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Locals call October the suicide month because of the extreme heat
- it seemed the obvious time to take a break from the chilly English
autumn and explore the North eastern region of Zambia! We sought to
revisit the original burial site of Dr. David Livingstone, on the
southern edge of the Great Bangweulu swamps.
Jaap and I flew out to Lusaka already dressed in khaki shorts,
and drove to Chiundaponde village. We asked around for Simon
Vibeti’s village whom I'd met exactly 20 years ago, when I was
building Mandamata hunting camp in the swamps.
Simon was a “living legend”, supposedly 105 years old and who
spoke the “Queen's English”. His father was one of Livingstone’s
escorts and Livingstone died under the Mubanga tree that was in the
centre of his village. Simon told me Livingstone’s heart was buried
under this tree, and his father had taught him English, and that he
was the first to teach English to Zambian students.
In 1986, the “tradition” was that I was to bring Simon a
chocolate cake every time I passed through whilst building the camp;
we became friends and had many interesting conversations over tea
and cake under the “Livingstone tree”, including Simon bringing out
a leather trunk with some of Livingstone’s possessions!
20 years on I was very enthusiastic to learn about the
whereabouts of Simon and his grandson, Stephen, who worked with me
as a driver in 1986.
It didn't take long to find the Village, although the whole area
was much more heavily populated in 2006 than in 1986! We were
introduced to Mary Vibeti, Simon’s grand daughter, who informed us
Simon had passed away in 1993, aged many years but at least
112 by our calculations!
Tradition dictated that on Simon’s death his hut was dismantled
and the Livingstone tree chopped down. Mary took us to his hut and
the remains of the tree were still there. I was devastated to see
the village I had known 20 years ago was now a pile of rubble and
stumps. We met Simon’s eldest son Leonard, another pure gentleman
who farmed nearby.
Leonard took us along with 12 other members of the extended
family, through fields of cassava to a nearby woodland where we saw
his simple grave next to his senior wife, who had died many years
before him.
I established Livingstone's trunk which Simon had had in his
possession for so many years had been taken to the Dr. David
Livingstone museum in Livingstone and the artifacts were safely
logged and preserved indoors.
According to local knowledge, Livingstone's Memorial which
“as the crow flies” was about 18km to the west of us, is therefore
in the wrong place, the true Livingstone grave is actually at the
house of the late Simon Vibeti!
Chris Worden
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We met Chris when we left our city
life and moved to Kariba in 1996 on the border of Zambia
and Zimbabwe. Our first sight was a pretty knackered
landrover screeching to a halt in a dusty cloud in front of my
father's engineering workshop in the industrial heart (4 small
factories) of Kariba harbour. 
