Eastern Africa · MWI
Malawi
The story · 8 chapters
How it was drawn
Lands around Lake Malawi, once home to the Maravi states, became the British protectorate of Nyasaland in 1891 and independent Malawi in 1964.
Play the story Take the first lessonThrough the ages
Rivals in history
The kingdoms, empires and states Malawi fought or stood against, from the first to today.
- Ngoni kingdoms1840 to 1898
Ngoni armies from the south raid Chewa, Tumbuka and Tonga villages from the 1840s, seizing cattle and captives and founding kingdoms such as that of the Mbelwa Ngoni in the north. Their independence ends under British rule in the 1890s.
- Yao chiefs and Swahili traders1850 to 1895
Yao chiefs and Swahili traders raid the lake region for slaves. The Karonga war of 1887 to 1889 pits the trader Mlozi against the African Lakes Company, and British forces capture and hang Mlozi in 1895.
- Kingdom of Portugal1888 to 1891
Portugal claims the Shire Highlands as part of a belt from Angola to Mozambique. When Serpa Pinto's expedition moves up the Shire in 1889, Britain issues its ultimatum of 1890, and the 1891 treaty leaves the highlands British.
- United Kingdom1953 to 1964
Africans in Nyasaland oppose the white led Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. In 1959 the colonial government declares a state of emergency, arrests Banda and hundreds of supporters, and about 50 people are killed. Banda's release in 1960 opens the way to independence.
Tanzania argues that the border on Lake Malawi should run through the middle of the lake, while Malawi claims all of it under the 1890 treaty. The dispute flared in 2012 over oil exploration licences and remains unresolved.
Today
Malawi now
Malawi shares its name with the Chewa word for flames and is linked to the Maravi people from whom the Chewa language originated. The Maravi settled in what is now Malawi around 1400, during one of the later waves of Bantu migration across central and southern Africa. A powerful Maravi kingdom established around 1500 reached its zenith around 1700, when it controlled what is now southern and central Malawi and portions of neighboring Mozambique and Zambia.
- Capital
- Lilongwe
- Government
- presidential republic
- Head of government
- Lazarus Chakwera
- Head of state
- Peter Mutharika
- Languages
- Tumbuka, Chewa, English
- Area
- 118,484 km²
Through time
Then and now
- Population21.1 million2023 · 3.0 million in 1950
- Life expectancy67.4 years2023 · 32.7 years in 1950
- GDP per person$1,1902022 · $516 in 1950
- Living in cities18%2025 · 4% in 1950
- Literacy70%2020 · 8% in 1950
- Political regimeElectoral democracy2025 · Closed autocracy in 1950
- Military alliancesNone of these2024 · None of these in 1950
- Military spending1.2% of GDP2025
- War deathsNone2025
Population: HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN WPP. GDP per capita: Maddison Project Database 2023. Urban share: UN WPP. Life expectancy: Riley, HMD, UN WPP. Literacy: OWID historical estimates, World Bank, UNESCO. Military spending: SIPRI. War deaths: UCDP. Political regime: V-Dem, Regimes of the World. All via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Alliances and organization memberships: compiled by Atlas. Satellites in orbit: CelesTrak SATCAT. Modern borders, backcast.
Relations
Close partners and tensions
Close partners
- United Kingdom
- South Africa
- United States
- France
- China
Summarised from World Bank and Wikipedia data, updated 23 October 2026.