History of Malawi

Malawi history presents a picture of the different phases that Malawi has been through. Malawi history is the story of the emergence of Malawi as an independent state after witnessing periods of internal strife and chaos. The original inhabitants of Malawi were the Bushmen. However, during the 1st and 4th century A.D Malawi saw the coming in of the Bantu speaking people. Again in the 14th century another group of Bantu speaking people migrated to Malawi and established their kingdom around the valley region of Shire River.

The 18th century was the time period that saw further expansion of the Malawi kingdom that came about through the capture of parts of Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Soon after this, the kingdom declined due to the coming in of the Yao and also because of strained internal relations.


The Yao engaged themselves in the selling of the Malawi prisoners to the Arabs as slaves. This chaos was further heightened by the coming in of the Ngoni from South Africa.

Following this for some time Malawi was under the Europeans who mainly came in to pursue slave trade here. Later the Europeans set up in Malawi a number of coffee growing estates where the Africans worked. Finally in the year 1953 the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland came up here.

The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland came to an end in 1963 and in 1964 came up independent state of Malawi. Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda served as the first Prime Minister of Malawi. In fact after declaration of Malawi as a republic in 1966 it was Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda who functioned as the President.