Requested Aylmer May Gravestones

Barend Jacobus Van Biljon  1897 - 1953

Anna Magdalena Van Biljon nee Bekker 1902 - 1961

These are stones I've been asked to post from the Aylmer May Cemetery names I posted earlier.

I hope you find what you're looking for!

Liga de Beer (1959), Sheila Shirley Leyer (1958 - 2000)

Van Lourens Johannes De Beer 1912 - 1946

Hendrik Burnadis Voss d. 16th Oct 1956 aged 38

Posting this because I can't read it.... R something

I am guessing that this Voss is the one in the one in the Reformed Church Records here, bottom right of this page.

The Search for Patrick Kerr Dixon's family

The Times Newspaper obituary in 1955

This is just a quick post to mention an interesting contact received this week from the archive development officer for the Belfast Charitable Society linked to Clifton House, Belfast.

Clifton House recently uncovered a wonderful trove of over 180 letters dating from World War I, written by Lt Patrick Kerr Dixon, later Dr Dixon FRCSI (Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland).

Dixon spent time in the Belgian Congo with the Garenganze Evangelical Mission and later worked for many years in Zambia at Chibambo, Mbereshi, and Lusaka.

He was a friend of Charles Fisher and the book 'Nswana' records that Fisher hoped to travel up the Nile to Palestine with Patrick 'a surgeon from Dublin whose mission hospital at Chibambo was many miles further south [from Kalene Hill] on the Luapula River. They gave up these plans when Patrick was called suddenly to another hospital vacant on account of a serious scandal, and Charles also received disturbing news of his father's increasing ill-health'.  Monica and Charles visited Dixon a few days after they were married.

We are told that the population at Chibambo provided plenty of patients for the hospital where Dixon operated and that he was 'the first doctor in Northern Rhodesia to recognize the cause of the very high incidence of blindness among the children in the Luapula Valley, writing a short paper describing the cases he'd seen.'  He also wrote a handbook for medical assistants, used in missions on the Congo side of the Luapula river.

Dixon's first marriage was to Olive Arther, fom Dublin. 'Nswana' records Olive died in childbirth. Dixon was conducting the delivery himself as no one else was available.

In 1934 he married Isabella H. Russell, of Mbereshi Mission, and had a daughter from his second marriage.

In 1953 he went to work at the African Medical Hospital in Lusaka as a surgeon, and taught at the African Medical School.

He died on April 21, 1955 and was buried at Aylmer May Cemetery, although their website register misrecords his name as Dion and his middle initial as R. They have his burial date as the 23rd of April.

I was pleased to be able to find his gravestone amongst my photos.

Patrick Kerr Dixon

1898 - 1955

I believe that the memorial reads "Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it", which is Matthew 16 verse 25.

Can you help find Patrick Dixon's descendants? If so, please contact the Belfast Charitable Society archivist - the email address is archive@cliftonbelfast.org.uk.

The Reckoning - Colin Morris

I first came to know about Colin Morris when he interviewed my father for a BBC programme in 1993. I wasn't in Zambia at the time, and was lying half-awake in the small hours of the morning listening to the world service on my earphones, so it was a bit of a shock when my father's voice was suddenly in my ear. I'm including some excerpts from that radio programme, The Reckoning, in this post.

The programme came in three parts, of about 40 minutes each.  It starts at Lubwa Mission, founded by the Church of Scotland at the turn of the century, near Chinsali. Here Morris reminisces about his time there. He speaks to an aging Noah Chulu, visits the burial site where Dr Brown, David Kaunda and Paul Mushindu are buried. We are told that Mushindu never wore shoes because a missionary once told him to take his shoes off before coming into their house, and he decided then that he would thereafter go barefoot. Mr Moywa shows Morris around the decaying Lubwa hospital. He also speaks to Kenneth Kaunda, graduate of Lubwa school, who laughs about David Brown telling a Roman Catholic priest off for straying into a Church of Scotland area.

Morris was closely associated with Merfyn Temple, who was one of the first people my parents met when they arrived in Zambia in 1967. In fact Merfyn immediately told my parents they should leave, as he intended to do, and as all missionaries should do, he felt. Morris revisits this question in The Reckoning as he returns to Zambia to ask what the impact of missionaries was in Zambia before independence and after.

Here is a selection of recordings from the programmes, including several mentioning the Lumpa Church affair.

Here also is a footnote on Lenshina from Ryszard  Kapuscinski's book 'The Shadow of the Sun'.  According to him, Alice had an old hand-cranked phonograph (where would she have acquired this, I wonder?) and just one worn out record to play on it. This was 'a recording of Winston Churchill's 1940 speech', although he does not make clear which one. Perhaps it was the famous 'We shall fight them on the beaches'. He says that Alice would crank up her phonograph and play this record to her followers. As the record was very scratched and degraded, not much could be made out apart from the emotion and drama. Lenshina explained that this was 'God's voice anointing her his emissary and commanding absolute obeisance.'  This recording was played at the start of each mass, when it would work up the congregation into a state of ecstasy.... And then he suggests that the political leaders were ashamed of such cults, and the fine temple that they had built in the bush was reduced to rubble by tanks.


1 Godfrey Sikazwe talking about Lubwa Mission

2 Merfyn Temple on why missionaries should leave

3 Flexson Muzinga (Livingstone Museum)

4 Jack Kyle

5 Sikota and Arthur Wina

6 Kenneth Kaunda

7 Margaret Senogles on an attack on the Chingola Free Church

8 Lumpa Church (Alice Lenshina)

9 Robert Kaunda on Alice Lenshina

10 Fergus Macpherson on Alice Lenshina


In concluding this thoughts, Morris says 'I received from Africa much more than I gave and learned much more than I taught'. It is interesting to contrast his humility, together with the warmth of Kenneth Kaunda in speaking about him, with Sikota Wina's combative stance in the interview above.

Names in The Reckoning (BBC radio programme)

 Some of the following are mentioned in passing. Others (*) are interviewed.

Baker, Colonel (fired red cartridge, Lumpa)
Brown, Dr David (Lubwa)
Burton, Lillian (assaulted during riots)
Chikani, Frank
Chulu, Noah (Revd)*
Dandala, Mvumi (Methodist, South Africa)
De Jong, Dennis (RC bishop of Ndola)
Dil, Pierre (Revd; Dean of Anglican cathedral at the time) *
Gore-Brown, Stewart
Hannah, John (megaphone, tried to get Lumpa to put down arms) *
Kaunda, David  (one of the founders of Lubwa)
Kaunda, Kenneth *
Kaunda, Robert (elder brother of KK, deacon in Lumpa church)
Kyle, Jack (Irish rugby player) *
Mason, Cedric (Methodist minister)
Mazubere, Crispin (bishop of Methodist Church, Zimbabwe)
Macpherson, Fergus  *
Milingo, Archbishop RC church
Mushindo, Paul b.1895 (graves at Lubwa)
Moywa, Mr. (Clinical officer, Lubwa hospital) *
Mulenga, Alice Lenshina
Musunsa, Doyce
Muzinga, Flexson (Livingstone Museum) *
Mwape, Jackson
Nolan, Albert (Provincial of Dominican order in South Africa)
Ogden, Val (Revd; St Andrew's Church, Ndola) *
Senogles, Howarth (?)
Senogles, Margaret
Sikazwe, John
Sikazwe, Godfrey (Revd, UCZ) *
Siwale, Donald (father of Euwan; his mother hid him in a tree to protect him from Arab slave traders)
Siwale, Euwan
Temple, Merfyn *
Todd, Garfield
Todd, Judith
Whitehead, Dennis (Revd; Livingstone) *
Wilkie, James (Africa secretary, Church of Scotland)*
Wina, Arthur *
Wina, Sikota *

Spark in the stubble - Colin Morris of Zambia

Leslie Charlton's book (Epworth Press, 1969) is focussed on the independence struggle and the early years afterwards, and tells us about Morris and his influence at that time from the pulpit of the Methodist Chingola Free Church, and during his brief political career. The title is taken from a verse in the book of Wisdom: "In the time of their visitation, they shall shine and run to and fro like sparks in the stubble".  Apt.

Morris had arrived in Zambia in 1956, when the independence movement was taking off. At Oxford University he had met African political activists, and had already formed strong opinions before he arrived in South Africa, as we are told, clutching Trevor Huddleston's banned book, "Naught for your comfort". But his preconceptions were quickly shattered as he found most of the white people he associated with moderate and reasonable. It was some time before his anger was reawakened by inequalities in treatment of African miners and he fully committed to a political stand on the need for independence.

'Turbulent priests': Michael Scott, Colin Morris and Merfyn Temple

Morris seems to have picked up many nicknames that highlight his influence at the time: "the fighting parson", "Rhodesia's Trevor Huddleston",  "the turbulent priest", "the best hated man in central Africa". We are left in no doubt of his commitment to the cause of African self government, although he stopped short of standing for UNIP (which Kenneth Kaunda offered to him), as he alternately emptied and filled his church, dealt with hecklers and fended off attacks on the church itself.

The book includes a good account of the Lenshina uprising, including a personal account from Revd Paul Mushindo on the birth of the Lumpa sect.  He says:

It was on 18th September 1953. Alice Lenshina Mulenga Lubusha of Kasomo Village, Chief Nkula's area, gave birth to a child and became fainted, which shows immorality according to Bemba custom.

The news went abroad that she was dead. In three days time she rose up again. This untrue rumour attracted many people to her. For about two to five days Alice was being treated for her fainting by people who know the African medicine for such occasions. Then she came to Lubwa to look for [me] for advice as to how to rejoin the United Church of Central Africa in Rhodesia.

... being a full church member she had the right to hold church services. But being an illiterate woman she preached what she had been taught.... but with it she emphasized that she rose up from the dead; and God has sent her to save people from their sins.... Then in her preachings she used their superstitions. She said that God had sent her to save people from dying the death caused by buloshi. (witchcraft)

Lumpa 'Passport' with a Chinsali District stamp

Although initially the Lumpa church was not an issue for UNIP, in fact it was 'regarded as a spiritual arm of nationalism', Alice made a political error in telling her people to support the ANC. This, combined with her breaking away to form her own villages without permission and assaults on local people (who also attacked Lumpa members), eventually led to the catastrophic attack on the church. The impressive structure they built (without any European assistance) now lies in ruins.

Morris and other ministers were involved in trying to resolve the issue before the attack took place. Officially, 704 were killed, according to BBC documentary 'The Reckoning'.  Many carried 'passports' promising to turn bullets to water. (See also here for an article by John Hannah, District Officer of the area at the time.)

It is notable also that Colin Morris insists we just don't know whether Alice rose from the dead or not. We must assume it could have happened, he says.

There are many interesting stories in this book, but I will end with a quote about Morris: 'He tore up the rule book and put his foot through the stained-glass windows to let into his church the harsh light of an underprivileged world'. I wonder if the day of the turbulent priests has gone. I would like to think not.

Colin Morris passed away on May 22nd, 2018.  He was awarded the Companion Order of Freedom by Kenneth Kaunda.

Names in the book 'spark in the stubble'

Acheson, Dennis
Barnes, Jonathan (church treasurer)
Barton, Frank
Benson, Arthur (Sir)
Bolink, Peter
Bulawayo, Fines
Burton, Lillian
Castle, Barbara (UK labour party)
Catto, Charles (Revd; Chingola FC; president UCZ)
Chabukasanshya, Clement (RC)
Chembe, Francis
Chitambala, Frank
Clayton, Eric (Bancroft Mine chairman)
Collins, John (Canon)
ffoulkes, Maurice (church secretary)
Fleming, James (mayor)
Foy, Whitfield, Rev (Salisbury, Rhodesia)
Franklin, Harry
Frazer, Donald (Dr)
Frazer, George
Gilchrist, Tom
Gondwe, Alfred
Gray, Douglas, Chipembi Girls School founder, and Chingola Free Church minister
Greenfield, Julian (Salisbury)
Hanna, John (District Officer during Lumpa crisis)
Hess, Ian (editor Central African Examiner)
Hewitt, George (Canon)
Hincks, William
Ibiam, Francis (Sir; Nigerian doctor)
Kapwepwe, Simon
Katilungu, Lawrence
Lehmann, Dorothea
MacCleod (colonial secretary; Lancaster House conference)
Macpherson, F. (Revd)
Magnus, Val (UFP Party; defeated Morris in election)
Mataka, Filemon
Matthews, J.L. (Revd) Len
McKenzie, William (Bill)
Moffat, John (Sir; Central Africa Party)
Mukondo, Samson
Mulenga, Alice Lenshina
Mulford, David
Musakala, G. (Revd)
Mushindo, Paul (Revd)
Musunsa, Doyce (UCZ)
Mutemba, Andrew
Mwape, Jackson (president UCZ)
Nightingale, Edward G. (Revd)
Nkumbula, Harry
Reeves, Ambrose
Rogers, Edward (Revd)
Scott, Alexander (Constitution Party)
Short, Arthur
Soper, Lord
Taylor, John
Temple, Merfyn
Todd, Garfield
Welensky, Roy
Whelan (Justice)
Wilkinson, Oliver Green
Williams, Thomas (Sir)
Wina, Arthur
Wina, Sikota

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz?

I have to love this fellow for trying...

This is a copy of an actual letter received by my mother when she worked in car sales at Star Motors in Lusaka, in the 1970s.

13th April 1977

 Rabson C. Mukoko

Miseshi School

PO Box 2392

Kitwe, Zambia

Dear Sir please Mrs Wendy.

Please send me mercedes-Benz car?

I repeat again send me mercedes Benz

car home delivery scheme. I am

interesting  please trust me

you see    Don't forced (fooled? forget?)

yours faithfully

my name is

R. C. mukoko

Send fast agent please BY AIR 

mail  OK

We spent a long time laughing over this. Thank you Rabson, wherever you are. It seems like he doesn't have an internet presence now.

I wonder whether Rabson had an English lesson in which he decided to write this letter, and whether he discussed it with his classmates at Miseshi School. Perhaps he dreamed of the day that shiny new Mercedes Benz would arrive by airmail outside the school gates. "Rabson Mukoko? Special air mail delivery for you via the car home delivery scheme. Sign here please." Perhaps he waited by the gates for weeks afterwards, watching the Mercedes cars drive by...

Ah, bless.