Missionary imperialism and the life of David Livingstone

Author / Creator

Manktelow, Emily J., author

Available as

Online

Summary

This Thematic Source Set uses the life of David Livingstone to critically examine the history of the colonial missionary movement in the nineteenth century. Livingstone's life has been told and ret...

This Thematic Source Set uses the life of David Livingstone to critically examine the history of the colonial missionary movement in the nineteenth century. Livingstone's life has been told and retold many times since the height of his fame in the 1870s, often used hagiographically to showcase mission-imperial ideals. This has left a wealth of source material for us to examine as historians, but we must also be careful not to uncritically absorb the colonial mission narratives that these sources impart. While individual missionaries and missionary organisations at different times and places had a sometimes ambivalent relationship with Empire, historians now tend to agree that mission work was colonial in outlook and outcome, and often intention. What can we learn about the history of colonial mission through the life and times of one of its most famous agents: colonial missionary and explorer David Livingstone?

Show More