Africa
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In the early 15th Century the region was inhabited by the Maravi people (the derivation of the word 'Malawi') who moved in from the west of the continent in around the 12th Century and established a large and powerful kingdom that spread all over southern Malawi. Further migrations of Bantu peoples occurred in the 18th Century (Lambya and Ngonde from the north and west) and 19th Century (Yao from the east and Zulu or Ngoni from the south). Arab slave traders were well established in the area by 1870 and were handling more than 20,000 slaves a year for shipment to the coast. Several trading centres were established in Malawi including Karonga and Nkhotakota - towns on the shore of Lake Malawi that still bear a strong Arab-Swahili influence to this day.
The first Europeans to arrive in Malawi were Portuguese explorers who reached the African interior from the east coast of present-day Mozambique. They were active in the region of Lake Nyasa (Lake Malawi) between the 16th to early 19th Centuries and several trading settlements were established in neighbouring areas. The most famous explorer to reach the area was David Livingstone who first visited the lake in 1859 and who encouraged many British missionaries to settle here. In his journals he noted and named several places including Cape Maclear after an astronomer in the then Cape Colony.
Working alongside the missionaries were members of the African Lakes Corporation who developed the Zambezi and Shire River trade routes into central Africa and Blantyre became the company base. As intended this commercial network of trading posts along the shores of Lake Nyasa and Shire River had a serious effect on the Arab-controlled slave trade in the area, forcing many slavers to leave the region. In 1891 the British Central Africa Protectorate, administered by Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company, was extended to include much of the land along the west side of the lake and in 1907 this became the colony of Nyasaland, with all responsibility transferred to the British Colonial Office.
Independence was granted in 1964 with Hastings Banda proclaimed president two years later.
Today Malawi is a peaceful nation reliant on its agricultural base for export revenues. Almost 70% of the produce comes from smallholder farmers with the principal crops being maize, tobacco, tea, sugarcane, groundnuts and coffee.
