Livingstone Joins Sechele

In our previous episode it was noted that, notwithstanding the Reverend David Livingstone’s positive published account of his first meeting with Kgosi Sechele at Shokwane in 1841, the medical missionary only took up permanent residence with the Bakwena at their by then already fortified settlement of Tshonwane four years later. Thereafter, between 1845 and 1853, Sechele and Livingstone forged a partnership that ultimately transformed both of their personal destinies and that of the entire region.

Livingstone’s private correspondence further reveals that he was, in fact, at first wary and at times dismissive of Sechele, who on the other hand appears to have been eager from an early stage to recruit the missionary for his own ends.