David Livingstone’s Account of the Zambezi and Mosi-oa-Tunya

Record summary

David Livingstone’s 1855 encounter with Mosi-oa-Tunya, later named Victoria Falls, recorded both the physical spectacle and information about local names and interpretations of the falls. The site’s thunder, spray, dangerous rapids, and restricted ritual associations make it a useful comparison point for natural features later framed as supernatural or anomalous. Livingstone’s account is a nineteenth-century colonial travel narrative, and its treatment of African religious meanings is selective. The falls’ existence is secure; interpretations of their spiritual significance require source comparison.