Page 39 - 2020 SoMJ Vol 73 No 2_Neat

30 The Society of Malaŵi Journal

Truly, Juma Chimwere and John Chilembwe represented two
distinctly different approaches to coping with the reality of British
colonialism, even from individuals growing up in the same general
area—between Chiradzulu and Zomba—amid a “prevailing atmosphere
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of insecurity.” In a manner of speaking, both were initially
accommodationists, one taking a path seeking spiritual authority whilst
the other choosing to align himself with earthly power. When they met
early in the twentieth century, it seems unlikely that either might have
converted the other, missing an opportunity for joining their considerable
charisma together to set their people on a third path. Yet Titus
Chimwere’s account prompts speculation about how Chilembwe’s revolt
might have ended if the King’s Africans Rifles had been the force more
actively deployed against the rebels. It seems unlikely, however, that
Chilembwe - even if he were captured by relatively friendly asilikali -
would have met a different fate; the righteous anger displayed by settlers
and colonial officials alike suggest nothing less. Yet these reminiscences
of the soldier’s son offer a glimpse into how the African view of
Chilembwe’s actions was transforming in the decade after the 1915
rising, as even critics of the missionary among the indigenous population
of the Shire Highlands recounted their memories.

Melvin E. (Mel) Page a Ph.D. graduate of
Michigan State University, is Professor of
History (Emeritus), East Tennessee State
University. He was Fulbright Lecturer in
History, University of Malawi (1971-1974) and
Fulbright Professor of History, University of
Natal, Durban (1998). He authored The
Chiwaya War: Malawians and the First World
War (Westview, 2000), Founding editor of H-Africa, he currently is
Africa section co-editor for 1914-1918 Online: International
Encyclopaedia of the First World War.

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Shepperson and Price, 40.