Author Julie Davidson to share Mrs Livingstone's story in talks series

Author and Journalist Julie Davidson will share the enthralling story of the extraordinarily courageous and stoical wife of the world-renowned explorer and missionary, David Livingstone in a talk based on her book Looking for Mrs Livingstone in Aberdeen, Dundee, Dunfermline and Edinburgh between the 6th and 9th January.

This talk is part of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Inspiring People talks programme.
In the history books, Mary Livingstone is a shadow in the blaze of her husband's sun, a whisper in the thunderclap of his reputation. Yet she played an important role in Livingstone's success and her own feats as an early traveller in uncharted Africa are unique.

She was the first white woman to cross the Kalahari, which she did twice - pregnant - giving birth in the bush on the second journey. She was much more rooted in southern Africa than her husband: he has a tomb in Westminster Abbey, London; she has an obscure and crumbling grave on the banks of the Zambezi in a destitute region of Mozambique.

In the thrall of Africa, Julie Davidson has travelled extensively over several years in the footsteps of Mary Livingstone, from her birthplace in a remote district of South Africa to her grave on the Zambezi. She explores the places the Livingstones knew as a couple and, above all, explores the detail of the life and family of this little-known figure in British - but not African - history.

JULIE DAVIDSON's varied and award-winning career in journalism, includes work for The Times, Observer, Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Aberdeen Press & Journal, The Scotsman, The Herald (Glasgow), Cosmopolitan and House & Garden. Winner of 5 Scottish Press Awards, she was a TV presenter and has won several awards for travel writing.

Julie’s talk will take place at 7:30pm on:

6th January - Aberdeen - MacRobert Building, University of Aberdeen, King's College, Aberdeen, AB24 5UA

7th January - Dundee - Tower Extension Building, University of Dundee, Perth Road, Dundee, DD1 4HN

8th January - Dunfermline - Carnegie Hall, East Port, Dunfermline, KY12 7JA

9th January - Edinburgh - Appleton Tower, 11 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9LE

Everyone is welcome. Tickets are £8 for adults, free for students, under 18s and RSGS members.

For more information about the RSGS talks and how to join the Society visit www.rsgs.org, contact us on enquiries@rsgs.org, find us on Facebook or follow the Society on twitter @RoyalScotGeoSoc.

From Deepest Africa to the Highest Himalaya: Siân Pritchard-Jones and Bob Gibbons

Our first speakers in the Inspiring People talks season for 2013-14 are Siân Pritchard-Jones and Bob Gibbons.  Travel writers and expedition leaders, Siân Pritchard-Jones and Bob Gibbons will share their experiences of Africa and the Himalayas in talks in Kirkcaldy on Monday 16th and Edinburgh on Wednesday 18th September.  

Siân Pritchard-Jones has been travelling in Africa for 30 years. She worked in computer programming and systems analysis for far too long, until overland travel and particularly the Himalayas captivated her on a trip to Nepal in 1982.

Siân Pritchard-Jones and Bob Gibbons met in 1983, on a trek from Kashmir to Ladakh. By then Bob had already driven an ancient Land Rover from England to Kathmandu in 1974 and led overland trips across Asia, Africa and South America as well as decrepit old tourist buses around India. He had also lived in Kathmandu as a trekking company manager. Before they met, Siân had worked in computer programming and systems analysis, but her heart had always been in the Himalayas, after a trip there on her way back from working in New Zealand.

Since they met they have been leading and organising treks in the Alps, Nepal, Algeria and Niger; they have hitched across Tibet, driven a busload of over-50s overland to Nepal, explored the Sahara and driven across Africa to Gabon. Some of this was real work, but luckily that ‘proper job’ has not materialised.

However, they regularly return to their first love, Kathmandu and the Himalayas, where they work with various publishers in Kathmandu, and have written guides on the Kathmandu Valley, Ladakh and Tibet.. During 2011 they revisited Tibet, this time driving the same old Land Rover back from Kathmandu to the UK overland via Lhasa, Kazakhstan, Russia and across Europe. It was with great relish that they returned to one of their former trekking haunts in Nepal - the Annapurna region - to research a new guide, and to contribute to Trekking in the Himalaya. 

Tickets are available on the door: £8 for adults, free for students, under 18s and RSGS Members. Kirkcaldy: 7:30pm on Monday 16th September in the Department of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Dundee Fife Campus, 5 Forth Ave, Kirkcaldy, KY2 5YS.

Edinburgh: 2:15pm on Wednesday 18^th September in Appleton Tower, 11 Crichton Street, Edinburgh EH8 9LE.

This talk is part of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Inspiring People talks programme. For more information on the talks visit www.rsgs.org/events

Explorer Julian Monroe Fisher shares a tale of African adventure

Explorer and Anthropologist Julian Monroe Fisher will present a tale of adventure and intrigue that has long been overlooked as a footnote to the history of the African Congo in a talk in Dumfries, Borders, Ayr and Helensburgh between the 25th and 28th of March.

The year was 1890. King Leopold II of Belgium was trying to secure his piece of the cake during the period referred to as ‘The Scramble for Africa’. He first turned to Henry Morton Stanley to push forward with his Congo Free State, but the ageing explorer turned down the offer and recommended a young Canadian officer who had served valiantly with Stanley during the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. 

  
Captain William Grant Stairs, 27 years young, accepted the offer to lead King Leopold’s expedition to Katanga. The young officer, along with a Frenchman, an English man, an Irishman and a Belgian (arguably a team of hired mercenaries), set off from the east coast of Africa for the province of Katanga in what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In a moment of sheer recklessness one impetuous young member of the Stairs Expedition to Katanga altered not only the course of the Garanganze people and their King Msiri but also his own life and that of the rest of the expeditionary team. 

 

This talk is part of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s Inspiring People talks programme.

Julian Monroe Fisher is an explorer noted primarily for his exploration of the African continent.

Julian’s expeditions have turned their focus to the Katanga Province of The Democratic Republic of Congo in 2009 and 2010 where he is working closely with Sa Majeste´ Mwenda-Bantu Munongo Godefroid Mwami, the king of the Garanganze people of Katanga. 

Julian is researching the events of the 1891-92 Stairs Expedition to Katanga as well as potential local unexcavated archaeological sites. He is also working with Mwami Munongo and his family to build the first royal museum in the Congo and an Anthropological research station in the village of Bunkeya.

 

Julian’s talk, Journey to Katanga: An Expedition into the Past will take place at 7:30pm on the following dates.

Dumfries: Monday 25th March

Easterbrook Hall, The Crichton, Bankend Road, Dumfries, DG1 4TA

Borders (Galashiels): Tuesday 26th March

Scottish Borders Campus, Nether Road, Galashiels, TD1 3HE

Ayr: Wednesday 27th March

Council Chambers, Ayr Town Hall, New Bridge Street, Ayr, KA7 1JX.

Helensburgh: Thursday 28th March

Victoria Halls, Sinclair Street, Helensburgh, G84 8TU

£8 for adults, (redeemable if buying membership) and free students, under 18s and for RSGS members. Tickets are available on the day from the venue. For more information about any of our talks this season please visit www.rsgs.org/events/

Professor Discusses 21st Century Challenges for Africa.

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Professor John Briggs will explore some of the challenges facing Africa as it enters the second decade of the 21^st Century in a talk in Glasgow on January 10th. Where are we now with the HIV/AIDS epidemic? What about the supposed failure of small-scale agriculture – is it time for radical action? Any what about the failure of aid to transform the lives of Africans – is it time for even more radical action?

John Briggs is Professor of Geography at the University of Glasgow.

This talk is part of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society’s ‘Inspiring People’ talks programme.

John's current research interests focus on the relationship between the use and management of natural resources and sustainable rural development in low income countries. A particular interest revolves around questions about indigenous environmental knowledge systems, how these are constructed and re-worked, and how these inform a better understanding of sustainable rural development. 

Current work is being undertaken among Bedouin communities in the south-east desert of Egypt and in the semi-arid areas of north-west South Africa.

John Briggs is Professor of Geography at the University of Glasgow

He also has a research interest in the impacts of structural adjustment policies in Africa on peri-urban development in the major cities. This has involved field research in Tanzania, as well as the development of a rather more theoretical view in collaboration with colleagues in West Africa.

John’s talk “21^st Century Challenges for Africa” will take place at Renfield St Stephens Church Centre, 260 Bath Street, Glasgow, G2 4JP. Tickets are £8 for adults, (redeemable if buying membership) and free for students, under 18s and for RSGS members. Tickets are available on the day from the venue. For more information about any RSGS talks this season please visit www.rsgs.org/events/