Malawi - History
Hominid remains and stone implements have been identified in Malawi dating back more than 1 million years, and early humans inhabited the vicinity of Lake Malawi 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. Human remains at a site dated about 8000 BC show physical characteristics similar to peoples living today in the Horn of Africa. At another site, dated 1500 BC, the remains possess features resembling Negro and Bushman people.
Malawi derives its name from the Maravi, a Bantu people who came from the southern Congo about 600 years ago. During the 16th century there was a vast trading empire established by the Maravi people from whom the country derives its modern name. On reaching the area north of Lake Malawi, the Maravi divided. One branch, the ancestors of the present-day Chewas, moved south to the west bank of the lake. The other, the ancestors of the Nyanjas, moved down the east bank to the southern part of the country.
By AD 1500, the two divisions of the tribe had established a kingdom stretching from north of the present-day city of Nkhotakota to the Zambezi River in the south, and from Lake Malawi in the east to the Luangwa River in Zambia in the west. Migrations and tribal conflicts precluded the formation of a cohesive Malawian society until the turn of the 20th century. Although regional distinctions and rivalries persist, ethnic and tribal distinctions have diminished as the concept of a Malawian nationality has taken hold. Despite some clear differences, no significant friction currently exists between tribal groups. Predominately a rural people, Malawians are generally conservative and traditionally nonviolent.
The first European to make contact with the area now known as Malawi may have been the Portuguese explorer Gaspar Bocarro, whose diary published in 1492 made reference to the great inland lake in central Africa. The slave trade which ravaged most of Africa from 16th Century to the 19th Century also left its imprints on Malawi’s historical development. The Arab slave traders arrived on the shores of Lake Malawi from Zanzibar Island in the Indian Ocean in search of slaves sometime after 1840 and continued until 19th Century.
The history of modern Malawi is linked with the life of the Scottish missionary explorer, David Livingstone (1813 to 1873) who reached the lake he named ‘Lake Nyasa’ in 1859. Following his appeal to other missionaries to come and fight the slave trade in Central and East Africa, the first missionary expedition of the Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) arrived in Malawi in 1861. However, it was not until 1875 that the first permanent mission station was established at Cape Maclear on Lake Malawi by the Free Church of Scotland.
In 1876, Blantyre Mission was established. This is one of the main seats of what is now known as the Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP). In 1884, the first European trading station was established in Karonga, Malawi’s northeast point.
In 1891, the British Government declared a Protectorate over what was then known as Nyasaland Districts. This was later changed, in 1893, to the British Central Africa Protectorate and later Nyasaland Protectorate in 1907. The political struggle against British rule in Nyasaland, where the Africans were subjected to many unfair practices, reached its peak with the uprising in 1915 led by John Chilembwe who is considered the father of Malawi’s nationalism and hailed from Chiradzulu district.
Although the uprising was not successful, the Africans’ dislike of the British rule continued and, in 1944, the Nyasaland African Congress—later changed to Malawi Congress Party under the leadership of Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda in 1959—was formed to mobilize the people to fight for their rights and ultimately achieve independence from Britain.
In 1953, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formed despite African opposition. This meant that the British Government had virtually transferred its protectorate responsibility over Nyasaland to the white settlers of Southern Rhodesia. But the African resistance to the federation, forced the British to shelve the idea. Constitutional talks for Malawi’s independence were later held at Lancaster House in London in July 1960 after which Nyasaland was allowed a Legislative Council. Nyasaland became an independent state of Malawi on July 6, 1964. Two years later, the country became a Republic, with Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda as the first President. This was also the year that Malawi became, by act of Parliament, a one party state.
In 1970 Banda was declared President for Life of the MCP. After fully consolidating his power, Banda was named President for Life of Malawi itself in 1971. The paramilitary wing of the MCP, the Young Pioneers, helped keep Malawi under authoritarian control until the 1990s. Increasing domestic unrest and pressure from Malawian churches and from the international community led to a referendum on the continuation of the one-party state. On June 14, 1993, the people of Malawi voted overwhelmingly in favor of multiparty democracy.
After three decades of one-party rule under President Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the country held multiparty elections in 1994, under a provisional constitution, which came into full effect the following year. Free and fair national elections were held on May 17, 1994. In the first elections under the multiparty system, Dr. Bakili Muluzi was elected into office as the country’s first democratic president, he was re-elected in 1999. In 2004, Malawi held its third multi-party elections and elected President Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika as the Head of State.
Following the death of President Prof. Bingu wa Mutharika on April 5, 2012, Her Excellency Madam President Joyce Hilda Mtila Banda was sworn into office on April 7, 2012, making her Malawi's 4th Head of State.
On May 20, 2014, the people of Malawi elected His Excellency Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP)as President of the Republic of Malawi for a term of five years. His Excellency Professor Mutharika was sworn into office by the Chief Justice of Malawi on Saturday, May 31, 2014 with Mr. Saulos Chilima as his Vice-President. Mutharika formally took over the Office of President of the Republic of Malawi on Monday, June 2, 2014. The election was declared free, fair and credible by the Malawi Electoral Commission and International observers from the Afican Union, Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and European Union.
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