Malawian History
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The Makololo: A Zambian Kingdom
Introduction In 1863 the demoralised remnants of the Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) withdrew from the region we now know as Malawi. Their sad story is told in Magomero and the East African Slave Trade. Behind them they left… Continue reading
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The Makololo: Origins and the Mfecane
Introduction Livingstone’s arrival in the Shire Valley in 1859 put in motion a chain of events that in 1891 led to Britain formally taking possession of a land and its people that was initially named the British Central Africa Protectorate,… Continue reading
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Colonists and Slavery in Malawi – Pre-Colonial Africa, The Empty Land
Introduction Malawi, or the British Central Africa Protectorate as it then was, did not become a British colony until 1891 but the first British people to travel there with an intent to settle were missionaries and they arrived in the… Continue reading
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James Chuma after 1874
The Return of the Black Explorer James Chuma was the most famous of the liberated slaves whose early life at the Magomero mission and contribution to Livingstone’s last expedition 1865-74, is described in a previous article (here). After returning to… Continue reading
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Magomero and The Nasik Boys
The Black Explorers This is not the story of famous white explorers, it is the story of some of the black African men, boys and women, many of whom were freed slaves, who walked with them. It is often suggested… Continue reading
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Rigby, Livingstone & The UMCA
Introduction Between 1808 and 1900 tens of thousands of liberated slaves, African men, women and children, predominantly from central and eastern Africa, were disembarked by the Royal Navy at Aden, Bombay, Cape Town, the Seychelles, Mauritius and Freretown in Kenya.… Continue reading
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Magomero and The East African Slave Trade
The slave trade in Africa was buyer driven. It was complex and fragmented trade but generally the Europeans took enslaved people from the west coast and from south of the Zambezi River in the east while the trade on the… Continue reading
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The Demise of Malawi’s Elephants: Part 2 – The Nightmare Years
We are watching a breeding herd of elephants at a muddy wallow, babies frolicking in the mud, tumbling over each other as they spray muddy water in all directions. Their aunts are just behind and often standing over them as… Continue reading
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The Demise of Malawi’s Elephants: Part 1 – Before the Slaughter
Malawi was once famous for its huge herds of elephants, described in the 18th century as an “elephant rich country” with the land between lake Malawi and the Luangwa River in Zambia “teeming with elephants”. A country where, in 1859,… Continue reading
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Malawi’s First Naturalist? Richard Crawshay and his Zebra
There are three species of zebra, the Plains zebra, Grevy’s zebra and the Mountain zebra and then there are several sub-species of Plains zebra and two of Mountain zebras. There might be as many as nine different types of zebra… Continue reading
Travelogues and Other Memories 