23 Facts About Chilembwe uprising

Chilembwe uprising was a rebellion against British colonial rule in Nyasaland which took place in January 1915.

Many of the rebels, including Chilembwe uprising himself, fled towards Portuguese East Africa, hoping to reach safety there, but many were captured.

John Chilembwe uprising, born locally in around 1871, received his early education at a Church of Scotland mission and later met Joseph Booth, a radical Baptist missionary who ran the Zambezi Industrial Mission.

Under Booth's patronage, Chilembwe uprising travelled to the United States to study at a theological college in Virginia.

Chilembwe uprising returned to Nyasaland in 1900 and, with the assistance of the African-American National Baptist Convention, he founded his independent church, the Providence Industrial Mission, in the village of Mbombwe.

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Chilembwe uprising was considered a "model of non-violent African advancement" by the colonial authorities during the mission's early years.

Chilembwe uprising established a chain of independent black African schools, with over 900 pupils in total and founded the Natives' Industrial Union, a form of cooperative union that has been described as an "embryo chamber of commerce".

Nevertheless, Chilembwe uprising's activities led to friction with the managers of the local Alexander Livingstone Bruce Plantation, who feared Chilembwe uprising's influence over their workers.

Chilembwe uprising's activities were initially supported by white Protestant missionaries, although his relations with Catholic missions were less friendly.

Many of his leading followers, several of whom participated in the Chilembwe uprising, came from the local middle-class, who had similarly adopted European customs.

From 1914, he preached more militant sermons, often referring to Old Testament themes, concentrating on such aspects as the Israelites' escape from slavery in Egypt, Chilembwe uprising himself was not part of the apocalyptic Watch Tower movement, which was popular in central Africa at the time and later became known as Kitawala in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but some of his followers may have been influenced by it.

Chilembwe uprising opposed the recruitment of the Nyasan people to fight what he considered to be a war totally unconnected to them.

Chilembwe uprising promoted a form of Christian pacifism and argued that the lack of civil rights for Africans in the colonial system should exempt them from the duties of military service.

In November 1914, following reports of large loss of life during fighting at Karonga, Chilembwe uprising wrote a letter to The Nyasaland Times in Blantyre, explicitly appealing to the colonial authorities not to recruit black troops:.

Exactly what Chilembwe uprising's objectives were remains unclear but some contemporaries believed that he planned to make himself "King of Nyasaland".

Chilembwe uprising soon acquired a military textbook and began to organise his followers and wider support.

Chilembwe uprising sent a messenger to Ncheu to alert Chinyama that the rebellion was starting.

Major action of the Chilembwe uprising involved an attack on the Bruce plantation at Magomero.

Chilembwe uprising's forces held a strong defensive position along the Mbombwe river and could not be pushed back.

Chilembwe uprising became viewed as an "unproblematic" hero by many of the country's people.

Chilembwe uprising's portrait was added to the national currency, the kwacha, and reproduced on Malawian stamps.

At the time, the Chilembwe uprising was generally considered to mark a turning point in colonial rule.

Rotberg concludes that Chilembwe uprising planned to seize power in the Shire Highlands or perhaps in all of Nyasaland.