Mlozi of Central Africa: The End of the Slaver.
David Stuart-Mogg.
Foreword by Professor George Shepperson, CBE
Central Africana Limited. Blantyre, Malawi & Stamford UK.
pp.xii + 157, 33 illus. ISBN 978 9990814 25-5.
£14.95 (plus postage at cost)
Order direct: david.stuartmogg@btinternet.com
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Reviews:
In the story of slavery and empire-building in Central Africa, Mlozi’s life is by no means insignificant. One must, therefore, be very grateful to David Stuart-Mogg for producing this substantial and not unsympathetic study of a complex figure.
Professor Emeritus George Shepperson, CBE. University of Edinburgh.
Well-researched, David Stuart-Mogg’s study of the 19th century slave-trader Mlozi bin Kazbadema is an important contribution to our understanding of the early history of the Nyasaland Protectorate besides offering insights into the motives and actions of such political luminaries as Lugard and Johnston. The study gives a sympathetic portrayal of Mlozi, his relations with the Ngonde and his role within the wider political economy of the region.
Professor Emeritus Brian Morris, University of London.
Drawing skilfully on a wide range of source material, the author has crafted for us a fascinating, highly readable and copiously illustrated account of an intriguing and important character in the early history of Malawi.
Professor Emeritus Colin Baker, MBE. University of Glamorgan, Wales.
This is a genuinely pioneering work, one from which all students of Malawi’s tangled history can learn.
Professor John McCracken, formerly Professor of History, University of Malawi; Past President, African Studies Association, UK.
‘This biography of the man we know as “Mlozi” must be the first book for more than a hundred years on the “Arab War” and its aftermath. Drawing on oral, archival and published sources it is clearly written, and well illustrated, and sheds new light on an intriguing story. The cast of characters includes Mlozi himself and his Swahili-speaking collaborators and competitors, as well as the representatives of the African Lakes Company and a motley band of volunteers and mercenaries, including Frederick Lugard, later a great African proconsul and peer of the realm, and Alfred Sharpe, later governor of Nyasaland. And then there is the controversial and impetuous Sir Harry Johnston…they all make for a good read.’
Professor Hugh Macmillan, formerly Professor of History, University of Transkei, South Africa, who has also taught at universities in Zambia and Swaziland.
The British liked to promote a historical myth that their acquisition of Central African territories like Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi) occurred as part of a competition between empires. David Stuart-Mogg…set out to try to redress the balance against a purely British viewpoint of the nature of the conflict with Mlozi and his compatriots and also to attempt to find out some of the lingering attitudes to this figure from among his African enemies, including the people among whom he settled, and from his descendants, insofar as they could be identified.
Professor John M. MacKenzie. African Research & Documentation. pp.41/42. No. 113, 2010
David Stuart-Mogg’s book is a challenging, fascinating, multi-layered work examining a dark period in Malawi’s history using the story of the ivory and slave trader Mlozi.
Dr. John Lwanda, MB, ChB, FRCP, PhD. Writer and Social Historian
This is…written with the precision of the surgeon’s knife about the events surrounding the horrors of slavery – one of Africa’s darkest periods. The work is exceptional in its research and quality of writing and comes from a noteworthy historian with a keen analytical mind.
John Catton (editor), Rhino Link: the Journal of the King’s African Rifles & East African Forces Association. Vol. II, No. 14, 2011
