Alfred Sharpe - Becomes British Commissioner in Nyasaland

Becomes British Commissioner in Nyasaland

In 1896 Sharpe succeeded Johnston as the British Commissioner in Nyasaland. This was the senior British official post in Central Africa, and had responsibility for enforcing security in the neighbouring BSAC charter territory, North-Eastern Rhodesia, which he had helped establish with the Kazembe and Nsama treaties, among others. Ignoring the terms of the agreement he had signed with Sharpe, in 1897 Mwata Kazembe X refused to cooperate with the newly-arrived BSAC tax collector Blair Watson, refused to let him fly the British flag, and when Watson marched on Mwata Kazembe's capital, defeated his troops.