Black Livingstone: A True Tale of Adventure in the Nineteenth-Century Congo

by Pagan Kennedy

Overview

A largely untold story of an extraordinary historical figure, this biography sheds light on the life of William Sheppard, a 19th-century African American who, for more than 20 years, defied segregation and operated a missionary run by black Americans in the Belgian Congo. This work shows how Sheppard returned to United States periodically, and traveled the country telling tales of his adventures to packed auditoriums. An anthropologist, photographer, big-game hunter, and art collector, the man billed as the “Black Livingstone” helped expose the atrocities that occurred under the reign of King Leopold, and this stirring work tells how he eventually helped to break Belgium’s hold on the Congo.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780988225268
Publisher:	Santa Fe Writer's Project
Publication date:	09/01/2013
Series:	Pagan Kennedy Project
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Pagan Kennedy is a writer and a pioneer of the 1990s zine movement. She is the author of 10 books, is a regular contributor to the Boston Globe, and has published articles in dozens of magazines and newspapers, including Boston Magazine and the New York Times. She has served as a visiting professor of creative writing at Dartmouth College and has taught writing at Boston College and Johns Hopkins University. She is currently the design columnist for the New York Times Magazine. She lives in Boston.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Part I Into the Forbidden Kingdom

Chapter 1 "When I Grow Up I Shall Go There" 17

Chapter 2 The Silk Top Hat 33

Chapter 3 Thirty-six Hippos 45

Chapter 4 Unraveling Rivers 59

Chapter 5 Choosing the Kuba 72

Chapter 6 Becoming Bope Mekabe 92

Part II The Poison Cup

Chapter 7 The Wedding Dress in the Coffin 113

Chapter 8 A Basket of Hands 135

Chapter 9 To Tell the World 156

Chapter 10 Rubber Harvest 173

Chapter 11 The Trial 184

Chapter 12 The Children's Friend 194

Epilogue 206

Bibliography 209

Acknowledgments 214

Photos 216

Editorial Reviews

The novelist Pagan Kennedy has written a biography of William Sheppard, one of the first black American missionaries to Africa. Black Livingstone is a deeply felt and moving book.
— Los Angeles Times

Dinitia Smith

In Black Livingstone, Kennedy is at her best showing how overt and subtle racial politics shaped Sheppard's mission work at every step. Her writing shines, as well, when she's celebrating Sheppard's many achievements. Ultimately, the connection Kennedy establishes with her subject has little to do with race, creed or region. It's a kinship of the imagination, and it's in this respect that ''Black Livingstone'' is most fun.
— New York Times

Maria Russo

In 1890, a 24-year-old African-American and Southern Presbyterian missionary named William Sheppard left New York for the Congo. During the next 20 years, Sheppard explored that country and in the process discovered a lake that now bears his name; made the first meaningful Western contact with the Kuba kingdom, one of the last native African dynasties, and failed in his attempt to create a "utopia of African-American achievement in Africa." He also clashed with the Belgian colonial authorities, exposing their brutal, genocidal treatment of Africans and, as a result, found himself at the center of a charged, internationally monitored trial in which the powerful performance of lawyer Emile Vandervelde, the leader of the Belgian Socialist Party, overcame a claim that Sheppard had slandered the foremost Belgian producer of rubber. Kennedy (The Exes), a novelist, is captivated by her charismatic subject charisma evidenced by Sheppard's enduring presence in the oral histories of the Kuba and, like the novelist she is, offers fully developed portraits of others in Sheppard's orbit as well. She speculates with a modern feminist's perspective about the inner life of Sheppard's wife, Lucy, who saw two of her children die in Africa, and she examines the reactions to Sheppard of white missionaries, who were unable to succeed in the native culture as well as he. Kennedy also explores the irony of Sheppard, who was made a Kuba prince, facing segregation and discrimination at home. Kennedy is an engaging writer and ably captures the undercurrent of horror found everywhere in the late 19th-century Congo while honoring Sheppard's accomplishments, heroism and character. Photos not seen by PW. (On-sale: Jan. 14) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In 1890, a 24-year-old African-American and Southern Presbyterian missionary named William Sheppard left New York for the Congo. During the next 20 years, Sheppard explored that country and in the process discovered a lake that now bears his name; made the first meaningful Western contact with the Kuba kingdom, one of the last native African dynasties, and failed in his attempt to create a "utopia of African-American achievement in Africa." He also clashed with the Belgian colonial authorities, exposing their brutal, genocidal treatment of Africans and, as a result, found himself at the center of a charged, internationally monitored trial in which the powerful performance of lawyer Emile Vandervelde, the leader of the Belgian Socialist Party, overcame a claim that Sheppard had slandered the foremost Belgian producer of rubber. Kennedy (The Exes), a novelist, is captivated by her charismatic subject charisma evidenced by Sheppard's enduring presence in the oral histories of the Kuba and, like the novelist she is, offers fully developed portraits of others in Sheppard's orbit as well. She speculates with a modern feminist's perspective about the inner life of Sheppard's wife, Lucy, who saw two of her children die in Africa, and she examines the reactions to Sheppard of white missionaries, who were unable to succeed in the native culture as well as he. Kennedy also explores the irony of Sheppard, who was made a Kuba prince, facing segregation and discrimination at home. Kennedy is an engaging writer and ably captures the undercurrent of horror found everywhere in the late 19th-century Congo while honoring Sheppard's accomplishments, heroism and character. Photos not seen by PW. (On-sale: Jan. 14) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Novelist Kennedy (The Exes) recaptures the incredible life and adventures of William Henry Sheppard, a submissively complex African American missionary funded by the segregated Southern Presbyterian Church in 1890 to explore unmapped regions of the Congo and win converts. When he returned to the United States, he was nicknamed "Black Livingstone" in reference to David Livingstone and spoke all over the country to raise funds for the church. But unlike that famous British explorer-missionary, Sheppard identified himself with the Congolese culture and people. When he went back to the Congo after King Leopold II sold the colony to the Belgian government, he realized that it had been turned into a company town and was in ruin, a testimony to the ravages of the rubber trade. (Adam Hochschild covers similar territory in his excellent King Leopold's Ghost, LJ 9/15/98.) Sheppard and other missionaries then worked to expose the exploitation and atrocities in the Congo. Ironically, when he finally returned home to stay, Sheppard, who fought for the rights of blacks in Africa, "lived under apartheid" at home in what was the Jim Crow era. Kennedy takes on racism and imperialism in this first book-length exploration of Sheppard and his life. For students of African American studies, Presbyterian Church history, and anyone interested in colonial Africa. Edward G. McCormack, Univ. of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast Lib., Long Beach Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Novelist Kennedy (The Exes, 1998, etc.) portrays the first African-American missionary in the Congo.

Kirkus Reviews