HISTORIC AFRICAN EXPEDITIONS

Stanley Livingstone Expedition

The Stanley Livingstone Expedition will hike the breadth of Tanzania retracing on foot the route taken by Henry Morton Stanley during his epic search for the wandering missionary Dr. David Livingstone. Stanley’s search for Livingstone is unquestionably the most famous episode in the history of 19^th century African exploration. Though Stanley would go on to much greater and more important accomplishments, he will always be remembered for his famous greeting, “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

The route Stanley took, the old slave and ivory trade routes into the interior, begins on the shores of the Indian Ocean, passes through sweltering tropical forests, into the cool mist-wrapped mountains of Morogoro, through swamps, across the floor of the Great Rift Valley and over the Mpwapwa Mountains into the deserts of Dodoma. From there the team heads west through remote forests before turning south through the rugged Ugalla Game Reserve, past the Mishamo Falls, through refugee camps to the historic village of Ujiji on the lush shores of Lake Tanganyika.

The team will hike 15 miles per day, camp in the bush, bathe periodically, perform KP, gather firewood, dig latrines, retrieve water from local streams and stand night watch. The expedition has received official permission from the government of Tanzania and will be accompanied by two armed askaris, a physician, cook and support vehicle. There will be malaria-carrying mosquitoes, tsetse flies, wildlife, difficult terrain, rivers to cross, foot injuries, intestinal problems and weight loss. The sheer physical challenge will be offset by exhilaration and self-discovery, magnificent African sunsets, unlimited photographic opportunities and the experience of a lifetime.

Expedition Dates: June 15 - August 2, 2011

Note: For application packet contact: TheBwana2@aol.com

19^th Century Exploration for the Source of the Nile River

The mystery of the source of the Nile River captivated the imagination of mankind for three thousand years before it was solved. All efforts to trace the source by following the river upstream from Egypt failed miserably, thwarted by impenetrable swamps in what is now Sudan. Finally, in 1857 two British explorers, Sir Richard Francis Burton and Captain John Hanning Speke, set out to determine once and for all the lay of the land in central Africa, initiating a great era of risk, romance and adventure-filled exploration.

Burton and Speke's journey began on the island of Zanzibar off the coast of Tanzania, headed inland through Tabora and continued west to the village of Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. They found no river leading north out of the lake. While Burton conversed with Arab traders in Tabora, Speke pushed north reaching the enormous spanse of what he named Victoria Nyanza (Lake Victoria). He immediately assumed this lake to be the source of the Nile, although he did not actually find a river leading north out of it. Burton, still insisting Lake Tanganyika was the real source of the Nile, refused to believe Speke's allegations for lack of proof.

Soon after their return to England, Speke, who had arrived first, trumpeted his own beliefs to the world. His manner and arrogance had made him numerous enemies over the years and, upon his return to England, was immediately criticized by Burton for not having circumnavigated the entire lake. Others took up the cry and it was determined that yet another expedition was in order.

Famed African explorer Dr. David Livingstone was home in Scotland publishing his journals, raising money for another expedition and visiting his family when the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) decided to have Burton and Speke debate their opposing views on the source of the Nile. It was billed as the Nile Duel and they asked Dr. Livingstone to moderate. Unfortunately, Speke killed himself in a hunting accident the day before the big event and the question of the source of the Nile was left unanswered. (Did Speke commit suicide rather than face Burton or did the famed hunter accidentally shoot himself?)

The RGS turned to the old missionary wanderer and asked him to take up the task. Livingstone had been strangely neutral on what was considered by many to be mankind’s last great geographic riddle. Because of this and his vast experience in Africa, the Royal Geographical Society decided he was the most qualified explorer to lead an expedition to settle the dispute.

Livingstone left England for the last time on August 13, 1865. He arrived in Zanzibar on January 28, 1866 and spent the next seven weeks organizing his caravan. Some of the men he recruited, among them James Chuma and David Susi, had served with him before. Chuma was a young slave whom Livingstone had freed during the exploration of Lake Nyasa. He was attending the British government school at the time and was one of the first to join the expedition. Susi, a young Zanzibari who had served on the boat Livingstone used to explore the Shire River, also signed up. In March 1866 he left the village of Mikindani and was never heard from again. Rumors began to filter out of Africa that he had died and several expeditions were mounted to find the aging explorer.

As we now know, Livingstone wasn't dead at all. Henry Morton Stanley, a reporter for the New York Herald found him at Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika on November 10, 1871. It had taken Stanley 236 days and had nearly cost him his life. Eighteen porters and guards died or had been killed by hostile tribes. Both of his British traveling companions, Shaw and Farquhar, died, as did both horses, all 27 donkeys and the watchdog, Omar. Stanley suffered all the typical encumbrances of 19^th century African travel: malaria, tribal wars, mutiny in the ranks, hunger and dysentery. He claims to have lost 76 pounds.

Livingstone was sick and weak when Stanley found him. He had lost all of his medicines in a boating accident, used up all of his funds and was living off the generosity of slave traders, an irony that escaped no one, as he had spent much of his career railing against the brutal slave trade. It was Susi who ran to greet Stanley on the outskirts of Ujiji to inform him that, at long last, he had found Dr. Livingstone. And, it was on that day Stanley uttered his famous greeting, "Dr.Livingstone, I presume?"

Together, Stanley and Livingstone explored the northern reaches of Lake Tanganyika to determine if the Rusizi River flowed out of the lake as Burton had speculated. It was their only joint exploration. During their travels together, Stanley tried to talk the old River Seeker, a name given to Livingstone by his African companions, into returning with him to London, but he refused. He did agree, however, to accompany Stanley back to Unyanyembe (Tabora), where they arrived on February 18, 1872.

On March 14th, Stanley reluctantly continued on alone, setting a new land speed record to the coast to tell the world he had found the legendary missionary wanderer. He wired James Gordon Bennett, Jr. at the New York Herald and eventually was widely acclaimed for his accomplishment.

Meanwhile, Dr. Livingstone stayed in Tabora until August 25th waiting for the supplies Stanley arranged to have sent from the coast. After they arrived, Livingstone headed southwest, skirted Lake Tanganyika and continued on to Lake Bangweulu in Zambia. From there he planned to push west to look for a system of lakes and rivers flowing northward, possibly even into Lake Tanganyika, and from there on into Lake Albert. He was convinced the watershed of the Nile was much farther south than his contemporaries had thought to look.

The old explorer never made it. He died quietly in his sleep on May 1, 1873, at Chief Chitambo's village, near Lake Bangweulu in central Zambia. Chuma and Susi found him in his hut, kneeling beside his makeshift bed as if in prayer. These two faithful Africans then embarked upon a course of action which would become one of the most intriguing footnotes of 19th century African exploration: Chuma and Susi decided to carry Dr. Livingstone’s body all the way from where he died in central Africa 1300 miles to the Indian Ocean so that his body could be returned to the Queen of England. Chuma and Susi understood the need for the wandering body and soul of Dr. Livingstone to be laid to rest forever in his native English soil. It mattered not to them that Dr. Livingstone was a Scot.

Stanley returned to Africa in 1874 to finish the work Burton, Speke, Grant, Baker and Livingstone started. Burton thought Lake Tanganyika was the source of the Nile. Speke thought it was Lake Victoria. Sir Samuel Baker thought Lake Albert in northern Uganda was the source. Livingstone thought the Lualaba River was the headwaters of the mighty river. The Anglo-American Expedition to Discover the Source of the Nile and Congo Rivers (1874-77) made Stanley the greatest and most successful African explorer of all time. Stanley planned to follow the old slave and ivory trade routes from the coast through Tanzania to Lake Victoria, circumnavigate it, trek through Uganda to Lake Albert, circumnavigate that lake, head south back into Tanzania to circumnavigate Lake Tanganyika, cross the lake from Ujiji to Kalamie, enter the Congo, continue west until he intersected the Lualaba River and follow it to wherever it might take him, whether down the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea or down the Congo to the Atlantic. We now know he emerged 999 days later at Banana Point on the Atlantic Ocean. This highly ambitious undertaking produced the long-awaited proof that Lake Victoria, and not Lake Tanganyika or the Lualaba River, was indeed the source of the Nile River, thus laying to rest mankind's last great geographic riddle.

Stanley’s Search for Livingstone

February 18 - November 10, 1871

February 18 - First caravan departs Bagamoyo with 24 pagazis and 3 soldiers.

February 21 - Second caravan departs with 28 pagazis, 2 chiefs and 2 soldiers.

February 25 - Third caravan departs with 22 pagazis, 10 asses, 1 white man, 1

cook and 3 soldiers.

March 11 - Fourth caravan departs with 55 pagazis, 2 chiefs and 3 soldiers.

March 21 - Fifth caravan departs with 28 pagazis, 12 soldiers, 2 white men,
1 tailor, 1 cook, 1 interpreter, 1 gun-bearer, 17 asses and 2 horses.

Total = 192 men, 27 asses, 2 horses, 1 dog.

WEAPONS

2 - 16 shooters (1 Winchester, 1 Henry)

3 - single shot breech-loading rifles

1 - elephant gun

1 - double barreled, breech-loading, smooth-bore gun

2 - revolvers

24 - flintlock muskets

6 - single barreled pistols

1 - battle ax

2 - swords

2 - Persian daggers

1 - boar spear

2 - American 4-pound axes

24 - hatchets

24 - butcher knives

HONGA

16,000 yards of 30” American unbleached calico

8,000 yards of light weight Indian blue jean

5,200 yards of finer blue and pink muslins and crimson broadcloth

Total = 19 ½ miles of fabric

1,000,000 beads made of coral, glass and china in black, brick, dove gray, coral pink, vitreous blue, transparent palm leaf green.

350 pounds of #5 and #6 gauge brass wire

When Dr. Livingstone was working in Africa, a group of friends wrote him:

“We would like to send other men to you. Have you found a good road into your area yet?”

According to a member of his family, Dr. Livingstone sent this message in reply:

“If you have men who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”

The Trek

The Stanley Livingstone Expedition will retrace the footsteps taken by Henry Morton Stanley in 1871 during his famous search for the wandering missionary Dr. David Livingstone. The team will hike from the historic village of Bagamoyo on the Indian Ocean coast, 900 miles across the breadth of Tanzania to Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika.

The team will assemble in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and will be transported to the island of Zanzibar, explore Stone Town, spend one night before boarding a dhow for the mainland. The expedition will depart Bagamoyo for the interior, cross the Ruvu River and continue west through Msata and Ubenazomozi to Ngerengere. From there the expedition enters thick forests and continues west toward the “Mist-Wrapped Mountains of Morogoro,” our first major stop. After gear is repaired and clothes are washed, the team will be treated to a visit at Mikumi National Park. The park is teeming with lions, elephants, giraffe, zebra, water buffalo, wildebeest, hippos, crocodiles, impala, gazelle, springbok, jackels, baboons, vervet monkeys, warthogs, porcupines, ostriches, maribou storks, fish eagles, vultures, scorpions and tsetse flies.

Rested, clean and hydrated, the team will cross the Mkata Plain to Kimamba, pass Gombo Lake (the oldest lake on Earth) and head northwest toward the western rim of the Great Rift Valley. The expedition will take narrow footpaths through mountain passes to the historic village of Mpwapwa. After a brief rest, the team will resume its westward march toward Dodoma, the future capital of Tanzania, and the second major stop of the expedition. Dodoma is located in the middle of a desert and there isn't much to see, so the stay will be brief.

After leaving Dodoma the team will cross the Bahi Swamp and continue it’s march west through Kikuyu and Kilimantinde to Manyoni, a thriving and picturesque village. The next village is Itigi, and for all practical purposes, it is the last village of any size the team will encounter until it reaches Tabora. The path between Itigi and Tabora is one of the more difficult stretches the team will encounter. It is very remote and people, food, water, firewood and shade will be scarce. There are also wide tracts of tsetse fly infestations.

Tabora is perhaps the most historic village in all of Tanzania. All of the early explorers passed through there. It is the hub of the Tanzanian railroad system and has become a bustling, but quaint city.

In 1871 Stanley’s path west toward Lake Tanganyika was blocked by a war between Arab traders and hostile African tribes led by Chief Mirambo. This necessitated a 369-mile detour south, then west and eventually north to pick up the main trail to Ujiji.

Heading due south out of Tabora the expedition passes through Tutuo and Kakoma to Isimbira, a lonely outpost in the middle of nowhere, but the starting point for The Ugalla Dash. The team will cross the Ugalla River, populated with hippos and crocodiles, in dugouts and enter the Ugalla Game Reserve, one of the wildest and most remote sections of the entire trek. There are no inhabitants, little water and lots of tsetse flies along the 42-mile footpath through the Reserve. The Tanzanian government requires the expedition to take on two additional armed Wildlife Officers for security. The terminus of the footpath is the southern-most point of the trek and the team’s best chance to see wildlife up close and personal.

The team will rest in Mpanda before heading north past Mishamo Falls to Uvinza. The final push to Ujiji begins when the team crosses the Malagarasi River and heads west past the Uvinza salt mines and through the refugee camps to Ujiji. Lake Tanganyika is at an elevation of 2,500 feet and surrounded by mountains. As the team approaches the lake, the countryside turns lush green, moist and hilly. The reception at Ujiji will be most memorable. The following day the team will be flown back to Dar es Salaam - wiser, fit, lighter, tired and successful.

A Typical Day

The team is awakened at 6:00. Gear is stowed, tents are packed, and packs are readied for the day's hike. Breakfast is served, the latrine is covered over, the area is cleaned of debris, the fire is extinguished, and the team assembles for the morning briefing promptly at 7:25. At 7:30 the expedition sets out. The Expedition Leader will set an appropriate pace that all team members are expected to maintain.

The expedition will average approximately 15 miles per day, with periodic rest stops to explore, photograph, eat and drink. The next available water source, heat, terrain and condition of the team will dictate the pace and distance covered. Foot injuries and fatigue will also factor into the team's progress. Incapacitated team members will be obliged to ride on the support vehicle.

Stanley followed footpaths that connected one village to the next. As the expedition retraces his route, the team will stop in these very same villages, meet with local leaders, visit the market and interact with local teachers and school children. At the end of the day, a suitable campsite will be chosen and the team will clear the area of brush, gather firewood, set up tents and relax.

Each team member will sit up for two hours every other night to tend the campfire and serve as an early warning signal should unexpected animals or guests come into camp. The night watch schedule is: 8-10, 10-12, 12-2, 2-4, and 4-6. The 10-12 watch is responsible for recording the day's activities in the Team Journal. The team member with the 4-6 watch will assist the expedition's cook as he prepares breakfast. At 5:30 team leaders will arise to see that everything is in order for the day's activities. The team is awakened at 6:00.

Rules and Procedures

Cell phones are strictly prohibited.

Abusive language toward any Tanzanian will not be permitted.

No cussing around Tanzanian staff.

Always yield to Tanzanians on footpaths.

Selfish, inconsiderate or boisterous behavior will not be permitted.

Try to maintain a tight, single-file column.

Do not hike in front of the person setting the pace.

Do not wander off by yourself during breaks.

Never leave camp without a full canteen.

When in a village, always travel in pairs.

Always use your own gear, especially knives and flashlights.

Always be prepared to gather firewood, fetch water, perform KP.

Always be on time for night watch.

Never take more food than you can eat.

For security, it is important to set tents close together.

Always ask permission before taking pictures of individuals.

Do not photograph government buildings, bridges or police stations.

Do not ignore people just because you can’t speak Swahili.

Jim Owens
African Explorer

Jim Owens has had a lifetime love affair with Africa and has been traveling there for more than 35 years. Since 1986 he has devoted all his energies to researching Africa’s greatest explorers and organizing expeditions to recreate their travels. He has hiked thousands of miles of sub-Saharan trails becoming the first in history to retrace the footsteps of the greatest 19^th century African explorers. He has led The Stanley Expedition, The Congo Expedition, The Livingstone Death March, The Burton & Speke Expedition, The Stanley Livingstone Expedition and the Stanley’s Nile Expedition. During the course of his research he has gathered evidence that will require the rewriting of history.

Jim and his teams have distributed tons of humanitarian aid and thousands of dollars along their routes. They have planted Moringa trees and renovated schools. Parents have named their children after Jim. The people of Bigilo village built a monument in his honor. In 2001 tribal elders inducted him into the Waha Tribe. He has been granted permission to have his ashes reside at the Livingstone Museum in Bagamoyo. All these activities have come at a great cost. He has been stricken with malaria, injured numerous times and survived the terrorist bombing of the American Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Jim served as a consultant to Mark Burnett Productions on The History Channel’s eight-part series Expedition Africa: Stanley and Livingstone. Jim’s work has been featured in articles worldwide, on CNN, ABC, NBC, Fox, NPR, Voice of America, Newsweek, Time, The New York Times, Newsday, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times. He has lectured at The Smithsonian Institution, Johns Hopkins University, the University of North Carolina and at scores of schools and organizations in the US and Africa.