Central Africa Biography

Two and a half stars.

Where this book lost me was at the astounding phrase:
She was the first white woman to cross the Kalahari, which she did twice - pregnant - giving birth in the bush on the second journey.

Authors are wordsmiths, this book is professionally published not self-pub so presumably it had both copy and content editors and so I have to presume, that this sentence was read and approved of.

The "first white woman" not the "first European woman" which would have been acceptable because we would immediately have realised that Mrs. Livingstone came from a totally different background and would have no familiarity at all with Africa and its conditions and so it might have been some sort of feat.

African women, black women native to Africa had without doubt crossed the Kalahari countless times and no doubt given birth in the bush countless times too. But they are dismissed because what they do is not newsworthy, no kind of feat.

But Mrs. Livingstone was an African. She was born, raised and lived most of her life in Africa and died and is buried there too. She came from a missionary family living among tribes and in villages without all the comforts of the ex-pat existence that those with money surely had. She was extremely familiar with the hardships of a poor way of life.

So to make the point of her crossing the Kalahari and giving birth in the bush as being something special, a quite extraordinary historical feat, the author has to point out the only difference between the Africans and her - her race, she was White. Oh dear.

I liked reading about Mrs. Livingstone who was a very resourceful, if emotionally-needy woman with a husband who either adored her or enjoyed writing pretty letters. Since he abandoned her in Scotland so that he could do his major expedition without family responsibilities (not that a major expedition would have fazed a woman who could cross the Kalahari alone and give birth in the bush) and he liked writing anyway, the jury's out on that.

Amusing were the letters written by Livingstone's parents about why they and Mrs. Livingstone had cut off all contact with each other some time after she and their four children had been sent to live in Scotland out of her husband's way.

It was obvious that these staunch, tee-total Scottish Christians were absolutely horrified that their almost destitute daughter-in-law whom they didn't care to help financially (and had to live with her children in a single room) had been cut-off because she drank brandy. How much she could have drunk given her meagre income I don't know. But the letters say that she cut them off - probably after endless lectures from these sanctimonious, parsimonious, tight-lipped and upright members of the Missionary Society. They did say they missed their grandchildren but they declined to help in any way at all and eventually Mrs. Livingstone had to have her children fostered out.

There was quite a lot of Julie Davidson in the book, too much actually, and I understand why it is there because it isn't technically a biography (which de facto it is) as much as the author's search for her life story and her grave. However neither Mrs. Livingstone nor the author are, at least from this book, tremendously interesting people anyway so there is no compelling focus to the book.

Who would I recommend it to? Die-hard missionary-types, those looking for a view of how life was lived in Africa by ex-pats without money but with faith, ummm, struggling now, nope, can't think of anyone else who might enjoy it. ( )