Pioneering Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) missionary in Malawi, Zaire, and Zambia.

Son of the first SDA African minister in Malawi, Malinki was one of the first students at Malamulo, the SDA mission station among the Chewa-speaking people. He subsequently taught at the mission and did evangelistic work in the surrounding district. His success led to a transfer to Zaire in 1920. He learned both French and Chiluba and did evangelistic work in the Lubumbashi area for seven years. Returning to Malawi, he established several new SDA community and two stations (at Luwazi and Lunjika). A delegate to the SDA General Conference session in San Francisco in 1930, he inspired delegates with reports of what God was doing in central Africa. After several more years as an evangelist and station director in Malawi, he was transferred to Zambia, where he spent twenty years planting churches and promoting Christian stewardship. On June 2, 1962, the governor of Malawi presented Malinki with a gold medal in the name of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of 45 years of service to his country and the British empire. Malinki had consistently promoted productive methods of farming, and his retirement farm became a model for which he was awarded a progressive farmer citation by President Banda in 1971. Following his example in evangelistic work and church planting, a number of workers from Malawi became successful cross-cultural missionaries in other parts of Africa.

Russell L. Staples

Bibliography

Jaspine D. Bilima, “James Malinki of Malawi: Church Leader in Cross-cultural Ministry. (D.Min. thesis, Andrews Univ., 1933); “Malawi” and “Malinki J. Morrison,” in Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 2d rev. ed. (1996).

This article is reproduced, with permission, from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, copyright © 1998, by Gerald H. Anderson, W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan. All rights reserved.