Page:The Moslem World - Volume 02.djvu/9

 ISLAM IN NYASALAND


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of the signs of the time in which we live is that the Spirit who dwells in the Church of God is giving everywhere a new vision of the fact and the danger of Mohammedanism, and of the supreme duty of the Church to prove her divine mission by being more than conqueror even over Islam, her most stubborn opponent. So it is no wonder that in Nyasaland, the little British protectorate lying round the western and southern shores of Lake Nyasa, we have awakened to the fact that here too we have a very serious Mohammedan problem to face. It has come as a shock to many of us to learn that one out of every ten of the inhabitants of this country is a Moslem, that the faith is everywhere spreading, and one of the most powerful native tribes—the Yaos—has practically adopted it as its religion: and that during the la.st t-en years the number of Moslems who have been converted to Christianity is probably less than fifty, while during the same period quite 50,000 converts from heathendom have accepted the Christian faith in Nyasaland.

Mohammedanism in Nyasaland comes from two sources: the Arabs who come to this country for slaves and ivory and their allies the Yaos. Fifty years ago the Arabs dominated Nyasaland, especially the northern part of it. They settled down in armed stockades, and did as they liked mth the peace-loving inhabitants of the country. To-day one seldom sees an Arab in Nyasaland, but they have left Kotakota and the surrounding district a heritage of Mohammedanism which obstinately resists all the advances of Christian missionaries. The Yaos have a double reason for favouring Mohammedanism. They are the old allies of the slave-raiding Arabs who were all Moslems, and they originally came from near the East coast of Africa where their ancestors had long since accepted Islam. So it has come about that in the northern part of Nyasaland we have a Mohammedan