As an introduction to this article it is my intention to establish that, through my ancestors and myself, I can claim to be a person who is interested in helping Africa rather than exploiting her. This is worth mentioning because many Europeans who have been associated with Africa havee been greedy exploiters, taking rather than giving, destroying rather than building.
There is however a tradition in Africa which speaks for European radicals. It can be seen historically in the life-work of Livingstone; today men like <span data-html="true" class="plainlinks" title="Wikipedia: Guy Clutton-Brock">Guy Clutton-Brock and Terence Ranger fit into this tradition. In Africa “the liberals” are renowned for courage and determination, they are a proud example of belief being transferred into action; unlike the weak liberalism of the European countries Africa’s liberalism is tough and practical. Its radical toughness places it close to the anarchist philosophy.
I can claim some association with the Livingstonian tradition. My great-grandmother was the sister of Adam Sedgwick, a close friend of Livingstone’s. Adam Sedgwick as a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge was influential in assisting Livingstone. Of Livingstone Sedgwick wrote: “He stood before us a plain, single-minded, cheerful man and he addressed us in unadorned and simple words.” The authors of Sedgwick’s biography[1] report that when Sedgwick spoke at a meeting in Cambridge after Livingstone “he entreated his hearers not merely to welcome and thank Livingstone for what he had said, but to carry forward the noble work which he had so auspiciously begun. His words were few, but well chosen, and when he sat down the applause told that they had gone straight to the hearts of his hearers.”
Sedgwick, as can be seen, was a rather sentimental Christian and his attitude was a trifle exalted but when Livingstone’s “Lectures” were published and Sedgwick wrote the preface the authors of his biography write that “probably nothing contributed more directly to the establishment of the Universities Mission to Central Africa than this short essay.”
Writing of the Livingstonian tradition in
Central Africa Patrick Keatley[2] mentions the two
empire builders of
Rhodesia,
Cecil Rhodes who “built with money and military power” and David Livingstone who “built his empire in the abiding allegiances of men.” Keatley quotes an old African friend of Livingstone’s who wrote of Livingstone
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as a person who “treated black men as brothers” and whose “words were always gentle and manners kind, and who knew the way to the hearts of men.”
