Joseph Booth, Charles Domingo, and the Seventh Day Baptists in Northern Nyasaland, 1910-121

The Journal of African History

Volumn 12, Issue 3, 1971, Pages 461-480

  Lohrentz, Kenneth P ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 34447457928     PISSN: 00218537     EISSN: 14695138     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700010884     Document Type: Article

References (67)

1. For the Tonga, see Jaap Van Velsen, The Politics of Kinship, a Study in Social Manipulation Among the Lakeside Tonga of Nyasaland (Manchester, 1964). For the Ngoni, see Yeseya Chibambo, My Ngoni of Nyasaland, trans. Charles Stuart (London, 1942); J.A. Barnes, Politics in a Changing Society: A Political History of the Fort Jameson Ngoni, (London, 1954); Margaret Read, The Ngoni of Nyasaland (London, 1956); J.K. Rennie, ‘The Ngoni States and European Intrusion’, 302-31 in Eric Stokes and Richard Brown (eds.), The Zambesian Past (Manchester, 1965).
2. For brief accounts of the first generation of the Mission's work in northern Nyasaland, see Jaap Van Velsen, ‘The Missionary Factor Among the Lakeside Tonga of Nyasaland’, Journal of the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute (hereafter J.R.L.I.), xxvi (Dec. 1959), 1-22; Norman Long, ‘Bandawe Mission Station and Local Politics, 1878-86’, J.R.L.I. xxxiii (Dec. 1962), 1-22. See also K.J. McCracken, ‘Livingstonia as an Industrial Mission, 1875-1900’, in Religion in Africa (University of Edinburgh Centre of African Studies, 1964), 75-96. For a valuable illumination of the early phase of culture contact, see Donald Fraser, The Autobiography of an African (London, 1925).
3. Robert I. Rotberg, The Rise of Nationalism in Central Africa, The Making of Malawi and Zambia, 1873-1964 (Cambridge, 1965), 71. See also Rotberg, ‘The Rise of African Nationalism: The Case of East and Central Africa’, World Politics, xv (1962), 84.
4. Terence Ranger, ‘African Attempts to Control Education in East and Central Africa, 1900-1939’, Past and Present, xxxii (Dec. 1965), 80.
5. K.J. McCracken, ‘African Politics in Twentieth-Century Malawi’, 190-209 in Terence Ranger (ed.) Aspects of Central African History (Evanston, 1968), 192-4. See also R.J. Macdonald, ‘A History of African Education in Nyasaland, 1875-1945' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Edinburgh University, 1969), v.l, 175-9.
6. See, for example, W.A. Elmslie, Among the Wild Ngoni (Edinburgh, 1899), 57, 301; Donald Fraser, Winning a Primitive People (London, 1922), 96-7.
7. See F.E. Sanderson, ‘The Development of Labour Migration from Nyasaland, 1891-1914’, J.A.H. II, 2 (1961), 259-71. For the effects of migration on Tonga society, see Jaap Van Velsen, ‘Labour Migration as a Positive Factor in the Continuity of Tonga Tribal Society’, Economic Development and Cultural Change, viii (1960), 265-78.
8. For the most complete discussion of Booth's background and his activities in Nyasaland, see Shepperson and Price, Independent African. Also see Rotberg, Rise of Nationalism, 60-71; Macdonald, ‘A History’, 180-6. One should also consult Booth's own book, Africa for the African (Baltimore, 1897).
9. William C. Daland, pastor of Mill Yard Seventh Day Baptist Church, London, to David E. Titsworth, pres. of Sabbath Evangelizing and Industrial Assn. Plainfield, N.J. 5 May 1899, p. 2. (Seventh Day Baptist Historical Society, hereafter S.D.B.H.S.).
10. Gov. Smith to High Commissioner of South Africa, Pretoria, 25 May 1915, forwarded to Sec. St. C.O. 525/61/30044; P.R.O. Mic. (Public Records Office Microfilms) reel 71, v. 61, p. 672.
11. N.O. Moore and Wayland Wilcox, ‘The Report of the Visit to South and Central Africa’, Sabbath Recorder, lxxiii, 22 (Nov. 1912), 699.
12. Again, the most complete work on Kamwana can be found in Shepperson, Independent African, 147-59; see also Shepperson, J.R.L.I. xxxm, 91-3; Rotberg, Rise of Nationalism, 66-9.
13. George Shepperson, ‘Nyasaland and the Millennium’, in Millennial Dreams in Action, Essays in Comparative Study, Sylvia Thrupp (ed.), (The Hague, 1962), 144-59.
14. Moore and Wilcox, ‘The Report’, 719.
15. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society was and is the legally incorporated body of the Jehovahs' Witnesses. 20 Moore and Wilcox, ‘The Report’.
16. Domingo to Booth, 19 Sept. 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.)
17. Gilbert Chihayi (Chinteche) to Seventh Day Baptist Church, Plainfield, N.J. 4 Sept. 1910. See also Domingo to Booth, 6 Apr. 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.); Gov. Smith to Sec. St. 28 Aug. 1916, C.O. 525/68/48172; P.R.O. Mic. reel 78, v. 68, pp. 414-15.
18. Shepperson and Price, Independent African, 157-8. 23 Ibid. 157.
19. Hanson Tandu, Sabbath Recorder, 20 Mar. 1911, lxx, 12, 363.
20. Domingo to Booth, n.d. (S.D.B.H.S.).
21. Robert W. July,’Nineteenth Century Negritude: Edward W. Blyden’,J.A.H.v, i (1964), 73-86; Hollis R. Lynch, ‘Edward W. Blyden: Pioneer West African Nationalist’, J.A.H. vi, 3 (1965), 373-88; Hollis R. Lynch, Edward Wilmot Blyden, Pan-Negro Patriot, 1832-1912 (London, 1967). For a collection of Blyden's own writings, see Edward W. Blyden, Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race (Edinburgh, 1967, reprint of 1887 edition).
22. Note in Booth's handwriting in margin of Sabbath School attendance report, March 1911, Yakobo Chigowo (Sanga) to Booth (S.D.B.H.S.).
23. Note in Booth's handwriting on bottom of Church of Christ Seventh Day Baptist attendance report, Mar. 1911, Chigowo to Booth (S.D.B.H.S.).
24. Sabbath Recorder, 3 July, lxxi, 1, 8.
25. Makwinja to Booth, 10 Oct. 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.).
26. Moore and Wilcox, ‘The Report’, 700.
27. Shepperson and Price, Independent African, 19.
28. Booth to Shaw, 8 Nov. 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.).
29. Domingo to Booth, 26 Apr. 1911; Domingo to Booth, 9 July 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.).
30. Joseph Booth, pamphlet headed ‘An Appeal to Pastors…’, 16 July 1911; Sabbath Recorder, s June 1911, lxx, 724 and 818; Sabbath Recorder, 3 July 1911, lxxi, 9.
31. Moore and Wilcox, ‘The Report’, 717.
32. Chigowo to Booth, 29 Mar. 1911, 2, and numerous other letters from the Nyasa-land pastors (S.D.H.S.); Moore and Wilcox, ‘The Report’, 713.
33. Chigowo to Booth, 29 Mar. 1911, 3 (S.D.B.H.S.). The Mission Board was then considering the question of sending missionaries to the field, one of whom was a Black nurse. See John Kolvoord (Battle Creek, Mich.) to Domingo, 23 Mar. 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.).
34. Moore and Wilcox, ‘The Report’, 708. The hut tax was then 6s. per annum, but was only half that amount for those Africans who hired themselves out to Europeans for at least one month in the year. Rotberg, Rise of Nationalism, 44.
35. Moore and Wilcox, ‘The Report’, 708.
36. Ibid. 718. Elliott Kamwana's break with the Livingstonia Mission soon after 1900 may have been precipitated by the Mission's introduction of school fees. Macdonald, ‘A History’, 191.
37. Moore and Wilcox, ‘The Report’, 704, et. passim.
38. Domingo to Booth, 10 Apr. 1911, 3 (S.D.B.H.S.)
39. Moore and Wilcox, ‘The Report’, 711.
40. Joseph Booth, ‘The African Sabbath Recorder’, no. 6 (Jan. 1913) (S.D.B.H.S.).
41. Domingo to Booth, 9 June 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.).
42. Booth apparently had made an attempt to enter Nyasaland in 1907, but authorities prohibited his entry. C.O. 525/61/30024; P.R.O. Mic. reel 71, v. 61, p. 673.
43. Booth to Shaw, ii Apr. 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.). Booth had several Sabbatarian tracts translated into Chitonga by Simon Muhongo, a Nyasa employed as a Government clerk at Livingstone, Northwestern Rhodesia. Muhongo to Booth, 4 Feb. 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.).
44. Moore and Wilcox, ‘The Report’, 699.
45. Pamphlet headed ‘To the Seventh Day Baptist Churches…’, 29 Nov. 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.).
46. Typescript of letter by Zenzile Ntlonga, British Concession, Chinde, to Booth, 30 Dec. 1911 (Walter B. Cockerill Papers: Wisconsin State Historical Society). While at Chinde, Ntlonga associated with Elliott Kamwana, who was then under detention. The association surely would not have enhanced Ntlonga's reputation with the Consulate.
47. Typescript of letter by Zenzile Ntlonga, British Concession, Chinde, to Booth, 29 Dec. 1911 (Cockerill Papers).
48. Domingo to Booth, 17 Mar. 1912 (Cockerill Papers).
49. Moore and Wilcox, ‘The Report’, 697. Before going to Cape Town, Ntlonga had resided at King Williams Town, Cape Province.
50. Moore and Wilcox, ‘The Report’, 721. MacAlpine was then serving the Livingstonia Mission at Bandawe. 65 Ibid. 66 Sabbath Recorder, 8 Aug. 1910, lxix, 164.
51. For a discussion of this view, see Michael Banton, ‘African Prophets’, Race, v (1965), 50.
52. Fraser, Winning a Primitive People, 239-44.
53. Fraser, The Autobiography of an African, 146.
54. Andrew Amhoni, Matuli, to Booth, 18 Nov. 1911; Andrew Charunda, Chifira, to Booth, 6 Mar. 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.). See also Sabbath Recorder, 12 Sept. 1910, lxix, 744.
55. Domingo to Booth, 19 Sept. 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.).
56. Booth to Shaw, 7 June 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.).
57. Moore and Wilcox, ‘The Report’, 708
58. Domingo to Booth, 6 Apr. 1911; Booth to Shaw, 7 June 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.). A cikoti was a whip made of hippo-hide, and was frequently used to enforce prison discipline. See Gov. Sharpe to Sec. St. 2 Apr. 1909, C.O. 525/28/15621; P.R.O. Mic. reel 35, v. 28. 76 Domingo to Booth, 6 Apr. 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.).
59. Shepperson and Price, Independent African, Plate 126, opposite p. 159.
60. Sir Hector Livingstone Duff, Nyasaland Under the Foreign Office (London, 1903), 214. Significantly, Duff later became Chief Secretary.
61. Domingo to Booth, 19 Sept. 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.). Other evangelists sent out were David Apiri to Kasungu, and Nemon Jere to Mvera.
62. Ibid, and quoted in Shepperson and Price, Independent African, 163.
63. Domingo did eventually come under greater criticism in 1916 when the Government discovered that he had joined Booth's British African Congress. See Rotberg, Rise of Nationalism, 72; cf. Gov. Smith to Sec. St. 28 Aug. 1916, C.O. 525/68/481/72; P.R.O. Mic. reel 78, v. 68, pp. 410-21.
64. Domingo to Booth, 6 Apr. 1911 (S.D.B.H.S.).
65. Domingo to Booth, 22 Sept. 1911 (Cockerill Papers).
66. Anthony F.C. Wallace, “Revitalization Movements”, American Anthropologist, lvii (1966), 265.
67. Shepperson and Price, Independent African, 164.