Daniel Sharpe Malekebu

Daniel Sharpe Malekebu (March 1, 1889 – October 8, 1978) was a doctor, Baptist missionary, and anti-colonial activist native to Nyasaland (modern Malawi). Malekebu was one of the first students of the Providence Industrial Mission founded by anti-colonial activist John Chilembwe. At the young age of fifteen, Malekebu ran away from home to seek higher education in the United States. In 1945, Malekebu founded and served as President of the National Baptist Assembly of Africa, a unified organization of Baptist officials from Nyasaland, Mozambique, Northern Rhodesia (modern Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (modern Zimbabwe), and South Africa. He was born to Lisoka Chambo and Malika Malekebu, a powerful Yao chief. After John Chilembwe founded the Providence Industrial Mission in 1900, Malekebu became one of the mission's first students and converts.

1905–1921: Education in the United States After Delaney returned to the United States in 1905, Malekebu decided to follow her against the will of his parents with hopes to seek a higher education. He ran away from home and walked about 400 miles to the port city of Beira, Mozambique. From 1918 to 1919, Malekebu studied theology at the Moody Bible Institute and served as an assistant minister at the Olivet Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois.

On March 26, 1919, Malekebu married Flora Ethelwyn Zeto. Zeto, an immigrant from the Congo Free State (modern Democratic Republic of the Congo), was the adopted daughter of African American missionary Clara Ann Howard and a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. From 1919 to 1921, Malekebu and Zeto travelled throughout the South, continuing Malekebu's popular lecture series. In a 1962 letter to Hastings Banda, Malekebu recalled that he was not permitted to enter because the government believed he would become "another John Chilembwe." As a result of his leadership in the CDNA, Malekebu was appointed as a member of the Chiradzulu District Council in the early 1930s. District Councils were the only recognized links between native associations and state governments, meaning that all recommendations from native associations were required to pass through their local District Councils before reaching their state governments. Thus, Malekebu's appointment to his local District Council significantly increased his political influence.

While the CDNA found limited success with its recommendations to the government, it represented an important challenge to colonial rule. Furthermore, the CDNA succeeded in strengthening the relationships between native leaders throughout Nyasaland. In fact, the CDNA collaborated closely with fellow native associations throughout Nyasaland, even planning for eventual unification into a single organization. After five years of operation, the CDNA disintegrated in 1934 due to new government restrictions.

1938–1950: The National Baptist Assembly of Africa After leaving Nyasaland in 1938, Malekebu and Zeto spent six years in the United States on medical leave. As of 2021, its president is Reverend McFord Chipuliko.

Malekebu also set an academic and professional precedent for Hastings Banda, the first Prime Minister and President of Malawi. Banda himself maintained that he "had always looked up to Malekebu for guidance in his career". Banda became the second Malawian medical graduate after Malekebu when he too graduated from Malekebu's alma mater of Meharry Medical College in the early months of 1937. Much like Malekebu, Banda took a primary interest in education, evident in his founding of the Kamuzu Academy in 1975.

Banda also maintained that Malekebu had "disappointed" him with his apolitical stance on the unification of Nyasaland, Northern Rhodesia, and Southern Rhodesia into the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953. In the 1950s, Banda and other leaders of the Nyasaland African Congress assumed that Malekebu's PIM would join the Congress in its Anti-Federation Campaign. But even after the Nyasaland Emergency of 1959, the PIM deliberately remained neutral on the issue of federation. "Where was he when others were fighting for independence?" Banda once asked in reference to Malekebu.