20 Fascinating Facts About Malawi
1. Malawi is a landlocked country in southeastern Africa. A landlocked country is surrounded by land and does not have access to the open sea. There are currently 45 landlocked countries in the world as well as five partially recognised states.
2. Human cultural artefacts have been found in Malawi which date back over 50,000 years. However, discovered fossilised remains of Homosapiens only date to between 8000 and 2000 BC.
3. Bantu-speaking tribes occupied the Malawi region between the 1st and 4th centuries BC and continued to rule the region until the arrival of Europeans.
4. During the 17th century, Portuguese explorers arrived from the east coast of present-day Mozambique. They began slave trading in the area, which then increased dramatically between 1790 and 1860.
5. During the mid-nineteenth century Scottish explorer, missionary and anti-slavery campaigner David Livingstone first travelled through the region, paving the way for further European influence.
6. Founded in 1876, Blantyre is Malawi’s second-largest city and is named after David Livingstone’s Scottish birthplace.
7. In 1891, Malawi was established as part of the British territory of Nyasaland and District Protectorate.
8. In 1964 Nyasaland finally declared complete independence and changed its name to Malawi.
9. For the first 30 years of independence, Malawi was ruled by a one-party regime under autocratic President Hastings Banda. Democratic processes have improved since he relinquished power in the mid-1990s.
10. Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa, accounts for more than one-fifth of the country’s total area.
11. Lake Malawi is the fourth-largest freshwater lake in the world by volume, the ninth-largest lake in the world by area ,and the third-largest and second-deepest in Africa.
12. Lake Malawi is home to hundreds of fish species, nearly all endemic. Its importance for the study of evolution has been compared to that of the Galapagos Islands.
13. Lake Malawi is sometimes referred to as “the calendar lake” dues to its dimensions: 365 miles long and 52 miles wide.
14. Malawi means “flaming waters” and refers to the setting sun over Lake Malawi.
15. Malawi’s flag is horizontally striped black-red-green. The colours symbolise the African people, the blood of independence martyrs ,and the green nature of Malawi. The setting sun is featured in the top stripe
16. Popstar Madonna famously adopted four Malawian children. She drew criticism for receiving special exemption from laws restricting non-residents from taking children abroad and for exaggerating her charity work in the country.
17. Malawi is known as the “warm heart of Africa” due to the welcoming nature of its people.
18. Malawi is home to the “richest concentration of rock art in Central Africa”. The UNESCO-listed Chongoni Rock-Art Area features 127 sites of rock art from the late Stone Age (between 50,000 and 39,000 years ago).
19. Malawi is the third poorest country in the world when measured by GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity (PPP).
20. The UNESCO-listed Majete Wildlife Reserve achieved public acclaim after it successfully reintroduced wildlife including lions and cheetah. With the lions, it became Malawi’s first Big Five (lion, leopard, rhino, elephant ,and buffalo) wildlife park following the decimation of the area’s wildlife population due to decades of poaching.
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