Sir Alfred Sharpe (19 May 1853 – 10 December 1935) was Commissioner and Consul-General for the British Central Africa Protectorate and first Governor of Nyasaland.
He trained as a solicitor but was in turn a planter and a professional hunter before becoming a British colonial administrator. He was commissioner (a de facto governor) of the British Central Africa Protectorate from 1896 until 1907 and Governor of Nyasaland after the protectorate changed its name to Nyasaland in 1907 until his retirement in 1910. He was involved in some of the events which shaped south-Central Africa at the onset of colonialism.
Background and early career Sharpe was born on 19 May 1853 at Lancaster, Lancashire, England to parents Edmund Sharpe and Elizabeth Sharpe. During his childhood his family moved from Lancaster, first to Wales and then to Switzerland and France as his father was a railway engineer, involved in railway construction in those countries. Sharpe was educated at Haileybury and Imperial Service College, near Hertford and trained with a private firm of solicitors, qualifying as a solicitor at age twenty-three. In 1883, he travelled with a cousin to Viti Levu, the largest island of Fiji, to start a sugar plantation. Their plantation venture failed within a year, as the cousins had no experience in tropical agriculture and because sugar prices were low. Sharpe started his administrative career in Fiji with a brief period as an acting stipendiary magistrate there in 1885–1886. He was offered the position of a district officer in Fiji, but he refused and then left for Central Africa.R. B. Boeder, (1979) Sir Alfred Sharpe and The Imposition of Colonial Rule on the Northern Ngoni, The Society of Malawi Journal, Vol. 32, No. 1 pp. 23–24. Sharpe was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS), 1891–1935; RGS Cuthbert Peek Award, 1898; Member of the Council of the RGS, 1913–1917.
Sharpe went to the Shire Highlands, south of Lake Nyasa, in 1887 to hunt elephants and trade in ivory but almost immediately became involved in the war between the African Lakes Company and Arab slave traders, mostly fought around Karonga at the north end of Lake Nyasa. Henry Hamilton Johnston was appointed as British consul to Mozambique and the Interior in early 1889, and was instructed to report on the extent of Portuguese rule in the Zambezi and Shire River valleys, and to prevent local rulers beyond the existing Portuguese jurisdiction from accepting Portuguese protection.J G Pike, (1969). Malawi: A Political and Economic History, London, Pall Mall Press pp.83–4 Both Johnston and his vice-consul, John Buchanan, exceeded their instructions and declared British protectorates, firstly over the Shire Highlands and then over the area west of Lake Nyasa, both in 1889. The British Central Africa protectorate came into existence in 1891 when Johnston's actions were endorsed by the British government.M Newitt, (1995). A History of Mozambique, London, Hurst & Co pp. 346–47. .
The scramble for Katanga In 1890 Sharpe was employed jointly by imperialist Cecil Rhodes and the British Consul in Nyasaland, Harry Johnston, on a mission to Msiri, King of Garanganza (mineral- and game-rich Katanga), which Europeans considered very remote. Rhodes wanted a mineral rights concession for his British South Africa Company (BSAC) and Johnston wanted Msiri to accept a treaty creating a British protectorate over his kingdom. The BSAC had already occupied part of North-Western Rhodesia and this would extend their territory further north. Katanga was known to have copper and was thought to have gold.Alfred Sharpe's Travels in the Northern Province and Katanga. The Northern Rhodesia Journal. Vol III, No.3 (1957) pp. 210–219. This article reproduces Sharpe's letter to Johnston reporting on the Msiri, Kazembe and Nsama expedition.
Only a handful of Europeans had been to Katanga and the Luapula/Lake Mweru region. The first to live there, Frederick Arnot, had taken up residence at Msiri's capital only three years previously. There had been no change to the methods and equipment for mounting an expedition since the explorer David Livingstone's travels twenty years before.
Sharpe reaches Kazembe's Rhodes and Johnston also wanted the same agreements with Mwata Kazembe and Chief Nsama, the other strong chiefs in the area, to the east of Msiri. Sharpe was in competition with Belgian King Leopold II's Congo Free State (CFS) which had already tried sending expeditions to Msiri. Sharpe was successful with Nsama and Mwata Kazembe but the latter was opposed to him going on to do a deal with his enemy, Msiri, and he delayed Sharpe by trickery and encouraged his porters to abscond. Mwata Kazembe's kingdom bordered what had been Msiri's on the other side of the Luapula River; originally that had been Mwata Kazembe's territory as well, but Msiri had usurped it.David Gordon: “Decentralized Despots or Contingent Chiefs: Comparing Colonial Chiefs in Northern Rhodesia and the Belgian Congo.” KwaZulu-Natal History and African Studies Seminar, University of Natal, Durban, 2000.
On to Msiri's Without his retinue, and low on cash and supplies such as cloth and gunpowder traditionally used to open negotiations, Sharpe, with just a couple of servants, eventually arrived at Msiri's court at Bunkeya with the draft treaty, and would not have cut an imposing figure. The explorer Joseph Thomson, also working for BSAC, was supposed to come up from the south and meet him at Msiri's with supplies and goods, but he did not arrive because of a smallpox epidemic in the country in between; Sharpe had to do his best on his own. Msiri and his court could not read English and Sharpe described the treaty favourably; when its real content was revealed to Msiri at the urging of Charles Swan, a British missionary at the court, Msiri, enraged, sent Sharpe away empty-handed. He was not aware he was in a race with the CFS, and left in disgust, blaming Swan.
Returns to Lake Tanganyika On the other hand, Sharpe felt satisfied with the Kazembe and Nsama agreements in his pocket. He wrote to Johnston from Bunkeya on 15 November 1890 saying there was no fear of Msiri giving concessions or treaties to anyone else, and in any case if they sent a well-armed column of perhaps 150 men to Katanga they could take over Msiri's copper and mineral trade without hindrance. On 26 December 1890 he wrote to Johnston again from Lake Tanganyika saying that Msiri would not last long and they could then acquire 'all his country'. Furthermore, he noted that as Kazembe was the rightful owner of Msiri's country, the Kazembe treaty effectively gave them all the 'Lunda country' (by which he included Msiri's territory comprising the south-east of present-day Katanga).
As it turned out, although Sharpe was right on the first point − a small force could take over Msiri's mineral wealth − he was wrong on the next two points. On 18 April 1891 a Belgian expedition arrived led by Paul Le Marinel. He obtained a letter signed by Msiri and witnessed by Swan, that Msiri would accept CFS personnel in his territory.
Later that year a large, well-equipped and well-armed Congo Free State 'pacification' force arrived led by a Canadian mercenary, Captain W. E. Stairs, with orders to take Katanga under its control. On 20 December 1891 the CFS expedition shot Msiri, massacred his people and took possession of the country, which became part of the Congo.
Nyasaland Administration Sharpe was actively engaged in the formation of the British Central Africa Protectorate and played a leading role in the establishment of British rule in the region. In 1891 Johnston appointed Alfred Sharpe as vice-consul on account of his legal training and activity and because, unlike the former vice-consul, he was not a landowner with an estate to run.K Stahl, (2010). Some Notes on the Development of Zomba, The Society of Malawi Journal, Vol. 63, No. 2, p. 43. In 1893, Johnston's title became that of Commissioner, and Sharpe was appointed Deputy Commissioner, taking over as Acting Commissioner in Johnston's absences.J McCracken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859–1966, Woodbridge, James Currey, p. 61. When Johnston left British Central Africa in 1896, Sharpe was at first Acting Commissioner but was confirmed in the post of Commissioner in 1897. In January 1902 he was appointed Commissioner, Commander-in-Chief and Consul-General for the British Central Africa Protectorate. He became the first governor when the territory was renamed the Nyasaland Protectorate in 1907, and left in 1910. During Sharpe's career as a colonial administrator from 1891 to 1910, he helped defeat slave raiders and traders, established rules for the settlement of land claims, and generally laid the administrative groundwork for Nyasaland's early colonial history. He also attempted to develop viable cash crops and to promote the protectorate's agricultural economy, with only limited success. Although he had reasonable relations with the European settlers, he fought against the development of business monopolies and encouraged planters to give better wages and conditions to African workers. His father's railway building in Britain, France and Switzerland encouraged Sharpe to promote and guide the construction of the first railway from Nsanje to Limbe, which opened in 1908. He was also responsible for building Nyasaland's central north–south highway.R. B. Boeder, (1979) Sir Alfred Sharpe and The Imposition of Colonial Rule on the Northern Ngoni, p. 24.
Administration In 1896, Johnston and Sharpe set up a small government Secretariat (administrative office) in Zomba which formed the nucleus of Sharpe's central administration. After Sharpe succeeded as Commissioner, he appointed several legal and technical advisors to strengthen this administration. Johnston had appointed a dozen district officers, called "Collectors of Revenue", and Sharpe increased the number of district officials to 27 in 1897 and 38 in 1905 by providing assistants for the Collectors. He made no attempt to integrate local rulers into the system of local administration, and their existing powers were minimised in favour of direct rule by the district officers.B. Pachai, (1971). The Story of Malawi's Capitals: Old and New: 1891–1969, The Society of Malawi Journal, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 35–36.J McCracken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859–1966, p. 70. Just before his retirement in 1910, Sharpe accepted the settlers’ arguments that the government should not appoint officially recognised Village headmen as intermediaries between villagers and the local district officers, but these were appointed from 1912 onward by his successor as governor.J McCracken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859–1966, p. 72.
The Land Settlement In the third quarter of the 19th century, southern Malawi suffered from warfare and slave raiding, which led to the abandonment of fertile land. Local chiefs sought protection from Europeans who had entered the area from the 1860s onwards by granting them the right to cultivate this vacant land. The African Lakes Company was formed in 1877 to co-operate with the missions in Central Africa by combating the slave trade and introducing legitimate trade. Its local agents claimed to have made treaties or agreements with several chiefs granting the company large amounts of land.B. Pachai, (1978). "Land and Politics in Malawi 1875–1975", Kingston (Ontario), The Limestone Press, pp. 36, 151–7. Three individuals, Eugene Sharrer, John Buchanan and Alexander Low Bruce, the son-in-law of David Livingstone and a director of the African Lakes Company also claimed to have purchased large areas of land, often for trivial quantities of goods, under agreements signed by chiefs who had no understanding of English concepts of land tenure.J McCraken, (2012). A History of Malawi, 1859–1966, Woodbridge, James Currey, pp. 77–78.