Chiradzulu

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Chiradzulu is a town in Malawi, and the administrative capital of the Chiradzulu District.

It is famous because it is where the home and church of John Chilembwe is located. [1] It was the site of European farming settlement. [2]

Notable people

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The History of Malawi covers the area of present-day Malawi. The region was once part of the Maravi Empire. In colonial times, the territory was ruled by the British, under whose control it was known first as British Central Africa and later Nyasaland. It became part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The country achieved full independence, as Malawi, in 1964. After independence, Malawi was ruled as a one-party state under Hastings Banda until 1994.

The African Baptist Assembly of Malawi is a Baptist Christian denomination in Malawi. It is affiliated with the Baptist World Alliance. The headquarters is in Chilembwe.

John Chilembwe

Reverend John Chilembwe was a Baptist pastor and educator, who trained as a minister in the United States, returning to Nyasaland in 1901. He was an early figure in the resistance to colonialism in Nyasaland (Malawi), opposing both the treatment of Africans working in agriculture on European-owned plantations and the colonial government's failure to promote the social and political advancement of Africans. Soon after the outbreak of the First World War, Chilembwe organised an unsuccessful uprising against colonial rule. Today, Chilembwe is celebrated as a hero of independence, and John Chilembwe Day is observed annually on January 15 in Malawi.

This page list topics related to Malawi.

Shire Highlands

The Shire Highlands are a plateau in southern Malawi, located east of the Shire River. It is a major agricultural area and the most densely populated part of the country.

Chilembwe uprising

The Chilembwe uprising was a rebellion against British colonial rule in Nyasaland which took place in January 1915. It was led by John Chilembwe, an American-educated Baptist minister. Based around his Church in the village of Mbombwe in the south-east of the protectorate, the leaders of the revolt were mainly from an emerging black middle class. They were motivated by grievances against the colonial system including forced labour, racial discrimination, and new demands imposed on the indigenous population following the outbreak of World War I.

Chiradzulu is a district in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Chiradzulu. The district covers an area of 767 km.² and has a population of 236,050.

Zomba District District of Malawi

Zomba District is one of twelve districts in the Southern Region of Malawi, surrounded by the districts of Chiradzulu, Blantyre, Mulanje, Phalombe, Machinga, Balaka and the Republic of Mozambique to the east. The total land area is 2,363 km2, representing three percent of the total land area of Malawi. The capital is Zomba.

Providence Industrial Mission Baptist church in Malawi

Providence Industrial Mission (PIM) was an independent church in Nyasaland, modern-day Malawi. The PIM was founded by John Chilembwe, who would later lead a rebellion against colonial rule, upon his return to Nyasaland in 1900 from the United States, where he had been studying in a Baptist seminary. PIM continues today to operate in conjunction with the Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.

Elliot Kenan Kamwana Achirwa, also known as Masokwa Elliot Kenan Kamwana Chirwa or Elliot Kenan Kamwana Msokwa Chirwa, generally known as Elliot Kenan Kamwana, was an African Prophet in Nyasaland who sought rapid social change and who introduced the Watch Tower movement into Central Africa and popularised ot there. He was one of three Africans sponsored by Joseph Booth, an English missionary who created independent churches in Nyasaland in the early 20th century, the other two being John Chilembwe and Charles Domingo. Unlike Chilembwe, Kamwana did not favour armed revolt as he was a pacifist, but he was more radical in his quest for rapid African advancement than the more moderate Domingo. The independent church he created, the "Mlonda", or Watchman Healing Mission, ended all links with the Watch Tower movement in the United States in 1937. Some daughter churches split from Mlonda after Kamwana's death in 1956, but it still exists in several Central African countries.

Desmond Dudwa Phiri, commonly known as D. D. Phiri, was a Malawian author, economist, historian, and playwright. He was born in Mzimba, Malawi, and was the Principal and proprietor of the Aggrey Memorial School in Blantyre. He published 17 books in the fields of history, sociology and economics and was recognized by the Pan-African Writers' Association (PAWA) as one of the top 23 authors in Africa in 2011. He was a regular columnist in The Nation newspaper. He died on 24 March 2019 at Mwaiwathu Private Hospital in Blantyre

A. L. Bruce Estates was one of three largest owners of agricultural estates in colonial Nyasaland. Alexander Low Bruce, the son-in-law of David Livingstone, acquired a large estate at Magomero in the Shire Highlands of Nyasaland in 1893, together with two smaller ones. On his death, these estates were to operate as a trust to bring Christianity and Commerce to Central Africa. However his two sons later formed a commercial company which bought the estates from the trust. The company gained a reputation for the harsh exploitation and ill-treatment of its tenants under a labour system known by the African term "thangata", which operated in the plantation cultivation of cotton and tobacco. This exploitation was one of the causes of the 1915 uprising led by John Chilembwe, which resulted in the deaths of three of the company's European employees. After the failure of its own cotton and tobacco plantations, the company forced its tenants to grow tobacco rather than food on their own land and significantly underpaid them. Following almost three decades of losses, the Magomero estate was in poor condition, but the company was able to sell it at a profit between 1949 and 1952 because the government needed land for resettlement of African former tenants evicted from private estates. The company was liquidated in 1959.

William Jervis Livingstone (1865–1915) was the manager of the Magomero Estate in Nyasaland owned by A L Bruce Estates Ltd and was killed in 1915 during the uprising against colonial rule led by John Chilembwe. Livingstone, from the Isle of Lismore in Argyllshire, Scotland, was born in 1865 and appointed as manager of Magomero in 1893.

The MV Chilembwe is a passenger ship operating on Lake Malawi, named after Malawian freedom fighter John Chilembwe. It was launched in 2014 to partly replace the over 60 years old MV Ilala.

Landon Napoleon Cheek was an African-American Baptist missionary who served in the British Central Africa Protectorate, later renamed Nyasaland, between 1901 and 1906. There, he assisted John Chilembwe, the founder of the Providence Industrial Mission during the church's formative period. After returning to the United States, he became a Baptist pastor for almost 50 years. Cheek died in Chicago in 1964.

John Chilembwes motivation

The ideas, people and events that contributed to John Chilembwe's motivation and influenced him to undertake the uprising in 1915 were considered by the Commission of Inquiry shortly after the rising was defeated, and have exercised historians of Malawi during much of the period since his death. Whether the dominant ideas were political, social, economic or religious and how these combined is unclear, because Chilembwe did not leave a detailed record of the reasons for his armed revolt. As he was an ordained Baptist minister, much attention has focussed on his religious ideas, whether these were orthodox or related to millennialism, the extent to which such potentially conflicting religious ideas existed, particularly in the period shortly before the rising, and the part that such beliefs played in the decision to revolt and the course of the uprising.

Emma Beard Delaney Baptist missionary

Emma Beard Delaney was a Baptist missionary and teacher, one of the earliest African-American missionaries from USA who worked in Africa, specifically Liberia and the British Central Africa Protectorate.

George "Sam" Albert Shepperson was a British historian and Africanist, noted particularly for his work on Malawian and African-American history. He was William Robertson Professor of Commonwealth and American History at the University of Edinburgh from 1963 until 1986. He was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1989.

Nyasaland Volunteer Reserve

The Nyasaland Volunteer Reserve (NVR) was a reserve infantry unit in the British protectorate of Nyasaland. The British Central Africa Volunteer Reserve was formally established by the colonial government in 1901 and was renamed when the protectorate became Nyasaland in 1907. In the initial years the unit was little more than a rifle shooting club with no uniform and no military training. The NVR was placed on a more formal standing in 1908 under the Volunteer Ordinance. This implemented residency and racial requirements for membership and made provision for the unit to be mobilised by the governor. The unit was initially formed of four sections but grew to seven sections by 1914 and by 1930 the unit had ten.

Sir George Smith was a British civil servant. He began his career in the War Office in 1878 but joined the office of the chief secretary of British Cyprus the following year. He was promoted to assistant chief secretary in 1883 and afterwards transferred to the crown colony of British Mauritius where he was acting receiver general and chief collector of customs from 1905–09. He was colonial secretary of Mauritius from 1910 to 1913 when he was appointed governor of the protectorate of Nyasaland. He held this position for ten years which included the First World War and the Chilembwe uprising. Smith encountered difficulties in relations with the Ngoni people over the hut tax and had to deal with an influx of white ex-servicemen after the war. His governorship saw advances in the transport infrastructure in Nyasaland and the cultivation of many crops.

References

  1. Paul Cole-King The Society of Malawi Journal Vol. 54, No. 1 (2001), pp. 1-21
  2. Kalinga, Owen (2012). Historical Dictionary of Malawi (4th ed.). Scarecrow Press. p. 104. ISBN   9780810859616.

Coordinates: 15°42′S35°11′E / 15.700°S 35.183°E / -15.700; 35.183