Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Virtual Africa: Malawi

 

Malawi (muh-laa-wee) is a completely landlocked sliver of a country next to Zambia. So what is with the sailboat?  A huge lake covers 1/5 of the entire country!!!

Lake Malawi...and we will explore this more in the upcoming days is ENORMOUS..

The country has an area of 45,747 square miles.

The capital and another large city within were settled by the Scottish, so there is another surprise we will delve into this week.

Malawi is considered one of the least developed countries on Earth. With a low life expectancy, high infant mortality and still in the grips of an HIV/AIDS epidemic.

David Livingstone discovered Malawi when the only people who were here were the Bantu...and the British Consul soon took up residence. The Indian Ocean Slave Trade took an estimated 20,000 people from this region in the mid-1800's.

Still..this tiny country boasts a population of 18.5 million people.

There are a mixture of Asians, Europeans and Natives living here.

The official language is English...with its secondary being  Chichewa (a Bantu language).

Example

https://youtu.be/yyFsmiNXqXg

Some basic phrases in Chichewa

https://www.malawianstyle.com/blog/basic-chichewa/

Malawi is a Christian country...mostly Presbyterian.

Both government healthcare and primary education is free to the people here.  

Because of the massive lake and smaller rivers, tea and fish tend to figure heavily into the local cuisine.



Malawi Village




Next time we will take a more detailed look at Lake Malawi.

 

Until then...