George Simeon Mwase

Robert Rotberg discovered a typescript entitled "A Dialogue of Nyasaland Record of Past Events, Environments & the Present Outlook within the Protectorate" in the Nyasaland Archives in 1962, shortly before Mwase's death, however, Rotberg never had the chance to meet nor interview him. Rotberg edited the document, added an introduction and notes and published it as "Strike a Blow and Die: A Narrative of Race Relations in Colonial Africa" in 1967, revising the introduction and notes in a 1970 edition of the book.[7]

Although Rotberg surmises that Mwase wrote a draft of the first part of his work, an account of Chilembwe's rebellion, while in Zomba jail where he was imprisoned in 1931–32,[8] Mwase himself indicates he completed the work in 1932, and that he wrote at least the second part after his release.[9] A complete manuscript, including both the account of the uprising and a discussion of then-current race relations, written in Chinyanja, was prepared for an essay-competition sponsored by the Institute of African Languages and Cultures, London in late 1932.[10] The typescript Rotberg discovered appears to be an English translation of this essay, typed by someone else and sent to a senior official in the colonial administration in January 1933.[11]

Mwase never met John Chilembwe and was in Northern Rhodesia during and in the aftermath of the rebellion. Rotberg suggests that he obtained details of the uprising from Wallace Kampingo, one of Chilembwe's lieutenants who, after 17 years' imprisonment, was released from Zomba jail in July 1932, shortly before Mwase's release.[12]

Rotberg's suggestion is credible, particularly as Mwase's account gives considerable prominence to Kampingo's actions during the uprising and its aftermath.[13] However, Mwase did not name his informant,[14] and the copy of "Negro World" Mwase received in 1926 was provided by Issa Lawrence Macdonald, who had also taken part in the Chilembwe uprising, so Macdonald may be an additional or alternative source.[15] Rotberg also mentions Andrew Mkulichi, another of Chilembwe's followers, and oral traditions as possible sources.[16]

The often lengthy speeches quoted, some embellished with Latin quotations, said to have been made by Chilembwe and his writings may be Mwase's productions rather than an accurate recollection by his supposed informant 17 years after the event.[17][18] However, in two cases where there are other indications of what Chilembwe said, Mwase gives a simplified and possibly distorted, but not wholly inaccurate account of them.

The first is the letter that Chilembwe sent to the Nyasaland Times in January 1915, which the censor deleted and was never published by that newspaper. This deplored African deaths and injury in a war started by Europeans in which Africans had no interest.[19] Mwase's short paraphrase of the letter reflects this broad sentiment, adding that Chilembwe said the government should recruit white settlers instead of Africans.[20] Secondly, Phiri quotes information that Chilembwe sent out his forces on 23 January 1915 saying, "You are going to fight as African patriots…I am not saying that you will win the war and then become kings…some of us will die on the battlefield and leave behind widows and orphans, but they will be a free people. Our blood will be worth something at last."[21] Mwase, in a much longer record, mentions Chilembwe saying "You are all patriots. … I do not say that you are going to win the war at all …" and later "You must not think that with that blow, you are going to become Kings …"[22] However, between these sections, Mwase repeats what he claims was said at an earlier meeting of 3 January 1915.

According to Mwase, on 3 January 1915, Chilembwe and his main followers "decided to strike a blow, or else they should ask to be buried alive". Chilembwe also (Mwase claims) said, after referring to John Brown, "Let us strike a blow and die, for our blood will surely mean something at last".[23] Based on this report, Rotberg believed that Chilembwe sought martyrdom, as he was in a state of depression as a result of African casualties in the East Africa campaign.[24][25] The phrase, "strike a blow and die" is repeated several times as an alleged quotation from Chilembwe's addresses, but it has not been recorded elsewhere and it conflicts with the actual course of the uprising, where several of those chosen as leaders stayed home and many followers scattered and fled once troops appeared.[26]

The discussion at the 3 January 1915 meeting and an earlier one in December 1914 are the main bases for Mwase's belief that Chilembwe and his principal followers knew when planning the uprising that it would result in failure and their deaths, and he compares Chilembwe's fate to that of John Brown and Roger Casement.[27] However, Chilembwe took considerable care preparing for the uprising, even if he showed an understandable lack of capacity for detailed military planning, and he was also let down by many of his main collaborators, mission-educated small landowners, who failed to act decisively, or act at all in one case.[28] When it was clear the uprising had failed, he and several of his lieutenants attempted to flee to Mozambique, which calls their seeking martyrdom into question.[29]

To the extent that Mwase believed John Brown knew he had no chance of success and was prepared to die as an explanation of Chilembwe's motivation,[30] he was mistaken. A detailed report of Brown's interrogation stated that he went to Harpers Ferry for the sole purpose of waging a successful war, for which he believing his resources were sufficient, intending to arm slaves with captured weapons and win that war within a hundred days.[31]

The rest of Mwase's account can be divided into an account of Chilembwe's ancestry and education and his comments on race relations in Nyasaland in the 1930s. Mwase devotes seven pages to asserting that, through his mother, Chilembwe belonged to the Chewa people, in particular to the Phiri clan, to which the Kalonga chiefs of the Maravi kingdom had also belonged. However, other sources assert that his mother was a Mang'anja woman, possibly a slave, and Chilembwe always regarded himself as a member of his father's Yao people.[32][33]

Mwase also deals with race relations, the law and prisons, noting the improvement in the situation of Africans since 1915. Rotberg speculates that Mwase exaggerated the improvements for a more favourable response,[34] but Price regards it as an early sign of Mwase's later deference to authority.[35]

George Shepperson, whose help Rotberg acknowledged, accepted the general accuracy of Mwase's account of the uprising, despite his colourful and dramatic language and considered it an important addition to knowledge of Chilembwe and his followers. However, he questioned Mwase's suggestion that Chilembwe had no hope of success.[36] This was probably the most favourable response, but the reviews of Atmore and Price already mentioned were broadly favourable, although both questioned how accurate was the recollection of Mwase's informant after 17 years and how much was added by Mwase. McCracken also doubts Mwase's accuracy about Chilembwe but valued the light his work threw on the ideas and attitudes of an educated African in the 1930s.

The strongest opposition, both to Mwase's account and Rotberg's interpretations based on it, comes from the Lindens. They regard Mwase as opposed to Christian missionaries, and speculate that he likened Chilembwe to his own distorted image of John Brown, gained through reading Garveyite literature in the 1930s, rather than from anything his prison informant had told him. They therefore regard his account of the uprising as thoroughly unreliable.[37] They also accuse Rotberg of being too ready to accept Mwase's account, to use it to make Chilembwe's psychology central to the revolt and to ignore the centrality (in their view ) of Chilembwe's millenarian beliefs.[38]