Page 22 - SoMJ Vol 74 - No 1, 2021

12 The Society of Malaŵi Journal

Koelle’s Marawi:

Chichewa words in the Polyglotta Africana of Sigismund Koelle

Andrew Goodson

Rebmann and Koelle
The German missionary, Johannes Rebmann, working at Kisulutini near
Mombasa in what is now Kenya, in 1844–5 compiled his remarkable Dictionary
1
of the Kiniassa Language with the help of a Malawian slave called Salimini.
However, his dictionary is not quite the first record of the Chichewa or Chinyanja
language, since three or four years earlier, 5000 miles away on the other side of
the continent, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, another young German missionary,
Sigismund Wilhelm Koelle, made his own much shorter list of words in the same
language with the help of an ex-slave called Mateke. This word list along with
similar wordlists from 199 other African dialects and languages, was included in
2
Koelle’s famous work, Polyglotta Africana, published in 1854.
The two missionaries had much in common. Both were born in the same part
of south-west Germany, Württemberg: Rebmann in the village of Gerlingen near
Stuttgart in 1820, and Koelle in 23 miles further north in Cleebronn in 1823. Both
studied at the Basler Seminary in Switzerland, and both later joined the London-
based Church Missionary Society. After training in Islington, both were ordained
in London by the Bishop of London, Charles Blomfield, in 1845 and 1846
respectively. Rebmann was sent to Africa in 1846, and Koelle in 1847.
Both men were excellent linguists. During his time in Africa, Rebmann
compiled dictionaries of Swahili, Nika (Mijikenda), and Kiniassa (Chichewa),
while Koelle wrote grammars and other materials on Vai and Kanuri, as well as
his famous Polyglotta Africana, which contained a list of 281 words and phrases
in languages spoken by 200 informants from various countries in Africa.
Rebmann was to spend nearly 30 years in Africa: he returned to Germany in 1875
after his sight failed and he died the following year. Koelle, on the other hand,
stayed only five years in Sierra Leone (December 1847 to February 1853), and
later went to work for 24 years in Constantinople, where he translated the
Anglican Prayer Book into Turkish. He returned to England in 1879 and died in
London in 1902.

1 A full text of the Dictionary of the Kiniassa Language in Google books can be found by
entering Rebman Kiniassa Google in a search engine.
2 A full text of Polyglotta Africana can be found by entering Universität Hamburg
Katalogplus in a search engine. Click on the spanner to download.