Empire: World History - 191. Slave, Slaver, Abolitionist: Three Scots in Africa

Episode Date: October 2, 2024

The extraordinary lives of three Scotsmen - John Henderson, Richard Oswald, and David Livingstone - encapsulate the polarities of the Scottish experience in Africa prior to the 20th century. Henderson, formerly a soldier for the Swedes and the Danes in Europe, was captured and enslaved by the Arabs of Zanzibar in the Mediterranean. Before long though, he had won the heart of a princess of Zanzibar, and eloped to Alexandria with her. By contrast, Richard Oswald was a rich and prodigious slaver who went so far as to purchase an island where he would play golf, surrounded by his enslaved golf caddies in tartan, before later playing a major role in negotiating the Declaration of Independence. Finally, there was David Livingstone, a pioneering missionary, explorer and abolitionist, who nevertheless supported British colonial expansion, and whose influence on Western attitudes toward Africa endure to this day. In every case, the story of Scots in Africa is riddled with courage, cowardice, horror and adventure… In today’s episode, William and Anita are joined once again by historian Murray Pittock, to discuss the remarkable lives of the Scots who shaped and were shaped by their interactions with Africa, and the insight they give into the experiences of Scots overall. To fill out the survey: survey.empirepoduk.com To buy William's book: https://coles-books.co.uk/the-golden-road-by-william-dalrymple-signed-edition Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: [e-mail] Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you want access to bonus episodes reading lists for every series of Empire, a chat community. Discounts for all the books mentioned in the week's podcast, add free listening and a weekly newsletter, sign up to Empire Club at www.mpowerpoduk.com. Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnan. And me, William Duremple. Now you are still in the Scottish series, not the Scottish play, but it's the Scottish series that we've been doing here on the Empire podcast. And we talked in the last time we met about Scots in India and the impact they had on India and the impact India had on Scotland, the amount of money

that flowed into the country, which was transformative. We're going to talk about the relationship between Scots and Africa in this podcast, The Continent. And actually, there's a really interesting story about the earliest Scott to visit that continent. John Henderson was his name, William. You love this story? Tell us this story. I love this story and it frames everything that's followed. The rest of this story will be rather less edifying tales of Scots involved in slavery and colonialisation. But it's probably worth just putting this right at the beginning just for a wee bit of context because Sir John Henderson, the fifth laird of Fordle in Fife, I think, was the first Scott we know who visited India. And I remember 20 years ago when I was sent to write a travel article.

on Zanzibar, visiting the Scottish National Gallery, and James Holloway, who was then the keeper, took me down to the basement, and they have all their portraits that are not on show on these sort of runners, and he pulled out this rack of old 17th century portraits, and there was an incredible image, and I have got a black and white picture of it. It's always very good for a podcast, yes. Why don't you show it to everybody? Yeah.

Oh, yeah, that's really good. of the Arab princess. And it's a very romantic story. Sir John Faudill was working as a mercenary. We think probably for the southern Italian state. Yeah, but describe the picture a bit more. Hang on a second. That's a dreadful description.

Oh, okay. The image that we're talking about is there are two women seated, right? One is... One is Arab wearing this sort of exotic dress and holding an orb in her hand. and the other is of her black African maid with a pearl necklace and a white dress on. And behind is an image of one of those sort of Barbary corsair. Gallions, exactly. And this is the story of this character who in 1620s was captured at the tail end of the story of the Barbary Pirates

and somehow was sold via the slave markets of Egypt down to Yemen and beyond to Zanzibar, he was enslaved. And just when this character probably thought things couldn't get much worse, he happened to catch the eye of this Arab princess. And the story is that she and he eloped. And they made it to Alexandria where this portrait was painted. And this romantic story has a rather sort of tragic end because she dies her. And he comes home with the portrait to Fordle, where it's made its way into the Scottish National Gallery. Can I just say you absolutely crack me up? Just as it couldn't get any worse, he meets this woman. You're not really building it up as a very romantic story.

Just when he thought life couldn't get any grimmer, this woman. And I went to the palace where she lived in Zanzibar when I was there. And this whole place, not just on sort of tourist descriptions, but actually it smells of clothes. It's the great island where they grow cloves. And you inhale, it's like clothes cigarettes and that wonderful smell. fills the air. And this is the first got we know who visited Africa and he did so as a slave and escaped as an escape slave. But the other stories that we're going to tell today, which are

less edifying than this, we're going to turn to our old friend Murray Pittock. Yeah, less of the old, if you don't mind. Our returning guest, I like to think, Murray Pittock. Well, he's an old friend of mine. Okay, fair enough. But Murray, you'll remember author of Scotland, the global history, 1603 to the present. Welcome back. I'm glad we didn't scare you off the last time. Thanks for coming back. No, very pleased to be back and eat it with yourself and my very young friend, Will it? Thank you so much, Mary. That's a very charitable description. Thank you. As I approached my 60th birthday.

Let's not go down that route. Anyway. So, I mean, the story of John Henderson is romantic and it is probably the kind of way I'm thinking Scots would like to think of themselves overseas. You know, that they go, they battle through adversity. they fall in love, they're saved by love. The stories you're going to tell us a little bit different. And we're going to do something a bit different in this podcast because we're going to concentrate on two particular people and tell the history of Scottish adventurers in Africa through them. And the first person we'd like to talk about, Murray, is Richard Oswald. Tell us a little bit about his background. Who is he?

Richard Oswald is the son of the Minister of Dunnett in Keith Nell. Which about as far as possible you can go away from anywhere in Scottish mainland, isn't it? It is. He and also the other major partner in the company that he jointly founded, Alexander Grant, could be what it usually described as Highlanders. But one of the things they tell us, their career tells us, and Oswald's career tells us, is that the north of Scotland, the remote parts of Scotland are just as involved in the imperial story as any other part of Scotland. was later to be seen with Jarje Matheson in the 19th century. So Oswald is born in 1705. When he reaches 20 years old, he is actually apprenticed quite late to his cousins. And his cousins are Glasgow merchants trading in tobacco principally, as Glasgow escalates towards more than 50% of the transatlantic tobacco trade, which is what was reached in the late 1760s. This is much earlier,

but still tobacco is a major part of Glasgow's business. And of course, tobacco depends on the Caribbean and the Chesapeake and depends on enslaved labour. Murray, give us just a general overview at this point of how involved or not Scotland, specifically Glasgow, is in the slave trade at this point. So Glasgow in common with other ports in Scotland did not trade enslaved persons directly. So there are very few people who are enslaved who leave from Scottish ports. What tended to happen was that they had extensive business dealings in the Caribbean and the Chesapeake linked to enslaved persons around trade and tobacco and sugar. And this pattern continued into a more moral era with the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company,

with Cunard and with P&O. They tended to hold large, if not controlling interests in shipping consortia which moved enslaved people. You mentioned that he was the son of this Richard Oswald character that we're talking about was the son of a Presbyterian minister in Cathness in this very remote place. And Presbyterianism, for those who may not be familiar, is a denomination of the Protestant faith. How does the religion play in his life? How big a role does it play?

There's not very much evidence that Richard Oswald was a particular religious man, but he conformed, at least in his earlier years, throughout religiosity. and he did carry out what he thought to be his Christian duty by those he traded in. But remember that for the Scottish Presbyterian, there are parts of the Bible which are particularly important, one of which comes in proverbs. Blessed is the man who is diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings. That's a very impressive quotation to produce out of the air. Are you a son of the man's smurry?

He didn't look down at anything. No, but the idea is that the assurance of the saying, in Calvinism is born witness to by material prosperity. And so becoming a rich man is a sign of approval by God and his salvation. However, he didn't, I mean, as you say, I don't know whether this is cosplay frugality, but Benjamin Franklin did comment about Richard Oswald saying, you know, he had an air of great simplicity and honesty. He was, you know, frugal. He was hardworking. He dressed simply. So, I mean, was this all sort of a facade because the business, and the money and the kaching was actually the thing that mattered.

He was, as frankly put it, also a truly good man in the eyes of the world, and he regarded the external modesty of his demeanour as a sign of his humility before God, effectively. And how did people at this period see slavery? I mean, a century later, there's a very widespread revulsion against it. Was it considered a dirty business at all at this point, or was it considered to be something that you should do as humanely as you can, but was basically tolerated? It's certainly tolerated. It's part of business. Oswald is very interesting in his treatment of the people that, and will

come to the way his business operated, but he took it upon himself not to brand enslaved persons and to keep families together wherever possible. So he understood that there were worse practices than his own out there. And his view, he was doing his duty, his religious duty, by ameliorating those practices. So knowing that there were worse practices out there and wishing to ameliorate them, suggests some consciousness that this was not altogether a clean business. Yes, but nothing that will stop the trade of human lives. You know, that has to be said.

So, I mean, do we know how many enslaved people passed through his hands? And we'll come to sort of the really interesting thing, this island that he buys, Bant's Island in a moment. But I mean, do we have numbers at all? How many passed through his hands? 13,000 is the number who directly traded from Bans Island. Right. And let's talk about Bansai, he needs a staging post for his trade.

Tell us where it is and what it is. So just to take it from his work in his cousin's business, he does a lot of work as a factor in the Caribbean, and there he comes across the trade. He thinks that he can make a more efficient business and drive tighter margins. And he takes over an island. Slaving islands were quite common then, but not directly from the Royal Africa Company. The Royal Africa Company had given it up because they thought that they couldn't make any money out of it.

And he acquired it from the guy who bought it off them, who also thought he couldn't make any money out of it, and then proceeded to do exactly that to make money out of it. He set up a fort on Bance Island. The Bans Island is in the Sierra Leo River, 25 kilometres into the river, still at a relatively wide point within reach of shore. Its total area is six hectares. So we're talking a really small island. Enslaved people were brought in return for European and luxury goods from West Africa, from Dahome, modern-day Benin, and were exchanged by the native rulers, as was again,

typical in stations at the time for the goods and were held in the fort. But Oswald also built a golf course. On the island? On the island. What date is this? This is in the early 1750s. Early days of golf. Yeah. So the rules of golf had been set in 1744 by the Honourable Company of Golfers in Edinburgh. And Oswald was clearly an early adopter of the modern game, but the thing was, a Swedish merchant who visited recalled seeing, seeing, black men dressed in tartan acting as caddies on this golf course, who obviously kept his staff while he played his rounds of golf after he'd finished his trading for the day. As if it wasn't bad enough being on Bance Island, the slaving island, having to wear tartan

in the Sierra Leone heat must have been quite a... I don't think it was a great plaid, to be fair, but anyway, it's... There he is, performing Scottishness while indulging in human trafficking. And it is specifically a Scottish company with the Scottish-owned island in the middle of the slave trading river? It is, effectively. So his major partner is Alexander Grant, and the company is Grant, Oswald and Co. Alexander Grant is a Murrayman. He is cousin to William Grant of Rodhamachus, who actually starts in the 1780s, the export of Tartan to Africa. So there's a connection there. 1880s. This is presumably at a time when you're not allowed to wear tartan in Scotland. You are

allowed to wear it in Sierra Leone. It just became legal again in 1782. So actually a full-scale export business started to Africa by the mid-1780s. But what was the climate like on Bantz Island, the terrain like and the conditions like on Bans-A-Land. You've got this kind of cracker's golf course and Tartan enslaved people. I mean, it all just sounds frankly nuts. But what was it like on island for people. They were held in not particularly pleasant conditions, but they were held not in the conditions that they would have been on board ship. So this is one of these slaving castles that you find on the West African coast. Which was built by the Royal African Company. I mean, they would have been built initially by the Royal African Company, yeah. And these are basically

slave barracks where these unfortunate people who have been enslaved are sold by local rulers to European slavers and they're kept in effectively holding. pens ready for transport to the Caribbean. Is that right, Murray? Absolutely. But the accommodation could hold well over 100 people at any one time on Bans Island, but they weren't held so tightly they couldn't move, as would have been the case in the slaver's whole. So it's nasty, but it's not as bad as being on the boat. And he doesn't own the boats. He just owns the bridgehead, if you like. That's right. How hands on is he? I mean, how hands on is he with surveying, deciding who goes where and what conditions they're held in? So,

So basically he's not got much interested in their conditions after they leave his hands. He doesn't himself, unlike his partner Grant, I think Grant leaves 672 enslaved persons in his will, but Oswald doesn't actually keep enslaved people except occasionally as caddies. He moves them on. He's not very interested in everybody moves them on. Who moves them on to depends a lot on Grant's context? Because Grant, unlike Oswald, is a nobleman. and he's friends with Din Woody, who's the Lieutenant Governor of Virginia.

He's also connected to the Argyle, Arskin, Findlater and Hope of Hopeton families, all of whom have got interests in the Caribbean. But Oswald has to marry Mary Ramsey, who he marries in 1750, who's a Caribbean heiress, to help him get the contacts required. For a lot of them, he's initially reliant on Alexander Grant because of Grant's better contacts. But the point about this is that they're not just running an slave person's trading imporium. They are running a global business. So Oswald also gets the supply contract for the British Army in Scotland post-Colodon. He takes in

82,000 pounds to provide temporary encampments for the British Army. Until Fort St. George and such places are built. Not St. George, but there are about 400 contomments across the country. and he supplies tents, pop-up barracks, a whole range of things supplied by Oswald, where then Grant takes over to supply the British Army in Canada in the Seven Years' War. So they both are expanding very significantly outside this remit. And so in the end, Oswald has trading links or entreposed in the Netherlands, in India, in Florida, Georgia, France, Germany, Italy, and Scandinavia, as well as the Caribbean. This is a global business.

So, I mean, he's rich, I mean, partly thanks to the marriage with Mary Ramsey, who I think through her he inherits slaveholding estates in Jamaica and North America. And he's also got the supply of enslaved people. And he's also, you know, the backdrop, as you say, the seven years war, which we should remind people. We have called it, many people call it, the First World War, really, a global clash between Britain and France with multiple allies dragged in on either side. So you've got this sort of hungry moor for, you know, men, and encampments. This is a man who's making money, has contacts, and it's becoming very powerful.

Yes, indeed. His wife's estate is actually administered by a number of Scots, who've also got close relations to other families of the Caribbean. So Oswald leverages Grant's network. Grant is officially puts up most of the capital in the initial business, but it's Oswald who takes over because he's a much more effective networker than Grant. And beyond slaves, what else is this business trading in all these different countries? It's trading in, food, it's trading in army material supplies, it's trading as I think, pop-up barracks and tents. So the same gig that he's doing in Scotland, providing for the English army and materials for the army of occupation in the highlands, is also being used for British Army Outposts and, say,

the Carnatic or Calcutta. Absolutely. He's got quite a hefty corner of the market. And just when it comes to sort of the enslaved people business side of things, one supposed he must have a good relationship with what, the Kings of Dahomey? I mean, where is he getting the enslaved people? He's not going out and capturing humans himself. So who's doing it with him?

And how is he getting them? It's the King of Dahomey and his allies and associates are bringing them to him. And to other slave castles in the same area, of course, but to him in return for the holdings of goods, which he gets delivered. His supply of luxury goods improves significantly when he forms a strong network relationship with Henry Lawrence, who goes. on to be the first president of the Congress for the United States. And it's through Lawrence, who's himself got extensive slaveholding interests, that Oswald gets supplied with ivory

and other luxury goods that he can sell on. Talk about an old boys network. It's not sort of, you know, the Garrett Club, but I mean, this is just a network, an international network of people who have the greatest positions of power and influence. So Murray, give me a picture. This is a man who has business interests in India, in the Caribbean and in America, and he's living in the 1780s. So presumably he's going to get caught up in the great conflict that's developing now between America and Britain. And he's going to find his business interests threatened by this, presumably. He is. And indeed, one of the real problems and why there was a lot of Scottish loyalism and support for the Crown in the America War of Independence is so many of, of the merchants in the Chesapeake in particular,

were deeply indebted to Scottish-backed and also facing cross-mercantar holdings from outside forums, but they either had to become American or their business would be destroyed. So that's why they're disproportionately supported the Crown. Oswald is very interesting because he's associated with the advising the North Ministry, and by this stage he's close to North himself. This is the British government in London.

But he's also very close to Henry Lawrence, who is now the president of Congress. And so like other significant Scottish figures, which were in the British Empire, Oswald is actually playing effectively something of a double game. He is a supporter of American independence. He's probably a supporter of American independence because unlike Scots with Chesapeake land holdings, He thinks it would be good for his business and good for him and also for his connections with Lawrence, who is one of the senior figures. He's not saying this loudly in London. He's not saying this loudly in London, but he has chosen, probably at the request of the Americans, to be the lead negotiator for the Treaty of the Peace of Paris in 1783, when a draft peace treaty between the United States and Great Britain was concluded in 1782.

and it was finalised in 1783. And Oswald and Franklin, whose opinion of him we already know from you, Anita, Oswald and Franklin was sitting on opposite sides of the table, but also really sitting on the same side of the table. To that, you've got to sort of doff your cap to somebody who's got sort of self-interest at heart. But also the other signatures,

we should say the other signatories on this document of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, John Adams, who we've talked about extensively on this podcast, Benjamin Franklin, you have mentioned already. Henry Lawrence, you've mentioned already. I mean, these are their big hitters. He's at the big, big boy table. So this deal, let's talk about the deal, it gave the Americans very generous terms. So they were happy. Does he get any kind of financial inducement reward for being in such a position to broker a piece? Richard Oswald would have conceived of himself as a man of integrity. He would not have taken, I'm sure, any direct, vibe to act in the interests of the United States. But what he does seek is an ongoing business relationship with Lawrence as one of the co-signatories, which will be even more mutually beneficial in the future. There wasn't, however, to be very much of a future because the next year in 1784,

Richard Oswald died at the age of 79, leaving in today's money something over 100 million. darling. Gosh. What happens to that cash? So I think that cash descends to his nephew's family. He is illegitimate children, but he has no legitimate offspring with Mary Ramsey. Let's take a break here. Join us after the break where we'll talk about another notable Scotsman who is absolutely associated with the African continent, and that is the explorer David Livingston, I presume. Welcome back. So in the last half we were talking about a man who enriched himself in the continent of Africa. Let's talk about somebody who made a name, certainly, partly from getting lost in Africa, and that is David Livingston, the explorer. So, Murray,

tell us, where, when, how does his origin story start? So Livingston is born in relative poverty. His father is an evangelical enthusiast. This is about a generation after Oswald, isn't it? 1813. 1813, he's born, a generation after Oswald. dies. So he's forced to work effectively in the nearby mill. That's his life and work. He has to do that from the age of 10 to 26. And he frequently works 12-hour days, because this is before any kind of labor legislation. And after the 12-hour days, as legend would have it, indeed fact, is not far behind, he sits up and learns the classics and teaches himself what he can. And in the the end, he in the 1830s, he becomes a medical student at Anderson's University, which is the

medical school of what later became the University of Strathclyde, but is now the medical school of which went to the University of Glasgow in the 1940s. So there's still, he's an alumnus of the University of Strathclyde effectively. And this is a major leap up from him. He's been the urban poor up to this point. Absolutely. The thing about that higher education experience is it's worthwhile saying that when Andersons was founded in 1796, it was the first education institute to admit women and women formed the majority of the classes. The point about that was that access, an open access to people of modest background was very much part of the ethos. Livingston benefited from that. Right. I'm sort of interested in the dynamics of his household. Part of his literacy can be

credited to his father, who, you know, they may have been poor, but they loved books. Neil Livingston, his dad was a Sunday school teacher. He would have books around. I mean, he would encourage them, I guess, to talk about theology, travel, missionary enterprises in particular, tickled his fancy. But then did that not set up any kind of stress between the two when he decided to study medicine, which is a science after all? Sometimes religious people don't take to this newfangled science stuff, do they? I mean, what was it like in the Livingston household? I don't sure we got any direct evidence of that, but the thing about it was was there was a tradition of Scottish missionaries actually being professionally qualified in some way.

And medicine was quite appropriate way. If you can set up an outstation which treats people, then they're going to be more receptive. They didn't fight about it. Okay, but is this just a myth that his dad tried to stop him from reading science books because it thought it might addle his brain? That, I think, at an earlier stage, is not a myth, though it doesn't necessarily impact on medicine,

because his father was beginning to be concerned, as indeed other fathers were, about the rising tide of things that were being found that seemed inconsistent with the biblical narrative. Well, you mean like dinosaurs? And the young Livingston was into fossils, wasn't he? He used to go looking in the quarries for animals in the rocks. And of course, the line that God had put them in the rocks to test our faith in the flood was being only insecurely held in the early 19th century. So there was a good deal of concern about that.

didn't, I think, spill over into medicine because medicine is seen as in a slightly different category. And it was always linked to the fact that he was going to be a missionary. He sounds like an immensely serious person. I mean, if you can sort of put yourself for such a young age through that many hours of work and then put yourself through that much study and then do the work that's needed to get into a university to further yourself. What was he like, his personality-wise? Do we have any idea? That's very much the image of him in his photograph, the famous, picture of him and he's sitting at a desk with a big warrous mustache and he has got a sort of

scowl on his face. There's no jokes with David Livingston. First of all, career analysis for David Livingston would have ruled out stand-up straight away. He's very much geared to moral seriousness, moral purpose. And interestingly, not to combining that with personal enrichment, which somebody from his background very well, Mike, different sort of Scott from his background. So he never, throughout his life, shows very much inclination at all to make money. That's unusual with our people, Murray, is I think it's fair to say. It is. But he does show the commitment to Christianity, commerce and civilization, which is still memorialized on his statue at Victoria Falls, or what he christened, Victoria Falls. Mosuo Tuna, I think, was the local name, the smoke that

funders. So he wanted to see money being made across the whole continent of Africa, and he wanted to see that this mission developed from his early basic mission station work in the early 1840s, this idea of commercialization linked to movements by rail and by water across Africa, hence a lot of the exploring has followed it, grew on him in the 1850s because he thought that if we had free trade and commerce available across Africa, it would need to be linked to good transport, but it would also spell the end or put pressure on the both Arab enslavement of black people in the continent and the Arab-led trade and the Portuguese-led trade as well. So, Murray, I mean, it's in Africa that he becomes this explorer.

And as you say, it's sort of commerce and Christianity, the two holding hands that lead him. He starts working, doesn't he, at the edge of the Kalahari Desert, but he's got his eye on interior all the time, doesn't he? His initial station is just at the north of Botswana, and he goes into what is now, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, and elsewhere. He's particularly interested in the navigability of the Zambizi. And while he's sort of, you know, pushing into the interior, doesn't he have a fight with a lion and come off second best?

That's quite early days. He's attacked by a lion near his station on the 16th of February, I think it is 1840. and he's only liberated by the lion being shot by his deacon. Heavily armed missionaries. You need it to be. The damage done to his shoulder and upper arm is so great that he can never raise his arm above level for the rest of his life, though the shoulder heals. But it does give him the odd pain because one of the things is, doctor or not, like many doctors,

he was careless of his own health. and he was subject to repeated bouts of illness and contracted malaria at some point, which contributed to killing him in the end. But it's hard to know exactly when he caught malaria. And Murray, there's this idea which is common at the period, not just in Africa, but in other parts of the colonial world, that by bringing commerce, you somehow spread civilization and even Christianity. The ideas are all linked, aren't they? They are indeed linked. I mean, the funny thing, however, about Livingston's Christianity is that he converted one notable convert

who promptly relapsed within six months, and he found heavy going against polygamy in particular. There were just too many things to give up straight away. That's the thing about Christianity. So the commerce was perhaps more appealing, even though he wasn't particularly effective there either, though the interesting thing is to look at some of his companions there, because John Kirk, who was with living, Livingston for four years in the late 1850s goes on to be quite influential as vice-consul and consul of Zanzibar and indeed helps broker the Zanzibar Treaty for the suppression of the slave trade in 1873. So you see Livingston's indirect influence on people, perhaps more

than his direct influence. It's important to say that the internal African trade is very marked at this point. It's only in 1856 that Egypt bans the sale of white people and 20 years later the sale of black people in 1876. And of course, many countries in Africa with traditions of Arab slaving like Mauritania retain an enslavement culture well into the 20th century, if not beyond. So Livingston is dealing with a huge set of abuses. There's no two ways about that. So it's moved in this course of this episode from the early Scots who are getting enslaved. Then you have 18th century Scots who are major slavers. Now you have the 19th century Scots trying to end the slave trade for moral reason.

Can we now get to the Dr Livingston, I presume, chapter in his life? So he becomes a noted explorer. I mean, 1849 is the first time when he's recognised for finding stuff that nobody's seen before. This is Lake Ngarmi. Just tell us what that expedition was all about and what plaudits come to him as a result. He's praised for going further than any European before him. He's praised for the discovery of Victoria Falls, which outpoints Niagara. He's praised for his identification wrongly of the River Luander as confirming the source of the Nile. He's seen as going further than Burton or speak, but in fact he was just wrong. By this stage, his prestige is enormously high, and he's got a roving appointment as Honoric Consul,

which effectively he gets through the influence of Sir Roderick Marchison, who is the fellow Scott, who is present to the Royal Geographical Society, to whom Livingston is closely linked. So he's got an assiduous group of people making him important in terms of communications, and it will also make him important in terms of connections in the home country. But during the Nile exploration, which is much better equipped than he actually wanted it to be. What do you mean it was better equipped than he wanted it? He wanted a roughet. He wanted a simple expedition, but the Royal Geographical Society and others, they insisted lots of bearers. And then in the end, he was also given some people who turned out to be slaves, which annoyed him, which Kirk brokered for him via Zanzibar.

He gets effectively lost and reports come out in what is now Malawi of his death. in 1867 8. What sort of age is he at this point, Murray? He's 54, 55. Well, so hang on, the rumours of his death, is that before? I mean, from what I gathered, there's nothing heard from him for weeks that turn into months. And then they start sending people out to go and look for him. I mean, most notably, Henry Stanley, who's a journalist.

I mean, is that before or after the rumour of his death? Or is he going to find a body rather than a man? I think that the New York Herald and other papers were not convinced that he was dead, actually. I think that what Stanley was going out to find, which he certainly did find, since it's probably one of the longest lasting journalistic coups of all time, is a live Livingston and a boost to circulation and very much a boost to Henry Morton Stanley's reputation. And bingo, he got all three. I mean, what was Livingston up to? Did he know that everyone was looking for him, that he'd caused a great deal of fuss and bother? Or was he just quite irritated to be discovered, I presume? I mean,

what did he say? He'd got quite ill, hadn't he, Murray? He was very ill. He'd got malaria and he had had pneumonia and he possibly had one of the early bouts of dysentery that finally pushed him over the edge a few years later. It is only 18 months or so before Livingston's own death that Stanley finds him, inverted commas. But I think in terms of communications, first of all, let's remember where he was most of this time. It's not altogether easy for Livingston to pop into the post office and send a card or a telegram back home. text or an emoji? He's so single-minded and his single-mindedness is already, you know, already his wife is more or less abandoned, already virtually all his children are dysfunctional

and his eldest son has died in a Confederate prison as a volunteer for the Union Army. His single-mindedness is what builds and keeps his reputation, but he was hell to live with. Or indeed, you didn't get to live with him for long because he was off again and you weren't with him. Well, I mean, that is the case even when Stanley finds him. Stanley sort of gives him the medicine he needs, the food, some water, a hug, whatever it is. And then he says, right, okay, I'm feeling better, I'm going again. And he does take off again. He's absolutely driven.

The interesting thing is, as we come to the end of Livingston's life and the suppression of the slave trade in Zanzibar, which has passed in the year of his death. Where, incidentally, Fordell was held as a slave, just to bring it back to the beginning again, nicely. It brings it all for a very neat close. But to remember that today, just as Livingstonia and Blanthire in Malawi survive, and Livingston in Zambia survived the modern era, then 34 African countries brought out stamps commemorating Livingston Centenary in 1973, and it was described very complementary terms of many iconic African leaders, including being called the first freedom fighter by Kenneth Coyunda.

So one of the interesting things about people of the imperial era is that, Livingstone's reputation is probably more tarnished by decolonisation in the UK than it is in Africa. One of the interesting things is a longstanding connection between the University of Strathclyde and Malawi, based on the Livingston connection. In Africa, Livingston's reputation still remains strong. And is Plantyre in Malawi named after his hometown deliberately? It is. It's named after his place of birth, yes. Can we draw any kind of line between his exploration? and the scramble for Africa that happens later.

Because, you know, he's drawing a map in effect. He may not mean to be drawing a map, but he is. What I don't think he properly realised, I mean, he didn't want people to descend as colonists. There's a famous tale of him finding diamonds and then losing them and then losing them again and not marking the place so that they wouldn't be descended on. But he didn't see that his great goal of ending

the trade and enslaved persons in Africa would give many opportunities for European powers to intervene to suppress the trade, but to do so entirely in a way that sustained their own interests for controlling the countries that they entered. So, no, he didn't. There is a direct link to Livingston's actions on the Scramble for Africa, but not one he foresaw or would have wished. He probably wouldn't have foreseen what happened to his body after he died either. I mean, there is this rather poignant story that his African servants in May 1873 find him dead. He's kneeling by his bedside as if in prayer. And in order to embalm his body, they remove his heart. And his heart remains in African soil.

Isn't that interesting? And the body comes back to England. Westminster Cathedral, no less. Absolutely a hero. But I just wanted to note the Constance of Livingston as a missionary in Africa, that at this stage, 60% of Scottish missionaries were women. And actually, just in terms of a different perspective on the story, since now the work that contemporary merits lesser did, or in suppressing infanticide in West Africa, is regards very important. Women were actually far more dominant in the mission field than we now think. So you think missionaries as always male, don't you?

That's what the typical missionary is. And yet they weren't, not Scottish missionaries in Africa. So in that sense, he's almost atypical. We're coming to the end of our time together, Murray, but I've just noticed you are riffling away on your desk, and there is a glint in your eye, and what are you up to? What have you found, Murray? What have you found?

So I've just been looking up my notes on Jay Blake Darimple. Murray, we always got an entire episode without mentioning a Derrimple. This person filmed the entire length of Africa in 1936, and it's the first ever picture of a locust swarm in action. 3,500 metres of film, an incredibly precious record of the continent. Oh, Murray, thank you. King of the locusts. I had the locust storm attack my farm in India two years ago,

and we drove them off by playing very loud Maria Callas. Is that right? And banging pots. It's hilarious. It's marvellous. Murray, thank you, kinder. I mean, you've been marvellous, apart from the end bit. That is all from us, till we meet again.

Goodbye from me, Anita Arnhem. And goodbye from me, William Lucas de Rumpel.