“'Doctor Livingstone, I presume?' was said right here in 1871, when a newspaper reporter finally found the explorer everyone feared was dead.”
About Livingstone Memorial
David Livingstone spent years exploring central Africa, mapping rivers and campaigning against the slave trade, until he lost contact with the outside world. The newspaperman Henry Morton Stanley was dispatched to find him and succeeded at Ujiji in 1871. Their meeting, and Stanley's famous greeting, became one of the iconic moments of the age of African exploration. Ujiji itself was a major slave-trading town Livingstone had condemned.
The Livingstone Memorial at Ujiji, near Kigoma on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, marks one of the most famous meetings in the history of exploration. It was here, in 1871, that the journalist Henry Morton Stanley finally tracked down the missing Scottish explorer and missionary David Livingstone, greeting him with the words that became legendary.
The Livingstone Memorial at Ujiji, near Kigoma on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, marks one of the most famous meetings in the history of exploration.
Doctor Livingstone, I Presume?
Livingstone, an explorer and fierce opponent of the slave trade, had been out of contact for years while searching for the source of the Nile, and was widely feared dead. Sent by a New York newspaper to find him, Stanley reached Ujiji and, on meeting the only other European for hundreds of miles, is said to have uttered the understated greeting 'Doctor Livingstone, I presume?'. A monument and two mango trees, grown from a tree that shaded the meeting, mark the spot.
The Experience
You visit a small memorial site at Ujiji with a monument marking the meeting place and the mango trees descended from the one that stood there. A modest museum tells the story of Livingstone, Stanley and the exploration and slave-trade history of the region. It is a low-key but historically resonant stop near Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika.
Why It Matters
The Livingstone Memorial commemorates a defining episode of 19th-century exploration and the European engagement with central Africa. It also stands at Ujiji, a former hub of the East African slave trade that Livingstone fought, linking the romance of exploration to the darker history of the caravan routes.
The Livingstone Memorial commemorates a defining episode of 19th-century exploration and the European engagement with central Africa.
Why Visit
The site of the famous 'Doctor Livingstone, I presume?' meeting, a small but historically significant memorial and museum at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika.
✦ Insider Tips
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See the monument and the mango trees marking the 1871 meeting.
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The small museum covers Livingstone, Stanley and the slave trade.
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Ujiji is an easy trip from Kigoma on Lake Tanganyika.
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Combine it with a visit to the lake or onward to Gombe.
