Instead of local people, workers at Magomero were generally "Anguru", a term employed by Europeans to describe as a number of different Lomwe speaking migrants from the parts of Mozambique east of the Shire Highlands.

[8] In order to ensure that 3,000 to 5,000 workers were available throughout the five to six month long growing season of cotton, the obligations of labour tenants were exploited, wages were withheld or underpaid and violent coercion was used.

Additional labour services were also required in lieu of Hut tax which the owned paid on behalf of tenants.

[12][13] The rebels moved into Magomero in the early evening, while Livingstone and his wife were entertaining some dinner guests.

[12] A third building, occupied by Emily Stanton, Alyce Roach and five children, contained a small cache of weapons and ammunition belonging to the local rifle club.

[12] The insurgents quietly broke into the Livingstone's house and injured him during hand-to-hand fighting, prompting him to take refuge in the bedroom, where his wife attempted to treat his wounds.

[14] Led by Jonathan Chigwinya, the insurgents stormed one of the houses and killed the plantation's stock manager, Robert Ferguson, with a spear as he lay in bed reading a newspaper.

[14][13] Two of the colonists, John Robertson and his wife Charlotte, escaped into the cotton fields and walked 6 miles (9.7 km) to a neighbouring plantation to raise the alarm.