Dr David Livingstone did not discover the Victoria Falls

Below is a letter I wrote to the Editor of 1Time Airlines in-flight magazine, Aboutime, in response to a fact misrepresentation in the magazine. I have since been informed by the airline that the letter is under review and will be responded to accordingly.

To the Editor – Aboutime In-flight Magazine

17 November 2010

Dr David Livingstone did not discover the Victoria Falls

On 12 October 2010, I was privileged to be on the 15.40 1time flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg. It was during my perusal through the in-flight magazine that I came across an article on the Victoria Falls, the Mosi-oa-tunya more specifically. Being Zambian and an avid reader, I was drawn to the article because the Victoria Falls are shared by my country, Zambia, and Zimbabwe and of late I have been proud to see the extensive marketing of our natural resources in various tourist travel specials.

However, I was disappointed to note that this article, like many others has one very important fact wrong which is the discovery of the falls. I refuse to believe or to be fed otherwise obvious information that says Dr Livingstone discovered the Mosi-oa-tunya. The statement as it appears in your October 2010 publication, About Time, on page 56 and under the headline ‘Lodge Hopping in Zimbabwe’ states and I quote in part, ‘…visitors to Victoria Falls can still enjoy a pristine eco-experience little has changed since it was discovered by David Livingstone in 1855.’

My concern with that statement is that it is a misrepresentation of obvious facts which with the continuous repetition in various publications such as yours have been construed to be the existing facts.

It is a grave disregard for my ancestors and indeed the people of Zambia and Zimbabwe, whom Dr Livingstone found when he happened upon the falls during his wanders in South and Central Africa. This to me, or anyone else for that matter, implies that my ancestors did not have the intelligence or sight to see this magnificent natural wonder until Dr Livingstone pointed it out to them. It seriously makes us look like stupid nonentities who could not see something that was right in front of us until some European missionary, because of his intelligence, came and pointed it out to us. The statement by implication and reasoning can be translated to mean just that.

Our history records that the people who lived around the Mosi-oa-tunya were awed by the magnificence of the falls, they revered it as a religious shrine, a place of worship and as such a sacred place. Therefore to say Dr Livingstone is the one that discovered the Victoria Falls is an insult to my people, taking into consideration that the word ‘discover’ according to the dictionary means ‘to be the first person to find or learn something previously not known’. My ancestors knew about and had seen the Mosi-oa-tunya, it is the people from Dr Livingstone’s country or region that didn’t know and that only makes him the first among his people but not the first in the world and certainly not among my people.

I have seen this anomaly in many other publications and I have taken it upon myself to correct it and ensure that history is written the way it was, without any misrepresentation or glossing over of facts. I suggest if publications write about the Mosi-o-tunya, they use the Wikipedia reference which states, ‘Dr David Livingstone, the Scottish missionary and explorer, is believed to have been the first European recorded to view the Victoria Falls…’ This reference leaves out any ambiguity which distorts or disregards the fact that people who lived around the falls had obviously seen it before any European had.

For a long time, African history has been re-written and re-told by the west and now it is time we told our story, the way it is not in some way that glorifies the explorers of the west and makes the indigenous people look stupid. After all has been said and done, no one can tell our story better or more accurately than ourselves.

It is your duty, as an editor, to give out accurate information in the best interest of your readers and this letter serves to assist you in doing just that.

Sincerely,

Caroline Nenguke

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