Livingstonia is a town located in the Northern Region district of Karonga in Malawi. It is 270 miles north of the capital, Lilongwe. The town of Mzuzu can be reach on tarred road in about 4-5 hours. Livingstonia was founded in 1894 by missionaries from the Free Church of Scotland. The missionaries had first established a mission in 1875 at Cape Maclear, which they named Livingstonia after David Livingstone, whose death in 1873 had rekindled British support for missions in Eastern Africa. This location proved extremely malarial and the mission moved north to Bandawe. This site also proved unhealthy and the Livingstonia Mission moved once again to the higher grounds between Lake Malawi and Nyiaka Plateu. This new site proved highly successful because Livingstonia is located in the mountains and therefore not prone to mosquitoes carrying malaria. The mission station gradually developed into a small town. The leading missionary for 52 years was Dr Robert Laws. He established in Livingstonia the best school in his time for the whole region, and Livingstonia graduates became influential in several neighbouring countries, right down to South Africa. Dr Laws wanted Livingstonia to develop into a University, but his successors did not pursue the dream. In 2003 the Livingstonia Synod of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) renewed the vision and started Livingstonia University.
The houses in Livingstonia are characteristic in that they are mostly constructed with red bricks.
References
- Lonely Planet, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia (1th Ed.). 1997. Lonely Planet Publications, Hawthorne, Australia.
- For the history of Livingstonia Mission and Synod see: John McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Malawi 1975-1940. The Impact of the Livingstonia Mission in the Northern Province, 2nd ed., Blantyre: CLAIM, 2000, 376 pp.
