Universities' Mission to Central Africa

[1] Founded in response to a plea by David Livingstone, the society established the mission stations that grew to be the bishoprics of Zanzibar and Nyasaland (later Malawi), and pioneered the training of black African priests.

[7] The mission then withdrew from the area, abandoning the graves of the missionaries who had died there,[8] and, though it established a new presence in Zanzibar, many years passed before it returned to Malawi.

Here they enjoyed much greater success, receiving a cordial welcome from the island's Arab and African residents, and establishing a number of operations, including a mission school,[5] St Andrew's at Kiungani.

[10] The mission's early work in Zanzibar substantially involved caring for and schooling children rescued from slavery,[11] and establishing a settlement - Mbweni, founded 1871 - for these released slaves to live in.

[20] He oversaw the establishment on Likoma Island, in the lake, of a mission station, and then of an entire new diocese with its own bishop and its own cathedral,[21] St Peter's, is still standing in the 21st century.

Smythies considered making Majaliwa bishop of the Ruvuma district, but his successors William Moore Richardson and John Edward Hine let the idea die.

It then pursued missionary work in these four areas throughout the first half of the twentieth century, offering medical provision and education as well as religious instruction and services.

[28] Postcolonial historians' analyses of the UMCA have both praised its efforts to raise European humanitarian concern about slavery in East Africa and criticised the paternalistic attitudes toward Africans it continued to perpetuate, especially early in its history.