Eddie is one of the most unique people I have ever met. He is a local from Nkhotakota here in Malawi with a beautiful story of how he came to know the Lord. Currently he is pastoring a church and is heavily involved with Harvestors International Ministries. You see Eddie is a former Muslim. He comes from a family line that has a strong history here in this village of Nkhotakota.
We had the opportunity to get a history lesson from Eddie and this is what our day with him showed me;
Nkhotakota was the official location of the African Slave trade. An Arab man named Jumbe came in and offered fine things such as cloth, rice, grains, etc. for healthy men in the tribes. Jumbe was a business man and made a dwelling here in Malawi. It was the perfect location for the taking away of slaves as it is along Lake Malawi and fairly close to the Indian Ocean which connects to the Middle East. Slaves were brought from as far as the Congo, South Africa, and Zanzibar.
Even though the slave trading was the up front reason Jumbe came, he also brought with him Islam. If you were too ill or weak to be sold as a slave or if a chief wouldn’t trade his people for goods, they were forced to be Muslims. And from there many mosques started to be build in the lands. This is the root of Islam here in Africa. This is where it all started.
In 1890, a Brittish explorer and missionary named David Livingstone (first white man to see Victoria Falls) made a treaty with the tribal chiefs and the ruling Jumbe to stop the slave trade. And so he built the first Christian Church as well in Africa. It was the Anglican Church. This too was the start of Christianity in Africa.
The history runs very deep here in Nkhotakota. The people are about 96% Muslim and you can see that everywhere you go. The people are born into the Muslim faith and there’s no ifs and or buts. But the Christian Church is here.
Like I mentioned earlier, Eddie is a former Muslim. His forefathers come from the Sultan line of Jumbe and so that means that he is part of the high class family. He grew up training in the Koran, and studying abroad to further his education. He is a smart individual and he would make Christians break down and cry all the time when he would engage in an argument with them. He knew what he was doing. He was a devoted Muslim. Then the Holy Spirit changed his life.
Now he is the only one in his family that is a Christian and it’s been that way for about 25 years now. In the mid-eighties he was persecuted heavily for his choice. He was poisoned, house burnt down with him in it, and mocked and ridiculed publicaly numerous times. But because of his bloodline with high class Muslims here, God has spared him time and time again.
Because of Eddie’s place in society here he was able to give us a tour of all the historical places; Anglican Church, Livingstone Tree, the first Mosque, and former historical meeting spots for the slave trade. We were able to meet some significant Muslim elders and ask questions of all sorts so that we could truly understand Islam and the Muslim faith.
