The slave boy Kalulu


 The photos are of Kalulu , a 12 year old African slave  boy  who drowned  in   Livingstone Falls  in the Congo  while working as a porter for British explorer,  Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who also appears in one of the photos.





He was  sold  to Stanley by an Arab merchant in Zanzibar. His  real name was Ndugu Mhali,but because Stanley didn't like the  name he christened him Kalulu.

Between 1872 to 1873, Kalulu accompanied Stanley around Europe and America,  and during that time posed  for a wax model  which was later  installed at Madame Tussaud’s museum in London .

Stanley briefly enrolled him  at  a school in Wandsworth, South West London, where the headmaster later noted that he was " clever and progressing in English."

After the death of Dr David Livingstone in  Zambia in 1874 , Stanley  who was keen to  carry on with Livingstone's  exploration work, withdrew Kalulu from school   and the two returned to Africa.  
 
In 1877, Stanley while using Kalulu as his servant,   embarked on an expedition in the Congo to find  the Source  of river  Nile.

Unfortunately during this trip Kalulu died in a tragic  accident after his canoe plunged hundreds of feet  down a water fall on the Congo River. The waterfall was later  named 'Kalulu Falls' in his honour....Blacksregion.com 

Credit: Smithsonian Institution Archives and Odhiambo Levin Opiyo

Post a Comment

Previous Post Next Post

Contact Form