“He did sermons with the head of his opponents on a pike.” London Mayor Sadiq Khan defended the impending placement of a statue of John Chilembwe, an anti-colonial activist who ordered the decapitation of William Livingstone in front of his children and then displayed his head on a pike, saying it served to “reflect London’s achievements and diversity.” Yes, really. Chilembwe was a Baptist pastor and educator who became a militant resistance fighter who railed against the treatment of Africans working in agriculture on European-owned plantations in Malawi in the early 1900’s. Chilembwe led a violent revolt against the Bruce...
