{{Short description|Yao freed slave and missionary assistant to David Livingstone}} {{Infobox person | name = Jacob Wainwright | image = Jacob Wainwright.jpg | alt = Portrait of Jacob Wainwright | caption = Portrait of Jacob Wainwright by Elliott and Fry<ref>{{cite web |title=Jacob Wainwright |url=http://www.19thcenturyphotos.com/Jacob-Wainwright-126034.htm |website=The Library of Nineteenth-Century Photography |date=27 April 2019 |access-date=3 September 2025}}</ref> | birth_name = Yamuza | birth_date = c. 1859 | birth_place = Near Lake Malawi <br><small>(in present-day Malawi)</small> | death_date = April 1892 (aged about 33) | death_place = Urambo District, German East Africa <br><small>(in present-day Tanzania)</small> | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = Porter, servant, interpreter, teacher, missionary assistant | years_active = | known_for = Transporting the body of David Livingstone | notable_works = }} '''Jacob Wainwright''' (born '''Yamuza'''; c. 1859 – April 1892) was a freed slave of Yao origin who became an attendant of David Livingstone. He was notable for helping to carry Livingstone’s body from present-day Zambia to the coast of East Africa in 1873, and for leaving one of the few surviving African eyewitness accounts of the explorer’s death and funeral journey.<ref>{{cite web |title=Diary of Livingstone’s Intrepid African Attendant Jacob Wainwright Digitized |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/diary-livingstones-intrepid-african-attendent-now-online-180972045/ |website=Smithsonian Magazine |date=26 April 2019 |access-date=3 September 2025}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Diary of explorer David Livingstone's African attendant published |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/apr/24/diary-of-explorer-david-livingstone-african-attendant-jacob-wainwright-published |website=The Guardian |date=24 April 2019 |access-date=3 September 2025}}</ref>
==Early life== Wainwright's birth date is unknown; accounts of his age vary widely. Some accounts put him at being born in 1849/50, but other accounts estimate that he was about fourteen when he joined Livingstone's expedition, suggesting a birth date around 1859. He was born into the Yao people, who lived in East Africa, on the south of Lake Malawi, and given the name Yamuza.
In his teens, he was kidnapped by Arab slave traders. He was rescued by a British anti-slavery ship, baptised a Christian and given the name "Jacob Wainwright." thumb|Wainwright photographed with Livingstone's coffin in 1874 Wainwright was educated at a Church Missionary Society school in Bombay, British India.<ref name="auto">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/apr/24/diary-of-explorer-david-livingstone-african-attendant-jacob-wainwright-published|title=Diary of explorer David Livingstone's African attendant published|first=David|last=Batty|newspaper=The Guardian|date=24 April 2019|via=www.theguardian.com}}</ref> He also stayed at the Nassick African Asylum for freed slaves in Nashik, India.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SRgRAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Jacob+Wainwright%22&pg=PA182|title=Proceedings|date=25 April 1874|publisher=Edward Stanford|via=Google Books}}</ref>
==With Livingstone== Aged about 14, Wainwright was hired to accompany Dr. Livingstone as he explored East Africa. thumb|Inscription by Jacob Wainwright on the tree under which Livingstone was buried Dr. Livingstone died at Ilala, near the edge of the Bangweulu Swamps (in modern Zambia) on 1 May 1873. Wainwright and two other Africans, Abdullah Susi and James Chuma, resolved to bring his body the 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to the British consulate at Bagamoyo<ref>{{cite web |title=Livingstone's Life & Expeditions |url=https://www.livingstoneonline.org/life-and-times/livingstone-s-life-expeditions |website=Livingstone Online |access-date=27 March 2020 |date=2015}}</ref> in Zanzibar.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=524338441240352&id=516161622058034|title=Historia Kenya|website=www.facebook.com}}</ref> Before the journey, Livingstone's heart and entrails were removed from his body and buried in an iron box.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=David Livingstone : mission and empire|last=Ross, Andrew C.|date=2006|publisher=Hambledon Continuum|isbn=9781852855659|edition=Paperback|location=London|pages=235|oclc=271693961}}</ref> Wainwright recorded that a massive blood clot, possibly a cancerous tumour,<ref>{{Cite book|title=David Livingstone : mission and empire|last=Ross, Andrew C.|date=2006|publisher=Hambledon Continuum|isbn=9781852855659|edition=Paperback|location=London|pages=263|oclc=271693961}}</ref> was found in the lower bowel. At the burial ceremony Wainwright read from the Book of Common Prayer. He was also given the responsibility of making a full inventory of Livingstone's possessions.<ref name=":0" /> Before the party left Ilala, Wainwright carved the following inscription on the tree marking Livingstone's grave: {{quote|Dr. Livingstone<br>May 4, 1873<br>Yazuza, Miniasere<br>Vchopere<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dark companions : the African contribution to the European exploration of East Africa|last=Simpson, Donald Herbert.|date=1975|publisher=Elek|isbn=0236400061|location=London|pages=96|oclc=2930820}}</ref>}} thumb|Jacob Wainwright accompanying David Livingstone's coffin on board the SS Malwa As the most literate member of the party, Wainwright was also responsible for writing a letter to the relief expedition which included Livingstone's son, informing them that Dr Livingstone had died.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dark companions : the African contribution to the European exploration of East Africa|last=Simpson, Donald Herbert.|date=1975|publisher=Elek|isbn=0236400061|location=London|pages=98|oclc=2930820}}</ref> At Zanzibar, it seems that the British assumed that Wainwright was the leader, despite his youth, because he was the only African servant who could speak and write in English. He was dispatched with the body for England, picking up with the Peninsular and Oriental liner the SS ''Malwa'' at Aden,<ref>{{cite news |title=The Reception of Dr. Livingstone's Remains |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/47441171/the-reception-of-dr-livingstones/ |access-date=27 March 2020 |publisher=The Hampshire Advertiser |date=15 April 1874 |location=Southampton, Hampshire, England |page=3|via=newspapers.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=SS Malwa | url=http://www.poheritage.com/the-collection/galleries/Photographs/Ships/MALWA-in-dry-dock |website=P&O Heritage |publisher=DP World |access-date=27 March 2020 |quote=Malwa (1873) carried the body of explorer and missionary Dr David Livingstone from Aden to Southampton in March 1874.}}</ref> and with the help of the explorer's son Thomas from Alexandria onwards, Wainwright guarded Livingstone's coffin on its journey to Britain.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=David Livingstone : mission and empire|last=Ross, Andrew C.|date=2006|publisher=Hambledon Continuum|isbn=9781852855659|edition=Paperback |location=London|pages=237|oclc=271693961}}</ref> Wainwright was the only African among the eight pallbearers at the explorer’s funeral in Westminster Abbey on 18 April 1874.<ref name="auto" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Livingstone|title=David Livingstone - Biography, Expeditions, & Facts|website=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref>
==Later life and death==
Following Livingstone's death Wainwright stayed in England at Kessingland, Suffolk and travelled across the country addressing meetings of the Church Missionary Society.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dark companions : the African contribution to the European exploration of East Africa|last=Simpson, Donald Herbert.|date=1975|publisher=Elek|isbn=0236400061|location=London|pages=104|oclc=2930820}}</ref> On 18 August 1874, he went to teach freed slaves at Kisulidini, near Mombasa. He was dismissed from this job in 1876.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IAkkDwAAQBAJ&q=%22Jacob+Wainwright%22&pg=PT452|title=Four Travel Journals / The Americas, Antarctica and Africa / 1775-1874|first1=R. J.|last1=Campbell|first2=Herbert K.|last2=Beals|first3=Ann|last3=Savours|first4=Anita|last4=McConnell|first5=Roy|last5=Bridges|date=15 May 2017|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317133650|via=Google Books}}</ref> There are also accounts of Wainwright teaching at a school at Frere Town, a settlement for freed slaves north of Mombasa.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dark companions : the African contribution to the European exploration of East Africa|last=Simpson, Donald Herbert.|date=1975|publisher=Elek|isbn=0236400061|location=London|pages=137|oclc=2930820}}</ref>thumb|Wainwright's companions, Susi and Chuma (from ''Stanley and the White Heroes in Africa'', 1890)
By 1879, Wainwright was working as a door-porter in Zanzibar, following his dismissal from his previous position as a result of "impudent and forward" behaviour.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Dark companions : the African contribution to the European exploration of East Africa|last=Simpson, Donald Herbert.|date=1975|publisher=Elek|isbn=0236400061|location=London|pages=140|oclc=2930820}}</ref> In 1881 he was hired as interpreter, teacher and personal servant by the missionary Philip O'Flaherty. They travelled to Lubaga (Rubaga) together, where Wainwright was hired by Muteesa I of Buganda. In 1884, Wainwright joined a mission led by Edward C. Hore and in the late 1880s he joined the London Missionary Society mission in Urambo District, German East Africa (modern Tanzania) where he translated hymns and passages of scripture.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Dark companions : the African contribution to the European exploration of East Africa|last=Simpson, Donald Herbert.|date=1975|publisher=Elek|isbn=0236400061|location=London|pages=142|oclc=2930820}}</ref>
Wainwright died at the Urambo Mission in April 1892 <ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cJqB49X2S_0C&q=%22Jacob+Wainwright%22&pg=PA155|title=Dr Livingstone I Presume: Missionaries, Journalists, Explorers and Empire|first=Clare|last=Pettitt|date=14 March 2013|publisher=Profile|isbn=9781847650955|via=Google Books}}</ref> as a result of burns and scalds from falling onto a fire and upturning a pot of water.<ref name=":2" /> He was buried near his hut, his grave marked by a borassus palm until in 1931 the Moravian Church, Salem, North Carolina, USA presented a metal tablet to be laid at his grave.<ref name=":2" />
==Legacy== Wainwright recorded his experiences on the Livingstone mission. One diary that detailed the bringing of Livingstone's body to the Swahili coast for repatriation to Great Britain was published by the Hakluyt Society in 2007.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315582894|title=Four Travel Journals / The Americas, Antarctica and Africa / 1775-1874|last1=Campbell|first1=R. J.|last2=Beals|first2=Herbert K.|last3=Savours|first3=Ann|last4=McConnell|first4=Anita|last5=Bridges|first5=Roy|date=2017-05-15|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-315-58289-4|language=en|doi=10.4324/9781315582894}}</ref> In 2019, one of Wainwright's entire handwritten diaries, as well as a few personal letters, were digitized and made available online.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://livingstoneonline.org/|title=Home {{!}} Livingstone Online|website=livingstoneonline.org|access-date=2020-02-03}}</ref> The diary is valued, as few indigenous Black African servants of white European explorers are known to have written about their experiences.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.historyscotland.com/news/rare-diary-reveals-eyewitness-accounts-of-david-livingstones-death|title=Rare diary reveals eyewitness accounts of David Livingstone's death|website=www.historyscotland.com|date=23 April 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/63719/|author=J. E. Lewis|title=Empires of sentiment; intimacies from death: David Livingstone and African slavery 'at the heart of the nation'}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wainwright, Jacob}} Category:1850s births Category:Year of birth uncertain Category:1892 deaths Category:Malawian non-fiction writers Category:Malawian Christian missionaries Category:Converts to Christianity Category:David Livingstone Category:19th-century African people Category:Former slaves Category:Slaves in Africa Category:19th-century slaves