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Exploring the Legacy of Mathew Wellington and Jacob Wainwright, Loyal Attendants to Dr David Livingstone

Witnessing Livingstone’s Epic Explorations at Nachipala Bareback Hill

It was while sitting by the small monument at the top of Nachipala Bareback Hill in northern Zambia, a three-hour walk to the summit, amongst the rough rocky terrain and seeing the vastness of surrounding Africa, that one realized – just a little bit – how difficult some of Dr David Livingstone’s explorations were.

Understanding David Livingstone’s Aims and Challenges

It was from here that Dr David Livingstone took his bearings in 1867. He had crossed the Luangwa River that January, but because his chronometers were damaged, there was an error in his observations of longitude. He aimed for Lake Bangweula, which he believed linked to Lake Tanganyika and, thus, to the Nile. While in the vicinity, Livingstone visited the Bembe king Chitimukulu of the Ng’andu (crocodile) clan, where in this lake, Shiwa Ng’andu, a crocodile, snatched his dog.

The Lesser-Known Attendants – Mathew Wellington and Jacob Wainwright

There were large amounts of wildlife in the area during those days. Close to the west of the North Luangwa National Park, Nachipala Bareback Hill has a magnificent view of Lake Shiwa Ng’andu and is close to the iconic estate and ‘Africa House’ built by Sir Stewart Gore-Browne in 1920. From this grand home, Shiwa Ngandu Estate, now open to tourists, I had the good fortune to walk in the Park alongside the Luangwa River, fighting off tsetse flies as Dr David Livingstone must have.

A Life of Trials and Triumphs: Mathew Wellington’s Journey

A great deal has been written about Livingstone’s loyal attendants Abdulah Susi and James Chuma, but little is known of Mathew Wellington, ‘Chengwimbe’, the man who embalmed Livingstone’s heart for its journey back to Bagamoya and Zanzibar, and Jacob Wainwright who accompanied the coffin to England and was a pallbearer at Dr David Livingstone’s funeral in Westminster Cathedral, London.

Chengwimbe (1847-1935) was a freed slave of the Yao tribe from what is now Malawi. He had been captured, taken to Kilwa and sold for a roll of cloth. Then he was taken to Zanzibar and resold. One can visit Christ Church Cathedral, built over the slave market. The souls of enslaved people must still be there as it is an out-of-this-world atmosphere that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and unbidden tears appear.

In 1871 Chengwimbe was put on board a dhow going to Mogadishu with approximately another 200 enslaved Africans. En route, a British naval ship, the HMS Thetis, rescued them, and they became known as the ‘Thetis Group’.

When the British Navy began to liberate hundreds of young enslaved Africans, they did not know what to do with them. As it was not feasible to repatriate them to their home villages, they were taken to the West coast of India where Christian missionary institutions were specifically established to provide support for them. At Nasik Mission, about 100 miles from Bombay, the freed slaves were given tuition in English, Hindi, anatomy, physics, surgery, and theology. Mathew Wellington found employment embalming bodies before returning to East Africa. Sir Bartle Frere, Governor of the Bombay Presidency and President of the Royal Geographical Society 1873-74, proposed that British explorers should recruit staff for African expeditions from institutions such as Nasik Mission. Hundreds of ‘Bombay Africans’, as they became known, returned to Africa to participate in these expeditions, either independently or with the aid of the missionary societies.

Dr David Livingstone left India in January 1866 to return to Zanzibar, taking with him six African followers, all freed slaves who the Royal Navy had rescued. – they were Mathew Wellington, Benjamin Rutton, Richard Rotton, Mabruiki, and Jacob Wainright, referred to as “Bombayans”. The intention was for them to become theologians. However, at Stanley’s initiation, they were ordered to carry stores and medical supplies for Livingstone’s group in Tabora in western Tanzania.

Dr David Livingstone died on 1 May 1873, aged 60, in Chief Chitambo’s village, southeast of Lake Bangweula and near Kasanka National Park. A monument was established there, which at times is somewhat neglected. It still stands and can be visited. After three days of mourning, it was decided to embalm Livingstone’s body to take it back to Bagamoyo on the Tanzanian coast. Carrus Farrar and a colleague, Farjalla, removed the heart and internal organs and buried them in a tin under a tree. 

Mathew Wellington took fifteen days to preserve the body with salt and brandy and let it mature in the sun. Records show a discrepancy in how many people started the long and hazardous journey, how many died along the way, and the length of time it took to reach Bagamoyo, a distance of over 1,000 miles (1,600 km). Taking Livingstone’s personal belongings and journal with them, Mathew Wellington and Jacob Wainwright were amongst those who finished the journey. Jacob Wainwright accompanied Dr David Livingstone’s coffin by ship, reaching Southampton on 16 April 1874, 11 months after his death. He was a pallbearer at his funeral, throwing a palm branch into his grave.

Dr David Livingstone

Dr David Livingstone and His Loyal Attendants

Q: Silvana, you originally come from Italy, but are now living in France? What triggered your passion for Africa?

I grew up in Italy but we regularly came to Zimbabwe and South Africa to see my maternal family. My parents’ passion for Nature had a strong influence on me and when I was studying veterinary in Milan, I visited Zimbabwe again and literally stumbled upon the so-called Zimbabwe Rhino War.

Having avidly followed African conservation issues only from afar, suddenly being involved at the deep end in the effort surrounding the anti-poaching war in Zimbabwe, sparked my underlying deep connection with Africa.

Q: Silvana you have done a great deal to encourage people to visit Africa.

I instinctively wanted to build a bridge between Europe and Southern Africa. Loving Europe as well as Africa I have never fully committed to living in either. As a result, I built a link with this part of the world through my writing, the promotion of ecotourism initiatives, the marketing of destinations and experiences that ultimately supports the use of land for conservation.

Q: Your greatest achievement is exposing the threats by poaching, especially of the rhino, and helping anti-poaching units on the ground, particularly in Zimbabwe. Tell us a little about why and how you started being so passionately involved, and continue to be so.

After my first visit to the Mana Pools National Park in 1988, where I spoke to the rangers who were facing the mounting poaching assault against pachyderms, I decided to become involved personally. I went back to Milan and founded the Savana Society, a non-profit association to raise funds for various anti poaching teams, who provided me regularly with a shopping list of badly needed items to carry out their underfunded and underpaid work.

I developed the Adopt a Camp scheme whereby every six months I provided urgent field items for each chosen field station on the frontline and in the Intensive Protection Zones of Operation Stronghold from Mana Pools to Chewore, Chizarisa, Chirisa and Matusadona.  I also shipped via British Airways (which used to offer free cargo to conservation NGOs thanks to the commendable BA Assisting Nature Conservation initiative) toys and clothing donated by members in Italy for the game scouts’ families, as well as some GPSs and radio collars for the monitoring of the last rhinos of Matusadona in 1992.

I was a very small player within a group of great international supporting NGOs but the direct connection with the game scouts’ daily lives encouraged me to devote all my energies and savings to that cause. I left university and started publishing reports from southern Africa in the Italian press and organising tours following the rangers in the field furthering a career in ecotourism marketing, publishing several guide books and as a freelance writer.

Above: Glen Tatham, then National Parks Chief Warden, Operations, initiated Operation Stronghold in an attempt to protect the endangered black rhino of the Zambezi Valley. Operation Stronghold was at the fore-front, tracking poachers, going undercover to gain information on traffickers, translocating and de-horning rhino, and living rough whilst surviving in critical economic times.

Q: Your book Zambezi Valley, The Lost Stronghold, which in many ways is partly a memoir, was obviously extrememly well researched. Your evocative descriptions of the country and empathy for the people you worked with make this a fascinating as well as an important book. How long did it take you to write it?

It took me more than 15 years to complete it. I jotted down the first chapters a long time ago but never had the time to dedicate myself to it.  But when the terrible rhino poaching wave hit South Africa, my dear friend Clive Walker, one of the central players in the history of rhino conservation in Africa, told me in no uncertain terms that it would be ‘the right thing to do’ to complete the book and put the story out there.

We felt it was necessary to tell of the process that Operation Stronghold actually was: not only an antipoaching guerrilla war type exercise as it is often too simplistically described, but one aspect of a vaster, innovative conservation vision and process that took shape through highs and lows on a national scale during the ‘80s and ‘90s.

Above: Silvana and Clive Walker, Clive has been actively involved with conservation and environmental education for over 40 years. He founded the Endangered Wildlife Trust in 1973 and is the author and co-author of several conservation books, including most recently The Rhino Keepers.

Q: You have also been involved in helping the San Bushmen people, were voted their Italian spokesperson for the Working Group for Indigenous People in Southern Africa (WIMSA) and sourced sponsors for bursary funds for the first Bushmen college students in Namibia.

Yes, this happened while I was doing research and interviews in the field in Botswana and South Africa for my first (Italian) book, ‘Kalahari – Journey amongst the Bushmen of Namibia, Botswana, South Africa’ in the early 2000s. When my book was published in Italy, I formed another association called Heritage with local entrepreneurs and found sponsors and prestigious venues near Venice. There were, and still are, huge international organisations advocating for the rights of the San as one of the ‘First Peoples’, and to this day I believe the situation of many San communities is still one of difficult negotiation within local political realities.

Q: Having promoted tourism from Europe to Africa for 15 years, what do you think the European market is looking for in Africa?

We are clearly going through very uncertain times. Those who can afford to travel from Europe are very motivated travellers; they would be looking for significant experiences and unique products satisfying their expectations of an authentic  Africa… that connection with the vast wilderness, the thrill of adventure and the interaction with very different cultures.

Q: Silvana, you have a young son, Steve, who you and your late husband have brought to Zimbabwe many times, do you think he will follow in your footsteps?

My son has acquired a true love for Africa. I wish for him that he can find his calling in whatever field and country he chooses, but I know, following all the times I have involved him in my travels that he has developed the love and respect for Nature as well as the curiosity that my parents had instilled in me… Only time will tell!

I use the royalties from this  book to support conservation in Africa; I am networking for the promotion of conservation tourism; I have an online French company to channel wildlife illustration in support of biodiversity projects; and a story to write for a young audience about Africa’s dwindling wild habitats – and a couple of other books in the pipeline…

 <a href="https://africatalked.co.za/book-reviews/zambezi-valley-the-lost-stronghold/ "> Zambezi Valley, The Lost Stronghold </a> is available from Amazon, selected bookshops in Zimbabwe, and directly from the author Silvana Olivo at silvana.olivo@gmail.com

rhino poaching

Zambezi Valley The Lost Stronghold

“I pointed out to the little prince that baobabs were not little bushes, but, on the contrary, trees as big as castles.” The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

The name ‘baobab’ is thought to come from the Egyptian ‘bu hubob, the fruit with many seeds.’   In 1592 the Venetian herbalist and physician Prospero Alpino wrote that this fruit, available in the markets in Cairo though not grown naturally in Egypt, was  unknown to the merchants,  so called it ‘bu hubob’.

In 1753 Carl Linneaus formerly named the African baobab as Adansonia digitata, honouring a French surgeon Michel Adanson who described the tree, with detailed illustrations, when he travelled in Senegal between 1749 and 1753. Digitata refers to the leaves that are spread out like a hand.

One of the earliest written references to baobab trees comes from the Arab traveller al-Bakri who wrote in 1068 he had seen them in Ghana.  Another Arab, the explorer Ibn Battuta , wrote in 1352 about a weaver who nested in a baobab tree in Mali.  He also said the pulp of the fruit could be cooked and eaten.

There are eight species of baobabs in the world; one in Australia, seven in Madagascar one of which is the Adansonia digatata introduced from Africa.

The Adansonia digitata, grown in 32 countries across Africa, are deciduous trees, losing their leaves during the dry months.  They are found growing in belts across semi-arid areas. In some regions there are large unpopulated areas between belts of growth. These iconic trees can grow at sea-level, though prefer altitudes of 450m–600m and have been found as high as 1250m in the Sudan.  Sometimes seen solitary, a wonderful sight is a small group or forest of baobabs.

The roots of mature baobabs spread out laterally, often to a distance greater than their height, which facilitates them absorbing water quickly when rain does fall.  The leaf stomates will close to prevent moisture loss in dry weather. Sometimes the trees are totally bare of leaves depending on rainfall and climate.  While they have the ability to control water loss through their leaves, they do lose water causing their spongy trunks to shrink.   The chlorophyll in the bark enables the tree to grow even without leaves.  The wood of the baobab is approximately 60–70% water attracting elephants to tear off parts of the trunk to obtain moisture, but smaller scars can, and do, re-grow.

The flower buds look crumpled, with white petals roughly the same width and length up to 8 cms, that open during the late afternoon, staying open and fertile for only one night.  After about 24 hours the white petals begin to brown and the flowers lose their sweet scent, the smell becoming rather unpleasant.  They are propagated mostly by bats.

The size and shape of the fruit, often known as cream-of-tarter differ between regions.  Angola is said to have the longest fruit whilst some countries such as Botswana have more globular shaped fruit. They are nutritious with a fairly high content of calcium, magnesium and potassium and three times more Vitamin C than an orange. The leaves, seeds and pulp of the inside of the hard husks can be eaten raw or cooked. Roasted the seeds produced a type of coffee for pioneers and explorers.

Though the baobab is not the tallest trees in Africa, baobabs definitely have the widest girth.  There is a published record of baobabs having a girth of 45m, though up to 25m is more common.  The massive hollow trunks have been used as a prison, chapel, a pub for 15 people, post office, kitchen, overnight accommodation for men together with their horses, and now even a modern toilet with a door!

Red-billed buffalo weavers nesting in the Baobab branches

Baobabs can live for a very long time due to their ability to sprout new stems. The Panke Baobab in Zimbabwe that died in 2011 was carbon dated to be 2,450 years old making it the oldest recorded fruit and flowering plant. The Dorslandboom in Namibia and Glencoe in South Africa are estimated to be 2,000 years old.

Among the best known baobabs in southern Africa are the Baines Baobabs immortalised by the artist and explorer Thomas Baines, at the Nxai Pans, Makgadikgadi, Botswana; and the Big Tree in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Followed, surely, by the two ‘Wee Wee’ baobabs at the fork of the road between Makuti and Kariba, Zimbabwe, on the way to Zambia.

The Muri kungulwa–The Tree That Roars-close to the Pafuri Gate, Kruger National Park, is said to be the second thickest tree in the world at 22 metres high and 46 metres in circumference, the largest being a cypress in Mexico.

There are so many fascinating legends and myths surrounding the ancient baobabs, each country and area having their own tales to tell. Was God cross with them for not accepting what they looked like when originally designed and threw them over his shoulder, landing roots up?  Do they have mediums spirits living in them, sometimes as in Kenya beautiful girls? Do they have healing powers by just sitting under them?   If you leave an offering of food under the tree will it bring rain? In the Bagwato area in Botswana people go and worship at baobabs, praying and dancing, sometimes beating a drum. It is also said that if you climb a baobab, it being difficult to climb back down, you go mad.

Should the opportunity come along to sit under a baobab, spend a night stargazing through its branches, or just gazed at it in awe; you will have experienced ancient Africa.

Image Credits: 1. Ian and Lesley Thomson, 2. Matthew Sterne, 3. Ian and Lesley Thomson, 4. Ian and Lesley Thomson, 5. Ian and Lesley Thomson, 6. Ian and Lesley Thomson

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