Livingstone's Ideas of Christianity, Commerce and Civilization

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Periodical article

Title:	Livingstone's Ideas of Christianity, Commerce and Civilization
Author:	Nkomazana, Fidelis
Year:	1998
Periodical:	Pula: Botswana Journal of African Studies (ISSN 0256-2316)
Volume:	12
Issue:	1-2
Pages:	44-57
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs.
Geographic term:	Africa
Subjects:	travel biographies (form) History and Exploration Religion and Witchcraft religion Christianity Civilization Livingstone, David, 1813-1873 history
About person:	David Livingstone (1813-1873)
Abstract:	David Livingstone believed that the key to Africa's future was the stimulation of indigenous development and good government. Such 'civilization' could only be achieved by the combination of Christianity with legitimate commerce, to replace the slave trade which had been the bane of Africa's development for centuries. The present author traces the roots of Livingstone's belief in the combination of moral and material betterment, derived from his personal origins and the Evangelical and Anti-Slavery Movements. He shows how these ideas matured during his mission days among the Tswana, during which he began to travel north to the Zambezi and beyond in search of ways in which mission work could preempt the northward expansion of the Boers, who were opposed to the spread of Christianity, commerce and civilization among Africans, and who tried to stop British missionaries working among them. Notes, ref., sum.