In the 1400s the country of Malawi was a part of a vast empire that stretched from Zimbabwe to Mozambique. This was the Empire of Maravi. In the following century Portugese explorers made their first contact with the Maravi Empire. Regular trade patterns developed between the Maravi people and the Portugese. The Maravi provided the European traders with slaves and ivory, while the Portugese brought items such as guns, rum and linen. In the 1700s, the Arabs began taking part in the trade with the Maravi Empire. The Yao tribe was particularly friendly toward the Arab traders, and many of them adopted the Muslim religion. The Yao would travel deep into Malawi to capture people from other tribes to sell to the Arabs as slaves. In this way, the Yao became hated by the other tribes in the Empire. This tension resulting from the actions of the Yao tribe and their acceptance of Islam, still exists today. David Livingston is credited as the first missionary to reach Malawi. His travels paved the way for Presbyterian missionary societies to be established in Malawi. By the end of the 1800s, the British merchants were also trading goods with the Malawians, but not slaves, since the slave trade had been outlawed in the British Empire. The British eventually took control of Malawi and in 1907 named the territory Nyasaland.[1] The effects of the British with the Malawians are still seen today from their official language to their government and education systems.
[1] Tim Lambert, “A Short History of Malawi,” 2016, http://www.localhistories.org/malawi.html.
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