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History of Malawi

Hominid remains and stone implements have been identified in Malawi dating back more than one 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 Bushmen people. These short people with copper colored skin were known as the Akufula or Batwa. They are responsible for rock paintings found south of Lilongwe in Chencherere and Mphunzi.

The name Malawi is thought to be a derivation of the word Maravi. The people of the Maravi Empire were iron workers. The name Maravi is thought to mean “rays of light” and may have come from the sight of many kilns lighting up the night sky. A dynasty known as the Maravi Empire was founded by the Amaravi people in the late 15th century. The Amaravi, who eventually became known as the Chewa (a word possibly derived from a term meaning “foreigner”), migrated to Malawi from the region of the modern day Republic of Congo to escape unrest and disease. The Chewa attacked the Akafula, who settled in small family clans without a unified system of protection. Using a system of destruction they would later employ in hunting predatory animals, the Chewa hunted down and butchered the Akufula.

Eventually encompassing most of modern Malawi, as well as parts of modern day Mozambique and Zambia, the Maravi Empire began on the southwestern shores of Lake Malawi. The head of the empire during its expansion was the Kalonga (also spelt Karonga). The Kalonga ruled from his headquarters in Mankhamba. Under the leadership of the Kalonga, sub-chiefs were appointed to occupy and subdue new areas. The empire began to decline during the early 18th century when fighting among the sub-chiefs and the burgeoning slave trade weakened the Maravi Empire’s authority.

Initially the Maravi Empire’s economy was largely dependent on agriculture, chiefly the production of millet and sorghum. It was during the Maravi Empire, sometime during the 16th Century, that Europeans first came into contact with the people of Malawi. Under the Maravi Empire, the Chewa had access to the coast of modern day Mozambique. Through this coastal area, the Chewa traded ivory, iron, and slaves with the Portuguese and Arabs. Trade was enhanced by the common language of Chewa which was spoken throughout the Maravi Empire.

The Portuguese reached the area via the Mozambican port of Tete in the 16th century and gave the first written reports on the people of Malawi. The Portoguese are also responsible for the introduction of maize to the region. Maize would eventually replace sorghum as the staple of the Malawian diet. Malawian tribes traded slaves with the Portuguese. These slaves were sent mainly to work on Portuguese plantations in Mozambique or to Brazil.

The downfall of the Maravi Empire correlates to the entrance of two powerful groups into the region of Malawi. The Angoni and their chief Zwangendaba arrived from the Natal region of modern day South Africa. The Angoni were part of a great migration, known as the mfecane, of people fleeing from the head of the Zulu Empire, Shaka Zulu. This migration had a significant impact on Malawi, as it did on all of Southern Africa. While fleeing from Shaka, the Angoni had adopted many of his military tactics. They made use of these tactics to attack and conquer the people of the Maravi Empire. Settling in rocky areas, the Angoni would conduct annual raids on their Chewa, also called Achewa, neighbors to take both food and slaves. Some slaves were kept by the Angoni while others were sold to slave traders.

The second group to take power around this time were the Ayao. The Yao came to Malawi from Northern Mozambique to escape famine and conflict with the Makua tribe. The Makua tribe had become envois of the Yao because of the wealth the Yao were amassing through trading ivory and slaves to Arabs from Zanzibar. The Yao, upon migrating to Malawi, soon began attacking both the Achewa and Angoni people to capture prisoners who they later sold as slaves. The Yao were the first, and for a long while, the only group to use firearms in conflict with other tribes. The Yao were also different religiously from their neighboring tribes, choosing in 1870 to follow Islam like their Arab trading partners rather than the traditional Animism practiced by surrounding tribes. As a benefit of their conversion, the Yao were provided with sheikhs who promoted literacy and founded mosques. The Arab traders also introduced the cultivation of rice, which became a major crop in the lake region.

Using their strong partnership with the Yao, the Arab traders set up several trading posts along the shore of Lake Malawi. The largest of these posts was founded in 1840 at Nkhotakota by an Arabic trader from the coast, Jumbe Salim Bin Abdalla. During the height of his power, Jumbe transported between 5,000 and 20,000 slaves through Nkhotakota annually. From Nkhotakota, the slaves were transported in caravans of no less than 500 slaves to the small island of Kilwa Kisiwani off the coast of modern day Tanzania. The founding of these various posts effectively shifted the slave trade in Malawi from the Portuguese in Mozambique to the Arabs of Zanzibar.

Although the Yao and the Angoni continually clashed with each other, neither was able to win a decisive victory. The remaining members of the Maravi Empire, however, were nearly wiped out in attacks from both sides. Some Achewa chiefs saved themselves by creating alliances with the Swahili people who were allied with the Arab slave traders.Although the Portuguese reached the area in the 16th century, the first significant Western contact was the arrival of David Livingstone along the shore of Lake Malawi in 1859.

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