Mungo Murray Chisuse
Mungo Murray Chisuse was a Nyasaland photographer and one of the earliest documented African studio photographers in the country. He is widely credited as the author of a well-known portrait of John Chilembwe, the Baptist pastor and anti-colonial leader, an image that later informed Chilembwe’s depiction on Malawian banknotes.
Biography
The Blantyre Mission’s superintendent David Clement Scott believed in racial equality and was called a "negrophile" for his outlook. Before 1894, Scott picked seven African men to become deacons they were Harry Kambwiri Matecheta, John Macrae Chipuliko, Thomas Mpeni, James Gray Kamlinje, James Auldearn Mwembe, John Gray Kufa and Chisuse. Scott's aim was to increase the role of Africans in the church's leadership, and one woman was also made a deacon.By the late 1890s Chisuse appears in records connected to mission circles and modern technologies; research notes that as early as 1897 he and fellow Malawian missionary James Gray Kamlinje visited Scotland and learned to ride bicycles, reflecting the transnational networks in which he moved during the colonial period.
Chisuse established himself in Blantyre, advertising his work as an “African photographer, Blantyre, Nyasaland.” Scholars describe him as not only the first known African photographer in Malawi but also “arguably, the finest portrait photographer ever to have worked in the country.”
Alongside photography, later sources recall Chisuse’s musical contributions, noting his standing as Blantyre’s first African organist—an indicator of his wider cultural role in the town’s public life.