Rev. Alexander Hetherwick, Blantyre Mission, Malawi, ca.1926

“Dr. Hetherwick.” Portrait of Rev. Hetherwick (1860-1939). A graduate of Aberdeen University, Hetherwick founded the Domasi Mission, situated near Mount Zomba, in 1884. The station was centred on medical work and trained girls in industrial and domestic work. Hetherwick was an accomplished linguist and translated the New Testament in to the Yao language and wrote manuals on the Yao and Nyanja languages. He was also the leader of the Blantyre Mission during the Chilembwe Rising of 1915, when African Christians revolted against colonial rule. The Blantyre Mission itself came under criticism because 84 of the 'rebels' were baptised members of the Mission. Hetherwick gave evidence at a Commission of Inquiry into the rebellion to defend the Mission's educative work. In 1908 he was appointed to represent the 'natives' on the Legislative Council of Nyasaland, a forum whereby missionaries could bring African concerns to the attention of the British rulers. ❧ He was also one of the founders of the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCPA), an ecclesiastically autonomous organisation made up of the congregations that had developed under the auspices of the Blantyre Mission. He retired in 1927 and died in 1939.