Page 58 - 2020 SoM Journal Vol 73 No 1 FINAL_Neat

50 The Society of Malawi Journal

Politics, Christianity and Society in Malawi:
Essays in Honour of John McCracken.
Edited by Kenneth R. Ross and Wapumuluka O. Mulwafu.

531 pp. Mzuni Press, Mzuzu, Malawi. 2020. ISBN 978-99960-60-78-6
Available outside Malawi through the African Books Collective, Oxford.

David S. Bone

John McCracken's untimely death in 2017 robbed Malawi of one of its
foremost historians. In his honour and under the able editorship of Ken Ross and
Wapu Mulwafu, former colleagues, students and others who have been influenced
by him have assembled a series of articles that both celebrate the man and his
achievements and build on his legacy. The diversity of themes that they have
chosen bears witness to the major role he has played in helping to document
Malawi's history and setting the agenda for its study.
In the book's introduction and its first three chapters the editors and three
former colleagues pay tribute McCracken as a friend and fellow worker. They set
his achievements in the context of his upbringing, early influences, and the sweep