Petro Kilekwa (also Chilekwa, late 1860s/early 1870s – 1967) was an African man who, after having been enslaved, became a teacher and later an

Anglican priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

. His autobiography, published in 1937, was titled ''Slave Boy to Priest: The Autobiography of Padre Petro Kilekwa''.

Biography

Kilekwa was born in

Zambia Zambia (), officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central, Southern and East Africa, although it is typically referred to as being in Southern Africa at its most central point. Its neighbours are t ...

, in a Bissa village, in the Mbisa tribe, near

Lake Bangweulu Bangweulu — 'where the water sky meets the sky' — is one of the world's great wetland systems, comprising Lake Bangweulu, the Bangweulu Swamps and the Bangweulu Flats or floodplain.Camerapix: ''Spectrum Guide to Zambia.'' Camerapix Internatio ...

. He was born "Chilekwa"; ''Ki-'', he says in his autobiography, "is a Swahili prefix". He was enslaved in the 1870s as a boy in what he called "the Maviti wars" (the term may point to "any brigand rather than to a specific ethnic group"). His mother was unable to pay his ransom — eight

yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly ...

s of calico cloth—and he was taken to the coast, headed for the Persian Gulf. However, the ship of his enslavers was stopped by the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

; HMS ''Osprey'' took them to

Muscat Muscat ( ar, مَسْقَط, ) is the capital and most populated city in Oman. It is the seat of the Governorate of Muscat. According to the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), the total population of Muscat Governorate was ...

. The group spent a month or so there, but then Kilekwa and another boy, Mambwala, were volunteered to serve on the ''Osprey'' and become seamen. They did odd jobs while the ''Osprey'', looking for slave dhows, sailed throughout the Gulf and up the Euphrates to

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...

(in present-day Iraq). One day, while most of the sailors were on shore in

Bushehr Bushehr, Booshehr or Bushire ( fa, بوشهر ; also romanised as ''Būshehr'', ''Bouchehr'', ''Buschir'' and ''Busehr''), also known as Bandar Bushehr ( fa, ; also romanised as ''Bandar Būshehr'' and ''Bandar-e Būshehr''), previously Antio ...

, Persia, slavers tried to kidnap them but were prevented. They traveled as far as India and went sightseeing in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

. When the ''Osprey'' was to return to England, the two were transferred to HMS ''Bacchante''; they were in Bombay again for the

Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria The Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria was celebrated on 20 and 21 June 1887 to mark the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession on 20 June 1837. It was celebrated with a Thanksgiving Service at Westminster Abbey, and a banquet to which ...

in 1887. Kilekwa then went to Zanzibar, where the

Universities' Mission to Central Africa The Universities' Mission to Central Africa (c.1857 - 1965) was a missionary society established by members of the Anglican Church within the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, and Dublin. It was firmly in the Anglo-Catholic tradition of ...

took care of him. He was baptized and trained as a teacher. He married a woman, Beatrice Muyororo, with a similar background: she had also been enslaved and then set free by the British Navy, and like Kilekwa she converted to Christianity and became a teacher. They taught together near

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 f ...

, where Kilekwa became a deacon and six years later a priest. He was ordained at the end of June 1917, with three others: Leonard Kangati, Lawrence Cisui, and Gilbert Mpalila. By 1949, he was retired, living in Kiungani (in the

Pwani Region Pwani Region (''Mkoa wa Pwani'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The word "''Pwani''" in Swahili means the "''coast''". The regional capital is the town of Kibaha. The Region borders the Tanga Region to the north, M ...

of Tanzania) on "a small holding leased to him by the Government". He died in 1967, in his mid-nineties.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilekwa, Petro 19th-century births 1967 deaths Year of birth uncertain People who wrote slave narratives Zambian Anglicans African slaves 20th-century African-American people