Alexander Chula

The uncomfortable lessons of the new Fourth Plinth statues

The story of Revd John Chilembwe and John Chorley reveals both the injustice and the beneficence of Empire

Samson Kambalu’s ‘Antelope’, soon to adorn the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. Credit: James O Jenkins 
issue 10 September 2022

The Revd John Chilembwe – whose statue now adorns Trafalgar Square – is notorious for the church service he conducted beneath the severed head of William Jervis Livingstone, a Scottish plantation manager with a reputation for mistreating his workers. The night before, Chilembwe’s followers had broken into his house and chased him from room to room as he tried to fend them off with an unloaded rifle.

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