Ujiji

Ujiji

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Ujiji

Henry Morton Stanley meets David Livingstone in Ujiji, 1871.

Ujiji is the oldest town in western Tanzania almost due west from Zanzibar. It is about 10 km south of Kigoma. Current population data are not available. In 1900, the population was estimated at 10,000 and in 1967 about 4,100. Part of the Kigoma/Ujiji urban area, the regional population was about 50,000 in 1978.^[1]

Ujiji is the place where Burton and Speke first reached the shore of Lake Tanganyika in 1858. It is also the site of the famous meeting on November 10, 1871 when Stanley found Dr. David Livingstone, with the words "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Livingstone, whom many thought dead as no news had been heard of him for several years and who had only arrived back in Ujiji the day before, wrote "When my spirits were at their lowest ebb, the good Samaritan was close at hand, for one morning [my servant] Susi came running at the top of his speed and gasped out, 'An Englishman! I see him!' and off he darted to meet him. The American flag at the head of the caravan told of the nationality of the stranger. Bales of goods, baths of tin, huge kettles, cooking pots, tents, etc., made me think, 'This must be a luxurious traveller, and not one at his wits' end like me.'"

A monument known as the "Dr. Livingstone Memorial" was erected to commemorate the meeting. There is also a modest museum. There is a former slave route near the market. In 1878, the London Missionary Society established their first missionary post on the shore of Lake Tanganyika at Ujiji.

Some in Burundi claim the location of the famous meeting is a few kilometres south of the capital Bujumbura. However the Livingstone-Stanley Monument in Mugere really marks a visit the two explorers made 15 days later on their joint exploration of northern Lake Tanganyika.