This hefty volume weighs in at almost 700 pages and costs a whopping $185.00 US, £110, or $215.50 CDN, yet it still provides excellent value for undergraduate teaching. John McCracken has introduced and presented a veritable treasure trove of primary source documents drawn from the commission of enquiry charged with investigating the 1915 Chilembwe rising in colonial Malawi (Nyasaland). As George Shepperson (to whom McCracken's book is dedicated) demonstrated sixty years ago, the insurrection planned and led by John Chilembwe, a Protestant minister and founder of the Providence Industrial Mission in Chiradzulu, reflects the complex interplay of economic, social, and political tensions characteristic of early colonialism in Malawi.Footnote ¹ The rising also reveals linkages between that arena of anticolonial struggle and Jim Crow America, where Chilembwe obtained both his theological training and an education in American racism. This book is therefore an ideal teaching tool for those teaching undergraduate students about modern Africa and its diaspora. It is also a useful primary source collection for graduate students and scholars.

McCracken begins with an overview of the rising and he includes brief biographical sketches of its dramatis personae. The bulk of the book consists of testimonies given to the commission of inquiry, the brief of which was to determine the ‘causes’ of the rising and, by inference, recommendations on how to prevent future revolts. McCracken divides witness testimonies into six categories according to the topic and subject position of the witnesses: 1. testimonies speaking to causes and rumours of revolt; 2. Malawian witnesses speaking to general and grievances related to the revolt specifically, and colonial rule generally; 3. testimonies regarding conditions on the Bruce Estate in particular (the epicenter of violence before, during, and after the rising); 4. testimonies related to the impact of Christianity and modernisation on the ‘native mind’; 5. testimony related to areas peripheral to the rebellion, including Zomba, Mlanje, Ncheu, and Midima, and finally; 6. women's testimony (although only one woman testified to the commission, others provided the inquiry with written statements). The report of the commission is included in a final section.

When McCracken began the project, he stated that his intent was to put these papers together primarily as a teaching tool for undergraduate students. Up to then, like many of us, he had relied upon much-tattered personal photocopies of this evidence for the classroom and knew its extraordinary value as primary source documentation. Filtered through and mediated by interpreters, clerks, and of course, the ‘inquiry process’ itself, these testimonies were ideal for teaching students about the critical analysis of primary sources. McCracken warns readers that this evidence must be understood in light of these challenging contexts. When I first read this same evidence 25 years ago at the Malawi National Archives, I did so in the order that the testimonies were filed, chronologically by date of testimony. Part of me wishes that McCracken had kept to this sequence and not grouped testimonies into ‘categories’, thereby imposing his own narrative structure on them. But this critique is a quibble. Students can easily and usefully discuss the editorial motives that structure the volume, and they are free to read the testimonies in sequence since all are dated. Students will also benefit from the historiographical Introduction to the book, as well as those for each section. Useful maps and photographs are also included which provide important spatial and visual context. This book is thus a very useful teaching tool within the budget of most university libraries.

McCracken published his History of Malawi: 1859–1966 only three years before this edited volume and he continued to publish articles, serve as editor for the Journal of Southern African Studies, and correspond with and support colleagues and students until his death in October, 2017.Footnote ² His last publication appears fittingly in the Society of Malawi Journal to which he was a frequent contributor.Footnote ³ The Society of Malawi is housed today at ‘Top Mandala’, an African Lakes Company building in Blantyre which was one of the targets of Chilembwe's forces in 1915. I cannot help but think that the volume under review is an apt penultimate project for John McCracken who insisted that his students listen to these ‘voices’, but be conscious of the problematic contexts in which they spoke. He also reminded us to pay equal attention to the contexts in which we ‘listen’ to those same voices.