Page 10 - 2020 SoMJ Vol 73 No 2_Neat

Missionaries and the Standardisation of Vernacular Languages
in Colonial Malawi, 1875-1935

Dorothy Tembo

Introduction
Mission work was carried out as a long conversation and dialogue of
1
European and African culture . The vernacular Bible translation projects
introduced by missionaries are an excellent example of these negotiations and are
one of the lasting legacies of mission work in Africa. To a large extent, the success
of mission work was depended upon missionaries’ willingness and ability to learn
vernacular languages and to sympathise with African culture. However, this
sympathy was often lacking, and consequently, this created room for
misunderstanding and controversies.
In the case of colonial Malawi, the question of whether to implement a
vernacular language policy throughout Nyasaland, particularly the dialogue
2
between missions and the government, was controversial. Often, missions that
focused on vernacular languages were accused of creating converts who were
‘backward’; the Dutch Reformed Church Missions (DRCM) provides a case study
of this. Their emphasis on village education and local languages provoked
3
arguments that they did not want to see their African converts progress to a more
4
‘civilized’ life. Embedded within this line of reasoning is the argument that

1 See J. Comaroff and J. L. Comaroff, Of Revelation and Revolution; Christianity,
Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa, vol. 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1991).
2 See Themba Moyo, “Malawi’s Marginalisation of Indigenous Languages in Literary
Publications,” Alternation 8, no. 1 (2001): 134–149; Isaac Lamba, “The Cape Dutch
Reformed Church Mission in Malawi: A Preliminary Historical Examination of Its
Educational Philosophy and Application, 1889-1931,” History of Education Quarterly 24,
no. 3 (1984): 373; P. Kishindo, “The Impact of a National Language on Minority
Languages: The Case of Malawi,” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 12, no. 2
(January 1994): 127–50; L. Vail and L. White, “Tribalism in the Political History of
Malawi,” in The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa, ed. L. Vail (London: James
Currey, 1989); John McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Malawi, 1875-1940 : The
Impact of the Livingstonia Mission in the Northern Province, Kachere Monograph ;
(Blantyre, Malawi : Christian Literature Association in Malawi, 2000); Isabel Apawo
Phiri, Women, Presbyterianism and Patriarchy : Religious Experience of Chewa Women
in Central Malawi, Kachere Monograph (CLAIM [sc. Christian Literature Association In
Malawi], 1997); E. Kayambazinthu, “The Language Planning Situation in Malawi,”
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 19, no. 5 (September 1, 1998):
369–439.
3 See Lamba, “The Cape Dutch Reformed Church Mission in Malawi”; Phiri, Women,
Presbyterianism and Patriarchy.
4 See Lamba, “The Cape Dutch Reformed Church Mission in Malawi”; Phiri, Women,