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Somanje, Paton Gloag

c.1860-c.1920
Presbyterian
Malawi

Paton Somanje was the first baptized Christian in Zomba, the capital of Nyasaland during the British Protectorate, and played a leading role in establishing the first Christian congregation in the town. Its beginnings go back to the decision of the Church of Scotland’s Blantyre Mission to establish its first outstation on the lower slopes of Zomba Mountain in 1879. John Buchanan, the horticulturist on the Mission staff, had experimented with the first coffee plants to be brought to Malawi. Now he was put in charge of the new mission venture at Zomba with the idea that a coffee plantation could be developed. This entailed the recruitment of a large work force, who were invited to attend the weekly Sunday services as well as the school that was set up by Joseph Bismarck, one of the early African leaders at Blantyre Mission. Somanje was another member of the team brought from Blantyre Mission, a Yao who had been among the first students to enroll at the Mission school. [1] Before long he emerged as Buchanan’s right-hand man – clerk and head capitao on the estate, teaching in the school and conducting the church services whenever Buchanan was unavailable. [2]

Buchanan was dismissed by the Church of Scotland in 1881, as part of the reckoning with the violent punishments that had been inflicted at the Blantyre Mission in 1878-79. [3] However, he continued with his work at Zomba on the same lines as before. By 1885 it was reintegrated into the Blantyre Mission under a special arrangement through which it was recognized as the “Muthill Mission,” directly supported by Buchanan’s home parish of Muthill in Perthshire, Scotland. The support from Muthill included provision of a salary for Somanje, now well established as the headteacher at the school. The school ran for two hours each day from Monday to Friday. [4]

Somanje was baptized in Blantyre on June 24, 1887 by David Clement Scott, the Head of the Blantyre Mission. [5] Scott had also officiated at his marriage to Mary Chetusyeje two years earlier. [6] By this time, Somanje had emerged as an outstanding leader in the fledgling Christian congregation in Zomba. A visitor to the mission in 1890 noted that, “The teacher, Somanje, takes great interest in his work.” [7] When a Kirk Session was formed at Zomba, Somanje was one of the first to be ordained as an elder, alongside Henry Kapito and William Kalasana, on August 19, 1900. [8] By this time, some 300 were attending Sunday services and 138 had become communicant members. [9] Somanje was one of the four elders from Zomba and the neighboring congregation of Domasi who were chosen to draw up a letter of congratulation to King Edward on the occasion of His Coronation, a significant occasion in the colonial context. [10]

He also played a leading role at the Blantyre Mission Native Conference of 1901, held as part of the celebration of the Mission’s silver jubilee. The significance of the Conference was explained in the Mission newspaper: “In a country where twenty five years ago the name of Christ was unknown, there have gathered together elders representative of about twelve different churches, not to be instructed as to what their duties as elders are … but to discuss amongst themselves what further steps they might take for the furtherance of Christ’s kingdom.” [11] Somanje, along with Wilson Mwapeta of Blantyre, led the session on “The Education of Christian Children.” [12] It was no surprise in 1908 when the Zomba Kirk Session made him responsible for the children’s services on Sundays. [13]

Somanje was also one of those who spoke in the concluding session of the 1901 Native Conference: “Somanje, representing Domasi and Zomba, spoke of the good resulting from such a conference as they had had. He had seen the help that they as elders could offer to their fellow-villagers, and he knew that many had turned to Christ because their elders had spoken to them and guided them.” [14]

At the spiritual level, he stood out as an exceptional leader among the first generation of African Christians at Blantyre Mission. The Zomba Kirk Session frequently looked to Somanje to spearhead educational initiatives. In 1906, when the Session started a school in Phalombe as a way of reaching out to a new area, it tasked Somanje to make the necessary arrangements. [15] He was a pivotal figure in the beginnings of Christianity in Zomba.

Kenneth R. Ross

Notes:

  1. Gilbert Davison Foster Phiri, “A History of Education in Blantyre Synod (1876-2018),” PhD, Mzuzu University, 2020, 82.
  2. Gilbert Davison Foster Phiri, “A History of Education in Blantyre Synod (1876-2018),” PhD, Mzuzu University, 2020, 53.
  3. See Andrew C. Ross, Blantyre Mission and the Making of Modern Malawi, Blantyre: CLAIM-Kachere, 1996, repr. Mzuzu: Luviri Press, 2018, 69-79.
  4. “Report of the Foreign Mission Committee,” Reports on the Schemes of the Church of Scotland for the Year 1886, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1886, 65-179, at 129.
  5. “Report of the Foreign Mission Committee,” Reports on the Schemes of the Church of Scotland for the Year 1888, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1888, 53-174, at 120.
  6. Harry Kambwiri Matecheta, Blantyre Mission: Stories of its Beginning, ed. by Thokozani Chilembwe and Todd Statham, Mzuzu: Luviri Press, 2020 (trsl. from Harry Kambwiri Matecheta, Blantyre Mission: Nkhani za Ciyambi Cace, Blantyre: Hetherwick Press, 1951), 58.
  7. “Report of the Foreign Mission Committee,” Reports on the Schemes of the Church of Scotland for the Year 1890, Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1890, 49-180, at 137.
  8. Zomba Kirk Session Minutes, 21 August 1900, Malawi National Archives 86/ZOM/3/1/2.
  9. Zomba Kirk Session Minutes, 30 July 1902, Malawi National Archives 86/ZOM/3/1/2.
  10. Zomba Kirk Session Minutes, 30 July 1902, Malawi National Archives 86/ZOM/3/1/2.
  11. Life and Work in British Central Africa, October-December 1901.
  12. “Blantyre Mission Native Conference 1901,” in Kenneth R. Ross (ed), Christianity in Malawi: A Source Book, Mzuzu: Mzuni Press, 2020, 120-26, at 124.
  13. Zomba Kirk Session Minutes, 19 February 1908, Malawi National Archives 86/ZOM/3/1/2.
  14. “Blantyre Mission Native Conference 1901,” in Kenneth R. Ross (ed), Christianity in Malawi: A Source Book, Mzuzu: Mzuni Press, 2020, 120-26, at 126.
  15. Zomba Kirk Session Minutes, 6 February 1906, Malawi National Archives 86/ZOM/3/1/2.

Bibliography

“Blantyre Mission Native Conference 1901.” In Kenneth R. Ross (ed), Christianity in Malawi: A Source Book. Mzuzu: Mzuni Press, 2020, 120-26.

Life and Work in British Central Africa, October-December 1901.

Matecheta, Harry Kambwiri. Blantyre Mission: Stories of its Beginning. Ed. Thokozani Chilembwe and Todd Statham. Mzuzu: Luviri Press, 2020 (transl. from Harry Kambwiri Matecheta, Blantyre Mission: Nkhani za Ciyambi Cace, Blantyre: Hetherwick Press, 1951).

Phiri, Gilbert Davison Foster. “A History of Education in Blantyre Synod (1876-2018).” PhD, Mzuzu University, 2020.

“Report of the Foreign Mission Committee.” Reports on the Schemes of the Church of Scotland for the Year 1886. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1886, 65-179.

“Report of the Foreign Mission Committee.” Reports on the Schemes of the Church of Scotland for the Year 1888. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1888, 53-174.

“Report of the Foreign Mission Committee.” Reports on the Schemes of the Church of Scotland for the Year 1890. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1890, 49-180.

Ross, Andrew C. Blantyre Mission and the Making of Modern Malawi. Blantyre: CLAIM-Kachere, 1996, repr. Mzuzu: Luviri Press, 2018.

Zomba Kirk Session Minutes. Malawi National Archives 86/ZOM/3/1/2.

This article, submitted in May 2025, was researched and written by Kenneth R. Ross, Professor of Theology and Dean of Postgraduate Studies at Zomba Theological University in Malawi.