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Shepperson Memorial

REMEMBRANCES OF A FRIENDLY MENTOR.

David Bone

The very first word I heard Professor Shepperson speak was 'Kwacha’. This
was at a conference for Edinburgh sixth formers in 1963 at which he gave a
memorable speech on African Independence. That held my attention from the outset
since I had been brought up in Nyasaland. His inspiration was one of the reasons I
chose to take a course in African History in his department at Edinburgh University
the following year. The Professor’s contribution was a series of lectures on ‘The
Jumbe of Kota Kota’, my first introduction to the study of Islam in Malawi. The
material had not yet been published and at the start of his first lecture he told one of
the students to close the lecture room door as, ‘There could be someone with a tape
recorder outside’. As a class we couldn’t make up our minds whether he was serious
or joking. Knowing now about his sense of humour I suspect it was the latter. His
ground-breaking ‘Independent African’ was a basic text and gave to us, as to so many
others, the conviction that African History could only be done properly with thorough,
informed, open minded and careful research and full attention to every participant in
the story.
These qualities were still evident in the very last academic engagement of his
long career, at a conference in 2015 held to mark the centenary of the Chilembwe
Rising. Ill Health and advanced age prevented him from being present himself but,
with the directorial help of David Stuart-Mogg, he gave an excellent keynote address
by means of a video recording. Far from emphasising his own contribution to the
study, as he might well have been forgiven for doing, his concern was with figures
and issues requiring further research, and with suggesting where relevant
documentary evidence might still be found.
Professor Shepperson’s lively interest in his subject remained with him to the
end of his long life. He read John McCracken’s ‘Voices from the Chilembwe Rising’
until the effort became too much. He then had the remaining chapters summarised for
him by a friend. Though John did not live to be aware of this, I have it on the best
authority that, such was his regard for George as a person and a historian, he would
have been very gratified.
Academics and students who have had contacts with Sam Shepperson, as he
was affectionately known, will remember him not only for the extensive range of his
knowledge and his encyclopaedic memory but also his collegiality, his friendliness,
his generosity and willingness to share ideas and resources. I personally found him
very interested in the research of his former student, extremely encouraging, helpful
with suggestions about new lines of enquiry, and generous in sharing resources. The
passing of one of the fathers of Malawian history will leave a gap that cannot be
filled. So many of us have greatly benefited from the trail that he blazed and the
friendship we have enjoyed.

David Bone was formerly Senior Lecturer in the Department of Religious
Studies at Chancellor College of the University of Malawi. He has researched
and written extensively about the development of Malawi’s Muslim communities.

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