Maravi History of Southern Africa Nyasaland
1907-1918






History of the British Central Africa Protectorate, 1891-1907



A British Consul for the territories north of the Zambezi, Captain Foote, was present in the Maravi Federation since 1883, stationed at Blantyre. There was a conflict with MLOZI, an Arab slave trader, and the Yao tribes under his influence. In 1885, the AFRICAN LAKES COMPANY began acquiring treaties which granted them far reaching rights over the area. In 1889, with the Portuguese also undertaking expecitions in the area, Britain declares the SHIRE HIGHLANDS PROTECTORATE, which was extended in 1891 to form the NYASALAND DISTRICTS PROTECTORATE (including the NGONDE KINGDOM further north and the CHIKULAMEYEMBE in the South), in 1893 rechristened the BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE (until 1907). In 1891 an expedition was undertaken against Yao chiefs and slave raiders Mohandanji and Mponda; in 1897 the protectorate was regarded pacified. Commissioner, between 1891 and 1897, was SIR HENRY HAMILTON JOHNSTON; he established the protectorate's administration, police force, signed treaties with indigenous chiefs. He pursued a policy of granting land to prospective plantation farmers and mining entrepreneurs/companies, which was to provide an economic structure capable to supply the proitectorate with a revenue basis. This land policy deprived the natives of the best lands, took advantage of the natives' inexperience with legal procedures. In addition, the natives were burdened with a hut tax. Resistance was organized on the tribal level, ineffective, and easily suppressed; the last Jumbe (Swahili chief, residing at Nkhotakota), was deported in 1905.
Meanwhile the missionaries had had some success; some natives were ordained ministers, among them JOHN CHILEMBWE who even was sent to the US to study theology. Appalled by the racism of the white settler community, many of these native ministers founded separate communities for African christians.
H.H. Johnston received a salary from Cecil Rhodes' BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY, which had acquired a majority of shares in the African Lakes Company. In 1904 British Central Africa was placed under the administration of the COLONIAL OFFICE.
BLANTYRE was the economic and cultural center of the protectorate; it had been established as a mission station in 1876. ZOMBA in the Shire Highlands was selected as residence of the governor and administrative center of the protectorate. Plantations were established, where coffee was grown. A railway was built, connecting the protectorate with the Portuguese port city of Beira (Mocambique) completed only in 1935.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		History of Malawi, from Africanet
Articles from Infoplease : Malawi, History of
The Great Nyasaland Land Swindle 1885-1893, from Great Epics Newsletter
Anglo-Portuguese Crisis of 1889-1890, from OnWar.com
DOCUMENTS Arms of British Central Africa Protectorate, 1894, from FOTW
From British Military Medals : Central Africa Medal, 1894-1898
REFERENCE South and East African Year Book and Guide, 49th edition 1949, pp.765-766, 867-881 [G]
Cynthia A. Crosby, Historical Dictionary of Malawi, Metuchen : Scarecrow 1980 [G]
Article : British Central Africa, in : Statesman's Year Book 1895 pp.177-179 [G]
Article : Central Africa Protectorate, in : Statesman's Year Book 1898 pp.178-180, 1901 pp.193-194, 1905 pp.206-208 [G]
Article : British Central Africa Protectorate, in : International Year Book 1898 p.134 [G]
Article : East Africa - Nyasaland, in : Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events 1894 pp.247-248 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on September 6th 2007

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