Malawi

Full name of country: Republic of Malawi

Region: Africa

Official language: English

Population: 21,763,309 (2024 est.)

Nationality: Malawian(s) (noun), Malawian (adjective)

Land area: 94,080 sq km (36,324 sq miles)

Water area: 24,404 sq km (9,422 sq miles)

Capital: Lilongwe

National anthem: "Mulungu dalitsa Malawi" (Oh God Bless Our Land of Malawi), by Michael-Fredrick Paul Sauka

National holiday: Independence Day (Republic Day), July 6 (1964)

Population growth: 2.22% (2024 est.)

Time zone: UTC +2

Flag: The flag of Malawi features a tricolor design of three equal horizontal bands of black (top), red (middle), and green (bottom). The colors represent pan-African, while a rising red sun, centered on the black stripe, represents the country’s economic progress.

Motto: “Unity and Freedom”

Independence: July 6, 1964 (from the United Kingdom)

Government type: multiparty democracy

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Legal system: mixed legal system of English common law and customary law; judicial review of legislative acts in the Supreme Court of Appeal

Home to some of the world's most spectacular landscapes and rarest plant and animal species, Malawi is a small nation located in southeast Africa. Known as "the warm heart of Africa," Malawi is home to people known for their generosity. Although political reforms in 1994 ushered in Malawi's first multiparty elections, corruption, poverty, and low levels of development continue to challenge Malawi's development.

With a high infant mortality rate and one of the world’s shortest life expectancies, Malawi is working to confront an AIDS crisis that has ravaged its workforce and left tens of thousands of orphans.

Note: unless otherwise indicated, statistical data in this article is sourced from the CIA World Factbook, as cited in the bibliography.

People and Culture

Population: Malawi's population includes a number of different ethnic groups, including Chewa, Lomwe, Yao, Ngoni, Tumbuka, Nyanja, Sena, Tonga, Ngonde, Mang'anja, and others. The Chewa is the largest of these groups, accounting for 34.3 percent of the population (2018 estimate).

While the country's official language is English, Chichewa is widely spoken, and many Malawians also speak a regional language, such as Chinyanja, Chiyao, or Chitumbuku.

Catholic missionaries arrived in Malawi during the nineteenth century. Today, most Malawians practice Christianity: around 33.5 percent are Protestant, 17.2 percent are Roman Catholic, and 26.6 percent identify as other Christian. A sizable number of Malawians (about 13.8 percent) in the north and near Lake Malawi are Muslim. There are also animists, those who believe that some form of soul inhabits everything, scattered throughout the country (2018 estimates).

Malawi is organized into three political regions and twenty-eight districts. Each region has a political and commercial center: Mzuzu in the north, Blantyre in the south, and Lilongwe in the central region.

In purely demographic terms, Malawi has four urban centers: Mzuzu in the north, Zomba (the former capital) in the south, Lilongwe (the present capital), and Blantyre in the south. In contrast, large areas of parkland and nature reserve blanket the country, particularly along the borders. Most of the remaining populated areas of Malawi lie in the middle and southern parts of the country, with large rural areas predominantly in the north. The population remains mostly rural, and in 2023 only an estimated 18.3 percent of the total population lived in urban areas.

Malawi has been hit hard by the AIDS epidemic. Officials estimated that about 8.1 percent of the population was living with HIV or AIDS in 2020; that year, the disease killed an estimated 12,000 people in Malawi. The country's high birth rate (26.6 births per 1,000 people in 2024) is offset somewhat by a relatively high death rate (4.5 deaths per 1,000 people). Largely because of the AIDS crisis and high levels of poverty, infant mortality is also high, averaging 31.9 deaths per 1,000 live births. Life expectancy is 73 years (2024 estimates).

Traditional social customs remain prevalent in Malawi. Every village welcomes travelers, and it is customary in every home to greet guests with a meal, regardless of the family's circumstances. Malawians retain their connections to the villages of their birth, such that most members of a village are related in one manner or another.

Indigenous People: Malawi's national population actually consists of a number of regional identities that trace their histories back to the Bantu tribes of the sixteenth century. It is believed that the country's name is derived from one of these tribes, the Maravi.

Evidence of human habitation dating as far back as 8000 BCE has been discovered at archaeological sites throughout Malawi. The much older remains of prehistoric hominids have also been found along the banks of Lake Malawi.

Education: Prior to implementing an improvement plan in the 1990s, Malawi had only a 71 percent school attendance rate among primary school children. Since then, the country has eliminated fees for primary school and invested in school infrastructure, teachers, and textbooks, working in partnership with charitable organizations and local districts. As a result, primary school attendance has increased significantly.

Malawi does not provide free schooling beyond primary levels. Secondary schools, vocational schools, and the University of Malawi provide further education to students for a fee. Because of the pervasive poverty in the country and the difficulty of transportation to schools in Malawi's large rural areas, Malawi continues to struggle to provide education beyond primary school. 67.3 percent of those over the age of fifteen are literate (2021 estimate).

Health Care: Malawi has a socialized system of health care. A network of rural hospitals and health clinics provide ground level healthcare for no fee to the majority of Malawians. Staffed by nurses and clinicians, these rural health centers must cater to the basic needs of about fifty villages each.

Because of widespread poverty in Malawi and the difficulty of procuring basic first aid equipment such as bandages and aspirin, most of the population turns to the rural health centers for even minor injuries and illnesses, creating long waiting lines for care. The rural clinics and hospitals also provide wellness care for expectant and new mothers and infants. They provide the base for a system of Health Surveillance Assistants who travel throughout the villages to teach better health practices and to provide outpatient assistance.

For more serious injuries and illnesses, Malawians are directed to the country's district hospitals. Staffed by physicians, nurses, and clinicians, these hospitals have basic diagnostic equipment, laboratories, and surgical facilities. Like the rural clinic and hospitals, all care provided through the district hospitals is free to citizens of Malawi. Central hospitals in urban areas of the country provide free advanced care for the most serious injuries and illnesses. These central hospitals are better staffed and have more advanced equipment and a greater capacity for treating complex medical problems.

Outside of the government-run system, Malawi also has private clinics and physicians for which wealthier Malawians can pay, as well as traditional medicine practitioners who use a variety of spiritual, herbal, and other traditional remedies. The AIDS epidemic has placed significant strain on Malawi's health care system.

Government vaccination programs and new family planning programs have begun to show results in the form of lower infant mortality rates and higher levels of vaccination for diseases including polio and measles.

Nevertheless, Malawi's health care system is still fighting an uphill battle. In 2024, Malawi's under-five mortality rate stood at 31.9 deaths per 1,000 births, according to UNICEF, and pregnancy-related deaths remain high. Malaria, cholera, and other epidemics are prevalent, and AIDS has ravaged Malawi's workforce. The Health Ministry cites the prevalence of HIV, poor transportation, widespread poverty, poor sanitation, and inadequate education as among the greatest obstacles to Malawi's health care system. Malawi ranked 172 out of 193 countries and territories on the 2022 United Nations Human Development Index.

Food: Malawi's staple food is nsima (nsee-ma), a thick starch paste, usually made with ground corn and shaped into patties. Potatoes, cassava, or rice may be used in place of corn, and meat, eggs, vegetables, or fruit are served alongside. Fish is also a dietary staple in the north.

Malawi's strong agricultural base and the rarity of processed foods mean that food available for meals depends on the season and region. Travelers can find some sort of restaurant in just about any village, though options are usually limited to the "chippie," a shack serving fried potatoes. Urban restaurants make a wider array of international foods available in the cities.

Arts & Entertainment: Malawi's art and entertainment includes the traditional and the modern. Christian-based songs and hymns hold an important position in any occasion of village life, but Malawian-style reggae blends with music from other parts of Africa, the Caribbean, and North America on urban radio stations and television.

Traditional carving, furniture-making, and batik appear in stores and stalls all over the country, but so does the work of acrylic, watercolor, and oil painters. Some of Malawi's traditional craftspeople and artists have gained international recognition for their work, including Kay Chirombo, Willie Nampeya, and Louis Dimpwa.

Itinerant actors still travel from village to village putting on plays, often based on traditional or Christian themes, but Malawi's urban centers also show signs of the growing art of filmmaking in Africa. Malawi is also known for its own form of "African chess" called boa, which is played throughout the country.

Most of Malawi's literary tradition is still in the form of oral storytelling. However, there is a growing canon of written literary works by Malawian authors, the best-known of which is probably The Rainmaker by Steve Chimombo. The country's contemporary novel tradition was established in the 1970s with the semiautobiographical works of Legson Kayira and Sam Mpasu.

Holidays: Malawi's public holidays include New Year’s Day (January 1), John Chilembwe Day (January 15), Martyr's Day (March 3), Labour Day (May 1), Kamuzu Day (May 14), Freedom Day (June 14), Independence Day (July 6), Mother's Day on the second Monday in October, Christmas Day (December 25), and Boxing Day (December 26).

Environment and Geography

Topography: Malawi is a landlocked country, bordered by Tanzania to the north and east, Zambia to the west and Mozambique to the south. The country is part of the Great Rift Valley. Covering 20 percent of the country, Lake Malawi sits along the eastern border of Malawi from its northern tip to three-quarters of the way down to Mozambique. From the southernmost point of the lake, the Shire River flows south into Lake Malombe and Lake Chirwa before flowing into the Zambezi River in Mozambique.

Malawi is divided into three regions. Most of the northern region is rugged, mountainous, and blanketed with forests. At its highest point, the grass-covered Nyika Plateau soars to over 3,000 meters (9,843 miles) above sea level. Where the peaks meet Lake Malawi, mountain waters cascade down Manchewe and Chembe Falls. Because of its elevation, much of the northern region experiences slightly cooler weather than the rest of Malawi.

Like the north, the southern region of Malawi is extremely mountainous. Mount Mulanje is Malawi's highest peak, while the country's lowest point, in the Shire Valley, is also found in the south. The south is home to the Liwonde National Park and the Zomba Plateau.

Malawi's central region is largely flat, with rich soil. It is, however, surrounded by chains of mountains to the east and to the south.

Natural Resources: In addition to the country's rich arable land and hydropower capacities, Malawi has limestone and untapped uranium deposits, coal, and bauxite.

Plants & Animals: Malawi's plethora of lakes, streams, rivers, ponds, marshes, and temporary pools are home to a wide array of aquatic plants and animals. Lake Malawi alone is home to more species of fish than any other lake on earth.

The highlands of Malawi, particularly the Nyika Plateau in the north, sustain large swaths of evergreen forest and high altitude grasslands. Mount Mulanje has the largest montane (coniferous) forest in the country. Intermingled with its forests and plateaus, Malawi boasts an extraordinary collection of native wild flowers.

Malawi also has five national parks and four wildlife reserves that sustain large mammals such as waterbuck, antelope, zebra, wild dogs, African elephants, cheetahs, lions, leopards, and rhinoceros. In spite of the large tracts of protected land, poaching and climate destruction threaten many of Malawi's plant and animal species.

Climate: The southern part of Malawi has a tropical climate, with temperatures ranging between 28 degrees and 37 degrees Celsius (82 degrees to 98 degrees Fahrenheit). Average annual rainfall is 740 millimeters (30 inches).

The central region is more temperate on average, but rainfall ranges from 1,500 to 2,000 millimeters (60 to 80 inches) per year, mostly falling during the rainy season from November to May.

Like the central region, Malawi's northern region has a subtropical climate, warm and rainy from November to May, but with cooler temperatures at higher elevations.

Economy

Malawi's gross domestic product (GDP, purchasing power parity) was $35.238 billion in 2023, or $1,700 per capita—among the lowest in the world.

Industry: Malawi's economy is still overwhelmingly agricultural, and industry is responsible for a fairly small share of the country's GDP; for example, in 2023, it accounted for only about 18.3 percent of the country's GDP.

Agriculture: Most Malawians depend on family gardens as their primary source of food, even in urban areas where crops are grown in gardens that belong to relatives outside the city. Malawi does export some of its crops, including tobacco (about half of all exports), sugarcane, cotton, tea, soybeans, potatoes, cassava (tapioca), sorghum, groundnuts, and macadamia nuts. The nation's agricultural industry also depends heavily on cattle and goats.

Tourism: Malawi is working aggressively to increase tourism to the country. Lake Malawi, with its spectacular scenery and opportunities for snorkeling and boating, takes a central role in this campaign, as do the wildlife reserves and parks that provide rare glimpses of endangered species. To date, the tourist industry remains only a small part of the economy, contributing about 7.7 percent of total GDP in 2018. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 placed significant strain on Malawi's fledgling tourist industry.

Government

Malawi was originally the home of the Maravo Confederacy of Bantu peoples in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. During the eighteenth century, the area was prey to the growing African slave trade under Arab traders and another Bantu tribe, the Yao. The nineteenth-century explorer David Livingstone first raised British interest in the region with his work to establish commercial trade routes and the University Mission in Central Africa. Many places in the country still bear Dr. Livingstone's name.

The Livingstonia Central Africa Mission Company, a Scottish corporation, arrived in 1878 to establish a river route through the area. The Shire Highlands in the south became a British protectorate in 1891 under the name Nyasaland. The first rebellion came in 1900 under the leadership of Reverend John Chilembwe, whose failed effort is celebrated with a national holiday in his name.

Malawi finally took its new name and its independence in 1964 but fell under the dictatorship of Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda.

Since Malawi became a multiparty democracy in 1994, the president, who also holds the title of chief of state, is elected by popular vote to a five-year term. A cabinet, chosen by the president, constitutes the rest of the executive branch of government. Voting is open to all citizens over the age of eighteen.

The legislative branch consists of 193-member National Assembly. Legislators are chosen by popular vote, and also serve five-year terms.

Malawi's legal system is based on English and Welsh common law, with judiciary review of legislation. Supreme Court of Appeal judges, including the chief justice and at least three other judges, are appointed by the president.

Interesting Facts

• Malawi is famous for the more than four hundred species of orchids that grow in its diverse ecosystems.
• In 2013, Malawi president Joyce Banda sold the presidential jet and a fleet of sixty luxury cars to help feed the poor and fight malnutrition.
• Lake Malawi has the largest number of fish species of any lake in the world, estimated at over five hundred.

Bibliography

"Malawi." Human Development Reports 2022, United Nations Development Programme, 13 Mar. 2024, hdr.undp.org/data-center/specific-country-data#/countries/MWI. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

"Malawi." The World Bank 2024, data.worldbank.org/country/malawi. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

"Malawi." The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, 2 Jan. 2025, www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/malawi/. Accessed 13 Jan. 2025.

"Malawi." United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, data.unicef.org/country/mwi/. Accessed 12 Nov. 2023.