In Livingstone's Footsteps - A Discussion With The Author, Ben de Ponti

Date: 12:00-14:00 14 May 2025

Hear from Ben de Ponti, author of "In Livingstone's Footsteps: Through the Heart of Malawi", first published in Dutch in 2019, now translated into English. In 2007, Ben followed in David Livingstone's footsteps, retracing Livingstone’s expeditions from 1861 and 1863 on foot and by boat.

He is a retired dental surgeon who worked in a missionary hospital in Mzuzu in Malawi from 1976-1979. He wrote a book about his expedition that was published first in Dutch in November 2019 and now translated in English. The book is also on its way to be translated in Chichewa and will be printed at Montfort media in Balaka.

He will tell us how he sailed the courses of David Livingstone and followed his two excursions (1861 and 1863) into the centre of Malawi (then known as Nyasaland). He published a book about it, detailing the changes that have occurred since 1863, the communities he slept in, the people he encountered, and how he managed to organise everything. The book discusses Livingstone's experiences, a little over 140 years prior to what he went through on his walk. He learnt that Malawians' recollections of David Livingstone still exist today.

This will be followed by a Q&A session.

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