The University of Glasgow and Africa - an historical perspective

At the time of the foundation of the University of Glasgow, Portuguese sailing ships had been exploring the coastline of Africa for just two decades. But complex societies and sophisticated cultures had been flourishing on that great continent for almost five thousand years.  Relations between the University of Glasgow and the continent of Africa began in the 19th century as explorers began to discover its natural wonders.

Early contacts had a strong humanitarian motivation. David Livingstone, who studied Greek at the University of Glasgow in the mid 1830s, strove for over three decades to open up Africa to commerce and to put an end to the terrible traffic in human slaves.  Many idealistic men and women from Scotland were inspired by Livingstone and followed him to Africa.  By the end of the 19th century graduates in divinity, medicine and engineering began making their way to the mines and the mission stations, and at the same time the University's growing reputation began to attract people from Africa to study at Glasgow.

Experts on Africa could be found on the staff of the University as early as 1900 including the first lecturer in Geography, Sir Henry Lyons and the first Professor of Geology, John Walter Gregory, who named the Great Rift Valley on one of his explorations.

The University staff were active in fighting disease in Africa.  In the early 20th century there was a prolonged and devastating outbreak of sleeping sickness in Uganda. Glasgow University researcher, zoologist Muriel Robertson, joined the team researching sleeping sickness, and as an expert on the trypanosomes that cause sleeping sickness took some of the first steps on the long road to eventual defeat of the deadly parasite. The University of Glasgow has remained one of the international leaders in trypanosomiasis research.  

In 1948 Tom Price, who had been teaching in Malawi, was appointed lecturer at Glasgow, subsequently collaborating on a substantial work of scholarship on the African hero John Chilembwe, the anticolonial rebel. Glasgow University students as well as staff have always been aware of international politics and have elected a number of individuals involved in African politics as Rector of the University.  These include Albert Lutili and Winnie Mandela. Honorary graduates of the University have also included a number of notable African leaders such as the King of Asante and the Presidents of Ghana, Gambia and Rwanda.