William Jervis Livingstone (1865–1915) was the manager of the Magomero Estate in Nyasaland (present-day Malawi) owned by A L Bruce Estates Ltd and was killed in 1915 during the uprising against colonial rule led by John Chilembwe. Livingstone, from the Isle of Lismore in Argyllshire, Scotland, was born in 1865 and appointed as manager of Magomero in 1893.
Although he experimented with growing coffee and later cotton, the estate was not a financial success and Livingstone imposed increasingly harsh labour demands on the estate workers there. He was also accused of the brutal mistreatment of those workers. Although Livingstone was immediately responsible for imposing excessive work demands on the workers and their brutal treatment, they were the results of the pressures for financial success that were imposed by Alexander Livingstone Bruce, a director and 40% shareholder in A L Bruce Estates Ltd after he came to live in Nyasaland from 1908. Bruce considered independent African churches to be subversive, and instructed Livingstone to destroy the church buildings that John Chilembwe had constructed without Bruce's permission on the Magomero estate.
Chilembwe's grievances about colonial rule and the oppression of African estate workers came to focus on William Jervis Livingstone and, when he initiated his revolt on 23 January 1915, Chilembwe ordered some of his men to attack the A L Bruce Estates, to kill all European men and to return with Livingstone's head. Livingstone and three others, including Duncan MacCormick also from Lismore and an African servant, were killed at Magomero, but the women and children were left unharmed on Chilembwe's instructions. In the aftermath of the uprising, Livingstone was blamed for the harsh and unsatisfactory conditions on the A L Bruce Estates, whereas Alexander Livingstone Bruce escaped censure. More recently, William Livingstone's character has been re-examined and, although undoubtedly a violent man, he is also regarded as reacting to the demands made by Alexander Livingstone Bruce which he found impossible to meet.L. White, (1987). Magomero: Portrait of an African Village, pp. 77-3, 88-90, 127-33, 133-7.
Birth and family
William Jervis Livingstone was born on 8 March 1865 at Bachuil, Isle of Lismore, Argyllshire, in Scotland. His father, Alexander Livingstone (1815-1906), was a Baptist minister and his mother Jessie (née McPherson, 1824–99) was Alexander’s second wife. Alexander Livingstone had seven children, of whom three died as infants and two, including William’s older half-brother, in their twenties. Only William and his younger brother Thomas survived into the 20th century. In 1908, William married Katherine (née MacLachlan), a schoolteacher, and they had three children, one of whom died as an infant.
Both Alexander Livingstone and later his son William claimed the title of Baron of Bachuil, although this dignity was not formally recognised until 2004, and it did not imply ownership of any land. William Jervis Livingstone considered that he was related to David Livingstone, but no direct connection has been proven, particularly in view of the uncertainty about the identity of David Livingstone's grandparents and more remote ancestors.
It has been claimed that David Livingstone’s daughter Agnes called on William Jervis Livingstone to manage the Magomero Estate after the death of her husband, Alexander Low Bruce, on account of this relationship. However, it is more probable that Alexander Low Bruce made the appointment shortly before his death. Livingstone was 28 years old when he was appointed to manage Magomero and 49 years old when he was killed there on 23 January 1915: most of what is known of him concerns his 21 years as manager of that estate.L. White, (1987). Magomero: Portrait of an African Village, pp. 82-3.
Magomero Origin Agnes (b. 1847), the daughter of David Livingstone married Alexander Low Bruce (b. 1839) in 1875. They had four children including two sons, David Livingstone Bruce (b. 1877) and Alexander Livingstone Bruce (b. 1881). Alexander Low Bruce was a master brewer who supported African commercial and missionary organisations and, after his marriage to Agnes Livingstone, he became a director of the African Lakes Company. He never visited Nyasaland, but obtained title to some 170,000 acres of land there through his association with the African Lakes Company and the agency of John Buchanan, a planter who also brokered land sales by local chiefs. Of this land, 162,000 acres formed the estate that he named Magomero, after a village that David Livingstone had recorded in the same area during his Zambezi expedition. Magomero is situated south of Zomba. On Alexander Low Bruce's death in 1893 aged 54, title to his African assets passed under his will to the A L Bruce Trust, whose main beneficiaries were his two sons, then aged 16 and 12.J McCraken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859-1966, pp. 77-9.
Shortly before his death, Alexander Low Bruce had appointed a manager for each of his two estates in Nyasaland. William Jervis Livingstone took control of the main estate of Magomero in Chiradzulu District in 1893 and D.B. Ritchie was placed in charge of the smaller Likulezi Estate near Mlanje. Initially, Agnes assumed oversight of the A L Bruce Trust until Bruce's heirs, David and Alexander, could take over when they came of age. The provisions of their father's will expected them to run the estates:
"…not on account of any pecuniary advantage…but in the hope and expectation that they will take an interest in the opening up of Africa to Christianity and Commerce on the lines laid down by their grandfather the late David Livingstone."L. White, (1987). Magomero: Portrait of an African Village, p. 82.
However, after their mother’s death, and as the Magomero estate showed potential, David Livingstone Bruce and Alexander Livingstone Bruce purchased the assets of the A L Bruce Trust in 1913, paying just over £41,000 for its two estates. They then incorporated A L Bruce Estates Ltd in 1913 as a commercial venture with a share capital of £54,000, largely held by the two sons and one of the daughters of Alexander Low Bruce.L. White, (1987). Magomero: Portrait of an African Village, pp. 110-11
Crops grown When Magomero was acquired, it was largely unoccupied and uncultivated, and William Jervis Livingstone needed to find suitable crops and workers. At first, he tried unsuccessfully to grow coffee, then turned first to cotton and later to tobacco. Most workers at Magomero were not local people but rather migrants from Mozambique belonging to a number of different Lomwe-speaking groups (so-called "Anguru").L. White, (1984). 'Tribes' and the Aftermath of the Chilembwe Rising, pp. 513-8. These Lomwe workers came to Magomero as tenants; initially the men had to work for one month a year in lieu of rent: widows and single women were exempt.J McCracken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859-1966, pp. 129-30.L. White, (1987). Magomero: Portrait of an African Village, pp. 100-1. Livingstone ordered the planting of about 70,000 bushes of Arabica coffee in 200 to 300 acres as the first estate crop at Magomero in 1895, but after poor crops in 1898 and 1899 because of frost and a collapse in world coffee prices in 1903, he looked for more profitable crops.L. White, (1987). Magomero: Portrait of an African Village, pp. 82-4.
Livingstone turned to cotton from 1903: growing Egyptian cotton was unsuccessful as it was more suitable for hotter areas, but from 1906, he developed a hardier variety of Upland cotton called Nyasaland Upland, and in 1908 planted 1,000 acres at Magomero with it; this was increased to 5,000 acres by 1914. Cotton required intensive labour over a long growing period, and Livingstone ensured that 3,000 to 5,000 workers were available throughout its five or six month growing season by exploiting the obligations of the labour tenancy system called thangata. This word originally meant help, such as one neighbour might give another, but it came to mean the work that a tenant on a European-owned estate had to undertake in lieu of rent. Tenants were also required to undertake additional work on account of the hut tax which the owner paid on behalf of tenants. Other men worked for wages: they were often unpaid, underpaid or given tobacco instead of cash, and violently coerced by the owners.J McCracken, (2012).A History of Malawi, 1859-1966, pp. 130-2. Although William Jervis Livingstone pioneered the thangata system at Magomero from 1906, once Alexander Livingstone Bruce came to live in Nyasaland in 1908 and control of the estate operations, he instructed Livingstone, his manager, to exploit thangata rigorously to maximise the amount of cotton grown. The A L Bruce Estates increased the amount of labour demanded in account of rent and Hut tax to four or five months a year, mainly in the rainy season, which was also the main growing season for both cotton and food crops, leaving tenants little time to grow their own food. Single women tenants and widows were now also required to work.L. White, (1987). Magomero: Portrait of an African Village, pp. 88-90, 113.
Harsh management One of the main reasons that William Jervis Livingstone was killed in the 1915 Chilembwe uprising was the severity of his management. Following the uprising, the protectorate government tried to replace thangata by cash rents. However, Alexander Livingstone Bruce, as a major planter, led estate owners in threatening massive evictions of tenants if this change were implemented, and thangata remained.J McCracken, (2012).A History of Malawi, 1859-1966, p. 146. Even after Livingstone’s killing, the work obligation on the A L Bruce Estates was little modified, sometimes amounting to six months for thangata and Hut tax. However, as the Crown lands nearest to the estates were already crowded, and as most of the estate tenants were Anguru, who had no claim to settle on those Crown lands, they had little option but to stay.L. White, (1987). Magomero: Portrait of an African Village, pp. 133, 146.
William Jervis Livingstone was quick-tempered and his actions, including arbitrarily increasing tenants’ workloads and ordering them to be beaten, concerned local district officials from the early years of the 20th century.L. White, (1987). Magomero: Portrait of an African Village, pp. 127-9, 133. The physical punishment of workers was fairly widespread in Nyasaland, but as early as 1901 Livingstone was fined for aggravated assault, and there was testimony from his fellow planters that he beat his estate workers and domestic staff with little provocation. However, against this, several headmen from the Bruce Estates confirmed that Livingstone had distributed food to them in times of famine.L White, (1984). 'Tribes' and the Aftermath of the Chilembwe Rising, pp. 524. These headmen were often Muslim ex-soldiers appointed by him to control the mainly migrant estate workforce: there is no suggestion of any widespread food distribution to tenants.L. White, (1987). Magomero: Portrait of an African Village, p. 129.