RACHEL LYDIA CHILEMBWE: The niece of John Chilembwe who went to USA and never came back.

The 1904 Blantyre Registrars Offices revealed an entry of a wedding for Rev Landon Cheek and Rachel Lydia Chilembwe, a niece of John Chilembwe dated 13th of June 1904.😟

Landon N. Cheek was an African American Baptist missionary to Nyasaland. Born in Canton, Mississippi. At the age of 28 he volunteered to the National Baptist Convention to go to Africa as a missionary and eventually arrived in Nyasaland in 1901.

He assisted John Chilembwe, founder and head of the Providence Industrial Mission (PIM) in Nyasaland, who later led an uprising against the colonial government. Shortly after arriving, Cheek married Rachel Chilembwe, niece of John Chilembwe, and they had three children during Cheek's term of service.

Cheek and fellow missionary Emma B. Delaney set up an industrial-based education curriculum for the PIM more than 20 years before it was recommended by the Phelps Stokes Commission as the best educational method for Africa.

Colonial pressure, lack of financial support, and health problems led Cheek to return to the United States in 1907 with Rachel Chilembwe.

A descendant of John Chilembwe’s niece {Rachel Chilembwe} (Margaret Durham, Bones of My Ancestors, Earth City, Missouri, 2004) writes about her great dad John Chilembwe, her maternal grand mum Racheal Lydia Chilembwe and Landon Cheek.

Rachel Chilembwe died in 1918 in USA,,, 3 years after she heard her uncle was killed in an Uprising which was reported in Baptist Papers in USA. Rachel left behind a daughter,Emily, Landon JR and a little baby boy.

Margaret Durham is a grand daughter of Emily the daugher of Rachel Chilembwe.

Margaret Durham talks about how her grand mum talked to her that they were Yao from Nyasaland since she was 8 and how her great grand father staged an Uprising against the Europeans.

Margaret shares her book with her older son, John Chilembwe Hargreaves aka John Chilembwe III.

Margaret is a lecturer who shares her heritage with her black students in USA about her radical grandfather from Nyasaland.

(In the pic: Rachel Chilembwe, Rev Landon Cheek, her daughter Emily and son Landon Jr.)

While John Chilembwe Jr aka 'Charlie' died in Blantyre in 1971,,, John Chilembwe Hargreaves aka John Chilembwe III, the son of Margaret Durham still lingers on in USA.

Ladies and Gentlemen ,,,this evening we raise our glasses ...to John Chilembwe Hargreaves ....Chilembwe the 3rd