Page 27 - 2020 SoMJ Vol 73 No 2_Neat

18 The Society of Malaŵi Journal

The Birth of Rugby Football in Malawi

Barry Brindley

One of the problems in researching the history of an event, trend or
period is finding its beginning. This is particularly difficult if there are few written,
photographic or architectural remains to help tell the story. This certainly applies
to the establishment of rugby football as a regular sport in the British Protectorate
of Nyasaland (now Malawi).
To play rugby one needs a cohort of at least 30 fit and energetic young
men organised into two teams and a referee with some knowledge of the laws of
the game. In 1894 the newly established British Central Africa Protectorate had
its administrative capital in Zomba with a European population of seven .
1
Eventually coffee planters, missionaries, traders and more administrators arrived,
spread across the country from Port Herald (modern Nsanje) in the south to Fort
Johnston (modern Mangochi) on Lake Malawi (Nyasa as it was then called).
By 1897 Blantyre boasted about 140 Europeans with another 300 spread
across the Protectorate. It is easy to imagine that the first sports played might have
followed the enthusiastic cry of “anyone for tennis?” or “anyone for a game of
croquet?”. Given the availability of equipment it only needed two like-minded
people to start playing on a regular basis. Soon a series of “Sports Weeks” were
being organised in the principal towns of Blantyre, Zomba. Mulanje and Fort
Johnston alongside the formation of sports clubs. Newspaper reports, club records
and individual accounts identify the following as regularly played sports: cricket,
football, swimming, bowls, hockey, croquet, athletics, shooting, gymkhanas,
squash and golf – but, alas, no early mention of rugby.
The surrounding territories had attracted a greater number of Europeans
enabling rugby to make a much earlier start. In East Africa the first recorded rugby
match was between “Officials” and “Settlers” in 1909. By 1923 the Rugby
Football Union of Kenya was formed and soon there were clubs with names such
as Nondescripts and Harlequins in Nairobi, Mombasa, Kitale, Eldoret, Thika,
Muthaiga and Ruiru. The first recorded game in Northern Rhodesia (modern
Zambia) took place between Broken Hill and British Nationals from the Congo
in1925. Over the next 15 years clubs were formed across the Copperbelt region in
Ndola, Mufulira, Nkana, Nihonga and Roan as well as clubs further south at
Broken Hill, Lusaka, Livingstone and Kafue. In Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe)
the first game was played even earlier, in 1890, by members of the Pioneer
Column. Clubs were soon formed and in 1895 the Rhodesia Rugby Football Union

1 The Good, the Bad and the Awesome, Rugby Football Union of Malawi, p15