Chichewa was first reduced to writing in the Eastafrican region of Mombasa (present-day Kenya) in the middle of the 19th century. Andrew Goodson, Classics teacher at Kamuzu Academy, decribes the language that missionary Rebmann noted down from the mouth a Malawian (ex-) slave: ‘Salimini’s Chichewa’. Here is a revised version of Goodson’s interesting article (July 2015).