When Dr David Livingstone stepped foot in what is now Malawi, he played his part in the "Struggle for Africa". A flood of missionaries and settlers would flock to this small, land-locked country in Southern Africa for the next hundred years. Some would come to spread the word of God, others would see this as the land of opportunity, where a man could make his fortune.
In There is a lake called Nyassa, Rupert Wilkey brings the sixteen most important men to shape Malawi's history. Some names like Livingstone, Rankin, Mackenzie, Maples, Laws, Stewart and Henderson arrived to spread Christianity through their churches and missions. Some like Buchanan, Bruce, Sharrer and Moir were here to make their fortune. Others like Young, Rhodes, Thornton, Johnston and Sharpe found their lives complicated by the actions of others. This book shows how intertwined many of these early sixteen men were, either to each other or that the actions of one had impacted on the life and indeed the death of another, sometimes decades later. There was intrigue, theft, lies, cover-ups, deception and even murder.
In Malawi, even today, many of the names of these people are still visible on roads, buildings and schools, yet many of us don't know who they were or what they contributed to warrant being immortalised around the country. Some, like Mackenzie and Thornton, gave their own lives for the good and safety of the people. Others like Buchanan and Sharrer used this new emerging country to create great wealth for themselves and their actions are still felt today in modern Malawi. Indeed, their actions ultimately brought about the 1915 uprising, leading to Malawi gaining independence from Britain in 1964.
The reader will be left to decide who the saints or villains were and what their contribution was.
