The debate surrounding the authenticity of the image of John Chilembwe on Malawian currency has been attracting mixed reactions from different quarters. Some Malawians question whether the image aligns with several other available images of Chilembwe. Maybe the one on the currency went ‘ku HD’. However, here is what a political analyst, Wonderful Mkhutche, has to say on those sentiments.
“The one on the currency is John Chilembwe. Arguing against this is trivial for people who do not have substance to talk about the life of John Chilembwe. There are so many things to talk about Chilembwe,” says Mkhutche.
He further argues that Malawians should continue remembering Chilembwe as an autonomist who gave his life for the country’s scuffle.
“We should remember Chilembwe as a nationalist who gave his life for this country’s struggle. We too should have the same spirit,” he posits.
Meanwhile, John Chilembwe was born in Chiradzulu district in June 1871, though some quarters argue that it is not the exact year Chilembwe was born, as in those days it was hard to keep records of one’s age. According to the Dictionary of African History Biography, around 1880, Chilembwe 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 until 1895.
Booth worked for a number of churches and had no denominational loyalty; he taught a radical equality that resonated with Chilembwe’s own sense of black pride. In 1897, Booth took Chilembwe 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.
Events after 1912 disillusioned Chilembwe. A famine in 1913 brought great hardship and starvation to many peasant farmers. Mozambican refugees flooded into Nyasaland, and Chilembwe deeply resented the way they were exploited by white plantation owners. When World War I broke out the following year, Africans were conscripted into the British army, and Chilembwe 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 difficulties, and the death of a beloved daughter, Chilembwe’s sense of betrayal deepened into fury.
In careful detail, Chilembwe planned an attack on the worst of the area plantations, which was known for cruelty to its African workers. With 200 followers, he struck swiftly, and three plantation managers were killed. One of these, a cousin of David LIVINGSTONE, was notorious for burning down tenants’ chapels, whipping workers, and denying them their wages.
His head was cut off and displayed on a pole in Chilembwe’s church. The rebels, however, scrupulously observed Chilembwe’s orders not to harm any women or children. The colonial response was immediate and ruthless, resulting in the death of many Africans.
Chilembwe and his followers–mostly educated, Christian, small businessmen–demanded for themselves the same place in the modern world that they saw Europeans enjoying. Meanwhile, John Chilembwe died on February 3, 1915, at the age of 43 after being killed by the white people.
Source: Dictionary of African History Biography
