Mandala House is a historic site located in Blantyre, Malawi. The building was formerly a residence built in 1882 by the African Lakes Corporation for their managers. The house is built in the colonial style and is wrapped by an encasing veranda. The site includes a garden on the property, and currently is a managed historical site that is home to the "Mandala Cafe", the "La Caverna" art gallery, and the main library and offices of the Society of Malawi, Historical and Scientific. [1]
Blantyre is a town and civil parish in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, with a population of 16,900. It is bounded by the River Clyde to the north, the Rotten Calder to the west, the Park Burn to the east and the Rotten Burn to the south.
Zomba is a city in southern Malawi, in the Shire Highlands. It is the former capital city of Malawi.
Blantyre is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants as of 2018. It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, Lilongwe. It is the capital of the country's Southern Region as well as the Blantyre District.
Mangochi is a township in the Southern Region of Malawi. Located near the southern end of Lake Malawi, in colonial times it used to be called Fort Johnston. As of 2018 it has a population of 53,498.
The African Lakes Corporation plc was a British company originally set-up in 1877 by Scottish businessmen to co-operate with Presbyterian missions in what is now Malawi. Despite its original connections with the Free Church of Scotland, it operated its businesses in Africa on a commercial rather than a philanthropic basis. It had political ambitions in the 1880s to control part of Central Africa and engaged in armed conflict with Swahili traders. Its businesses in the colonial era included water transport on the lakes and rivers of Central Africa, wholesale and retail trading including the operation of general stores, labour recruitment, landowning and later an automotive business. The company later diversified, but suffered an economic decline in the 1990s and was liquidated in 2007. One of the last Directors of the company kindly bought the records of the company and donated them to Glasgow University Archive Services, where they are still available for research.
Mighty Mukuru Wanderers Football Club is a Malawian football club based in Blantyre. They currently play in Malawi's TNM Super League.
Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning "circle". It is a symbol of significance in Hinduism and Buddhism.
Limbe is a neighborhood located in the center part of the city of Blantyre, in Malawi. It is the operational headquarters and workshops for Malawi Railways.
Republic of Malawi – sovereign country located in southeastern Africa. Malawi is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the north and Mozambique, which surrounds it on the east, south and west and is separated from Malawi by Lake Malawi. The origin of the name Malawi is unclear; it is either derived from that of southern tribes, or from the "glitter of the sun rising across the lake". Malawi is a densely populated country with a democratically-elected, presidential system of government.
The Chichiri Museum, also known as the Museum of Malawi, is a historical and cultural museum located in Blantyre, Malawi. Strictly Museum of Malawi refers to a group of five museums but Chichiri Museum uses the name due to the breadth of its exhibits.
The Nkhula B Hydroelectric Power Station, also Nkula B Hydroelectric Power Station is a hydroelectric power plant on the Shire River in Malawi. It has a power generating capacity of 100 megawatts (130,000 hp).
St. Michael and All Angels Church was constructed from 1888 to 1891 of brick at the Blantyre Mission in Blantyre, Malawi. It is located on the original Scottish mission site, off Chileka Rd, and is in the Church of Central Africa, Presbyterian’s Blantyre Synod. Since 1991, it has been partnered with Hiland Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1885, Lieutenant H. E. O'Neil determined the longitude of Blantyre to be 2 hours 20 minutes 13.56 seconds east of Greenwich by means of a series of 365 sets of lunar observations, and a plaque installed in the side of the church commemorates this achievement. The church has been described as
The Daily Times is a daily newspaper published in Blantyre, Malawi. It is the oldest newspaper in the country, founded by the monthly Central African Planter in 1895. Around 1900, the title Central African Times was adopted, and weekly publication. Later the title was changed again, to Nyasaland Times. With Malawian independence in 1964, it became simply The Times, and finally the Daily Times in 1972.
St. Andrew's International School in Blantyre, Malawi, was founded 1938 by the Church of Scotland Mission in Blantyre. The high school in its present form was established in 1958. SAIntS is a British International School offering (i) GCSE, A Level and BTEC qualifications and a wealth of extra-curricular opportunities.
The Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) is a Presbyterian denomination. It consists of five synods: one in Zambia, one in Zimbabwe and three in Malawi – Livingstonia Synod in the north of the country, Nkhoma Synod in the centre, and Blantyre Synod in the south.
Eugene Charles Albert Sharrer was a British subject by naturalisation but of German descent, who was a leading entrepreneur in what is now Malawi for around fifteen years between his arrival in 1888 and his departure. He rapidly built-up commercial operations including wholesale and retail trading, considerable holdings of land, cotton and coffee plantations and a fleet of steamers on the Zambezi and Shire rivers. Sharrer was prominent in pressure groups that represented the interests of European planters and their businesses to the colonial authorities, and was responsible for the development of the first railway in what had become the British Central Africa Protectorate, whose construction was agreed in 1902. In 1902, Sharrer consolidate all his business interests into the British Central Africa Company Ltd and became its principal shareholder Shortly after this he left British Central Africa permanently for London, although he retained his financial interests in the territory. Very little is known of his history before he arrived in Central Africa but he died in London during the First World War.
The history of rail transport in Malawi began shortly after the turn of the twentieth century.
The Society of Malawi, Historical and Scientific is a not-for-profit organisation established in 1946, as the Nyasaland Society. It changed its name after Malawi gained independence in 1964. The society aims to promote interest in literary, historical and scientific matters, discover and record facts and information about Malawi. It also acquires books relating to Malawi. The patron of the library is always the president of Malawi, the current one being Arthur Peter Mutharika
The Shire Highlands Railway Company Ltd was a private railway company in colonial Nyasaland, incorporated in 1895 with the intention of constructing a railway from Blantyre to the effective head of navigation of the Shire River. After problems with routing and finance, a South African 3 ft 6 in gauge railway was constructed between 1903 and 1907, and extended in 1908 to a Nsanje, a distance of 113 miles (182 km) as water levels in the Shire River fell.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Malawi refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in Malawi. The first convert baptisms were performed in 1992. In 2019, there were 3,143 members in 8 congregations.