African Baptist Assembly of Malawi, Inc. African Baptist Assembly of Malawi, Inc. The African Baptist Assembly of Malawi, Inc. is the oldest continuously existing Baptist organization in the Republic of Malawi, with roots in the earliest mission work of Joseph Booth (1892) and is a successor to the Providence Baptist Mission (1900). In 1891, the British government established the Nyasaland Protectorate. In 1964 this land became the independent nation of the Republic of Malawi. The first known Baptist work in Nyasaland/Malawi was by the English Joseph Booth (1851-1932). Booth was responsible for all of the earliest Baptist work, as well as for the entrance of some
Nyasaland labour migration, mainly of men, to Southern Rhodesia and South Africa. The Nyasaland government estimated that 58,000 adult males were working outside Nyasaland in 1935, but the Southern Rhodesian census of 1931 alone recorded 54,000 male Nyasaland Africans there, so it was probably an underestimate. In 1937, it was estimated that over 90,000 adult males were migrant workers: of these a quarter was thought not to have been in touch with their families for more than five years. By 1945 almost 124,000 adult males and almost adult 9,500 females were known to be absent, excluded those not in touch with