The earliest known examples of the Chewa incorporating images of outsiders
into their masked dances are masks of Portuguese and Arab traders.
Both of whom were deeply involved in slave trading in Malawi,
even before the Colonial era.
Both of these groups were feared in the area,
where the Chewa lived since they would trade for
local slaves, but also march caravans of slaves through the heart of Chewa land.
The Chew depicted Arab merchants and the Portuguese in masks, with frightening,
fierce red faces.
Red is a color that represents danger to the Chewa, and
in the context of the dance, communicated that the Chewa should fear these groups,
and that their activities were a danger to the social lives of Chewa people.
Another historical event immortalized in the Gule Wamkulu was
the 1915 killing of a man named John Chilembwe by British colonial officials.
Chilembwe was a Chewa man, educated by foreign missionaries
who staged an uprising against British colonial officials,
who controlled Malawi at the time.
Chilembwe's uprising failed, and British officials pursued him and
others on horseback as they fled to their home villages.
Chilembwe was killed, and others were executed.
This chase is represented in the dance by a mask called the Chilembwe,
which is shaped like a man on horseback.
During the dance, this mask chases young children and women in the audience,
in a recreation of the aftermath of Chilembwe's fateful revolt.