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

Pagan Kennedy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 10, 2002

Black Livingstone is the first book to chronicle the remarkable life of William Henry Sheppard. As a twenty-four-year-old African American missionary in 1890, Sheppard departed for what was then the Belgian Congo, accompanied by Samuel Lapsley, a white man who had grown up on a plantation and was the son of a prominent Alabama judge. Lapsley died of fever barely a year later, but Sheppard thrived in Africa for three more years before returning to America. Back home, Sheppard was billed as the "Black Livingstone" as he traveled the country, lecturing to packed auditoriums. Black and white, rich and poor alike came to hear his true tales of African adventure. One year later he returned to the Congo, where he witnessed and gathered testimony on the genocide being perpetrated by the Belgian government and the rubber companies, eventually helping to break their hold on the region.

Pagan Kennedy unfolds Sheppard's life and times with a novelist's narrative skill and penetrates the complexity of her subject-a man who found power in the Congo but not in the Church to which he dedicated his life, who fought the persecution of Africans but never of blacks in his own country. Beautifully illustrated with archival photographs, Black Livingstone will appeal widely to readers of books on African history such as King Leopold's Ghost and In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz, as well as readers of fiction set in Africa, like Barbara Kingsolver's bestseller, The Poisonwood Bible.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers 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, Inc.

From Library Journal

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 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; 1ST edition (January 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670030368
• ISBN-13: 978-0670030361
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,619,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The author presumes, February 13, 2002

By 

"michaeleve" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Livingstone: A True Tale of Adventure in the Nineteenth-Century Congo (Hardcover)

Stanley's presumption that the white man he stumbled upon in the wilds of the Congo must be the lost Dr Livingstone was at least based on some knowledge. The same however, can not be said about some of the assumptions that Pagan Kennedy makes regarding the thoughts and motives of Presbyterian missionary William Sheppard in BLACK LIVINGSTONE. As another reviewer has already pointed out there are too many instances of "he must have thought" "he would have believed" "perhaps he felt" and so on. Suppositions that because they are repeated so often only draw your attention to the reality that there seems to be an awful lot that the author doesn't know about her subject. It's also very distracting.

More research may have only helped a little as there does not seem to be a whole lot of information available about William Sheppard. Born in 1865 in Virginia he attended Hampton Institute and then entered the ministry in Alabama. After pastorships in Georgia, this young black man in the predominantly white Southern Presbyterian Church was offered a position as missionary to the Belgian Congo in 1890. He and a fellow missionary - 23 year old white Alabaman Samuel Lapsley set off for what would be a 20 year adventure for Sheppard. Lapsley on the otherhand lasted no time at all. He died from fever in 1892, eventually being replaced by William Morrison who came out in 1897.

Writing style and paucity of research material on the main subject notwithstanding, the book does a good enough job with the descrition of some of the adventures that Sheppard embarked on. Such as his journey to the land of the Kuba peoples "who lived at the end of a labyrinth of secret paths; anyone who told the way into the city would be beheaded." This was also Congo under the rule of the rapacious Belgian King Leopold II and one of the duties assigned to Sheppard following Morrison's arrival was to document the cruel exploitation of the locals by the Europeans. Sheppards' uncovering of a massacre of locals by a cannibalistic king working at the behest of the Belgians showed both his bravery and his ability to handle tricky situations.

In the end the man was undone not by tribal feuding, politics or Belgian revenge, but by subtle human failings. He was found guilty of adultery having taken a few African mistresses while on service and was called home to answer charges by the church. It is strange that in discussing this episode the author is not as forthcoming with proposing what Sheppard might have been thinking or feeling. Perhaps it is finally a recognition that we simply can't know.

William Sheppard comes through as a brave, enterprising, and intrepid person. More akin to adventurer than missionary. He certainly rises above his fellow church workers. If BLACK LIVINGSTONE had been simply a telling of his story rather than guessing his thoughts, then the book would have been as enjoyable as the man was interesting.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too Many "probablys", October 25, 2002

By 

R. J. Hardage (South Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Livingstone: A True Tale of Adventure in the Nineteenth-Century Congo (Hardcover)

I agree that Pagan Kennedy is an excellent storyteller, and her telling of William Sheppard's story is spellbinding. Contrary to what some reviewers think, however, there is much more primary material available to the researcher than Kennedy seems to have used. Unfortunately, Black Livingstone is marred by too many suppositions--maybe, probably, perhaps, could have, should have, etc.--and the author attributes attitudes both to Sheppard and his associates that cannot be substantiated from records. William Phipps's biography, William Sheppard: Congo's African American Livingstone, presents a much more balanced picture of this important man's life and service.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars AN OLD FASHIONED ADVENTURE STORY, March 8, 2002

By 

Brady L. Buchanan (Henderson, Nevada United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Livingstone: A True Tale of Adventure in the Nineteenth-Century Congo (Hardcover)

In my younger years I read many a book about exploring Africa and hunting the animals as well as safaris' as written by various authors. Great reading!

This book is about a black man named William Henry Sheppard A/K/A
The Black Livingstone...for good reason. Others complain about using conjecture in writing this story, however, the author, Pagan Kennedy, admits there are huge holes missing in the life of William Sheppard and I believe she did a fine job in telling this story. To make it interesting she just had to use conjecture or there would have been no book. There are plenty of facts, however, to prove that a whole lot of life-threatening danger was involved and original exploration and pathfinding done by the Black Livingstone.

This is the story of a black man's life that started as a nobody, then through hard work and some chicanery became a sought after celebrity and then in the waning years again became a nobody.

The relationship between Sheppard and his wife is an interesting one. All of her life she dreamed of living a certain way and after MANY decades she finally realized her dreams as outlined in the epilogue.

This was a fine book for me as the author did well in assembling the information at hand. I had never heard of Sheppard and the others in this story and am glad I read it!