"Rev.John Chilembwe"(1871-February 3,1915)

The great hero and martyr of Malawi (formerly Nyasaland),is a person of

mythic proportions in his homeland because he was the first African with a sense of Malawian nationalism.After founding one of the earliest independent Christian denominations in Africa,he led a dramatic and violent uprising colonialism.
Around 1880,John became a pupil at the Church of Scotland mission in Blantyre,but he was converted by Joseph Booth,a British Baptist missionary,and became his assistant from 1892-1895.Joseph worked for a number of churches and had no denominational loyalty;he taught a radical equality that resonated with John's own sense of black pride.In 1897,Joseph took John to the United States,where a Baptist church sponsored him through Virginia Theological College.Here he seems to have come into contact with contemporary African-American thinking,especially that of Booker T.Washington.He returned to Nyasaland in 1900 as an ordained Baptist and founded the Providence Industrial Mission,which developed into seven schools.
John preach an orthodox Baptist faith along with a morality that opposed alcohol and emphasized the values of hard work,personal hygiene,and self-help.John seriously seemed to believe that European-style propriety and etiquette would bring respect and successful from whites.His schools emphasized modern methods of agriculture and by 1912 had 1,000 pupils,plus 800 in the adult section.
Events after 1912 disillusioned John.A famine in 1913 brought great hardship and starvation to many peasant farmers.Mozambican refugees flooded into Nyasaland,and John deeply resented the way they were exploited by white plantation owners.When World War 1 broke out the following year,Africans were conscripted into the British army,and John protested both from the pulpit and in the local press.The white landowners were infuriated by his nationalist appeal,and several of his schools were burned down.Added to personal problems of declining health,financial difficulities,and the death of a beloved daughter,John sense of betrayal deepened into fury.
In careful detail,John planned an attack on the worst of the area plantations,which was known for cruelty to its African Workers.Whether John through that his rebellion would spark a general uprising is difficult to determine,because he had no clear long-term goal.With 200 followers,he struck swiffly,and three plantations managers were killed.One of these a cousin of David Livingstone,was notorious for burning down tenant's chapels,whipping workers,and denying them their wages.His head was cut off and displayed on a pole in John's church.The rebels,scrupulously observed John's orders not to harm any women or children.
The Colonial response was immediate