Malawi

Blair Marcus Mr. Mettee History 3/28/11 Malawi Malawi, formally known as Nyasaland, is a small scenic country in southeastern Africa. It is surrounded by Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia. This country has been through many struggles, but has also had some very powerful leaders and a lot of help from the Europeans, and other countries around the world. Starting from the first Portuguese up to present day, this small country has made quite a few changes and has been dealing with their struggles with the strong faith that the natives possess.

The area that would eventually become Malawi fell under the official rule of the British in 1907. The governing group was called the British Central African Protectorate and the area of their control included parts of present day Malawi and Zambia. Through the entire time of colonial rule there were strong connections between Nyasaland (Malawi), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), and Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). Malawi was heavily populated, and it was the least developed of the three countries. Only a few Europeans settled there, the Portuguese being the first, and then never controlled more than 15% of the land at a time. The slave trade in the 18th century began to spread when the Portuguese, which were the first Europeans to enter Malawi, created a new market for Arab and Swahili merchants. Through the efforts of Scottish Missionary and explorer David Livingstone, many Europeans were warned about the horrors of slavery in East Africa. David Livingstone also introduced Christianity into Nyasaland, and by the early 1870’s Christian missionaries had created a European presence. By the 1890’s British forces had eliminated the slave trade in the region.

Malawi has been inhabited for 12,100 years and was first visited by the Portuguese in 1492. While the British were in Malawi, they abolished most of the slavery overtime, and introduced new religions, such as Christianity. They implemented a “hut tax” and gradually crushed traditional African farming methods. This basically forced the Africans to either work on plantations of find jobs outside of Malawi in order to support themselves and their families. Malawi’s people did not agree with European rule and in 1915, they revolted. Even though they were unsuccessful at getting rid of foreign rule, they Africans still worked for their independence. Like a lot of Africa, Nyasaland had to deal with the slave trade. It was a violent even when the Portuguese began to look to east Africa, Nyasaland included, for captives to be shipped to their colonies in the Americas, especially Brazil. The British set up an arrangement of roads and railways and plantations for cash crops such as tea and tobacco. They did this mostly in the interest of their colonial government and then needs of the Africans were neglected. The Europeans receive a fail grade for trying to “help” and colonize Nyasaland. Most of the work they did seemed to be mostly beneficial for the small European communities within the country and not so much for the natives.

Nyasaland became Malawi at its independence on July 6, 1964. By 1960 the strive for independence was a work in progress behind the Malawi Congress Party, led by Dr. Hastings Kamuza Banda. Protests started by Banda and the Malawi Congress Party made the British declare a state of Emergency (1959-1960). In 1963 the Central African Federation, a colonial entity which Malawi was a part of was discontinued. Banda, who served as prime minister until 1966 took control over every aspect of Malawi’s society, from media to national treasury, even to the way citizens were allowed to dress. He enforced Chewa heritage on the entire nation and changed everything to Chewa. This made many of the Malawians angry. Banda had taken control of one of the poorest countries in Africa and little progress was being made under Banda’s rule. He used much of the country’s funding for his own personal benefit. In 1971, Banda apparently terminated all possibility for democratization of Malawi my declaring himself President for life. IN 1992, during a terrible drought, Banda was no longer able to ignore the pressure to change the government. Mass protests against Banda were being held. Eventually, after being ill for a while, he was stripped of his title of President for life, and Bakili Muluzi was elected in 1993 and took on a country with a 65 percent poverty rate and drastic food shortages. Health care was a serious issue that he needed to take on because HIV/AIDS began to infest the population. The country deserves a pass grade for their independence, because, even though Banda was unfair and corrupt. The people of Malawi were doing the best they could as an independent country.

Malawi still remains highly reliant on foreign aid to support its economy. Privatization programs are active to encourage investments, even though the country is greatly based on agriculture. Malawi is constantly experiencing droughts and also floods, and since agriculture is very important they often struggle to bring in enough money. Government corruption is a big growing concern which is causing some nations to deny foreign assistance. There are many programs that everyone around the world can donate money to, to help Malawi. UNICEFF being one of them. The Department for International Development’s program in Malawi has helped lower the poverty, improved many health outcomes, created larger harvests and more helped build a more effective authority in the country. It is difficult, however, to measure how much of this progress can be credited directly to DFID’s help. Progress has been irregular across the country; some has been slower than intended. Overall, the International aid has been very limited, and they have not been able to do much at all. Malawi is such a small country but their problems are bigger than anyone will be able to fix in the near future.

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