dbo:abstract
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- The ideas, people and events that contributed to John Chilembwe's motivation and influenced him to undertake the uprising in 1915 were considered by the Commission of Inquiry shortly after the rising was defeated, and have exercised historians of Malawi during much of the period since his death. Whether the dominant ideas were political, social, economic or religious and how these combined is unclear, because Chilembwe did not leave a detailed record of the reasons for his armed revolt. As he was an ordained Baptist minister, much attention has focussed on his religious ideas, whether these were orthodox or related to millennialism, the extent to which such potentially conflicting religious ideas existed, particularly in the period shortly before the rising, and the part that such beliefs played in the decision to revolt and the course of the uprising. Although there is reasonable evidence that, in the first decade after his return to Nyasaland at least, Chilembwe aimed at the social and economic advancement of Africans through education and the adoption of useful knowledge in line with the ideas of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, there is little direct evidence of his ultimate political aims, his theological beliefs or what he preached, particularly in the first dozen years of his ministry. This may be because, as is shown in his surviving correspondence, he had little interest in theological discussion. He also declined to follow Joseph Booth in moving from orthodox Baptist doctrine to the acceptance of sabbatarianism and he had no known direct links to the Watch Tower Society and he is not known to have introduced any doctrinal innovations into his church services. Unlike Booth, who was notorious for his radicalism and promotion of both fundamentalist and Ethiopianism, or Elliot Kamwana, whose preaching was openly millennial and considered to be anti-colonial, both of whom were unpopular with the colonial authorities and with most European missionaries, and were both deported for the radical political views they openly expressed, Chilembwe's work at the Providence Industrial Mission favourably impressed European officials and missionaries at least up to 1914. Undoubtedly African millenarian uprisings did exist, such as that leading to Bulhoek massacre, where there was no doubt that the participants, a religious group led by Enoch Mgijima with no political agenda, believed that the world would soon end and mounted frontal attacks on armed troops and police. However, Cobbing, writing about an earlier colonial revolt, cautioned about pursuing the "false trail of millenarianism" where unbearable political, social and economic pressures were sufficient causes for an attempt to drive out European colonisers, where there is no need to suggest other, less evident, causes and where the evidence for millenarianism is speculative or ambiguous. Chilembwe received an orthodox Baptist theological training in the United States and he never joined any other denomination. He used biblical language in his correspondence, as may be expected from a Baptist minister, but (unlike Booth's and Kamwana's) his known writings were never unambiguously millenarian. As far as is known, Chilembwe held standard Baptist views and rejected the Saturday observance favoured by Booth: he also stated that he had no connection with the Watchtower movement. Several historians consider that the Chilembwe uprising was planned, although perhaps without sufficient care, at several clandestine meetings before any action was taken, that Chilembwe acquired a textbook on military tactics, and that the authorities received advance warnings of the intended uprising several months before it took place. Another source claims that little or no preparation was made for the revolt, because the authorities discovered none from monitoring Chilembwe's correspondence, although it adds that he knew his mail was being monitored. (en)
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rdfs:comment
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- The ideas, people and events that contributed to John Chilembwe's motivation and influenced him to undertake the uprising in 1915 were considered by the Commission of Inquiry shortly after the rising was defeated, and have exercised historians of Malawi during much of the period since his death. Whether the dominant ideas were political, social, economic or religious and how these combined is unclear, because Chilembwe did not leave a detailed record of the reasons for his armed revolt. As he was an ordained Baptist minister, much attention has focussed on his religious ideas, whether these were orthodox or related to millennialism, the extent to which such potentially conflicting religious ideas existed, particularly in the period shortly before the rising, and the part that such beliefs (en)
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