Malawi Conference
Brief History of the Late Reverend Hanock Msokera Phiri from the Family's Records
The following is a summary of late Rev Hanock Msokera Phiri’s history from the books which were manually written by himself. Some summaries can also be read from a book titled “ Banda’’ - Dr Kamuzu Banda – by Philip Short 1964 and “Brief Educational History of Malawi” by Kelvin Banda .Some letters which were written between Rev Hanock Phiri and Dr Kamuzu Banda are with the family. This summary has been compiled by Billy Hannock Msokera, first son and Hannock Hannock Msokera, second born son.
February, 2007
REVEREND HANOCK MSOKERA PHIRI - 1884 - 1972
Rev. Hanock Msokera Phiri was born at Linga Headquarters of the Mwase dynasty of Kasungu. The date of his birth was in 1884. He was the son of Kaning’a who was a brother of Mwase and his mother was the sister of Chief Kasakula in Ntchisi District in Malawi. 31st December, 1895 the war of the Europeans came to Kasungu. This war came about because of the misunderstanding of the traditional leaders and the white missionary schools educational policies and resistance to accept change by the coming of the whites. It was not a national but more of a district war. 1897 the first mission school started in Mwase’s area at Linga Village and Rev. Hanock Msokera Phiri was one of the first pupils to start schooling. They were taught in vernacular language, Chewa. In November, 1899 Rev. Hanock Msokera Phiri was appointed Assistant Teacher together with others who were bright in class. He was receiving 8d (eight Pence) a month. They had to go to Bandawe, about 400 Kilometers away from Kasungu, to receive their salaries after every three months. Rev. Hannock Msokera Phiri together with his Assistant Teachers were later sent to Bandawe for further training for six months. Early 1900 a decision to change the mission school at Kasungu from the hands of the Livingstonia mission to Dutch Reformed Church mission was made. In July, 1900 Rev. Hannock Msokera Phiri together with others were appointed to go to Mvera, the headquaters of the Dutch Reformed Church Mission, for further teacher training.
In 1901 the Dutch Reformed Church mission school was returned to the Livingstonia Mission. In the same year, 1901, there was Small pox epidemic in Mwase’s Village which resulted into closure of the mission school. Rev. Hanock M. Phiri and other Teachers were sent to teach at Fort Alston at Chipwaila where there was a Boma (district administration headquarters) for Kasungu. They taught there for one year and were moved again to teach at Kamchocho at Kasungu Chipala after the epidemic occurred at Fort Alston. They had a salary increase from 8d to 2/6d (two British Shillings and six Pence) a month. Towards the end of 1901 Rev. Hanock M. Phiri was among the Teachers chosen to go for a higher education at Khondowe (Overton Institute)
In 1902 he was teaching in standard two. In 1903 Rev. Hannock M Phiri together with others left for Khondowe (Overton Institute) to undergo a training in English which was taught by a Tonga Teacher. By this year Rev Hannock M Phiri was in standard two. He stayed there for four years and he received his full Christian membership by Rev. Printice. In 1907 Rev. Hanock M Phiri passed his standad six examination and came back home the same year. 19th January, 1908 Rev. Hanock Phiri got married. He went back to Khondowe after marriage to study in Standard EX-6 in which class were studying Educational Theology. It was a two year course, taught by an American Negro. In 1910 he left Khondowe for Kasungu for good. In the same year his ambition to go to America and get some education at Booker Washington’s Institute came through his Teacher at Khondowe. According to Rev Hannock Phiri all what was required was that one should find means to go there. He thought of this time and time again, thinking how he could go to America while teaching at Kasungu. In 1912 while teaching at Chilanga mission school he taught Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda in standard two and three and Rev. Cullen Young took over in standard four. In 1914 disagreements grew between Dr. Hastings K. Banda and his white Teacher, Rev. Cullen Young, and he stopped schooling. He left for Southern Rhodesia to seek employment. In 1916 on 16th June Rev. Hanock Msokera Phiri followed Dr. Hastings K. Banda and found him at Hartley District where he started working with Gazema Mining Company.
On 2nd January, 1917 Rev. Hanock Msokera Phiri and Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda left Hartley for South Africa because of hard working conditions at Gazema mine. They reached Natal where they enlisted themselves under a labour organization for twelve months. The work was very difficult and wages low and with strict rules, like any labourer who could be found with a knife could be sentenced to five years imprisonment with hard labour. They worked under these conditions for three months and run away during the fourth month for Charlestown in Natal along the border with Transvaal. They had no passports and so decided to spend the night on the Natal side as the Boers were troublesome about passes in Transvaal. In Charlestown, they went to look for a sleeping place in a Tea-Room. There they found an old European by the name of Mac Arthur, a Scotsman, and after greeting him in English he asked where they had come from and they told him Nyasaland. Upon this response he took them to his house carrying Rev. Hannock Msokera Phiri’s suitcase. There they were provided with plenty food. He then told them that he had invited them because of the English they spoke, saying that their pronunciation and accent were those of pure black Scotsmen. He then asked why they were found in Natal, and they told him they were looking for educational opportunities so that after education they could go back to help their people in Nyasaland. He asked Rev. Hanock M Phiri where he had been educated and he replied at Overton Institute, North East of Nyasaland and again he asked if he knew Dr. David Livingston and he told him they had been educated in Livingstonia Schools. He was really surprised because Dr. Livingston was his personal friend and they grew up together in the city of Blantyre in Scotland. So he said, since they wanted to be educated, he would take charge of them and see to it that they were educated. He said he was prepared to send them to Rome if they were interested. Then he said he would rather send them to America, saying he had a friend who was responsible for taking passengers from Durban to America in a ship. Mac Arthur then said he would contact his friend and see to it that they were taken to New York, where they would be introduced to a Negro Church which would give them free education. After three days, he took them to the Transvaal side. There they learnt from a notice board that a lot of British steamers had been sunk by the Germans and that in one of these steamers there had been a Teacher from Khondowe in Nyasaland who had also drowned. Upon hearing this news, Mac Arthur was very sorry because according to him this was a sign that God did not allow that they should go to school in America. So, Mac Arthur said he would pray for them. He prayed and after kneeling down for several minutes he stopped and told them that God had answered his prayer and had said that one of them would complete his studies at high institutions and would then come back to help his country, and that the other one would have a good job which would be beneficial to other people. Mac Arthur then said they should now go wherever they wished to go. They said they wished to go to Johannesburg. They departed on Thursday and Mac Arthur escorted them at the passport office, he bought tickets for them and also bread, meat, jam and butter. He gave them 5/- (Five British Shillings ) each and also two shirts each. He also bought a hat for Kamuzu and said, “Go in peace, we shall meet in heaven, and His promise would come true for each one of you.” Thus they left Mac Arthur and then found jobs at Wit Deep Mine. Kamuzu had a job in the time office, while Rev. Hanock Msokera Phiri was a Mine Captain underground. Rev. Hanock M Phiri was not staying well under the mine and he decided to leave and told Kamuzu to stay, advising him to be on the look out for a church of American Negroes. He told Kamuzu to tell him as soon as he had found such a church. Then Rev. Hanock Msokera Phiri went to Southern Rhodesia where he had a job at a mine. He worked in a Time office where he counted tickets. Then he left again and went to Livingstone in Zambia where he joined the teaching profession again. For two months he was at Livingstone.
He received letters from Kamuzu telling him that he had found the church of American Negroes and that they were willing to train Hanock Msokera Phiri as a Pastor. Kamuzu also sent him Four Pounds Sterling with which he was able to go back to Wit Deep in Johannesburg. The African Methodist Church received Hanock Msokera Phiri and he stayed with them very well for one year. The church was at Box Bag location under Presiding Elder Dr. Tantsi. In 1923 there was a big meeting of the church in South Africa. Kamuzu Banda and Hanock Msokera Phiri went there and they were well received. They introduced them as Nyasalanders who had come to join the A. M. E. Church. It was Dr. Francis Mac Donald Gaw who received them, a very educated American Negro from SeirraLeone. He then led them to Bishop Vernon who asked them what their plans were. They told him they had come all the way from Nyasaland – 30 days footing journey – and that they had one intention, to be educated. Bishop Vernon then said they would take Kamuzu Banda to America where he would be educated. Hanock Msokera Phiri was put in a Theological School. The course lasted for one and half years and at the end of the course he qualified as a Pastor and was ordained in the A.M.E. Church by Bishop Vernon in the Orange Free State, that was in Bloemfontein in South Africa in 1924. He returned home , but he had to go back to Orange Free State to attend a church meeting, and he immediately started a Church at his father’s village Kaning’a and later transferred it to Linga Headquarters at Mdabwi where it is to this day.
In 1925 Bishop Gregg came and asked Hanock Phiri and Kamuzu how much they had saved and they told him Ninety Eight British Pound Sterling and the Bishop said it was enough for his transport because he was a school boy. He would be issued a concession ticket for traveling. So, Kamuzu went to America with Bishop Gregg in July after the church meeting. He was advised to study Education, Philosophy and Medicine by Rev. Hanock Msokera Phiri. In August, 1926 Rev. Hanock Msokera Phiri started his school named Mdabwi, a few miles Northwest of Chilanga Mission, overlooking Kasungu Mountain. Hannock Msokera Phiri had shown a dislike of some of the activities of the mission at Chilanga when it was placed under the Dutch at Mvera like teaching in vernacular language, Chewa. When the Mdabwi school started one of the subjects taught was English. The fact that English was being taught at Mdabwi school was enough reason for many pupils to leave Chilanga for the new school. The missionary in charge at Chilanga made strong representation to the District Commissioner at Kasungu, complaining that the Rev. Hanock Msokera Phiri was stealing their pupils. Even though the District Commissioner went to see Rev. Hanock Phiri about this fact their was nothing he could have done as he was told that pupils join his school of their own accord. In fact this was what the founders of this school, Rev. Hannock Phiri and Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda, wanted. This new mission school was deliberately built near Chilanga Mission under the Dutch at Mvera. The founders of Mdabwi aimed at establishing an institution that would fully cater for all the interests of the Africans at Kasungu.
Rev. Msokera Phiri soon extended his missionary and educational work to other parts of the country. He opened schools at Kabapha, Chakhala, Wimbe and Chisemphere in Kasungu District. He opened a sub station at Bwanje in Ntcheu District. He organized his congregation at Mjinge and Mabulabo in Mzimba District. In Zomba District he had a congregation and an elementary school at Jali. Mdabwi had become an important centre not only for Kasungu, but also other Districts in Malawi and in the neighboring Zambia. Rev. Phiri had traveled long distances to establish his schools and congregation. In the course of his education and work Rev. Phiri came into close touch with other church leaders with similar aspirations. He became friends with Rev. Charles Chidongo Chinula of Mzimba District who had also broken away from the Livingstonia Mission to form his own church called “Sazu Home Mission” and Dr. Daniel Malikebu of Providence Industrial Mission (PIM) in Chiladzulo District. Rev. Phiri’s family photo album has a copy of a photograph of Rev. Phiri and Dr. Daniel Malikebu seating together. The Rev. Hanock Msokera Phiri was an energetic man besides being very intelligent. He was full of adventure. By the time he was old the influence of his missionery work had been felt throughout the country and in some parts of Zambia. Admittedly he was an influential evangelist and an educationist of considerable experience. In 1925 – 1929 Fort Jameson (Chipata in Zambia), Livingstone and on the Copper belt mines at Kasama, Abercorn, up to Belgian Congo AME Churches and schools were opened by Rev. Hanock Phiri.
In 1930 Ndola AME Church was started
In 1933 Kawamba AME Church was opened
In 1934 Dr. Kamuzu Banda while at Mihary Medical college wrote to Rev. Hanock Phiri.
In 1935 He founded the last church at Mwinilunga and also Kasachi in the Solowezi District. Today all these places have their own ministers.
In 1936 Rev. Hanock Phiri was much involved in church ministries.
In 1955 He married a woman of Tumbuka Tribe in Mzimba who got introduced to him by Rev. Charles Chidongo Chinula. This was after sixteen years of the death of the first wife. In 1960 – 1967 by the time Rev. Phiri retired as a clegy man this country had become independent under the dynamic leadership of the man as his product, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda. After retiring Rev. Phiri took up a course at Mpemba to train as Court President. After this training he was appointed President of the Kasungu Traditional Court until old age forced him to retire from the Civil Service.
Rev. Hanock Msokera Phiri was a sober man and he was nonsmoker. In his old age Rev. Phiri spent most of his time talking about his work in Malawi and Zambia. When everyone new that he had become so old that he would not travel long distance Rev. Phiri wanted to make the last visit to Zambia and many of his stations. His last dreams were not realized for on the early morning hours of 1st January, 1972 he passed away. He was buried on 2nd January, 1972 a few yards from his Mdabwi Mission. The people of Kasungu came in hundreds to pay their last respect to this great evangelist and educationist. Mdabwi central station was developing fast. There are very good teachers’ houses and classroom blocks which were then built. By its own standard then the church was very beautiful. Due to the mission’s limited funds other schools of the mission have been taken over by a different Diocese like Kabapha is now under the Roman Catholic Diocese. In 1972, under the suggestion of Ngwazi Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda Mdabwi school changed to “Hanock Msokera School” for memorial purposes. Rev Hannock Msokera Phiri deserves credit for the pioneering spirit he had. His name in the history of Education in Malawi will forever be remembered. He left five sons, three daughters and a wife.
His wife is living in her old age now.
THE END