The History of Malawi covers the area of present-day Malawi. The region was once part of the Maravi Empire. In colonial times, the territory was ruled by the British, under whose control it was known first as British Central Africa and later Nyasaland. It became part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The country achieved full independence, as Malawi, in 1964. After independence, Malawi was ruled as a one-party state under Hastings Banda until 1994.
The British Central Africa Protectorate (BCA) was a British protectorate proclaimed in 1889 and ratified in 1891 that occupied the same area as present-day Malawi: it was renamed Nyasaland in 1907. British interest in the area arose from visits made by David Livingstone from 1858 onward during his exploration of the Zambezi area. This encouraged missionary activity that started in the 1860s, undertaken by the Universities' Mission to Central Africa, the Church of Scotland and the Free Church of Scotland, and which was followed by a small number of settlers. The Portuguese government attempted to claim much of the area in which the missionaries and settlers operated, but this was disputed by the British government. To forestall a Portuguese expedition claiming effective occupation, a protectorate was proclaimed, first over the south of this area, then over the whole of it in 1889. After negotiations with the Portuguese and German governments on its boundaries, the protectorate was formally ratified by the British government in May 1891.
Sir Henry Hamilton Johnston, known as Harry Johnston, was a British explorer, botanist, artist, colonial administrator, and linguist who travelled widely in Africa and spoke many African languages. He published 40 books on African subjects and was one of the key players in the Scramble for Africa that occurred at the end of the 19th century.
Zomba is a city in southern Malawi, in the Shire Highlands. It is the former capital city of Malawi.
Karonga is a township in the Karonga District in Northern Region of Malawi. Located on the western shore of Lake Nyasa, it was established as a slaving centre sometime before 1877. As of 2018 estimates, Karonga has a population of 61,609.
Nkhotakota (Un-kho-tah-kho-tuh) is a town and one of the districts in the Central Region of Malawi. It is on the shore of Lake Malawi and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. As of 2018, Nkhotakota had a population estimated at 28,350. The district had a population of 301.000.
Monkey Bay or Lusumbwe is a town in Mangochi which is in the Mangochi District in the Southern Region of Malawi. The town is on the shore of Lake Malawi and is one of the main ports on Lake Malawi. The population of Monkey Bay was 14,955 according to the 2018 census. Monkey Bay is 206 kilometres (128 mi) from Lilongwe, Malawi's capital city, and 253 kilometres (157 mi) from Blantyre. Monkey Bay is a tourist resort and is often travelled through on the road to Cape Maclear.
This page list topics related to Malawi.
Mangochi District is one of twelve districts in the Southern Region of Malawi. The capital is Mangochi. The district covers an area of 6,273 km.² and has a population of 610,239.
Liwonde National Park, also known as Liwonde Wildlife Reserve, is a national park in southern Malawi, near the Mozambique border. The park was established in 1973, and has been managed by the nonprofit conservation organization African Parks since August 2015. African Parks built an electric fence around the perimeter of the park to help mitigate human-wildlife conflict. In early 2018, the adjacent Mangochi Forest Reserve was also brought under African Parks' management, almost doubling the size of the protected area.
Majete Wildlife Reserve is a nature reserve in southwestern Malawi, established as a protected area in 1955. The reserve's animal populations were decimated during the late 1970s and 1980s due to poaching and other human activities. Majete has been managed by African Parks since 2003, when the nonprofit conservation organization entered into a public–private partnership with the Malawi Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW). Since then, wildlife has been restored, the park has achieved big five game status, and tourism has increased.
MV Chauncy Maples is a motor ship and former steamship that was launched in 1901 as SS Chauncy Maples. She spent her entire career on Lake Malawi and was regarded as the oldest ship afloat in Africa. After more than one hundred years' service it was intended to restore her for use as a floating medical clinic to support the several million lakeshore dwellers whose average life expectancy is 44 years. The Government of Malawi offered support for this in 2009 and charity fundraising was sufficient to make progress. The hull was found to be beyond repair at a viable cost so a more practical modern craft was proposed to give ambulance service around the lake.
Hermann von Wissmann was a German steamer on Lake Nyasa named after the German explorer Hermann von Wissmann who had raised funds for the vessel to be built in 1890 as an anti-slavery gunboat.
SS Gwendolen was a British steamship on Lake Nyasa that fought in the first naval action of World War I against the German steamship Hermann von Wissman which it caught on a slipway at Sphinxhafen, now known as Liuli.
John Buchanan (1855–1896), was a Scottish horticulturist who went to Central Africa, now Malawi, in 1876 as a lay member of the missionary party that established Blantyre Mission. Buchanan came to Central Africa as an ambitious artisan: his character was described as dour and devout but also as restlessly ambitious, and he saw in Central Africa a gateway to personal achievement. He started a mission farm on the site of Zomba, Malawi but was dismissed from the mission in 1881 for brutality. From being a disgraced missionary, Buchanan first became a very influential planter owning, with his brothers, extensive estates in Zomba District. He then achieved the highest position he could in the British administration as Acting British Consul to Central Africa from 1887 to 1891. In that capacity declared a protectorate over the Shire Highlands in 1889 to pre-empt a Portuguese expedition that intended to claim sovereignty over that region. In 1891, the Shire Highlands became part of the British Central Africa Protectorate. John Buchanan died at Chinde in Mozambique in March 1896 on his way to visit Scotland, and his estates were later acquired by the Blantyre and East Africa Ltd.
The history of rail transport in Malawi began shortly after the turn of the twentieth century.
Lake Malawi Museum is a museum on Lake Malawi in Malawi. Situated in the Old Gymkhana Club and organized by the Society of Malawi since 1971, the museum is located near the Queen Victoria memorial near the Bakili Muluzi Bridge in Mangochi town, Mangochi District, within the Southern Region of Malawi.
The name Karonga War is given to a number of armed clashes that took place between mid-1887 and mid-1889 near Karonga at the northern end of Lake Malawi in what is now Malawi between a Scottish trading concern called the African Lakes Company Limited and elements of the Ngonde people on one side and Swahili traders and their Henga allies on the other. In the 19th century, it was referred to as the “Arab War”, despite few actual Arabs being involved. Although these conflicts predate formal endorsement of a British Central Africa Protectorate west of Lake Malawi in 1891, European involvement, both by the African Lakes Company and by Germans attempting to prevent Swahili slave trading around Lake Tanganyika in German East Africa, had upset the previous balance between the Ngonde and their neighbours and created the conditions for this conflict.
The Nyasaland Volunteer Reserve (NVR) was a reserve infantry unit in the British protectorate of Nyasaland. The British Central Africa Volunteer Reserve was formally established by the colonial government in 1901 and was renamed when the protectorate became Nyasaland in 1907. In the initial years the unit was little more than a rifle shooting club with no uniform and no military training. The NVR was placed on a more formal standing in 1908 under the Volunteer Ordinance. This implemented residency and racial requirements for membership and made provision for the unit to be mobilised by the governor. The unit was initially formed of four sections but grew to seven sections by 1914 and by 1930 the unit had ten.
MV Vipya was a motor vessel used as a passenger-cargo ship that sailed on Lake Malawi in Southern Africa from 1944 to 1946. The ferry had a tonnage of 470 tons, was 140 feet (43 m) in length, 27 feet (8.2 m) in breadth, and had a twin crew. Equipped with a motor engine, it could travel up to a speed of 12 knots. It was built to carry 315 passengers and 100 tons of cargo. On July 30, 1946, the ship set sail with 194 passengers on board. It was caught up in a storm near Chilumba in Karonga where it capsized and sank. The disaster resulted 145 passengers and crew on board drowning. No remains of the bodies have been recovered. The sternwheel ferry disaster is the worst shipwreck in Malawi's history.
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