Elmslie, W.A.

Among The Wild Ngoni – Being Some Chapters in the History of the Livingstonia Mission in British Central Africa.

Edinburgh and London, Oliphant Anderson & Ferrier, 1899. 13.5 cm x 19.5 cm. Frontispiece, 319 pages. 14 illustrations including frontispiece. Folded Map at rear showing ‘Livingstonia Mission.’ Hardcover [publisher’s original tanned cloth] with gilt lettering and pictorial illustration on spine and board. Very good+ condition with only minor signs of external wear. Interior bright and clean.

Includes, for example, the following: Political History of the Ngoni / The Country and the People / Native Customs and Beliefs / My First Visit to Mombera etc.

Water Angus Elmslie (1856-1935) was a Scottish missionary of the Livingstonia Mission in Malawi. Born in Aberdeen and educated at the University of Aberdeen, he began his service in Malawi as a doctor at Njuyu. In 1889 he opened a new station at Ekwendeni among the Ngoni people, where he spent most of the rest of his missionary career. He was ordained by the Free Church of Scotland in 1897. He is chiefly remembered for his patient and pioneering work among Chief M’mbelwa’s Ngoni people, building on the foundation work already laid by William Mtusane Koyi, Xhosa evangelist to the Ngoni. Elmslie is also important for his early linguistic and historical studies. In 1886 he published Izongoma zo ‘Mlungu, a collection of hymns and Scripture selections, which was the first printed book in the Ngoni language. This was followed in 1891 by a translation of Mark’s Gospel and two books on ChiNgoni grammar and history. A close ally of Robert Laws, Elmslie is representative of the more conservative stream in the Livingstonia tradition, which was fairly negative about African culture and cautious about the pace of African leadership. (Dictionary of African Christian Biography – https://dacb.org/stories/malawi/elmslie-walter/)

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. The mission was linked with the Livingstonia Central Africa Company, set up as a commercial business in 1877. By 1881 Cape Maclear had 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 Nyika Plateau. 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. (Wikipedia)

The Ngoni people are an ethnic group living in the present-day Southern African countries of Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. The Ngoni trace their origins to the Nguni and Zulu people of kwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. (Wikipedia)

• Keywords: 19th Century · Africa · Africa – Rare · Africa, British Southern · Africa, Southern · Africana Collection of Rare Books · Anthropology · biographical · Biographies and Memoirs · Books with vintage Maps · British · British Colonial History · British Dominions · British Empire · Christianity · colonial · Colonial History · Colonial History – Rare · Colonialism · Ethnography · Ethnology · Imperialism · Imperialism in literature · Livingstone, David · Malawi · Memoirs · Mission · Missionaries · Missions in Africa · Native, Rituals and Customs · Natives · Protestant churches · Protestantism · Religion · Religion and Culture · Religion and education · Religion, Primitive · Reminiscences · Travel Africa – Rare · Travellers
• Language: English
• Inventory Number: 120155AB

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