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Matthew Patay's
Note of the Month
January 2007
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Map and flag images provided by Graphic Maps
This month's featured note
is from Malawi.
The denomination is 500 Kwacha and the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money
(SCWPM) Number is P-48a.
The note is dated 2001.
(front)
The banknote is reddish pink, tan and blue on multicolored underprint.
Rev. John Chilembwe (circa 1860 - February 3, 1915), Baptist minister and
outspoken critic of colonialism in Nyasaland (now Malawi).
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The following information
was obtained from:
Wikipedia
the online Encyclopedia
Rev. John Chilembwe
Reverend John Chilembwe (1860s – February 3, 1915) was an orthodox Baptist educator and an early figure in resistance to colonialism in Nyasaland, now Malawi. Today John Chilembwe is celebrated as a hero for independence, and John Chilembwe Day is observed annually on January 15 in Malawi.
Chilembwe attended the Church of Scotland mission from around 1890. In 1892 he entered the domestic staff of Joseph Booth, a Baptist missionary. Booth was critical of the Scottish Presbyterian missions in Nyasaland, where Chilembwe had been educated, and he established the Zambezi Industrial Mission. Importantly Booth's teaching focussed on equality, a radical idea in colonial Africa.
In 1897 Chilembwe traveled with Booth to Lynchburg, Virginia, where he attended Virginia Theological College, a small African-American seminary. Here Chilembwe was exposed to the works of John Brown, Booker T. Washington and other abolitionists. In 1900 he returned to Nyasaland as an ordained Baptist minister. Working with the American National Baptist Convention, he founded the Providence Industrial Mission, which developed into seven schools, which by 1912 had 1000 pupils and 800 adult students. He tried to instill the values of hard-work, self-respect and self-help in his community.
In 1913 a famine caused hardship, and people from Mozambique moved to Nyasaland. Chilembwe was upset by the way his parishioners and the refugees were exploited by plantation owners. Workers were denied wages, and beaten. William Jervis Livingstone, a plantation owner, burned down rural churches and schools established by Chilembwe. Chilembwe also was affected by the conscription of local men to fight for Britain in Tanzania against the Germans in World War I, for no immediately foreseeable benefit to Africans. He complained of racism and exploitation.
On January 23, 1915 Chilembwe staged an uprising: he and 200 followers attacked local plantations that they considered to be oppressing African workers. They killed three white plantation staff, including Livingstone, whom they beheaded. Several African workers were also killed, but they did not harm any women. When the uprising failed to gain local support, Chilembwe tried to flee to Mozambique; however he was killed by officials on February 3, 1915. The colonial officials also killed a number of his followers.
Malawi did not gain independence until 1964.
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(back)
The Blantyre branch of the Reserve Bank of Malawi is at left.
The following information
was obtained from:
Reserve Bank of Malawi Website
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE RESERVE BANK OF MALAWI
The Reserve Bank of Malawi was established under an Act of Parliament in July 1964 and started its operations in June, 1965 in Blantyre. It replaced a branch of the Federal Bank of Rhodesia and Nyasaland founded to serve as a central bank of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The federation comprised Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Nyasaland (now Malawi).
At inception, the Bank had total assets amounting to K15.96 million with foreign assets amounting to K15.2 million an equivalent of £8.8 million, representing 18.1 percent of the federal currency which was redeemed in Malawi. By 1981, the year its head office moved to Lilongwe, the Reserve Bank of Malawi had expanded its operations when total assets increased to K230.7 million with foreign assets amounting to K43.9 million.
In April, 1989, the Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM) Act was revised stipulating the Bank’s principal functions which are in the interest of the national economy and are in line with the economic policies of the government. Before the revision of the Act, the Reserve Bank of Malawi reported to the Treasury. The 1989 RBM Act, however, made the Reserve Bank of Malawi independent from government under section 4. With this independence, the Reserve Bank of Malawi has the full mandate to conduct monetary policy whereas fiscal policy issues are the mandate of the Ministry of Finance. The Reserve Bank of Malawi therefore has to ensure that fiscal developments are consistent with monetary developments.
In 1990, the Reserve Bank of Malawi clocked 25 years of its operations with total assets amounting to K1.03 billion and foreign assets accounting for K324.5 million. By the close of 1998, total assets of the Bank registered a high of K18.8 billion with foreign assets amounting to K11.3 billion. The operations of the Bank have therefore expanded during the years more especially with the growth of the financial sector. This necessitated the building of a new and spacious branch office in Blantyre which was officially opened in November, 1998.
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For more information about Malawi visit:
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