Forgotten World (160): Malawi
The central African nation of Malawi was a British colony until 1964 and previously known as Nyasaland.
For three decades, Malawi’s destiny was tied to the whims of its totalitarian president-for-life, Kamuzu Banda, who enjoyed being surrounded by dancing women and who encouraged people to betray relatives who criticised his rule. In the mid-1990s, he buckled under popular pressure to hold elections, and lost – finally giving the 14 million Malawians a taste for multi-party democracy.
His successor, Bakili Muluzi, removed many of the repressions of the Banda years, but the leadership was accused of corruption. Social problems persist, including poverty and the high rate of HIV-Aids infection. Most Malawians rely on subsistence farming, but the food supply situation is precarious and the country is prone to natural disasters of both extremes – from drought to heavy rainfalls – putting it in constant need of thousands of tonnes of food aid every year.