Malawi. Malawi Government Page. Malawi. 19 March 2014Last updated at 07:12 ET Malawi, a largely agricultural country, is making efforts to overcome decades of underdevelopment and the more recent impact of a growing HIV-Aids problem. For the first 30 years of independence it was run by the authoritarian and quixotic President Hastings Kamuzu Banda, but democratic institutions have taken a firm hold since he relinquished power in the mid-1990s.
After President Banda lost the first democratic presidential election in 1994 his successor, Bakili Muluzi, established a far more open form of government. Corruption, poverty and the high rate of HIV-Aids continued to hamper development and fostered discontent with the new authorities. Lake Malawi is important for fishing as well as transport Continue reading the main story Politics: Turbulent politics has hampered governance Economy: More than half the population lives below the poverty line. Profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring Tens of thousands of Malawians die of Aids every year. Malawi-World Factbook. Malawi. Malawi (/məˈlɔːwi/ or sometimes the spelling pronunciation /məˈlɑːwi/; Chichewa: [malaβi][need tone]), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland.
It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Malawi is over 118,000 km2 (45,560 sq mi) with an estimated population of 16,777,547 (July 2013 est.). Its capital is Lilongwe, which is also Malawi's largest city; the second largest is Blantyre and the third is Mzuzu. The area of Africa now known as Malawi was settled by migrating Bantu groups around the 10th century.
Malawi is among the world's least-developed countries. Malawi has a low life expectancy and high infant mortality. History[edit] 1897 British central Africa stamp issued by the United Kingdom Government and politics[edit] Administrative divisions[edit] Foreign relations[edit]