History in Malawi

Evidence about Malawi's past comes from archaeology, oral histories, linguistics, written records and colonial archives. These sources do not always describe events in the same way, so historians compare them and consider who created each record and for what purpose. Before colonial rule, communities in the region were connected through farming, fishing, ironworking, trade and migration. The Maravi states influenced large parts of the area from around the seventeenth century, while Yao, Tumbuka, Chewa, Ngoni and other societies developed their own political institutions and regional connections. Arab and Swahili trading networks linked areas around Lake Malawi with wider markets, including the trade in ivory and enslaved people. British control expanded during the late nineteenth century. The territory became the British Central Africa Protectorate in 1891 and was renamed Nyasaland in 1907. Colonial administration changed landholding, labour, taxation, education and trade, while Christian missions created schools and churches. Nyasaland joined Northern Rhodesia and Southern Rhodesia in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953; the federation ended in 1963. Malawi gained independence on 6 July 1964, with Hastings Kamuzu Banda as its first prime minister and later president. Banda's government established a long period of one-party rule. A 1993 referendum supported multiparty politics, and multiparty elections followed in 1994. Modern accounts of Malawi's history therefore connect precolonial societies, colonial transformation, independence, authoritarian government and democratic change rather than treating independence as the only major turning point.