Yohanna Barnaba Abdallah (died 1924) was a clergyman and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

of the Yao people of central Africa.

Life

Abdallah was born in northern

Mozambique Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...

, and was the stepson of Barnaba, a village chief. He was ordained as an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

priest at Likoma Cathedral in 1898. After a brief stint at

Zanzibar Zanzibar (; ; ) is an insular semi-autonomous province which united with Tanganyika in 1964 to form the United Republic of Tanzania. It is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of many small islands ...

, he took up residence at the Unangu station on the east side of

Lake Malawi Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fifth largest fre ...

, eventually spending most of his career there. He was the first priest to be ordained in the

Diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

of Nyasaland. He made a pilgrimage to the

Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...

in 1905. In 1924, Father Abdallah, en route to the coast for a holiday fell seriously ill in Medo, and died, possibly of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

, on 11th Feb 1924. Abdallah was noted as a scholar of the

Greek language Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southern Al ...

and of the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

, but his chief claim to fame is his ''Chikala cha Wayao'', a seminal study of the Yao people and Yao language. It was translated by Meredith Sanderson and published in 1919, and republished in 1973.The Yaos = Chiikala cha Wayao, by Abdallah, Yohanna B; trans: Sanderson, George Meredith. Reprint of the original English and Yao editions issued in 1919 by the Government Printing Office, Zomba, Nyasaland https://archive.org/details/yaoschiikalachaw0000abda

References

* Owen J. M. Kalinga and Cynthia A. Crosby, ''Historical Dictionary of Malawi'', 3rd ed. (Scarecrow Press, 2001, ), p. 1 1924 deaths Mozambican writers Mozambican clergy Mozambican Anglicans Malawian Anglicans 20th-century Anglican priests Year of birth missing {{Mozambique-bio-stub