Nyasaland (Malawi)
John Chilembwe
1871–1915 Baptist pastor; leader of the Nyasaland uprising, 1915
John Chilembwe was a Baptist pastor from Nyasaland (now Malawi) who studied at a seminary in Lynchburg, Virginia, and returned in 1900 to found the Providence Industrial Mission, whose schools had about 1,000 pupils by 1912. He grew critical of African land losses and harsh labor conditions on European-owned estates. When Nyasaland Africans were drafted as soldiers and carriers in the war, he wrote a letter against it to a newspaper. On the night of 23 January 1915 about 200 of his followers attacked European estates, killing the manager William Jervis Livingstone. The rising failed, and African soldiers killed Chilembwe on 3 February. John Chilembwe Day is observed in Malawi on 15 January.