Livingstone’s Body

“Then he (Jacob) charged them and said to them: ‘I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my fathers…’” [Genesis 49:29]

Dr. David Livingstone was one of the most popular national heroes in the late 19th-century Britain. He was not only a missionary to Africa, but a scientific investigator, explorer, reformer, and anti-slavery crusader. He was especially known for his obsession with finding the source of the Nile River by penetrating the unknown (to Europeans) heart of Africa.

When the famous missionary and explorer died in 1873, his loyal friends Chuma and Susi buried his heart under a tree in Africa as he had requested. They then embalmed his body by filling it with salt and leaving it to dry in the sun for 14 days, then wrapping it in cloth. Next they enclosed the body in the bark of an Mvula tree, over which they sewed heavy sailcloth. This package was then tied to a long pole so that two men could carry it, along with Livingstone’s important papers.

His two friends then started on a dangerous and epic 11-month, 1,000- mile journey to Zanzibar. When they arrived in February of 1874 they gave the body to the amazed officers of the British Consul. When the body arrived in England on April 15, there was some disbelief regarding the identity of the remains. However, upon examination of the left arm, they saw the awful scar from a lion attack Livingstone had survived. At that point all doubt disappeared.

On April 18, 1874, virtually all of London came to a standstill as the remains of David Livingstone were buried in Westminster Abbey. At his funeral, along with kings and dignitaries, were his children, along with his friends Susi, Henry Stanley, and the aged Robert Moffat, who had first called Livingstone to Africa 40 years earlier.

Did you know the Bible tells how another body remained embalmed over a period of 200 years and was carried by hand for more than 1,000 miles before it was buried? Joshua very carefully followed the request made by Joseph many years before when Israel returned to Canaan. “The bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel had brought up out of Egypt, they buried at Shechem, in the plot of ground which Jacob had bought from the sons of Hamor… ” (Joshua 24:32).

Someday, all who sleep in the grave waiting for Christ’s return will awake to everlasting life. There will be no more separations, no more diseases that kill, and no more death.