henry Frowde. Available through: Adam Matthew, Marlborough, Empire Online, http://www.empire.amdigital.co.uk/Documents/SearchDetails/The%20History%20of%20the%20London%20Missionary%20Society%20by%20Richard%20Lovett#