The History of how Malawi ruled Zambia for 21 years -1891 to 1911

The History of how Malawi ruled Zambia for 21 years -1891 to 1911

Most Zambians joke that Malawi is the extension of Chipata or the 11th province of Zambia little do they know that Zambia itself was actually a province under Nyasaland.

The background of how Zambia was to be ruled by Malawi for 21 years started in 1870s with the brothers,  Herbert and Cecil John Rhodes.

The Rhodes brothers left Oxford in England and settled in South Africa where they were cultivating cotton. The Rhodes bros became rich when they acquired stakes in the mining industry. 

Herbert Rhodes was an adventurer. He abandoned his fortune and left it with his brother, Cecil John Rhodes for an adventure to come to Nyasaland with the Scottish Missionaries in 1870s.

In Nyasaland, Herbert Rhodes became a solo elephant hunter. He travelled alot between Lower Shire to Mangochi area hunting elephants. 

Herbert Rhodes became a close friend of Chief Katunga and had his house within Katunga's village. One sad day, he was drinking with Katunga until the evening of that day. When he went to bed he forgot a lamp on which caused a fire which burnt his grass thatched house while he was asleep. Herbert Rhodes died in the house.

This happened in 1880 in Chikwawa. News reached his brother Cecil in South Africa that Herbert had been killed in Nyasaland by the natives. Cecil John Rhodes organised a military expedition to revenge the death of Herbert.

New information came in that Herbert was not killed. Infact Herbert was loved by natives. They had been hunting together with him. Herbert was fascinated with the African hunting techniques. The night that his house caught fire. The locals tried in vain to extinguish the fire.

Cecil John Rhodes was devastated.

The missionaries in 1880s continued pressing the British government to establish a Protectorate in Nyasaland. 

The events which happened in 1880 at Blantyre mission when the mission sentenced a native to death led to a Commission of enquiry which blamed the mission and its employees like George Fenwick.

The British government sent its consul Captain Charles Foot in 1883 in Blantyre to establish some form of a government over Nyasaland to help the Missionaries in administration. His deputy Daniel Rankin took over when Foot died. Rankin was succeeded by John Buchanan who used his administration to stop slave trade. He built his administration Office in Blantyre in 1885-86.

Buchanan brought the Shire Highlands under the British rule in late 1880s and moved the capital to Zomba which was quiet for administration.

The British government was reluctant to establish a full Protectorate over Nyasaland because they did not have money to run the country. 

Cecil John Rhodes had money. For the memory of his brother Herbert who died in Malawi, he was willing to give large sums of money for his brother who was buried by the natives near Shire river in Chikwawa.

The British did not want a large area of administration because of the financial constraints. Their administration was to be limited to the Nyasaland areas surrounding the British Missionaries.

When the Protectorate was established in 1891 by Sir Harry Johnstone and Alfred Sharpe, Cecil John Rhodes provided the money to raise the first army in Nyasaland.

Harry Johnstone the Governor in Nyasaland raised an army which was made of 300 Indians, some Zanzibari and Somali soldiers, the Makua and the Tonga recruited in Malawi. 

With this army he defeteated Yao slave trading chiefs like Makanjira, Mponda, Zarafi, Matapwiri, Chikumbu, Nyezelera, Swahili Arabs Jumbe, Mlozi, Kopa kopa and Msalema and others in 1890s.

The only problem was that there were other chiefs in Zambia indulging in slave trade which were also to be defeated.

The British government was not prepared to bring territories in Zambia under the British rule although the Missionaries in Malawi had out posts in Zambia. 

Cecil John Rhodes wanted to bring these territories under the British rule. 

Rhodes therefore gave more money to the government in Malawi in 1891 to go and establish treaties in Zambia to bring those territories under the government in Malawi.

Johnstone and Sharpe went to Zambia and established treaties with the chiefs to bring them under the administration in Zomba. 

Those chiefs who resisted and continued in slave trade were attacked by the army from Malawi. The Nyasaland army invaded Eastern Zambia and fought the Ngoni Chief Mpezeni and other chiefs. The army pushed inside Zambia until they set the border with the Kingdom of Barotseland which is now western Zambia. 

All Bembaland, Chipata,  areas around rivers Luapula and Luangwa  were brought under the administration in Malawi.

The whole of the Eastern Zambia became part of the territories which were ruled by the Nyasaland government in Zomba. 

Although Cecil Rhodes was providing money for the Nyasaland government to rule over the territories in Zambia, the British government was still unwilling to establish a direct rule in Zambia as there were no British Missionaries there.

This led to John Rhodes to seek mandate to establish his own government over Zambia if the British were not interested to rule Zambia.

Sir Harry Johnstone was also in an awkward position as he led a British government in Nyasaland whose budget was financed by Cecil John Rhodes.

Rhodes was giving money to run Nyasaland to honour his dead brother Herbert who died in Nyasaland. He went further to build a descent tomb for Herbert in Chikwawa where his brother was buried.

While Cecil Rhodes was negotiating for the mandate for his company to take over administration over Zambia, the North Eastern Zambia was placed under Nyasaland rule from 1891 to 1896. 

Thereafter the British government allowed Cecil Rhodes to take over administration of North Eastern Zambia. 

Rhodes hired Patrick William Forbes in 1896 as administrator of North Eastern Zambia while Western Zambia was under Southern Rhodesia rule.

Forbes worked as a provincial administrator for North East Zambia province under the Nyasaland government. 

From 1896 to 1899 Forbes ruled Zambia from Blantyre in Malawi where his offices were. Blantyre remained the capital for North East Zambia until 1899 when Zambia got its own capital at Fort Johnstone (D. D. Phiri, 1995)

The Nyasaland influence on administration of Zambia continued until 31st March 1911 as detailed in The Beginnings of Nyasaland and Northern Eastern Rhodessia by A. J. 

Hanna.

Thereafter, North Eastern Zambia was united with Barotseland and formed the United Northern Rhodesia ruled by a company owned by Cecil John Rhodes. 

That ended Malawi's rule over Zambia.

It was not until 1923 when the  British eventually took over Northern Rhodesia from Cecil John Rhodes Company.