Christian separatist leader; founder of the Malakite Church.

He was educated by Anglican missionaries but failed their baptismal test twice (1901 & 1904). After working as a school teacher and petty government chief, he helped to found a separatist revival movement in 1914 which emphasized rejection of European medical techniques. The movement developed into a formal church, ‘The Society of the One Almighty God’, or the Malakite Church. His followers were called Bamalaki, or Malakites. By the early 1920s he claimed over 90 000 followers. Eventually the church was suppressed by the colonial government when it opposed a vaccination programme. Malaki himself died in a hunger strike.

Mark R. Lipschutz and R. Kent Rasmussen

Bibliography

Barrett, David B. Schism and renewal in Africa. Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1968.

——–. “Who’s Who of African Independent Church Leaders”, 1971. Risk (Geneva, W.C.C.) 7(3), 23-34.

Welbourne, Frederick B. “Joswa Kate Mugema.” In his East African Rebels, 31-58. London: SCM Press, 1961.

This article is reproduced, with permission, from Dictionary of African Historical Biography, 2nd edition, copyright © 1986, by Mark R. Lipschutz and R. Kent Rasmussen, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, California. All rights reserved.