🇲🇼 Malawi

Before around the 10th century CE the territory of modern Malawi held a small hunter-gatherer population known in oral tradition as the Akafula, BaTwa, Akaombe or Mwandionerakuti. Agrarian Bantu migrants arriving from the north gradually displaced them, establishing the farming societies and ethnic lineages that underpin modern Malawian society.

The Maravi, a Bantu ethnic group, migrated from the southern Congo around 1400 AD. The name 'Malawi' derives from this group, linking modern national identity to pre-colonial migration.

By the 16th century several kingdoms had emerged, notably the Maravi Empire, which extended from north of what became Nkhotakota to the Zambezi River and from Lake Malawi to the Luangwa River in present-day Zambia. These states were the first large-scale political organisations in the region and the source of the country's later name.

With the area mostly united under one native ruler in the 17th century, local rulers began encountering, trading with and making alliances with Portuguese traders and soldiers. This was the region's first sustained contact with a European power.

By the 18th century the once-united empire had fragmented into areas controlled by numerous separate ethnic groups. The loss of central authority left the region politically divided ahead of the slave-trading and colonial eras.

At its peak in the mid-19th century, roughly 20,000 people per year were believed to have been enslaved and transported from Nkhotakota to Kilwa for sale. The trade devastated local populations and shaped the humanitarian arguments later used to justify British intervention.

The Scottish missionary and explorer reached Lake Nyasa, now called Lake Malawi, in September 1859 during his Zambezi expedition, becoming the first European to do so. He publicised the Shire Highlands as fit for European settlement, and his accounts of the slave trade in the region helped draw British missionary and colonial interest, triggering the Anglican and Presbyterian missions of the 1860s and 1870s and setting the region on the path to British involvement.

Following Livingstone's reports, a number of Anglican and Presbyterian missions were founded in the area during the 1860s and 1870s. Mission stations became early centres of education, Christianity and European influence in what became Malawi.

A small mission and trading settlement was established at Blantyre in 1876. It grew into the country's commercial centre and hosted a resident British consul from 1883.

The African Lakes Company Limited was founded in 1878 to develop trade and transport links in the Lake Nyasa area. It formed the commercial arm of early British penetration of the territory.

Britain posted a consul to Blantyre in 1883, formalising official British presence in the region. The appointment preceded the treaty-making mission that led to protectorate status.

The Portuguese Pink Map of 1885 asserted a claim to a continuous belt of territory between Angola and Mozambique, encompassing the Lake Nyasa region. The claim provoked British counteraction and framed the partition of the area.

To forestall Portuguese occupation, Britain despatched Harry Johnston with instructions to conclude treaties with rulers beyond Portuguese jurisdiction. In 1889 a British protectorate was proclaimed over the Shire Highlands.

The British Ultimatum forced Portugal to abandon its Pink Map claims to the territory between Angola and Mozambique. It cleared the way for British consolidation of control over the area that became Malawi.

In 1891 the 1889 Shire Highlands protectorate was extended to cover the whole of present-day Malawi as the British Central Africa Protectorate, and a colonial administration was created. Budgeted at £10,000 a year, it employed only ten European civilians, two military officers, 70 Punjabi Sikhs and 85 Zanzibar porters to administer some 94,000 square kilometres and one to two million people — the 'Thin White Line' of colonial rule.

In 1907 the British Central Africa Protectorate was renamed Nyasaland. The name was retained for the rest of the colonial period until independence in 1964.

The January 1915 revolt, in which Chilembwe's followers attacked a plantation and killed several estate managers, was suppressed within days and Chilembwe himself was killed. He is commemorated as a national hero, with 15 January marked as John Chilembwe Day.

The NAC was created in 1944 to press local interests upon the British government. It became the vehicle of Malawian nationalism and the forerunner of the ruling Malawi Congress Party.

In 1953 Britain joined Nyasaland with Northern and Southern Rhodesia in the semi-independent Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The union provoked strong African nationalist opposition and greatly boosted popular support for the NAC.

Banda, a European-trained doctor working in Ghana and a leading opponent of the Central African Federation, was persuaded to return home in 1958 to lead the nationalist cause. He was elected NAC president and mobilised nationalist sentiment.

The March 1959 crackdown followed protests against Nyasaland's forced membership of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Dozens of protesters were killed, and Banda's imprisonment made him a symbol of the independence movement.

Freed in 1960, Banda was invited to help draft a new constitution for Nyasaland containing a clause giving Africans a majority in the colony's Legislative Council. This was the decisive constitutional step towards African self-government.

Banda's MCP secured a majority in the 1961 Legislative Council elections under the new constitution. The victory established the party's dominance and paved the way for Banda's premiership.

Banda took office as Prime Minister in 1963, the same year the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was dissolved. Ending the Federation removed the principal obstacle to Nyasaland's independence.

MBC was created by an Act of Parliament in 1964, operating radio and later television services. It gave the new state a national broadcasting capability.

On 6 July 1964 Nyasaland gained independence from British colonial rule and was renamed Malawi by Hastings Banda, who chose the name after the historic Maravi. Banda, who had led the independence movement after decades abroad, became prime minister and the country's dominant political figure for the next three decades; the date is commemorated as Independence Day, and the judicial system and the public broadcaster MBC date their modern forms from this period.

Banda became president when the republic was proclaimed in July 1966, banning opposition parties. Parliament later declared him president for life in 1971, and his authoritarian rule continued until 1994.

The navy was founded in the early 1970s with Portuguese assistance and operates vessels on Lake Malawi from a base at Monkey Bay. It gives the landlocked state a lake patrol capability.

In 1971 Banda was proclaimed president for life, cementing a rigidly totalitarian regime that lasted almost 30 years. The system kept Malawi free of armed conflict but drove opposition movements such as the Malawi Freedom Movement and the Socialist League of Malawi into exile.

The air force was created in 1976 with German assistance and operates transport aircraft and multi-purpose helicopters. It completed the small armed forces of the young republic.

From 1985 Malawi has been regarded as a haven for refugees fleeing conflicts in other African countries, notably Mozambique and Rwanda. The role shaped its regional humanitarian standing.

The state created the troupe, formerly the Kwacha Cultural Troupe, in 1987. It served as an official vehicle for national cultural performance.

Malawi's first science and technology policy dates from 1991 and was revised in 2002. It marked the start of a formal national framework for research and innovation.

Under pressure for political freedom, Banda agreed to a 1993 referendum in which the electorate voted for multi-party politics. Later that year a presidential council was formed, the life presidency abolished and a new constitution introduced, effectively ending MCP rule.

Free primary schooling was introduced in 1994, and education became compulsory with the Revised Education Act of 2012. Enrolment rose from 58% in 1992 to 75% in 2007, and youth literacy from 68% in 2000 to 75% in 2015.

Following the end of apartheid in 1994, Malawi built and maintained diplomatic relationships across the continent. This ended the diplomatic isolation associated with Banda's pro-Western, pro-Pretoria stance.

Bakili Muluzi's United Democratic Front defeated Banda's Malawi Congress Party in the May 1994 election, following a referendum the previous year that rejected continued one-party rule. A new multi-party constitution took effect the same year.

The constitution now in force was put into place on 18 May 1995. It provides for a unitary presidential republic, a unicameral 193-member National Assembly elected every five years, universal suffrage at 18, and a Senate of 80 seats that has never existed in practice.

Muluzi won a second term in the 1999 general election and remained president until 2004. His tenure consolidated the multi-party order.

Rapid population growth, increasing pressure on agricultural lands, corruption and the scourge of HIV/AIDS pose major problems for Malawi.

The meeting in Lilongwe on 2 February 2026 highlighted bilateral relations between the two countries and calls for increased Luxembourgish investment in Malawi. Luxembourg has been a long-standing development partner to Malawi.

The declaration on 3 February 2026 revived concerns about the disease's resurgence, several years after a previous outbreak had been brought under control. Health authorities launched vaccination and surveillance responses in affected areas.

In the address on 13 February 2026, Mutharika pledged economic recovery and blamed the previous Chakwera government for what he called a man-made crisis. It was his first full state of the nation address since returning to office.

The crash, which also killed eight others in June 2024, has remained politically sensitive, and Mutharika's order on 24 February 2026 reopened questions about its causes.

Mwanamveka presented the budget to parliament in Lilongwe on 27 February 2026, the first full-year budget under the Mutharika government. It followed a state of the nation address in which the president blamed the previous administration for economic difficulties.

The find at the Hora 1 site in northern Malawi, announced on 6 January 2026, dated to about 9,500 years ago and included the remains of a woman. It offered new evidence of funerary practices among early hunter-gatherer communities in the region.

The increase, announced on 20 January 2026, was among the largest single fuel price rises in recent years and stoked concerns over transport and living costs. It reflected pressure on Malawi's foreign exchange reserves and fuel-import costs.

President Trump's proclamation of 16 December 2025 added Malawi to a list of 39 countries facing new or tightened US travel restrictions, part of a wider crackdown on visa overstays and irregular migration.

The inauguration at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre on 4 October 2025 marked a political comeback for Mutharika, who had previously served as president from 2014 to 2020. He appointed a partial cabinet the following day.

Mutharika won more than 56 per cent of the vote in the 16 September 2025 election, and Chakwera conceded defeat. It was Malawi's second consecutive election to unseat a sitting president.

Mutharika won the 2025 general election, resuming the presidency and making the Democratic Progressive Party the ruling party with the MCP in opposition. The alternation again illustrated Malawi's record of peaceful transitions.

On 26 June 2021 the first pride march took place in the capital. It followed Joyce Banda's 2012 pledge to repeal laws criminalising homosexuality and Mutharika's 2015 moratorium on their enforcement.

The opposition leader won the re-run presidential election held on 2 July 2020 after the courts annulled the 2019 result. The transfer of power demonstrated the strength of Malawi's constitutional institutions.

In February 2020 the Malawi Constitutional Court annulled Mutharika's re-election because of irregularities and widespread fraud, a decision upheld by the Supreme Court in May 2020, which ordered a fresh vote for 2 July. It was the first time an election in Malawi had been legally challenged, a landmark for judicial independence.

In 2020 the fertiliser subsidy scheme was superseded by the AIP, which extended subsidies on maize seed and fertiliser to sorghum and rice seed. The change broadened state support for smallholder agriculture, on which over 80% of the population depends.

Mutharika won the 2019 general election by a narrow margin, prompting legal challenge over irregularities. The dispute led to the annulment of the result the following year.

Malawi added its signature to the treaty in 2017. The step aligned the country with the global disarmament movement.

A drought struck in 2016, followed in January 2017 by an armyworm infestation around Zomba. Agriculture minister George Chaponda reported 2,000 hectares of crops destroyed, with the pest spreading to nine of 28 districts.

Floods in January 2015 affected more than a million people nationwide, displacing 336,000 according to UNICEF. Over 100 people were killed and an estimated 64,000 hectares of cropland were washed away.

Legislation in 2015 lifted the minimum marriage age to 18. The same year Peter Mutharika imposed a moratorium suspending the country's anti-gay laws pending review.

In the 2014 general election Joyce Banda was defeated, finishing third, and was replaced by Peter Mutharika, brother of the late Bingu wa Mutharika. The result continued the pattern of peaceful transfers of power.

Facing heavy dependence on tobacco, which rose from 53% to 70% of export revenues between 2007 and 2008, the government adopted a National Export Strategy in 2013. That year the Malawi Investment and Trade Centre also assembled an investment portfolio spanning 20 companies.

Bingu wa Mutharika died of a heart attack in April 2012 and his death was kept secret for 48 hours, including flying the body to South Africa; after South Africa threatened to disclose the facts, Vice-President Joyce Banda assumed the presidency despite an attempt by some cabinet ministers to block her succession, becoming Malawi's first female head of state. She led the country until her defeat in the 2014 election.

The Revised Education Act of 2012 made primary schooling compulsory, building on free primary education introduced in 1994. Completion rates from standard one to standard five had already risen from 64% in 1992 to 86% in 2006.

After Mutharika expelled the British ambassador over a leaked critical document, the UK suspended all budgetary aid in July 2011 citing economic mismanagement. The United States froze a US$350 million grant over suppression of demonstrators, restrictions on the press and police violence.

Protests in July 2011 over high living costs, poor governance, deteriorating foreign relations and a lack of foreign exchange reserves turned deadly, leaving 18 dead and at least 44 wounded by gunfire. The violence marked the low point of Mutharika's rule.

A Department of Science and Technology survey found Malawi spent 1.06% of GDP on R&D in 2010, one of the highest ratios in Africa. By 2014 Malawian scientists had the third-largest research output in Southern Africa, publishing 322 Web of Science articles against 116 in 2005.

In 2010 ties with Mozambique deteriorated, partly over use of the Zambezi River and a proposed inter-country electrical grid. The dispute affected regional transport and energy options for landlocked Malawi.

Mutharika won a second term in May 2009 despite claims of electoral fraud from opposition parties and observers. He had overseen some economic improvement in his first term, but his second brought accusations of economic mismanagement, poor governance and increasingly autocratic rule.

The 2009 purchase of a private presidential jet was followed almost immediately by a nationwide fuel shortage, officially blamed on logistics but more likely caused by the resulting hard currency shortage. Investment fell 23% that year and the foreign exchange squeeze weakened Malawi's ability to pay for imports.

Diplomatic relations with China were opened in 2007, followed by steadily rising Chinese investment. The relationship drew concerns over labour treatment and competition with local businesses.

From 2006 the country mixed unleaded petrol with 10% locally produced ethanol from two plants to cut reliance on imported fuel, all of which it imports. Testing of cars running solely on ethanol began in 2008.

Aid flows recovered to more than US$575 million in 2005 after the donor freeze of 2000. The rebound underlined the centrality of external assistance to public finances.

Under President Bingu wa Mutharika, following poor harvests and a severe famine, the government began subsidising fertiliser and maize seed for smallholders through the Farm Input Subsidy Programme, credited with boosting maize harvests in subsequent years and becoming one of Africa's most closely studied agricultural subsidy schemes. In 2020 it was replaced by the Affordable Inputs Program, which extended subsidies on maize seed and fertiliser to sorghum and rice seed.

Elected in May 2004 after a failed attempt by the previous president to amend the constitution to permit another term, Mutharika struggled to assert his authority against his predecessor and in 2005 started his own Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

The 2003 Act provided for the creation of the National Commission for Science and Technology and established a Science and Technology Fund to finance research through grants and loans. The commission only became operational in 2011 and the fund remained inactive as of 2014.

The 2002 policy revised the 1991 framework and envisaged a National Commission for Science and Technology to advise government and stakeholders on science-led development. It set the agenda for later legislation.

In December 2000 the IMF suspended aid because of corruption, and many bilateral donors followed suit. The development budget fell by almost 80%, exposing Malawi's dependence on external finance.

Local elections took place on 21 November 2000, the first of the multi-party era, with the UDF winning 70% of available seats. A second round due in May 2005 was cancelled by the government.