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Historical Highway MarkersJohn Chilembwe (ca. 1871-1915)Q-6-54
John Chilembwe was the leader, in 1915, of the first major African uprising against colonial authorities in the British Protectorate of Nyasaland (Malawi). Chilembwe had come to Lynchburg in 1897 to study at Virginia Seminary under its president, Gregory Hayes. He returned to Africa by 1900 and set up Providence Industrial Mission before launching the revolt of 1915. A military patrol shot and killed Chilembwe on 3 Feb. 1915. The British Official Commission asserted that a main cause of the revolt had been Chilembwe's education in the United States. Malawi, where Chilembwe remains a symbol of liberation, became independent in 1964. John Chilembwe Day is celebrated annually on 15 Jan.
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References/Bibliographic Citation: “Malawi: History”: https://thecommonwealth.org/our-member-countries/malawi/history Richmond Planet, 11 Dec. 1897. Lindsay Michie, “In Search of ‘Miss Baily’: Tracking Down the Identity Behind a Signature in a Book Given to Pastor John Chilembwe in 1899,” The Society of Malawi Journal, vol. 69, no. 2 (2016): 8-19. Robert I. Rotberg, “John Chilembwe: Brief Life of an Anticolonial Rebel,” Harvard Magazine (March-April 2005). John McCracken, A History of Malawi, 1859-1966 (James Currey, 2012). John McCracken, “Hearing Voices from the Chilembwe Rising” (2015). Robert I. Rotberg, ed., Strike a Blow and Die: A Narrative of Race Relations in Colonial Africa by George Simeon Mwase (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970). Brian Morris, “The Chilembwe Rebellion,” The Society of Malawi Journal, vol. 68, no. 1 (2015): 20-52. |