Resistance to Anglican missionary Christianity on Likoma Island, Malawi: 1885-1961

Abstract

In this article, I will highlight the response of the African people of Likoma Island in Malawi to the work carried out by English missionaries from 1885 to 1961. The Anglican Church in Malawi originated from the work of the English missionaries from the Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) at Magomero in Southern Malawi in 1861. The arrival of the missionaries on Likoma Island in 1885 led to changes in the way the local population started to define themselves. By using conceptual themes from James C. Scott and Jean and John Comaroff, I shall highlight the resistance and symbolic interaction between the local communities and the Christian missionaries. On the basis of archival and secondary sources, I shall analyse this interaction critically. In the late 1950s, African opposition to the amalgamation of Southern Rhodesia and Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland intensified. In Malawi, on Likoma Island, resistance to European rule in general tended to coincide with some incipient resistance to the authority of the UMCA, in particular to that of the authority of Bishop Frank Thorne.