James Johnston (missionary)
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James Johnston | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1851 Scotland |
| Died | 1921 (aged 69–70) |
| Occupations | Doctor, missionary and explorer |
| Known for | Missionary, photography and exploration |
| Title | Reverend Dr |
James Johnston (1851 – November 1921) was a British missionary, early photographer, doctor and explorer. He created his own mission at Brown's Town in Jamaica. He took six Jamaicans to help him on his journey across central Africa from west to east to cross the continent and rediscover David Livingstone's mission. Johnston's book and photographs record the journey and his observations on many things but particularly overly ambitious missionaries. Johnston later created slideshows to market Jamaica to potential tourists.
Explorer
Johnston was born in Scotland in 1851. He had read of the exploits of David Livingstone and attended his funeral in 1873.[1] Johnston arrived in Jamaica in December 1874 because he thought it would be good for his lungs and it was.[2] He broke away from the Baptist church and he started his Jamaican Evangelical mission in 1876. He created nine churches but the base of his medical mission and his religious assemblies was in Brown's Town.
Johnston introduced new tunes and he would punctuate the service with unplanned singing. He would tour the area on Tuesdays and Fridays handing out prescriptions and his wife would follow turning the prescriptions into the required medicines.[3] Johnston became the political representative for St Ann's Parish before he left to explore Africa.[4]
In 1893 he wrote what he described as "an account of a journey across the continent of Africa from Benguella on the west through Bihe, Ganguella, Barotse, the Kalahari Desert. Mashonaland, Manica, Gorongosa, Nyasa, the Shire Highlands to the mouth of the Zambezi to the East Coast." This journey which was "mostly of foot" took him from May 1891 to October 1892. He had been inspired to visit what he called the "Dark Continent" by reading as a child of the exploits of Robert Moffat and David Livingstone.[1] Johnston had hypothesised that people from Jamaica would be the best qualified people to explore central Africa. He decided to take six Afro-Caribbeans to Africa.[6] Using his own funds he took the Jamaicans to England where he raised funds to cover the expense of his Jamaican colleagues. He bought all that he thought he would need to take for a journey to a "shopless country".[1] He hoped to find part of the route the David Livingstone had taken[6] (Livingstone had died in 1873). This was despite the expense and trouble of taking six people from Jamaica to Africa via England. Two Jamaicans who spent the majority of the journey with him were named Frater and Johnathon. Johnston hired dozens of Africans to carry all that he believed essential. In October 1891 he had 97 people in his party and about thirty were required to carry the carriers food. Johnston believed that the people with him would be able to carry 60- to 80-pound loads for eight hours each day.[6] Johnson's book which he titled, "Reality versus Romance in Central Africa" included dozens of Johnston's photographs. One of the photographs shows David Livingstone's servant Katanga who was pictured with his many wives.[5] He and another native, Ratau, told stories of working for Livingstone.
Six to two
On 3 August 1891 he gets to the mission station at Cisamba. Here he makes the decision to leave behind four of the Jamaicans and to continue with just Johnathon and Frater for company. He leaves the four in the care of the Reverend Saunders. Johnston is aware that he has no interpreter for the land ahead so he spends several weeks at Cisamba so that he can learn the basics of the Umbundu language.[1]
