Malawi Culture & Language

Chichewa, with some seven million native speakers across Malawi and Zambia, is the language of the centre and south, Chitumbuka of the north, and English of government, school and the lodge; the country's name means "flames" in both African tongues. The manner is the Warm Heart of Africa: greetings matter, patience is expected, loud behaviour is not, and outside the tourist areas the advisories ask for conservative dress and discreet conduct, without public displays of affection.

The Scottish and Anglican missions of the nineteenth century left Blantyre, founded in 1876, and Likoma's cathedral, and a church-going society; the colonial state left Zomba's architecture and English; independence left Lilongwe, a capital planned after the 1965 decision to move from Zomba. The music is the lake's and the churches'; the food is nsima, maize porridge, with fish from the lake -- chambo above all.

The law is conservative and the state enforces it: drugs including cannabis carry severe penalties, uncut gemstones may not be bought, pornography may not be imported, photography of official buildings and places of worship is prohibited, and identification may be asked for at any roadblock. The same-sex law is suspended in Canada's account and in force in Britain's; the society's view is not suspended.

English is the language of government, school and every lodge, so a visitor needs no other; Chichewa is what most people speak in the centre and south, Chitumbuka in the north, and the country's own name means "flames" in both. Muli bwanji (how are you) and zikomo (thank you, and excuse me) are the Chichewa a traveller uses a hundred times a day, and the tourist board's slogan, "Zikomo", is that word.