History & Politics
Recorded history
The recorded history of Malawi begins with a wave of Bantu-speaking people arriving from the north sometime between 1200 and 1500 AD.
These immigrants brought centralised systems of governance and established the Maravi Empire around 1480. This was a confederacy of different groups ruled by a karonga (king), who had allegiance from the leaders of each clan.
However, by 1720 the confederacy fractured as different groups broke away from the authority of the karonga. This decline was partly caused by the influence of the Portuguese and Arabs who came to the region to trade in iron, ivory and slaves.
Livingstone's background
Dr David Livingstone was born in Blantyre, Scotland. (Malawi’s commercial centre and oldest city was founded in 1896 and named after Livingstone’s birthplace.)
Dr Livingstone was a learned and famous man. And his history was a tale of ‘rags to riches’, because he came from a very poor family.
At ten years of age, David Livingstone was sent to work in a local Scottish cotton and had to do his school lessons in the evenings. The intensive and monotonous work of the mill gave Livingstone a life-long sympathy for all who laboured under harsh circumstances and no doubt helped to inform his strong anti-slavery stance.
Dr Livingstone’s influence
When the Victorian explorer, Dr David Livingstone, arrived in the country in the late 1850s, Lake Malawi would have been dotted with dhow sails, as boats ferried slaves and ivory across to the eastern shore and the long journey to the coast.
Many lakeside towns (such as Nkhotakota and Salima) were Arab trade centres for slaves. Livingstone was an important crusader against slavery, publicising its horrors back in Britain.
Livingstone’s association with the area was an important factor in drawing British trading companies to Malawi and for its colonisation as part of the ‘British Central Africa Protectorate’ in 1893.
The Protectorate included Southern and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia and Zimbabwe respectively). With conflicting demands in the different regions, Malawi was made a separate colony by the British in 1907, known as Nyasaland.
‘Wind of change’
A multi-party democracy
The Republic of Malawi is headed by a president who serves five-year terms. The current leader is Joyce Banda. She is the first female head of state in southern Africa and took over in 2012 after the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika.
In the late 1950s, a ‘wind of change’ blew through colonial Africa and Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda led the country to independence. Malawi became fully independent on July 6 1964 and a republic two years later. Dr Banda ruled for 30 years under a one-party system.
An open democracy was established in 1994, when the first multi-party elections were held. Won by Bakili Muluzi, a more open style of government was established, with a judicial system based on English law.
National flag
The national flag of Malawi has three horizontal stripes of red, black and green, with a sun in the centre. These elements represent:
Red: the blood of those who fought for African freedom
Black: the people of the African continent
Green: the land and its natural resources
The White Sun: the friendliness, peace and prosperity of Malawians.
