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<\/a>A Very Pretty Stamp<\/div>\nIn Malawi\u2019s early colonial days, writing a letter and sending it to a loved one set a complicated logistical postal system into motion. \u00a0While the Home Office might design a \u201cbig-picture\u201d strategy for mail delivery, the postal system was at the local level required ingenuity and innovation.<\/p>\n
<\/a>The ‘Big Picture’ Approach<\/div>\nA letter would pass through many hands, like a baton in a relay race.\u00a0 The letter would travel by land and water, and if fortunate, bypass curious hippos and hungry lions.\u00a0 Considering the thousands of miles a letter would travel from Zomba to England, it was a testament to the innovative postal system in Malawi (then Nyasaland) that it ever arrived at all.\u00a0 But letters did arrive and the postal system eventually became a successful and powerful service in Nyasaland.<\/p>\n
<\/a>You had to really want to communicate with someone<\/div>\nCreating an efficient postal service in Nyasaland was a vital priority for Commissioner and Consul-General, Henry (Harry) Johnston who\u00a0 appointed Hugh Charlie Marshall as Postmaster General on his fourth day in Nyasaland in 1891.\u00a0 Before this time, mail was sent down the river to Quelimane in Mozambique and folded into the regular Portuguese postal system, bearing Portuguese stamps.\u00a0 During this period, many letters went missing.\u00a0 While suspicious colonists were ready to blame the Portuguese, it was discovered that the Portuguese were not responsible for the loss of mail.\u00a0 Instead, it was the work of \u201cpugnacious hippos\u201d who overturned canoes.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Hippos really don’t mess around<\/div>\n<\/a>Especially when feeling pugnacious<\/div>\nTo create a self-sufficient Nyasaland postal service, the Postmaster General created a complex and innovative logistical system involving mail runners, canoes, and steamer ships .\u00a0 With a Postmaster General, Nyasaland could finally issue its own stamps, which were sent in bulk from England.\u00a0 Stamp shortages were common and in one instance an entire shipment of stamps went missing.\u00a0 Assuming that they were stolen, the Postmaster General was instructed to personally initial the back of each legitimate stamp.\u00a0 Hoping to avoid initialing at least 30,000 stamps by hand, he recommended switching to a system of secret markings, a method that remained in place long after his tenure.\u00a0 A year after disappearing, the missing stamp shipment was found in a warehouse on the banks of the Zambezi where it had been mistakenly offloaded.<\/p>\n
<\/a>Whoops.<\/div>\nThe backbone of the postal structure was a system of runners who would carry mail bags great distances across the width and breadth of the country.\u00a0 The job was a coveted one and mail runners were well paid, well respected, and trusted.\u00a0 Runners were selected from all different tribes and regions and often displayed astounding endurance and bravery. Their red and white uniform consisted of long coats, knickers, and a fez, as well as standard issue Snider rifles and a lantern.\u00a0 They preferred to be barefoot and often carried the mail bags on their heads or shoulders.<\/p>\n
Runners were remarkably fast.\u00a0 It took seven days for a letter to travel from Chiromo to Fort Johnston and only two days for a letter to reach Mulanje from Blantyre.\u00a0 By 1899, they were covering 10,000 miles in a single month and continued to transport mail even as late as 1937, when the postal service introduced the use of bicycles.<\/p>\n
While runners were extremely effective, the postal system faced many challenges from the local wildlife.\u00a0 When the system was first introduced, \u201cthe old settlers were convinced [that] the mail carriers would be eaten by lions.\u201d\u00a0 To protect their employees, the post office issued rifles and lanterns.\u00a0 Post Master General Ernest Harrhy wrote in 1894 that \u201ctwo carriers carrying mail bags between Mpimbi and Zomba were confronted by several lions.\u00a0 Deeming discretion to be the better part of valour, they sought safety in the high branches of a friendly tree, and waited until their leonine majesties condescended to move on to pastures new.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Postmaster General Gosling wrote in 1903 that \u201ccases have occurred where the mail men have been driven to take refuge in a tree, and leave the bags at the foot to be smelled and pawed and discarded as inedible by disappointed beasts of prey, and mails have sometimes been delayed on that account.\u201d\u00a0 He also noted that leopards were a more common annoyance than lions.\u00a0 Other wildlife proved challenging as well.\u00a0 When runners were finally replaced by a lorry, elephants would\u00a0 routinely knock it over.<\/p>\n