Livingstone Inland Mission

Last updated
Livingstone Inland Mission
Formation1878
Dissolved1884
TypeMission Society

The Livingstone Inland Mission (LIM) was an evangelical missionary society that operated in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1878 and 1884.

Contents

Foundation

The moving spirit in founding the society in 1877 was the Baptist pastor Alfred Tilly. He gained support from the Cory brothers of Cardiff, and called on Henry Grattan Guinness and his wife Fanny to launch a mission to the interior of the Congo. [1] Alfred Tilly resigned as secretary in October 1880 and was replaced by Fanny Guinness, a superb administrator, with the mission becoming part of the East London Institute for Home and Foreign Missions. [2]

Fanny Guinness recorded a cautionary note concerning funding in the constitution of the society in her 1890 book:

"That as it is the aim of this mission to introduce into the vast Congo Valley as many Christian evangelists as possible, and as it is believed that land and native labour can be secured at small cost, the agents of the mission shall be men willing to avail themselves of these advantages, and resolved to be as little burdensome as possible to the funds of the mission. No salaries are guaranteed, but the committee as far as the means of doing so are placed in their hands, will supply the missionaries with such needful things as cannot be produced in the country". [3]

Activity

The first missionaries to reach the Congo were Henry Craven of Liverpool, and Strom, a Danish sailor. They reached Matadi in February 1878. [4] In March 1880, Adam McCall launched an expedition to travel up the navigable section of the river 100 miles (160 km) to Yellala Falls, then force its way up the 232 miles (373 km) stretch of rapids and obstacles to Stanley Pool. [5] With great difficulty the expedition got as far as Bemba by the end of October, when the rains began and prevented all further progress. [6] Meanwhile the Henry Reed, a 71 feet (22 m) wood-burning steamer with a shallow draft had been shipped out from England in sections. It was carried up the river to Stanley pool by 1,000 porters, reaching Leopoldville in April 1881, and after assembly was launched on 24 November 1881. [7] The mission also acquired the 40 feet (12 m) steam launch Livingstone, launched on the lower Congo in May 1881. [8]

By 1881 the mission had established four missions on the lower Congo. That year they made their first converts, who traveled back to London for the first baptism in 1882. In the first five years, three men and one woman died. [8] By 1884 the LIM had scattered missions along the south shore of the Congo as far as Stanley pool, but their sponsors were running into financial difficulty. The American Baptist Missionary Union offered to take over the operation, and the LIM was glad to accept. [9] In April 1887, on his expedition to rescue Emin Pasha, Henry Morton Stanley found when he reached Stanley Pool that the boats he had been promised were not available. He forced the LIM missionaries to lend him the Henry Reed. [10]

Related Research Articles

Henry Morton Stanley 19th-century Welsh journalist and explorer

Sir Henry Morton Stanley was a Welsh-American journalist, explorer, soldier, colonial administrator, author and politician who was famous for his exploration of central Africa and his search for missionary and explorer David Livingstone, whom he later claimed to have greeted with the now-famous line: "Dr Livingstone, I presume?". He is mainly known for his search for the source of the Nile, work he undertook as an agent of King Leopold II of Belgium, which enabled the occupation of the Congo Basin region, and for his command of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. He was knighted in 1897.

David Livingstone Scottish explorer and missionary

David Livingstone was a Scottish physician, Congregationalist, and pioneer Christian missionary with the London Missionary Society, an explorer in Africa, and one of the most popular British heroes of the late 19th-century Victorian era. He had a mythic status that operated on a number of interconnected levels: Protestant missionary martyr, working-class "rags-to-riches" inspirational story, scientific investigator and explorer, imperial reformer, anti-slavery crusader, and advocate of British commercial and colonial expansion.

Emin Pasha Relief Expedition

The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition of 1886 to 1889 was one of the last major European expeditions into the interior of Africa in the nineteenth century, ostensibly to the relief of Emin Pasha, General Charles Gordon's besieged governor of Equatoria, threatened by Mahdist forces. The expedition was led by Henry Morton Stanley and came to be both celebrated for its ambition in crossing "darkest Africa", and notorious for the deaths of so many of its members and the disease unwittingly left in its wake.

Geraldine Taylor

Mary Geraldine Guinness, often known as Mrs. Howard Taylor, was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China, and author of many missionary biographies on the history of the China Inland Mission (CIM).

Henry Grattan Guinness

Henry Grattan Guinness was an Irish Protestant Christian preacher, evangelist and author. He was the great evangelist of the Evangelical awakening and preached during the Ulster Revival of 1859 which drew thousands to hear him. He was responsible for training and sending hundreds of "faith missionaries" all over the world.

George Grenfell Baptist missionary to Cameroon and explorer of Africa

George Grenfell was a Cornish missionary and explorer.

The Regions Beyond Missionary Union was a Protestant Christian missionary society founded by Henry Grattan Guinness, D.D. and his wife Fanny in 1873.

Richard Mohun American explorer and diplomat, born 1864

Richard Dorsey Loraine Mohun was an American explorer, diplomat, mineral prospector and mercenary. Mohun worked for the United States government as a commercial agent in Angola and the Congo Free State. During his time as commercial agent, he volunteered to command a unit of Belgian artillery in a campaign to force Arab slavers from the colony.

Frederick Stanley Arnot

Frederick Stanley Arnot was a Scottish missionary who did much to establish missions in what are now Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Yellala Falls

The Yellala Falls are a series of waterfalls and rapids on the Congo River just upstream from Matadi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The falls are the lowest of a long series of rapids that render the river unnavigable, forcing colonial explorers to travel by foot as far as the Stanley Pool 350 kilometres (220 mi) upstream. The Congo is the third largest river in the world by volume of water discharged, and the deepest in the world. The section of river that ends with the Yellala falls has over 300 species of fish, many found nowhere else.

Congo-Balolo Mission

The Congo-Balolo Mission (CBM) was a British Baptist missionary society that was active in the Belgian Congo, the present day Democratic Republic of the Congo, from 1889 to 1915. It was the predecessor of the Regions Beyond Missionary Union (RBMU), established in 1900, which today is called World Team.

Alphonse van Gèle

Alphonse van Gèle, also written van Gele or Vangele, was a Belgian soldier who served as the Vice-Governor General of the Congo Free State from December 1897 until January 1899. He established the Equator Station, or Station de l’Équateur, today Mbandaka, and concluded a treaty with the powerful Zanzibar trader Tippu Tip at the Stanley Falls station, today Kisangani. He is known for having confirmed that the Uele River was the upper part of the Ubangi River.

The Baptist Community of Congo is a Baptist Christian denomination in Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is affiliated with the Church of Christ in the Congo and the Baptist World Alliance. The headquarters is in Kinshasa.

Isangila Place in Kongo Central, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Isangila, formerly called Isanghila or Isanguila is the headquarters of a sector of the Seke-Banza territory in Kongo Central province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Manyanga Place in Kongo Central, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Manyanga was a staging post on the route from the coast to Léopoldville during the days of the Congo Free State. It was at the upper end of a navigable reach of the Congo River from Isangila, further downstream to the west. Above Manyanga goods had to be carried by land round the falls and rapids to Stanley Pool.

H. E. Crudgington (1852–1931) was a Baptist missionary from Ireland who was active in the Congo region before the Congo Free State was established.

Thomas J. Comber

Thomas James Comber was a Baptist missionary from England who was active in the Congo region before the Congo Free State was established.

En Avant (steam launch)

The En Avant was a small steam launch used in the early days of European exploration of the Congo River basin. It was carried in sections past the cataracts of the lower Congo, reassembled at Stanley Pool and launched in February 1881, the first powered vessel on the long navigable section between the cataracts and the Stanley Falls . In the years that followed it played an important role in carrying the Europeans up and down the river and its tributaries as they established trading stations.

Fanny Grattan Guinness British writer and evangelist

Fanny Grattan Guinness born Fanny Emma Fitzgerald writing as Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness was a British writer, evangelist and trainer of missionaries.

References

  1. Conley 2000, p. 52.
  2. Conley 2000, p. 56.
  3. Guinness 1890, p. 180.
  4. Conley 2000, p. 54.
  5. Conley 2000, p. 57.
  6. Conley 2000, p. 58.
  7. Conley 2000, p. 61.
  8. 1 2 Conley 2000, p. 55.
  9. Duignan & Gann 1987, p. 137.
  10. Kingston 1890, p. 452.

Sources