Malawi

Malawi is a landlocked nation that shares its borders with Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia. About the size of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania or 118,484 square miles in area, Malawi straddles Africa's third largest inland lake, Lake Malawi. Large plateaus, about 4,100 feet high, and mountains, roughly 8,200 feet in height, dominate much of the landscape.

In 2001, Malawi's population was 10,386,000 people. This population has doubled since 1977 when it was 5,547,460. Most of these individuals lived in the south and central regions, which foster more economic activity and jobs, since these regions are blessed with fertile land and adequate rain. The dominant Chewa tribe lives in central Malawi and the next largest tribe, the Nyanja, lives in the fertile south of Malawi, where commercial farming is big business. An estimated 3,500,000 Malawians make up the active workforce. The annual population growth rate has slowed to 1.61 percent due to a combination of AIDS, malaria, and premature death due to malnutrition. A high incidence of disease is attributable to diets low in nutrition, insufficient medical care, and low levels of sanitation, except in large cities. Many Malawi citizens rely on traditional herbs and healers for cures to ailments. Life expectancy at birth is only 37 years. The infant mortality rate is 122 per 1,000, and there is 1 doctor for every 47,634 Malawians.

Malawi's population is overwhelmingly rural, as 86 percent of Malawians live in rural areas. In rural areas, rights and duties are defined by tradition. Conformity and cohesion are emphasized, and honor grows with age. Money and a cash economy are however changing rural communities. Population pressure on land also forces change, and long periods of absence by men who work in distant cities are making rural cultures change as women, children, and the elderly cope with their absence. Despite these changes, family, kinship, territory, and tribe are the glue that bind rural society together. About 14 percent of Malawians live in cities. Lilongwe replaced Zomba as the nation's capital in 1974 and has a population of 395,000 people. Blantyre, Livingstonia, Mzuzu, and Chiromo are also important urban centers.

Approximately 90 percent of Malawians belong to the Chewa ethnic group. The remaining 10 percent belong to the Nyanja, Lomwe, Yao, Nguni, Tumbuka, Sena, Tonga, Ngonde, and other ethnic groups. Europeans, Asians, and other racial groups compose less than 1 percent of the population but exercise considerable economic influence. More than 50 percent of Malawians speak Chinyanja, which former president Banda renamed Chichewa when he made it the national language. Many Malawi Africans speak Chichewa at home, and more than 80 percent understand it. Both Chichewa and English are considered national languages. An estimated 55 percent of the population is Protestant, 20 percent Roman Catholic, 15 percent follow Islam, and the remaining 5 percent practice indigenous religions.

The per capita income is $940 dollars per year. Malawi's economy is growing at 4.2 percent per year, which is down from 6.0 percent in 2000. Inflation is at 4.05 percent, but this is down from 83.3 percent in 1998. Malawi's natural resources include limestone, uranium, coal, and bauxite. Its major agricultural products are tobacco, tea, sugarcane, cotton, potatoes, cassava, sorghum, pulses, livestock, and tea. The industrial sector processes tobacco into cigarettes, sugar refineries, sawmills, cement factories, and consumer goods. It has 17,600 miles of roads, which helps it take its produce to market for sale, 498 miles of railroads, 44 airports, and 55,000 cars and trucks. Individuals 18 and over are eligible to vote. The government is a multi-party democracy, and the major political parties are the United Democratic Front, the Malawi Congress Party, the Alliance for Democracy, and others. The adult literacy rate is 58 percent, and education is compulsory between the ages of 6 and 14. Malawi has 1 Internet service provider and 37,400 telephones.

Historical & Political Background: The name "Malawi" is derived from the word "Maravi," who were a Bantu speaking people who migrated to Lake Malawi in the fourteenth century and developed a large confederation. Oral tradition states that these people were the ancestors of today's Chewa and Nyanja people who constitute Malawi's majority today. Portuguese explorers and adventurers were the first Europeans to visit this area but they never colonized it. The Portuguese confined their colonizing activities to coastal regions of Mozambique and traded with Africans from Malawi. The Scottish explorer and missionary zealot, Dr. David Livingstone arrived in Malawi in 1859 while searching for the source of the Nile River. He did not find the origin of the Nile in Malawi but he did find fertile ground for converts to Christianity. Many Christian missionaries followed him to "conquer Malawi for Christ," as they said. Ngoni tribes from South Africa had migrated to Malawi and were devastating Malawi during Livingstone's first visit. They engaged in chronic warfare as they attempted to dominate local Malawi Africans. In this environment the slave trade flourished. Fighting was constant, local African tribes were ravaged and subjugated, and Livingstone asked the British to intervene to put an end to slavery. Great Britain established a protectorate and called the area Nyasaland in 1891. They outlawed slavery and ended the chronic fighting by establishing a Pax Britannia. The region's tropical climate, the absence of mineral wealth, and limited economic opportunities for Europeans meant that very few whites settled in Malawi. Its record of development thus differed remarkably from those of Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, which had mineral wealth, fertile land, and few diseases that debilitated Europeans. Those areas by contrast attracted large white settler populations, huge investments, and rapid modernization.

The first sign that colonial rule was in trouble in Malawi occurred in 1915. The reverend John Chilembwe and his followers rose up against European settlers, but they were quickly suppressed by European military technology. Civil unrest did not die rather it went underground. It emerged again in 1944 in the guise of the Nyasaland African Congress. This was Malawi's first nationalist movement. Agitation for independence culminated in independence in 1964, under the leadership of Ngwazi ("Great Lion and provider"), Dr. Hastings Banda. The former Federation of British Rhodesia and Nyasaland dissolved. By July 6, 1966, the sovereign democratic Republic of Malawi emerged. Despite loud objections from other African leaders, Banda opened diplomatic and trade relations with the apartheid regime then ruling South Africa in 1967. Many Africans considered Banda a sellout. Some even went as far as to call him a traitor. Banda also Africanized the civil service and jobs in private industry but at such a slow pace that it infuriated many Africans and pleased the European and Asian communities who benefited from the slow pace of change. By 1971, Banda became the first African head of state to visit apartheid South Africa and recognize their legitimacy. However, Malawi later joined the Southern African Development Co-ordinating Conference (SADCC) which sought to reduce the dependence of countries throughout southern Africa on South Africa. By 1971, after declaring himself "president for life," and it had become clear that he was a ruthless dictator. He frequently purged his cabinet and ruled through the Malawi Congress Party (MCP), which he controlled with an iron fist. His secret police were universally feared, and his Malawi Young Pioneers eliminated potential rivals. In 1976, he recognized the communist-backed Angolan government in preference to the South African-backed conservative forces of Jonas Savimbi. Malawi never recognized South Africa's Bantustans or Homelands as independent states, despite Malawi's cordial relations with the apartheid regime.

The suppression of opposition created a sense of stability. Until 1979, Malawi's economy grew annually at 6 percent or better, but this wealth went to a small elite who blindly supported Banda. Most of the wealth came from large agricultural estates, which were controlled by white settlers in the past but were currently owned by elite Africans or the state. Industries that process agricultural products thrived in Malawi. However, 85 percent of Malawians farmed 5 acres of land or less. Rural over-crowding led to soil erosion and depletion. Land shortage, soil depletion, low prices paid to farmers for their produce, and a lack of agricultural inputs, such as loans, fertilizers, and insecticides, led to widespread unrest by 1992. Migration to South Africa, mostly by the Tumbuka tribes who were forced to leave their northern land to make money due to farming problems, helped Malawi overcome high unemployment and limited wage employment internally. The country became dependent, however, on remitted wage income that financed imports and contributed cash to rural households with few sources of income.

Forced into exile, most opponents of the government lived abroad until 1992 when Roman Catholic bishops openly criticized the government for human rights abuses and encouraged 60 exiles in Zambia's capital to stage a protest. Detention without trial, torture, and assassination suppressed internal dissent. Union unrest, rioting, and agitation by Chakufwa Chihana for multi-party elections led to reform. The United Nations monitored a referendum on the introduction of multi-party rule on June 14, 1993, which UN representatives monitored. The 63.5 percent of the people of Malawi voted to end one-party rule, despite massive efforts to intimidate them by the MCP.

Opposition to Banda's dictatorial rule led to the first official multi-party election on May 17, 1994. Bakili Muluzi was elected president, ending Banda's 30-year dictatorial rule of Malawi. In 1997, Banda and key associates were put on trial for political murders, but were acquitted. Banda died in 1997 and was given an official state funeral with full military honors. Bakili Muluzi's United Democratic Front (UDF) party has ruled Malawi from 1994 to the present. President Muluzi and his vice-president, Justin Malewezi, aimed to alleviate poverty and ensure food security, as well as to combat corruption and mismanagement of resources. Three prisons, notorious for human rights abuses, were closed. Political prisoners were granted amnesty and all death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment. The unequal distribution of land and labor migration remain major challenges for Malawi, as does violence in Mozambique, which spills over into Malawi periodically. As Mozambique repairs its war-damaged communications, industries, roads, railroads, bridges, ports, and airports, Malawi's export economy improves. Many of the 600,000 Mozambican refugees who have lived in Malawi for decades are returning to Mozambique. This too helps Malawi's economy to perform better. Mozambique has reopened its ports of Beira and Nacala, which facilitates Malawi's export strategy. Malawi pays small farmers better prices for their crops as an incentive to increase production. Unfortunately this policy has failed to halt or reverse the decline in rural standards of living due to land shortages and declining production exacerbated by overcrowding.

Educational Background: Traditional African cultures emphasized careful observation, imitation, and memorization of lessons passed down from one generation to the next through a system of age-graded education and socialization. Western-styled schools were established in Malawi by Christian missionaries. While traditional culture competed for the attention of African youth, Islam has never penetrated Malawi and thus did not compete with Christianity. This made westernizing Malawi's African population much easier. At first missionary schools focused on basic reading, writing, and counting. The aim was to help Africans learn to read the Bible in order to reinforce Christian beliefs and values. The British government was happy to allow missionaries to dominate education because it was cost effective. In a poor colony that was not producing much income for Britain, costs were major concerns. Malawi's British colonial administrators merely supervised Christian missionary schools from 1920 onward. Not long after African Christians became westernized, a few opened their own schools from 1930 onward. In both cases money for the salaries of teachers and administrators were generated from school fees and voluntary donations given locally and from abroad. Government financing for schools began in 1963, when Malawi's outgoing colonial government financed 22 primary schools.

The Anglican church of England set up schools on the eastern shore of Lake Malawi (then known as Lake Nyasa) in 1880. Many primary schools were established, along with training institutes for nurses, hospital attendants, and midwives. Roman Catholics created missions from 1889 on, when the White Fathers first established missions. The Catholic Church discovered that schools attracted many new converts. Thus, Catholics built many schools in Malawi and won many converts in turn. By 1970, Catholics ran more than 1,000 schools, 6 teacher training colleges, several hospitals, and 2 leprosy clinics.

The American based Phelps-Stokes Fund conducted a survey of education in Malawi in 1924. The outcome was recommendations for educational reform. These included greater efforts to educate females, the expansion of primary education, and improved teacher training. The pattern of education was 4-3-3, meaning that primary school students attended school for four years. If they succeeded, they attended advanced primary school for three more years. Upon successful completion of both of these levels they advanced to junior high for three additional years. The age ranges were from 5 years to 20, since many entered school late due to farm duties. In addition, although most students finished the entire sequence in 10 years, some students took much longer given home responsibilities, scarcity of funds to pay school fees, and other constraints.

By 1927, Malawi had 2,788 schools, which were staffed by 4,481 teachers, many of whom were poorly trained or even unqualified. That same year Malawi established its first Board of Education, district school committees, and later in 1930 Advisory committees were established to control educational expenditure. In 1938, educational ordinances were revised to enable the governor to decide the composition of the Advisory Committee, and influence the creation of new schools. The government was concerned about local African groups opening schools with no idea of how to pay for ongoing maintenance, teachers' salaries, or other recurrent budget matters. Instruction was in the vernacular, as was Bible instruction, because this allowed western ideas to penetrate African society faster than was possible using English, which was foreign to many and difficult to understand. In this manner elementary arithmetic, reading, and writing spread among the African population.

After World War II, the Colonial government of Malawi determined that control over education and new rules for teaching service were important goals. By 1949, the British Colonial Office decided to reward Africans for loyal military service during World War II by offering two additional years of post primary education. This program was designed to prepare Africans for work in the Civil Service. After 1950, the system followed a 5-3-4-2 pattern. In other words Africans attended primary school, followed by senior primary school, then a four year secondary or high school that culminated in the Cambridge Higher School Certificate, and for a few advancement to a two year Advanced or "A" level specialized course that is comparable to Junior College. In 1963, this pattern changed to 7-5 pattern.

Following the break up of the Central African Federation in 1963, the Malawi Colonial government decided to assume responsibility for schools. Overnight most schools were transformed into public schools backed by the government. They inherited 2 secondary schools and 26 primary schools. The minister of education assumed responsibility for all schools in Malawi and inspected them through district committees of not more than 12 individuals who were controlled by the district commissioner. Church run schools continued, but played a far less important role in education. Two church-run secondary schools existed at Blantyre and Zomba. Europeans were permitted to maintain exclusively European schools, with the agreement that they would fully integrate in the future. Some saw the shifting of the burden of education onto the government just prior to independence as support for white minority regimes in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and South Africa. The more money that free Africans were forced to spend on education and agriculture, the less that was available for arms or military training for freedom movements. Despite major investments in education, not more than 35 percent of Malawi's children attended primary school prior to independence.