Duncan Livingstone
Duncan Livingstone (Donnchadh MacDhunlèibhe) (
Family origins
The Poet's great-great-great-grandfather and namesake, Duncan Livingstone, although descended from
The bard's grandfather, Alexander Livingstone, was the uncle of the African explorer and missionary David Livingstone.[3]
According to David Livingstone, their ancestors were members of the illegal and underground
Life
Early life
Duncan Livingstone was born in his grandfather's
Duncan's parents had married in Glasgow in 1872. His mother had worked as a domestic servant. His father had lived in Canada and worked in the construction of timber houses. When Duncan was 18-months old, his family moved to Tobermory, where he was educated. He later recalled, however, "The scholars of my day were thrashed if they spoke Gaelic in the school or it's [sic] environs."[5]
When Livingstone was 16, his family moved to 126 Talisman Road in Glasgow. Duncan first became a clerk and then a stonemason's apprentice. When the Second Boer War broke out, he learned that the Laird of Torloisk was raising a cavalry regiment and immediately enlisted.[6]
War and Peace
During combat against the
On 3 March 1903, the poet left
In 1911, Catriona (Katie) MacDonald, whose father owned the Torrans Farm and Kinloch Hotel near Pennyghael in Mull,[10] and whose absence in Mull allegedly inspired Livingstone to write the Gaelic love song Muile nam Mòr-bheann ("Mull of the Mountains"),[11] also emigrated to South Africa to become the Poet's wife.[12] Katie is further believed to be referred to in the dedication of Livingstone's 1940 poem Cogadh agus Sìth ("War and Peace"): Do an chaileag a dh'fhàg mise a dhol gu cogadh ("To the girl I left to go to war").[13] Duncan and Katie Linvingstone were never to have children, however.[14]
Later life
There was a lively community of Scottish Gaels in
According to literary historian Ronald Black, Duncan Livingstone's poetry was doubtlessly assisted by the Gaelic broadcasts which he began making from South Africa for the
Catriona died in September 1951 and Duncan, who adored her, never recovered from the blow.[17] In response, he composed the poem Cràdh, which has since been dubbed, "a fine lament... for his wife."[18]
He spent his retirement both writing and playing bowls.[19]
Livingstone contemptuously mocked the collapse of the
The rise of the National Party and its policy of Apartheid troubled Livingstone deeply. The Poet's nephew, Prof. Ian Livingstone, recalls, "I visited Duncan (from Uganda) at his hotel (the Union Hotel, Pretoria) in 1959. He was resident there. Later, when I was back in Uganda, he sent me a long poem, in English (10 pages) on Sharpeville, where some 77 Africans had been shot dead by police (mostly in the back). This had obviously affected him greatly. Unfortunately, I don't have the copy anymore."[21]
The
Death
He died in Pretoria on 25 May 1964 and lies buried in Rosetta Street Cemetery.[23]
Duncan Livingstone left his books and papers to the State Library in Pretoria. A manuscript of 140 unpublished poems, mainly in Gaelic except for few verses in English and
Legacy
In a paper about The Gaelic Literature of Argyll, Donald E. Meek describes Livingstone as a, "very fine modern Gaelic poet", who, "wrote some splendidly prophetic verse on the twentieth-century challenges which were to confront white rule in South Africa. He thus has a claim to be included in any forthcoming survey of the Gaelic literature of Africa!"[26]
In an essay, Scottish professor Wilson MacLeod described Duncan Livingstone as a "poet of significance", who became a perceptive critic of the
References
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 726.
- ^ Edited by Donald E. Meek (2019), The Wiles of the World Caran an t-Saohgail: Anthology of 19th-century Scottish Gaelic Verse, Birlinn Limited. Pages 386-387, 469-470.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 726.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 726.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, pp. 726–727.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 727.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 727.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, page 727.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 727.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 727.
- ^ Edited by Donald E. Meek (2019), The Wiles of the World Caran an t-Saohgail: Anthology of 19th-century Scottish Gaelic Verse, Birlinn Limited. Pages 252-255.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 727.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 728.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 727.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 727.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 727.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 727.
- ^ Derek S. Thomson (1983), The Companion to Gaelic Scotland, page 164.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 727.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, pp. 72–75, 728.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, pp. 728–729.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, pp. 74–79, 728.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 727.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, p. 728.
- ^ Ronald Black (1999), An Tuil: Anthology of 20th Century Scottish Gaelic Verse, Polygon. Page 780.
- ^ The Gaelic Literature of Argyll Archived 15 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine by Donald E. Meek.
- ^ Theo van Heijnsbergen and Carla Sassi, Within and Without Empire: Scotland Across the (Post)colonial Borderline, p. 75.