YOTAM SAIDI BANGO, Nyasaland's Phiedippides:The legend of Nyasaland's emissary who run with a war letter to Tunduru Tanganyika 1915.

According to the statement by Mrs Aida Chilembwe at the Commission of Enquiry for the 1915 Uprising in Blantyre:😕

Her husband summoned a meeting of his close associates a week before 22 Jan 1915. Those who were present at this secret meeting were; John Gray Kufa, Wilson Zimba, Wallace Kampingo, David Kaduya, Daniel Mangulamba, Burnett Kadangwe, Andrack Jamali, Stephen and Andrew Mkulichi, Yotam Bango and Wilfred Ntambo of Chileka who was alive in 1968 and confirmed being present at this meeting.

At the meeting the plan of the Uprising was discussed.

Information that the Governor, Smith intended to deport Chilembwe before the Uprising was divulged.💥

On 13 Jan 1915, Governor Smith cabled his counterpart in Mauritius to agree the deportation of the the maverick rebel leader Chilembwe to Mauritius before the rebellion.

They Governor in Mauritius sent a favourable answer to have Chilembwe deported to Mauritius.

A member of Chilembwe church who worked in the offices of the Kings African Rifles in Zomba got wind of the information and that Chilembwe's arrest was imminent and that instructions had been sent to attack Mbombwe.🙊

Morris Chikwana a typist at the capital Zomba Govt offices tipped the leaders of the rising that he had typed letters of Chilembwe's deportation to Mauritius and of his arrest.

Chikwana further warned that all Chilembwe letters by post were being censored by the govt.

The outcome of that meeting was to attack the Government first before it attacked.💥💥

..and that no mail was to be sent but runners

It was decided at this meeting that Yotam Saidi Bango was to carry a war rally letter to the Germans in Tanganyika.

Bango was born in 1892 and was about 23 at the time of the Uprising.

He was a fast runner, spoke Yao and Kiswahili and that's why he was chosen for this daunting task.

In the manner of the Greek hero... Pheidippides who run from a battlefield at Marathon, Greece, to Athens in 490 B.C.about 40 miles, bringing news of a Greek victory over the Persians....Bango left Mbombwe for Tunduru,Tanganyika over 800 miles to deliver the War pledge letter.

Saidi Bango was nearly arrested at Liwonde on his way to Tanganyika. 😕

Contrary to the belief that Yotam Bango escaped arrest at Kaporo in Karonga. ..Bango rather used another different route altogether to Tanganyika.

Yotam spoke yao and planned to travel in Yao tribal territory so he travelled through Machinga Mangochi and Fort Maguire to the eastern side of Lake Nyasa then in Portuguese East Africa into Tanganyika.
He arrived in Tunduru where he met with a German official.

He handed the letter which was addressed to Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck the German General fighting the British at Karonga and Northern Rhodesia. 📑

The contents of the letter were highly 'top secret'.

The German official replied and sent back a letter to Chilembwe which was handed to Yotam Bango.

By the time Yotam Bango was travelling back with the German letter dated 15 Feb 1915, he heard that The Uprising was finished... Chilembwe and all the leaders were dead.😔

Governor Smith in Nyasaland was wrong in his earlier assertion that the natives could not travel that far to further the cause of the enemy. 😕

The claim had no validity as Nyasas had been traveling long distances before to search for employment. 😆😆😆

The letter that Bango brought from Tanganyika was finally captured by the Govt and was sent to Zomba.😕

As for Yotam Saidi Bango he was tracked down later to a place called Hillcrest in Pietermariztburg, South Africa 2 years later in 1918. 😕

Yotam Bango had fled Nyasaland at the collapse of the Uprising knowing he was on the list of the most wanted .🙊🙊🙊

In Pietermariztburg, he was working for a British Major, Tomlinson. 😆😆

Yotam Bango was finally extradited to Nyasaland by the South African Govt and was tried for his role in the infamous 1915 Uprising.😞

In March 1919, he was sentenced to 2 years in Prison where he found other remnants of the Uprising at Zomba Maximum Prison notably Wallace Kampingo who was present at the meeting which agreed to send him to Tanganyika.😆😆😆

Bango was released in August 1920.💃💃💃

After working for a year in Blantyre , he retired to Nsanje where he died as a cripple in the late 1920s..spent the last days of his life in the care of the South African General Mission.😞

Ladies and gents tonight ....We raise ...our glasses to Yotam Saidi Bango...the brave lad who travelled over 800miles ..A distance way greater than what the Greek hero Phiedippides covered to rally war support for the Nyasaland Uprising. 👏👏👏🍸🍷🍸🍷