Chilembwe Uprising

Date: January 23, 1915 • Location: Chiradzulu District, Malawi

This milestone marked the outbreak and beginning of this historic period, which spanned 1915.

Rebels led by John Chilembwe attacked local plantation owners, beginning an uprising regarded as a key moment in the history of Malawi.

John Chilembwe was a Baptist pastor, educator and revolutionary from Nyasaland who trained as a minister in the United States, returning to Nyasaland in 1901. He was an early figure in the resistance to colonialism in Nyasaland, opposing both the treatment of Africans working in agriculture on European-owned plantations and the colonial government's failure to promote the social and political advancement of Africans. Soon after the outbreak of the First World War, Chilembwe organised an unsuccessful armed uprising against colonial rule, and was killed shortly thereafter by colonial forces. Today, Chilembwe is celebrated as a hero of independence in some African countries, and John Chilembwe Day is observed annually on 15 January in Malawi.