S4M-05547 David Livingstone Bicentenary

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Elaine Smith): I am sure that members will wish to join me in welcoming to the gallery the special envoy for the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Scotland branch, Annie Lennox OBE. [Applause.]

The final item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-05547, in the name of James Kelly, on celebrations of the bicentenary of Dr David Livingstone’s birth. The debate will be concluded without any question being put.

Motion debated,

That the Parliament commemorates the life and legacy of Dr David Livingstone, considered Blantyre’s most famous son and Scotland’s greatest explorer and missionary; understands that, at the age of 10, Dr Livingstone began working in the Blantyre Cotton Mill as a piecer and, despite working a 14-hour day, he persevered with his studies and, after qualifying as a doctor, became a missionary and explorer in Africa, where he played a key role in ending slavery, especially in Malawi, which continues to have strong links to Scotland; applauds Dr Livingstone’s contributions in Africa generally and Malawi specifically and considers that, during his 30 years in Africa, he contributed enormously in the fields of education, healthcare, trade and commerce; notes that the bicentenary celebrations in Blantyre are being supported by funding from the National Trust for Scotland, Scottish Government, South Lanarkshire Council and the Scotland–Malawi Partnership, which promotes links between the two countries; believes that the 200th anniversary of Dr Livingstone will give people the opportunity to learn of the explorer’s early home life in Blantyre and encourage further interest in his achievements and explorations; considers that Scotland enjoys important links with Malawi and reaffirms its commitment to the cooperation agreement between the countries that was signed in 2005 by Lord McConnell and President Mutharika, which pledges engagement on “civic governance and society, sustainable economic development, health and education”, and looks forward to what it hopes will be a series of successful events in honour of a man whom it believes to be one of Scotland’s greatest figures and whose legacy continues to have a positive impact on the people of Malawi.

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Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP):

I thank James Kelly for creating the opportunity to have the debate.

It is appropriate that I acknowledge the achievements of Jack McConnell. He will be remembered on two fronts over the long term. First, he will be remembered for the anti-smoking legislation for which as an asthmatic I am grateful, and secondly—and fundamentally—he will be remembered for creating the formal links with Malawi. Tavish Scott was correct to talk about that as something for the long run that will endure the vicissitudes that inevitably accompany political elections. When I was a minister, I was delighted to play a small part—as many others have—in developing the relationship with Malawi.

James Kelly’s motion is well crafted and comprehensive and it contains a number of important points that I want to address. Fundamental are David Livingstone’s part in the anti-slavery movement, his contribution to bringing modern medicine to Africa and his focus on education and trade. Those were all key parts of his life in Africa.

Of course, David Livingstone’s life in Scotland illustrates that he was genuinely a man of the people. He was not privileged, he moved from being a worker to being a professional and, in gaining his qualifications, he had a much harder road to travel than those of us in the modern era who went to university largely funded by the state, and certainly not with competing interests or holding a day job while we undertook serious intellectual study. He must have been a fine intellect indeed, as well as a hard worker. Of course, he benefited from the broad base that was provided by the Scottish education system.

The monument to David Livingstone in Malawi is inscribed “Christianity, Commerce and Civilisation.” In some ways, that misses the point. In Victorian times, we probably failed to recognise adequately that civilisation existed before the white man came along; rather, it was a different civilisation, and one from which we should learn in the modern era.

David Livingstone saw commerce as being a key part of displacing the slave trade and he believed that finding a new commerce was the way to get the slave trade under control. His efforts were recognised through his appointment as the United Kingdom consul for East Africa.

I thought that James Kelly might want to pair up with Malawi’s Blantyre MPs, so I had a look to see who they were. I found out that they are Felix Njawala and Jeffrey Ntelemuka. Interestingly, one of them has just crossed the floor, and the rules of Parliament there mean that a member who does that is automatically ejected from the Parliament because it is necessary for members there to stay with the party of which they were a member when they were elected. That is probably not a system that we would copy, but it is interesting for all that.

Blantyre in Malawi is a memorial to David Livingstone: it has a population of three quarters of a million people and is home to the Malawi Stock Exchange, the college of medicine, the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation and the Malawi Supreme Court.

I conclude by putting Livingstone in an international context. When Henry Morton Stanley said, “Dr Livingstone, I presume?”, he was, of course, representing The New York Times. The interest in Livingstone was no parochial interest; he was an internationalist who attracted international attention.

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